The Home Front

I have a sneaking suspicion that this year I will eat my words. It's going to hurt when this happens, like dipping those words in tabasco sauce and rolling them in a marinade of glass shards. I will wince and crunch them down and confess to you: "We're thinking of buying a house". And just when you recover from the shock in time to deliver a mocking--well, it's about time or you gotta grow up sometime--I'll take another swig of that broken glass like a Hells Angels biker and finish my sentence. Wait for it--

IN GUELPH.

I never thought I'd be ready to leave my beloved city and indeed, I am not. But this apartment is getting cramped and wouldn't it be nice to have a burrow of our own. I know, I know. I've always sworn this way and that that I am a free spirit unencumbered by such mundane responsibilities as paying a mortgage or mowing the lawn. Hell, you still won't get me to mow the lawn. I'll pluck my own dandelion greens to make a salad before you get me to run a mower but you get the point. It's time to turn a new leaf.

The whole process has been kind of weird. We take Ezra to look at houses and people nod appreciatively and spout nonsense like, good choice, RIGHT choice, you can't raise a child in the city. And C braces himself as my colour rises and I say YES, you ABSOLUTELY CAN raise kids in the city and have access to AGO day camps and Night At the Museum at the ROM and author series and Nuit Blanche for kids and way better schools where all the kids aren't just white but that renting sucks and if we had half a million dollars laying around we wouldn't be there having a surreal conversation about high efficiency furnaces and the likelihood of vermiculite in the walls.

I love Toronto and I've lived here for a long time. This city is a true love of mine so don't ever ever rag on her. I would be lying if I said it wasn't hard to leave it behind. It is. But the time has come to court a new suitor, and Guelph has caught my eye. I don't think I'm settling. I like Guelph and am hoping that like will soon grow into love. Comes a time when you settle down.