Separation Anxiety

Posted by Skrud at Saturday, May 10th 2008 at 2:35pm

Finding an apartment in Ottawa this week, more than anything, made the fact that I’m leaving feel undeniably real. Until now I had been in limbo between disbelief and hard reality. I’m actually kind of excited for the move, but I’m definitely feeling anxious about moving out on my own and having to deal with all kinds of things like insurance, RRSP’s, getting Ontario ID’s, a new cell phone number, and changing my address in virtually every database on the planet.

I really like the area I’ll be living in, and the job promises to be fun and exactly what I want to do. Encouraging me is the fact that virtually everyone I’ve run into has told me that “IBM is a good company”. This goes both for IBMers, ex-IBMers, and people who “had a brother/uncle/nephew/father who worked for IBM”. Ottawa also seems to have an endless sea of pubs, kind of like the way Montreal has an endless sea of strip clubs. I don’t think I’ll have any trouble finding a nice pub near my apartment, and then there’s always Zaphod’s. Because the pubs are so numerous and so close together, I think a pub crawl (or several) is in order.

Also encouraging me is the good base of friends I already have in Ottawa, and new friends that I’m just making. I’ve been hanging out with some of the current IBM interns on IRC and they’re pretty cool people and good company to bend elbows with. I’m also looking forward to Montreal friends coming up and visiting me. You will come visit me, right? I’ll make sure to have a couch for crashing on. (And my place is right down the street from the bus station). Just bring me some Québec microbrew beer. And bagels.

On the other hand, I still feel like I’m being uprooted. Montreal is where I’ve lived for my entire life. I’ve grown into this city, and I love being surrounded by the tall buildings, the mountain towering over them, the waterfront, the plateau, the bars and pubs, and most of all the people. Montreal is an intensely friendly city and I’ve made an incredible amount of really close friends here. I also have a dream of living in downtown Montreal loft, while I’m still young enough to thrive in the big city. I’m really going to miss running into people almost every time I go out. I’m especially going to miss Brutopia, which I’ve been frequenting for seven years.

Ottawa isn’t so bad, though. It’s so close to Montreal that coming back for the weekends is more than plausible. (My friends chipped in and got me a Greyhound flexpass for my birthday, so I know I’ll be coming back a lot.) It could be worse, and had I been offered a job further away, I probably would have declined. I don’t really want to make new friends in new, faraway places. I’m a huge fan of the friends I’ve currently got and I’d much rather be closer to them than have a job far away.

So Ottawa is a decent compromise. It’s close, and the job is awesome. Although Ottawa does seem to think that a bunch of tulips surrounding a Beaver Tails tent constitutes a “festival”. They have no idea what they’re missing. In Montreal we would call it “landscaping”. I’m more than a little disappointed that I won’t be in Montreal for the entire summer. I’m moving at the beginning of July. At least I’ll still be here for the Fringe festival, but I’ll have to make frequent trips to catch Fantasia movies, the Jazz festival, Just for Laughs, and pretty much everything else.

Reasons to come visit me in Ottawa

• You can go to Red Lobster
• You can pick up some Fireball whiskey (and other non-SAQ beverages) at the LCBO
• You can get a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster at Zaphod’s (they’re gooood!)
• You can meet my new friends and make sure I’m in good hands.
• We can complain together when the bars kick us out an hour early

Tags: anxiety, Friends, montreal, moving, ottawa, team 2 comments