September 1, 2009

And I cannot believe that it is already September. I truly believe that the last two months have not been real. I’ll start by saying that we have beat all odds and have made it safely to Toronto, moved in, and begun to settle. Our new home is amazing and the prospect of living in the city is very exciting. Toronto is clean and bustling and built vertically. We literally live as downtown as one can get. Within a block of our house, you can find at least 10 different types of restaurants, at least as many bars, a theater (currently featuring Stomp), 5 grocery stores, two hospitals, three ritzy hotels, a post office, a five-story mall, a subway, and a strip club.  Our walk to the university (and thus our jobs) is less than 15 minutes. We now live on the 34th floor and the view from our house looks west/ southwest. We can see for miles. What a transition from our ground-level apartment! So that’s the reward for our hard work.

Now to regale you with a bit of our adventure making this all happen. Note that this is a simplified version. It would take many pages to try to explain the details.

Leaving Santa Cruz was a process. We had truly ensconced ourselves, and it was difficult to smoothly extract ourselves. We passed ~100 plants, 3 fish tanks, and a frog terrarium on to friends. We also hosted a very successful garage sale that drew in some quirky locals. We packed and we cleaned for what seemed like months (because it actually was), and we bid our old home adieu. Then we hit the road. We have logged well over 5,000 miles on the road, 3,600 of which miles were traveled in our beloved 30’ diesel Budget truck “Lerdo.” The remainder was logged on our little corolla rental from Buffalo to Maine and back.

Matt and I have reviewed the events that have led up to our final successful unloading of items and returning of our truck to Buffalo, NY, and I think we can safely say that the only thing that has gone smoothly, without a hitch, is crossing the border into Canada. Every other step along the way has been an ordeal. These included simple tasks like parking the truck, getting gas, reserving elevator time to move in, attempting to get internet by wandering around in the dark in my mother’s yard, and larger issues like not knowing if we actually got our mortgage until the day before we left Santa Cruz, not knowing if closing would actually happen until 5 pm the day we hoped to move in, and not losing my sanity in the car in the rain.

Matt’s driving was fantastic, but Lerdo’s size made it imperative to stay at large truck stops. Among our highlights, we got to stay at “the world’s largest truck stop” on I-80 in Walcott Iowa. Yep, it’s big. Even getting gas was a bit of a trick. As a heads up, Michigan makes getting diesel gas especially confusing. Now we’ve now seen a whole lot of country, and I’ve eaten a lot of salads. It turns out that truck stop restaurants do not have a large variety of vegetarian options. Luckily, it just so happens that I LOVE salad.

Along the way, we got to stay in Colorado with my Dad, Michigan with my Mom, and Pennsylvania with Matt’s parents. Each of these stops was filled with good food and a few hours of much-needed downtime. Additionally, my brother Scott came out to Toronto help us move in. What a Godsend! Without him, we would have been in serious trouble. With the exception of our giant metal rooster, almost everything fits into our new home (including the foosball table). We’ll have to do some rearranging to find a home for that rooster.

Our brief excursion to Pennsylvania included attendance at Jeff Brancolini’s 7th annual Bocci tournament. We arrived too late to compete, but we had a fantastic time nonetheless. What an event! I look forward to attending again next year.

After unpacking the truck, we had a day to settle a bit and then we took off for our friend Graham’s wedding in Maine.  We returned Lerdo to his Budget home in Buffalo and traded him for a little Toyota. It took Matt a bit of time to readjust to driving a regular car. In spirit with the luck of our trip, Budget closed 5 minutes before our arrival, and there was nowhere to fill up our diesel tank, but we made up for this luck by getting one of the most amazing cab rides ever from a gentleman with a taxi that actually sparkled, and celebrating with a very tasty fajita dinner.

We realized that we would be passing very close to Poughkeepsie and so we decided to stop by to see what might have changed at Vassar since I last saw it in 2002. It’s strange to revisit a place after 7 years. Some things were the same, some things were different. It was really nice to show Matt campus, and to check in with the geology department. In the end, not much has actually changed since 2002. The dorms look similar, and the campus had the same feeling it did when I left. I was definitely relieved

Hurricane-associated rain accompanied us across New York, and again during the wedding ceremony, but otherwise the weather was lovely. The Maine excursion treated us extremely well. Camp Waganaki (where we stayed) was a boys camp from 1919 through the mid 90’s. Today it is a camp that can be rented for special occasions. Due to its 70-year stint as a boys camp, there are several decrepit old cabins scattered throughout the woods, and a number of very bizarre pieces of old sports equipment, “art” pieces, and general random knickknacks adorning every surface of every wall, which gives Waganaki a lot of character. The camp is on a lake and while the weather held out, Matt and I took little sun fish and paddle-boat ganders. Fantastic. Congratulations Graham and Rachel and thank you so much for deciding to have your wedding in such a beautiful place.

The game of “stump” sticks out as one of the more memorable wedding events. Stump involves standing in a circle around a large cross section of tree trunk. All players get a tall nail, and tap this nail lightly into the top of the stump with a hammer. Next, players take turns flipping the hammer in the air, catching it, and in one fell swoop (sans pause) bringing the hammer head down on another player’s nail head. When a player’s nail head comes into contact with the wood, that player is out. Stump also involves a lot of beer. This game sounds like it could have disastrous consequences, but somehow, no injuries were incurred while we played, and there are no reports of injuries during past games. Apparently this game has enough history that an organized effort brought the historic 250-pound stump of pine to the wedding. Wow. Stump (and some of the other wedding activities) introduced us to many new and wonderful friends of friends. Hopefully we’ll meet again.

And then it was time to end our little vacation and return to our new life in Toronto. Of course, the story wouldn’t be quite over if I didn’t regale you with the last “train” bit of the story. Short story – the train was an hour late, and it took us four hours to get from Buffalo to Toronto. I had thought I would never live to see the day when a series of unfortunate events could make this relatively brief jaunt between two cities so painfully long. Alas, I was wrong. So it goes. Let’s just say, I was extremely happy to get off the train, theoretically free from travel for at least a week, and I was extremely grateful that the Amtrack employee at the Buffalo train station (name shamefully never learned) was thoughtful enough to tell us some entertaining stories and point us in a good direction for a brief walking tour of downtown Buffalo on a late summer afternoon. Matt and I even got in a beer at the immense Pear Street Brewery located just off the highway that held Scott, Matt and me captive in traffic and rain barely a week and a half ago.

So to conclude, what a summer this has been. I still can’t believe most of the events that have transpired actually happened. I imagine that it will take a bit to sink in. You will likely not be hearing from me again until I have finished with my dissertation in December. Remember, to let us know if you think you might like to check out Toronto at some point, just give us some time to get our acts together first. Sorry, no phone yet, but we do have an address, and email is always an option.

Take care and happy September,

Brooke