PH and I have always talked about going back to Nova Scotia some day.
After all, we don’t like that our son is growing up away from his grandparents and all of his cousins.
We don’t like that he may not know all the words to “Barrett’s Privateers” before the age of ten.
We don’t like that he may not know a Halifax donair if it fell on his shoe.
Most of all, we just think of ourselves as Nova Scotians, so obviously, SOME day, we want to “go home”.
But in the future.
You know.
Like, not right now, but maybe some day.
Sometimes, when I get really frustrated with living in the city, or when homesick for old friends, or for my mother, I have wanted to go home RIGHT NOW.
But usually it’s… “maybe in a couple of years”.
So when a job came up in Nova Scotia that PH would be perfect for, we didn’t know what to think.
I mean, what, leave Vancouver?
No more mountains? No more sushi? What about Owl’s awesome daycare? What about our diaper service? What about all of our friends, whom we would leave behind?
And yet…
The job was in a perfect location. Just half an hour away from my parents, and a little over an hour to his parents.
And then we looked at housing prices and we just started SALIVATING.
2,000 square feet and an acre of land for half the price of our current 1,000 foot townhouse? NO PROBLEM.
So we made a pros and cons list. It looked like this:
- PRO
- close to family
- cheap houses
- VERY cheap houses
- close to Carol’s old friends/boy cousins
- same salary, lower cost of living
- Carol either doesn’t work or does dog training at home
- No daycare/Nana Daycare
- Have we mentioned the house pricing?
- Cause it’s cheap, you know
- Seriously, $70k for a three bedroom HOUSE
- not condo, HOUSE
- CON
- moving expenses? How cheap is PH’s company?
- Negative equity in house currently YAY GLOBAL RECESSION PLUS SCREW YOU MORONS
- No Happy Nappy
- All of our Vancouver friends go byebye
- Daycare lady would be sad 😥
- No vet tech job for Carol, probably
- Carol would have to take up prostitution
- or dog training
- one or the other
- but probably prostitution
Ultimately, we realized that the universe was calling our bluff. When fortune just hands you the thing you’ve always said you wanted, you have to go for it. We’d be chicken not to.
So PH applied.
Well, it turns out he’s the best candidate by a country mile and they really want him.
What they aren’t sure of is whether they can afford to help us move out there.
What WE aren’t sure of is whether we can afford to sell our house right now, because the housing values are down and we don’t want to end up in a negative equity situation.
All of this is causing me massive anxiety because you KNOW how much I love uncertainty.
And change. Don’t forget my love of change.
I keep alternating between dreams of a big house and a dog-daycare that I run out of my own home, and joy at the thought of leaving my job… and complete panic at the thought of leaving all the people here, not least my awesome daycare lady who had gone above and beyond the call of duty for me and Owl.
I waver between excitement and terror.
I don’t want to go!
I don’t want to stay!
I want to go, I just also want to stay!
And then, the next morning, I woke up in a sweat and shook PH awake.
“I just realized. We CAN’T go to Nova Scotia.”
“Why not?” he mumbled into his pillow.
“THERE’S NO ANTON’S IN NOVA SCOTIA.”
If By Yes 