Zub Tales

Searching for somewhere to live is a frustrating experience. Ideally, I wanted to find a house I could rent in near the C-Train (streetcar system in Calgary). That way I could save up money for a car for the summer instead of buying a crappy car now and praying it lasted through winter.

I ended up seeing a whole pile of houses over the last week. They fell into several categories:
• ungodly expensive
• horribly destroyed in crappy neighborhoods
• the weird

The weird took me to places like a really clean house with a nice property. The landlady, however, was a clean freak (read- obsessive/compulsive). She insisted that we would have to trim the bushes and manicure the lawn every week as well as keep a flower garden. I am the farthest thing from a gardener.

Then, she mentioned that we had to be relatively quiet people because her father lived next door. At that moment (no lie) the old father bursts out the door and starts screaming at us from his porch next door. His senile ramblings about parking continued while he waved his arm (he had a hook for a hand) at us. Not a good sign…we passed on that one.

Other ads in the paper that said “walking distance from downtown” should have read “marathon run to the outskirts of downtown” or “commute through heavy traffic and pray you’ll reach downtown”. Not good. I really wanted to snag a house instead of an apartment. Ideally, I want to set up my art stuff and work away on my own projects in the evenings.

However, after much frustration and searching, I’ve found a perfect place. A little house in Kensington/ Sunnyside (the young, single, artsy district) right by the C-Train. Within 3 blocks of my house are:
• a cool comic store
• an art store
• a grocery store
• some great pubs and restaurants (sushi!)
• my bank

Needless to say, I’m excited. I should be moving in February 1st. Once I have the mailing address and phone number, I’ll send it to all of you. I want to have a house warming party and get together with friends, but I don’t know how soon I’ll be settled in.

In other news, work is good, but very busy. We had a massive staff meeting today and found out that the Head Director and his brother have been let go from the parent company that owns our school. Scary at first, but actually very good. A lot of changes weren’t being made because things were stagnant with the upper management. Things look like they’ll be smoothing out more now that there’s closer communication. The announcement caught me off guard and I was worried they were telling us that the school was closing, but that’s not the case.

Lastly, thanks to everyone who e-mailed me about the whole Christmas/New Years thing. I know many of you were surprised by the sudden move (or re-move) and I really appreciate the love and support you’ve shown me.