The May Update

College: On the day we were moving Algonquin College finally accepted me into the program I wanted, but I was so unimpressed with them that I decided in favour of Centennial at that point. Sheridan never let me know one way or the other. So, I've accepted Centennial's offer of September admission, but at this point it doesn't look like I'll actually follow through on it. The more likely plan is to engage in an internship with a multimedia company here on the Island and take courses or a whole program over the internet. While I'm a bit antsy about this less traditional form of schooling, moving back to Ontario would be rather difficult, in terms of money, living arrangements and so on. I won't say there's no chance at all that I'll be going to Centennial, but right now it doesn't look likely. Part of the reason for this...

House-buying: At first Shauna and I were looking around for an apartment and dealing with our favourite rule of the rental world: "No Pets". We got frustrated with that and visited the bank. The bank gave us good news. We started looking at houses. At first we only looked in rural areas, as it is our dream to have a place in the country with some acreage where we can have a little farm. But then we changed our focus to finding a small starter home in downtown Charlottetown, which we thought would be more in our price range and better suited to our current way of living and careers. We've looked at a bunch of houses now, and last week we found a place that we really liked and once the vendor lowered his price a little, we signed an offer and agreed on a closing date. However, in house buying it's always a good idea to make an offer conditional on inspection, which we did. Our respective father figures have tons of experience in construction and on Sunday they gave the house a thorough going-over in the manner of Holmes On Homes. The house was great except for one critical flaw in the foundation, which would have been extremely costly and inconvenient to fix. Given that the house was already in the upper range of what we could pay for, we decided to walk away from the deal, which was a giant let down. But we moved on, and inspected another house that we had looked at previously. Its price tag isn't so high, and it's more solidly built. While there's no showstopper issue like the first house we saw, there's more minor/medium problems/fix-its, so we have to decide whether we're willing to buy a house that will require some money and "sweat equity" as they say in this business. Right now we're mulling over this decision, but have also identified several other properties, which we hope to view on Wednesday. We hope to find a place that is appealing, affordable and structurally sound. Sometimes we wonder if this is too much to ask for, but those three principles aren't ones we're willing to compromise. Until we find the house that meets those criteria, we're living with my folks in Cornwall. They've been super, and very patient despite suddenly having two other people and their pets in the house they're used to having to themselves. Shauna and I are a bit sick of living out of boxes, though, and another plus to whatever house we choose will be MOVE IN A.S.A.P!

Soccer: I've joined a team in the senior men's first division here. We haven't had the best start: one win, three ties and two losses. Certainly nothing as confidence-building as Imports FC last summer. But the team is a good bunch of guys, several of whom are from the UK, which makes things fun. The level of soccer isn't quite as high as it was in Kitchener, either, but I think it's improved from when I last played here almost a decade ago. Almost all of our games are on new turf fields, too, which is pretty kick ass. Nonetheless, I was reading the forums on the websites of the two Kitchener leagues I played in and found that I miss all the rivalries, trash talk and post-game analysis. Honestly, by the amount of time some of those guys put into the website, I wonder if they ever do any work in their day jobs.

Otherwise, I'm kind of in stasis right now. The month of May has had its good points, but it's also been rather gloomy. I'm motivated to hunt for houses, but not much else. I want to get my own space, to set up, to have a home base, and then to sink my teeth into what I'm going to do about education and work. But right now I feel more like I do when I'm camping---my home and my stuff are somewhere else, and it's nice for a few days, but it's no place to be when you need to get shit done. So I'm listless in limbo.

But, June (and hopefully some good weather) is around the corner, there are some good possibilities in the next batch of houses we're going to look at, and my listlessness can't last forever. Perhaps part of the reason for the listlessness is that I'm trying to break my daily coffee habit, and I've been fairly successful. I still crave it, but I don't get headaches anymore when I go without. I haven't weighed myself, but I think my tummy softness has reduced a little, too. And with that, the rain has cleared, so I'm going to wake Bobo from his doggy dreams and we're going to go for a walk.