07/14/08: A more permanent home

After about two months of looking, we finally signed a year's lease today on a three-bedroom unfurnished apartment. It's not quite our dream apartment, but a good compromise, and I'm going to New York next week and wanted to have it settled. Otherwise, we'd be into August and we need to be out of here by Sept. 5th.

In the last few weeks, we widened our search, so I was covering a lot of ground. We looked at beautiful ones that were too small and/or too far away, and at slightly seedy ones that were large and close, and ones with inconvenient layouts or impossibly high rents or in buildings with poor management or too few windows. We saw a gorgeous condo in the sky -- all glass and shiny floors (too small), and a nice size three-bedroom right near us and near the subway, but the stairway had a strange odor. Then there were lots that sounded fantastic in the ads, but disappeared into thin air -- rented to someone else before the open house, withdrawn because the tenants decided to stay, or phone messages and emails just never answered.

It became so seductive, waking each morning to a new crop of possibilities. Maybe today would be the day! Very easy to just keep looking and hoping, harder to actually commit to something reasonable, if not perfect. The apartment we have taken is very new and clean, with a pretty good layout and large rooms (two baths, 3+ bedrooms), BUT it's a (short) bus ride from the subway (a very short walk from the bus to home, however -- not always the case) and on a rather noisy main drag (the flip side of "short walk from the bus") featuring auto dealerships and body shops. The landlord seems pleasant, cooperative, and not too nosy, and the price is pretty low for the amount of space we have.

So, now I am dealing with the tailoff from a super-busy life, and the rather grim prospect of moving. Last week was hectic -- I went to thirteen Toronto Fringe productions and saw about as many apartments. We got caught in a torrential rainstorm one night while seeing an apartment, and made new friends when we huddled under someone's entry roof and they invited us in. The week before that was Pride -- three days of festivities on Church Street. We went downtown Friday, Saturday (Dyke March), and Sunday (Pride). The crowds were huge, seemed like more spectators than in New York, though the route is much shorter so maybe the same number is just compressed. The media all make a big fuss about it (different from New York, for sure), and the whole city celebrates for a few days.

A few days later was Canada Day (July 1st), the country's birthday. We chose to go to Ribfest at a park not far away -- lots of people, couples and families, all standing in long lines for barbecued ribs, funnel cake, and beautiful fried onions that looked like roses. There were fireworks in the evening, but not until 10 p.m., so we didn't wait. A lot like July 4th in the U.S.

The weather has included less rain and a few fairly hot days lately, but nothing to compare with Tokyo or New York. High Park is lush with green now, the reeds on the pond are over six feet high, and the goslings are growing up. (We won't be so close to High Park at our new place. Like I say, compromises.)