There are still times when it seems surreal that we live here.  I often sit on my window seat and feel amazed that I’m here, in the lower mainland, in a brand-new townhouse.  And when we drive around and I realize that I know how to get where I’m going, that I know the exits and routes, it seems crazy.  I live here and my life right now is pretty wonderful.

I love getting up every morning and coming downstairs in my pyjamas and robe.  I never really did that before. When I was working I would get up, shower, dress, eat breakfast and go to work. It was rush, rush, rush every morning.  On the weekends, I would get up, shower, dress and do all the things around the house I didn’t get done during the week; again rush, rush, rush.  Now I wake up, stretch, grab my robe and head downstairs.  I make myself a cup of tea and let my bones settle.  Then I put on yoga pants and do several episodes of Gentle Yoga.  The osteoarthritis in my left knee is quite bad now and that impacts both of my knees, my hips and my back.  The gentle poses and stretches really help.  Then I usually have another cup of tea and think about breakfast.  Some mornings I switch things up.  I get up, watch morning television and then I put on yoga pants and do my poses and stretches.  Either way, it’s usually after 8:00 when I get up and around 11:00 before I’m ready to meet my public. I love that my mornings are restful and quiet, and that I control the pace.

I love ironing.  Dale wears dress shirts to work and every Wednesday or Thursday I have three or four of them hanging up, ready to be ironed.  I take my iPad upstairs with me, set my music to shuffle and start ironing.  I love the smell of the freshly pressed fabric.  It is rewarding to see his shirts hanging without wrinkles.  I usually iron my t-shirts, camisoles and jeans too.  I love tucking them into my dresser drawers, all smooth and soft. The songs on my iPad are ones I love and hearing them adds to the pleasure.  Sometimes I sing along, sometimes I stand there and let the music wash over me.  Ironing before was just another chore to get done after work or on the weekends.  Now it is an enjoyable task that I look forward to each week.

I love that I can walk to get fresh food.  There is a small farm market less than a block from my house.  To get there, I walk along a pedestrian pathway which has beautiful gardens on either side.  The market also has a great selection of ethnic food, so I can get rice, pasta, sauces and oils there too.  Not too far away is another little market that has a deli and a bakery.  Between these two markets is a Super Valu store, which carries local bread and organic milk and eggs.  From May until September, every Thursday afternoon there is a Farmers’ Market in the city square.  On Sunday afternoons during the summer, musicians play at the square.  We can hear them from our house.  I can go days without getting into my car to go shopping, but if I need to, there are many shops I can get to within an easy ten minute drive, including Costco and Hudson’s Bay.

I love that there are kilometres of biking and walking trails that we can easily access from our location.  We simply cross the main street in the downtown area, go down a couple of blocks and there we are!  We can bike along the raised walkway or we can go through the park.  If we go through the park we can watch soccer or baseball games and  get fish and chips from  Pajo’s (although this location isn’t as good as the original one in Port Moody and it’s only open in the summer).  Most of the trails are along the river and through the woods but the first part we go through is in downtown Poco.  The mild weather here means that we can probably bike on the weekends throughout the year.

I love that there are lots of options for eating out within walking distance.  We can have sushi (there are several Japanese restaurants), Thai food, Greek food or pizza.  We can go to a neighbourhood pub or we can have burgers from A & W.  If we want ice cream we can walk to Dairy Queen or splurge on gelato from Matteo’s. If someone comes to visit, we can go for coffee at Starbuck’s or Waves.  Both have outdoor seating to enjoy during good weather.  On Sunday mornings we can drive to several places for brunch.  Earl’s is technically within walking distance and if we want something really special, a drive into the city is easy enough to do.

I love that there are many community theatre organizations in the surrounding area and that there is a website that lists all the auditions.  Now that I’m in a production with the Surrey Little Theatre, I’m making new friends and connections.  I could be in several shows a year with several different groups!  That makes me very happy.

I love that here in BC my little red Bug with flower and ladybug decals makes people happy.  Every time I’m out in it I see people looking, pointing and smiling.  In my rear view mirror I often see people taking pictures of my car.  When I’m at my car in parking lots, people often say how much they like it.  When I was in Alberta most people looked at my car like it was the representation of all things liberal and wicked.  I’m sure they thought I was a dope-smoking hip-pie, not just a (former) school teacher with a whimsical and artistic bent.

I love that we are close enough to our boys to help them.  If they need us, for any reason, we are minutes away, not like before when we had to get into the car and drive for hours and hours or hop on a plane to get to them.  Both boys occasionally pop by, and that is a wonderful thing.

I love that we are close enough to downtown Vancouver to drive there for the evening.  We’ve been to Theatre Under the Stars in Stanley Park.  We’ve seen football and hockey games.  We went into one of the fireworks nights and we met up with friends from Port Alberni at the QE Theatre to see “Book of Mormon”.  If we want, we can drive to the old neighbourhood, the West End, and walk around.  Yaletown, Gastown, English Bay and Granville Island are close enough to consider visiting anytime, and believe me, we take advantage of that!

Mostly I love that Dale is working at a job where he feels valued and useful.  It was hard for him to have been let go from his last job.  But, you know, the universe was looking after us.  His job now is much better than his last one, with more opportunities and perks.  And even though he acts like he’s bitter and twisted because I’m home all day, doing what I want to do when I want to do it, he’s happy, productive and fulfilled.

Could some things be better? Sure. The benches in front of our house on the walkway are, some summer evenings, used by homeless people who sit there and drink.  They can be loud and they often leave a mess behind.  And some of the people who walk their dogs along the path let them poop on the grass in the park and they don’t always pick it up.  Our townhouse is too small for me to do the big projects I would like to do, the ones I pinned onto my re-purposing board on Pinterest.  We don’t have space in the garage to store the materials much less space to do the work.  We haven’t been here long enough to have developed a circle of friends, but that will come.  We’ve moved enough to know the timeline for that: it takes about a year.  However, we do have some friends here and with Facebook and Skype I’m not at all lonely.

Right here, right now, I am happy. And that, people, is a good thing.