Flying Lessons for Cats

Some may think I am crazy. I am just applying my basic psychology knowledge to prepare Kinki for the Big Flight.

I started playing the sound of an airplane take off. If he hears the sound everyday, he will get used to it and won't hyperventilate when we actually do take-off. We just started his training. It will get louder and louder. I am planning to also add movement in a few weeks. Notice that I put the speaker right on the kennel - bulldog size kennel!

(Sorry about the lighting.)

CRA Lottery

I don’t buy lottery tickets and I don’t gamble. Doing my taxes is as close as it gets to winning the lottery. Every year, I anxiously wait to find out how much we are going to get back. Today was a good day.

What are we going to do with our jackpot? Save it for next year, ah. Our accountant explained what is going to happen when we move in May. Among other things, we’ll have 60 days to either pay back the RRSPs borrowed as first time home buyers or pay taxes on it. Le joy.

The Move in Progress

We’ve got some big things checked off our list, but there’s a lot more.

Done:

-Opened US account through RBC
-Cancelled our trip to Spain/Morocco as I am not allow to get out of the US for a while :(
-Received our immigration papers from the lawyer
-Booked a vet appointment for Kinki

In progress:

-Select a moving company. I never thought moving would be so complicated. I just wish we could sell everything and go! It’ll take approximately 2-3 weeks to get our stuff down there. Before the moving truck crosses the US, we need to be in the US with our visas in hand. What are we going to do for three weeks? Air mattress and sleeping bag it is!
-Research immigration requirements for Kinki

To do:

-Sell condo & car
-Talk to lawyer and prepare for immigration interview (3-5 hrs we were told)
-Booked our one-way flights
-Rent a place in SF (through email!)

Things to do before I move to SF!

Since I can't come up with “100 things to do before I die”, I created another list of things to do before... we move!

• Have lots of Tim Horton’s and Second Cup coffee
  
• Go home to Quebec City to visit my family
  
• Eat: Poutine (while in Quebec City), Shawarma (from the Shawarma King), and Gabriel’s pizza (never tried it)
  
• Do wine tasting with friends at our favourite restaurant
  
• Visit the War Museum
  
• Shop at Simons
  
• Get a haircut (I finally found a hairdresser I like, damn!)
  

Hmm, that’s it!

My college/university notes are finally gonzo

For the past 10 years, I've been moving around with my five boxes of college/university notes. Now that we're moving to SF, every box counts. It's a waste of money to move those boxes with us, again. Today, my goal was to be down to one box.

Interestingly, I feel liberated. I don't feel one bit of nostalgia. I am slightly annoyed actually. I am annoyed at the ton of useless stuff I had to research, study, and write over the course of my student career. Now that I have been working for five years, I wish university would have prepared me more for "real life". I know liberal arts are meant to develop critical thinking and yada yada yada, but how much critical thinking does a person really need? Very few courses I took (like five) are useful to my career. I can't help but to think how much better I would be in my job if I had only studied relevant subjects.

I first felt annoyed, then bitter as I was reading some of the feedback provided by teaching assistants. Holy sense of superiority. Dude, it's just a graduate degree that you have (and not even a completed one for most!), not a Nobel prize. University is really good at making grad students believe that they are exceptionally smart. Once they start working, they realize that they really aren't all that. At best, they're among the smart ones.

So I am done. Down to one box, disillusioned, and with a very low tolerance for uselessness!

The sociology and psychology of urbanites

I always knew I was the urban type, but I learned today that I am in fact an urbanite. The demographic and psychographic characteristics of the urbanite (as provided by Wikipedia) are totally me.

Demographics: 18-44 years old

Attitudes: They are time-poor, city-proud, media-literate, brand-centric, trend-sensitive and culturally-aware. They are affluent consumers with an optimistic outlook on life that is very different from those who live in “small town” or rural areas.

Motivations:
1. Expecting to live a meaningful and experience-rich urban life
2. Expecting to succeed in multiple areas of life (not just career)
3. Expecting to get substantial fulfilment from work (not just cash)
4. Expecting to be at the hub of a large friendship network
5. Expecting the traditional ideal of “true love” in the modern world
6. Expecting to have to “make time” in order to have and enjoy time
7. Expecting to avoid the use of debt to have what they need or would want
8. Expecting to have a progressive government that delivers results
9. Expecting to live in a pleasant “urban village” area of their city
10. Expecting to live a responsible life as an urban consumer.

Fits me to a tee!

Flying with a cat...

One of my main worry about moving to San Francisco is having to fly with Kinki.

While Air Canada does not allow cats on the plane, United Airlines does. We're obviously going to fly United. There are no direct flights from Ottawa to SF. On United, we're likely going to have to fly through Chicago. Every time I have flown to Chicago there has been a problem (usually weather related). I hope there won’t be any delays.

