The Building ...

I"ve lived in a few different places in my life time. I have to say, my favorite place in Calgary is here in Mission. Where I was living for the past 6 months was sweet, but I needed more bang for less bucks. I was looking for a solution, but having no luck. Out of the blue, my old building manager called and said "Hey, little girl..., one of the south facing units on the river opened up, you interested?" Was I ever. The timing was perfect. Just when you think all hope is lost, something comes out of the blue to rescue you. Funny how that works if you're open to it.

So after giving notice at the mansion, and I must say my landlords there, totally got where I was comng from and were incredible about me moving out. I did give more than enough notice and they understood my situation. I will miss them dearly, very kind and gracious human beings. There are people renting locations in this city who could take a few lessons from the mansion landlord's textbook. We all know who I'm talking about... Lol!

After a brief bit of wrangling, with the help of my Son, Son-in-law, my Daughter and their friends, I was moved. Because Peter Appleby was kind enough to let me use his cube van, he deserves a nice little shout out. A Remax agent with a big heart... he's 6 foot 8" .... so that's also literal... look him up if you need to buy or sell.

I am in my new building, boxes and furniture scattered everywhere, very little room to move. I have a bit of work ahead of me. As I'm standing on the front stoop chatting with my building manager, people come and go. He introduces me to all of them, and tells what suites everyone is in. Very congenial crowd. I went out with some of my beautiful and brilliant friends tonight to a non-descript club in the middle of no-man's-land here in Calgary. We had the best wings I've ever had, truely. When I arrived home at a reasonable hour, I decided to skip the unpacking, take a little longer breather and head to the cafe to write and edit. As I'm locking my door and heading out, in the hallway are two of my previous building mates. It's like old home week and we're laughing and chatting, hugs and stories were exchanged, and truthfully, I could have stood there in that hallway all night and gabbed with my old friends. We all moved to different places and ended up back together, like college roommates bumping into each other in the big city. I took over the suite of someone who everyone of us had had a run-in with at one point or another. We've decided we will have a building christmas party this year, a great big open house where we can all socialize together and laugh as loud as we want without fear of offending anyone else.

I must say, my suite overlooks the Elbow River, at the end of a quiet avenue. Barely any traffic, kind of quiet. I watched the sunset from my bedroom window yesterday, through the leaves of one of the giant old trees in my front yard and was speechless at the quality of the light. Then I woke up briefly at 4am, I could hear the water trickling and leaping it's way to somewhere else. Sweetest sound I've ever heard. Yes, I am grateful.

Things are looking good, business is picking up, slowly but surely. Nothing like being paid to do what you love. I still volunteer as often as I can, I have many beautiful and brilliant friends on the rise and at the top of their field. We seem to all be rising at relatively the same pace, and those that lag behind a bit, we all pull together to lift each other up. It's amazing the difference between what once was and what is. The kindness of strangers, the gifts of opportunity from new friends and old, meeting the people you know and love by chance, and having the same amazing feeling that everything is going to be okay. As I was told by one of my dear friends this evening... "Now all we have to do is find you a truehearted boyfriend and everything will be perfect!" Plenty of offers there but I'm still waiting for the right Prince Charming to sweep me off my feet. .... LOL!

Hey! Don't forget to check you Compass!

Cole