Back in BC

So I'm back in BC. It seems like everything was a bit of sprint getting done. Leaving Ottawa didn't seem real to me until, well, I was actually gone.

Saturday night was the Picklecatz show (well, Animal Noises II really) at Barrymore's. Lots of people there and the show went really well -- a fitting end.

I said goodbye to many very good friends, and things got pretty emotional.

Leaving friends behind was/is/will always be the big downside of moving. But for Kate and I, it was time. I can only hope our not-so-secret-plans to get as many as possible to move out to BC will succeed.

My flight left Sunday morning at 10:30am. Kevin drove Kate and Karma and me, which was ironic as it was Kevin that picked us up from the airport almost 4 years ago -- January 10th, 2000.

The flight went pretty well. I've nevered travelled with a cat before, but Karma was excellent. I think completely in shock. She pretty much didn't make a sound, but she was breathing pretty heavily. She was still pretty freaked out when we arrived on Bowen, but as of this morning she had eaten food, drank some water, and used the litter box. Karma also followed me upstairs a little while ago, and seems to be doing pretty well in exploration mode.

I picked her up and held her in my arms to show her Felix, my parents' cat that was sleeping on their bed. He just looked at her, but Karma made a small hiss and then a growling noise. Not too surprising, but I think it actually went pretty well for a first meeting -- I expected Felix to act up at least a bit.

I'm fairly settled here. I woke up at 9am west coast time. I think I still need a little sleep catch-up, but I should be able to take care of that this week. My suitcases are unpacked, I've got a "to do" list (mainly composed of people to contact and set up some get togethers) and I've already started hacking around on my parents' computer.

I'm back in OS 9 land here. I reallized (again) how crappy IE5 on the Mac is, so I installed Mozilla. They don't release binaries for OS 9 anymore, but if you check the recent links, there are two locations where you can get binaries. I've got IMAP access to my mail inboxes, so I'm pretty much up to speed there as well, although I will keep a couple of mailing list subscriptions disabled until I get my computer back up (it arrives some time next week -- Kate said she got tracking numbers from MBE today).

I also applied for my first job out here. Laura sent me a link to a job at Bell West -- "Strategic Initiatives Manager". Basically doing some market analysis plus recommendations about both technology and marketing. I'm a bit rusty in cover letter writing, and my resume needs some work, but a good way to get started.

Next Monday I'm going to see Stuart McLean with Rebecca. I don't think I will last staying on Bowen until then -- I've already purchased a book of passenger tickets for the ferry.

The weather is (predictably) rainy, but since the first big dump of snow was descending on Ottawa as I left, I like this better. I guess I should probably change my weather block here to reference that.

OK, that's about it for a long ramble. I'm at my parents' place on Bowen if anyone needs to get in touch with me.