Clearing custom is going to be enough of a delay in itself. If we go through Chicago, we’re going to clear custom in Ottawa which is a good thing. However, it will take more time than usual as we need to apply for our visas. It’s a fairly simple process, but Kinki will have to wait for an hour while we are being interviewed. He needs to go through custom too with his medical record!

He freaks out in the car, I can't imagine how much yelling he is going to do on the plane. I wanted to give him Gravol, but I read that it’s not recommended. He’s going to be starving by the end of the day… And won’t have any bathroom breaks!

I am so stressed out. Anyone has experiences to share?

Now Boarding Flight to San Francisco

Hubby was in Las Vegas on business last week and he is San Francisco this week. We both despise Las Vegas so meeting in San Francisco was a no-brainer. In addition, we had to go apartment hunting, whee!

With the storm we got on Thursday/Friday, I was scared that my flight was going to be cancelled. All flights to TO and MTL were cancelled. Luckily, I was going West. It was delayed, but I got to Vancouver in time to catch my SF connection.

On Friday night, we met with R’s friend. We had dinner at First Crush. I was exhausted/completely jet lagged by 1 am. We were staying across the street at the Renaissance Hotel Parc 55 in Union Square. Union Square is definitely the place to be. I’d love to live there, but R finds it too busy. Nothing is ever too busy for me!

On Saturday morning, we were off to Napa Valley. The weather was fantastic: Sunny and 20 degrees. Our first stop was Darioush. Persepolis was the inspiration behind the architecture of the winery. The stone was quarried near the region of Persepolis (Iran). It made me feel like going to Iran…in a few (ok, several) years from now. Our second stop was Clos Duval. Not the most impressive winery, but definitely the best wine (Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2002) I’ve had during the whole day.

We had lunch at Bouchon. As usual, we were not disappointed. Bouchon is one of the best restaurant I know. After lunch, we drove to Sterling.

Sterling is famous for its tram car that takes you up to the winery. We were there about three years ago, but I still can’t get over how breathtaking the views are from the top. Our last winery was Luna. We had a complimentary tasting so we stopped by. The winery and the wine were nothing to write home about. We made it back to SF around 6pm.

We spent Sunday hanging out downtown. We had brunch in a little café in Nob Hill and checked out two apartments. One was an awful one bedroom for a mere $1650/month + utilities. The other one was great, but there was nothing in our price range available. Call me crazy, but I just can’t bring myself to pay $2,750/month for a one bedroom apartment even if it has ocean view (see picture)! We had a totally yummy dinner at 1550 Hyde Cafe and Wine Bar.

I went shopping in Union Square on Monday while DH worked. I am not a shopper. I don’t enjoy shopping aimlessly. I never liked Macy’s. Seven floors of clothing is just overwhelming. They should sort their stuff by price, it would make shopping a lot more efficient! I ended up with two lip glosses from Victoria Secret. I know, I am just wild. R left to Monterey after lunch. I headed to the airport. I took the red-eye back and was at work by 10am. That’s dedication.

It’s weird to think that my next trip to SF will be one-way. Ack… It seems to be more real now that I came out of the closet!

Extra, Extra! The Big Announcement

I revealed The Secret at work today so it’s time to share with the world. Oh, and congratulations to those of you who have guessed already (*Waving at Phat and Foxy*).

Hubby and I are making the move, literally. We are moving to San Francisco in May!!!

We’ve had this project in mind for a couple of years now. We wanted to do it right in order to maximize our relocation success. The last couple of months have been crazy busy. His company has taken care of all the legal issues. The paper work is now completed. We’re going on an L1 and L2 visa (company transfer) which will allow me to work in the US. That being said, my EAD (employment authorization document) will take approximately two months to process. During those two months, I am neither allowed to work (in the US or Canada) nor leave the US. It’s an annoyance but I can’t complain. It could have been a lot worse. I’ll use those two months to find a job and finish my marketing research certificate.

As you all know, we just moved into our condo. Anyone needs a condo? It’s going to be for sale shortly. It’s a lovely condo, but at the end of the day, it’s just ‘stuff’. I live for experiences, not ‘stuff’. And we’re also selling the car. It’s a nice car, but we just don’t need one downtown SF.

We’re planning to buy a property as soon as possible, but we need to build our credit first. For the next six months, we’re hoping to rent a one bedroom apartment while we familiarize ourselves with the different neighborhoods. We spent the weekend in San Francisco looking at apartments. For anyone familiar with SF, we’re looking at Union Square, Russian Hill, Nob Hill, North Beach, and Embarcadero.

ETA: I am adding a map! We want an apartment inside that circle.

In the next month or so, I have a million things to wrap up at work. As mentionned, we have to sale the car and the condo. And the obvious, pack and move AGAIN! Thankfully, I didn’t unpack everything. We also need to get Kinki’s shot up-to-date for his arrival in the US.

I am excited and terrified (if that makes sense), but we live only once, right?!?