Red Cedar

so ruth and david have started to show my apartment. ruth thinks it is likely it will sell within a month – which means i would be evicted for october 1st since it unlikely i will get an eviction notice until the end of july at this point – but i have decided i want my move date to be the first week of september because then i could give short notice for the 5th of the month or something like that and avoid moving on the same day as everyone else in the building. that means i need to find a place to live for september 1st.

pretty much every renter, whether they are in the suites owned by bc housing or those owned by individuals, are being evicted right now which makes me sad because i’ve known a lot of the people in my building for years and it has been good to have such eclectic neighbours who are also musicians and artists and whatnot. i was talking with a fellow musician in the building last night about how much the neighbourhood is changing – the slow creep of gentrification has turned into an overwhelming rush as the west-enders purchase up all available real estate, jack the rents, and move out the heart of what made the neighbourhood good – the low-rent musicians, artists and activists….

so september 1st will be nine years in the neighbourhood and the other night i was talking to a friend who made a comment that lead me to reflect on what nine years has been. he said “i guess your priorities really change as you move through life” in reference to how much my relationship to urban living has changed in the past couple of years. and i thought back to being 22 and moving into a house on kitchener street with two strangers as roomates (i answered a roomate-wanted ad), getting reading to start my university degree, and flush with the prospects of living in a big city – right in the heart of the coolest neighbourhood of that big city.

and since then i married and divorced, coupled again and then separated. i have had beautiful lovers in between. i started and finished a university degree, a technical diploma and a myriad of other small courses. i learned to drive. i started a career. i started and still play in a locally-popular folk band. friends have come and gone, passed on, and stuck around. i have lived in two different dwellings – one house and one apartment, had a beautiful garden and built a greenouse at one, made window boxes at the other. i have marched and protested and organized as an activist, an anarchist and unionist – fought with the police and spent countless hours in courtrooms (and visited many friends in jail). i have gained and lost weight, broken my ankle and healed with $2500 of titanium forever planted in my leg. i have worked and played and hiked and taught and grown and loved and grieved and healed and mostly just did what i wanted to do.

and strangely enough i realized as i thought further on it – that nine years has been book-ended by the man who sexually assaulted me at 19 and who is soon getting out of prison. when i first moved to the neighbourhood, within 6 months of coming to the city i returned to victoria to attend court in his case – and he will be released from prison the same month i am leaving the city. nine years he has been in prison and nine years i have had a lifetime of my own – a life of events to continue in the new home i am choosing.

in nine years i have lived a lifetime of interactions and moments infuriating, elating, gratifying and painful. and on it goes – reminded as i am sorting and packing my things in preparation for moving.

ruth and david are the realtors selling the apartments in my building. i think the picture on their website is odd. in every sequence, there are ruth and david floating over the city – trying to look like the hipsters they think they are. yesterday they came and put a giant sign in front of our apartment building so it is really hard to ignore the fact almost everything in our building is currently for sale. they have only listed six suites on mls which makes me think they are listing them a few at a time, though showing them all on request. mine isn’t one of the listed ones online – i’m not sure what that means.

the worst thing is the tag line they have chosen for our building – “Are you looking for a hip place to call home? ” – yup, that’s right – i’ve had a hip home for these past three years, but now it is too hip for even me and must go to those even hipper people with bigger wallets.

i wonder how long it will take them to sell? i think they are way overpriced, but what do i know……

this post is for those of you who don’t see me very often……

i decided last week that i for sure am going to move to the sunshine coast once i officially get evicted. that won’t likely happen before the end of the month so it looks as though i will be house-hunting for september or october first.

a lot of people have told me i won’t be able to stand the commute – and possibly that is true – but i really won’t know until i try living up there. in exchange for an extra-long commute i will get rents at half the price, clean air, no more random street noise, a short walk to the beach (everything there is close to the beach), and a community of just 25,000 people to share big space with. really, i have just decided to try prioritizing less pollution, cheaper rent, an option to possibly purchase a home one day, and a little land – for the time it will take me to get back and forth from the city.

the good thing about the commute is the fact it is entirely by public transit – ferry and bus – which means i don’t have to sit in my car, and can actually use the commuting time to work, read, do art… whatever. possibly i will be able to work from home one day a week as well (still have to float that by my boss).

things are changing for me now and i’m not sure what exactly the finished product will look like, how a move like this will impact my day to day life, interests, circle of friends, creative and activist projects – all that is up in the air. the move, plus my own personal transformative work have coincided to accelerate some aspects of my path towards a new life. i am a little frightened by this process, but also excited by it – who know what kind of a new me i will be?

i know one thing for sure though – when i move up to the coast – i am *definitely* learning to kayak in the sea. so at the very least, i will end up with a new recreative pleasure 🙂

i feel much better about the decision now i have made it. for about a month i was going back and forth about what i wanted to do, and finally realized i had to stop torturing myself with what i wanted, didn’t want, couldn’t have etc. when i realized how expensive it would be to rent what kind of a place i want in east van (house, yard, fruit tree….), the only thing that made sense was to accept the longer commute in exchange for more breathing room, more quiet, and more separation from urban life.

of course, after coming to this conclusion, i now want to get on with the process but have to wait until my apartment sells and i am evicted so as to cash in on the $1100 the landlord has to give me for making me move. this will cover my entire moving cost with movers. not only that, but once they give me 2 months notice, i can give them 10-day “short” notice anytime in that period and they still have to pay out the cash – which will give me flexibility in move dates and so forth.

in the meantime, i have to start sorting through my stuff – i have lived in this apartment for almost three years and have accumulated like a squirrel in the meantime.

so yeah, i’m excited about moving, but also mildly stressed about finding a place and packing. i just have to get started, and then i won’t seem so bad. the realtors haven’t even showed my place yet so i doubt it will go before the end of this month – though – you never know with this crazy real-estate market. i’m hoping to buy a house of my own on the coast if i like it after renting there for a few months. really – that depends on whether or not the commute is doable for me…..