One Year Anniversary

On June 17th, I achieved my one year anniversary of the date I arrived in SJ. It is hard to believe it has been a year already!

M has, of course, made it well worth the trip here. She's been a saint, putting up with me this long with all of the changes I have wrought on her life. She does not like change, even in small amounts, and having an entire person and his life show up on her doorstep was emotionally disturbing and a bit overwhelming for her.

Then we moved all my stuff into the house and started working on places to put it all (and we're still working on it, a year later!). Throw in moving the furniture around, the "messiness" of another person to a house she only ever had to worry about her own self in, a new toilet, a shed, and, last but not least, a cat!

Meanwhile, the stress on me has been hard, too; a lot of the job prospects we thought I had dried up as the economic woes hit this area pretty much just as I arrived. I'm getting used to a whole new routine, living with a new person, house/yard responsibilities, the weather, the taxes, and a whole new set of politics. Not to mention missing my friends, family, and life in SoCal... a place I had never left for longer than a few weeks until now.

After a year, I finally have a general practice doctor (yay!) and my two specialists lined up and working on my case. I have some contract work bringing in some extra money to help pay for things. We seem to be hitting a decent routine of things she does without me, things I do without her, and things we like to do together. I survived my first winter in SJ, and am stronger for it- but also learned a lot, and mostly about what I don't know about winter! My truck also survived not only the trip here and the bad roads throughout the province, but also its first winter. We are, however, looking to get a remote started added for the coming winter.

I also have a whole new set of friends and (extended) family helping make the transition much easier than it otherwise could have or would have been without them.

And did I mention the new cat? >;-)

Romy seems, overall, to be working out. He is just starting to connect the sound "roam-ee" to petting and attention, but it will take, likely, a few more months before he is consistent and comfortable with it. He does like "bedtime" as he gets to sleep in the bed and curl up on M's feet or along her back (which she likes, too, as it keeps her snuggly warm) and gets a lot of attention and petting. M is still transitioning to having cat hair in the house and on the couches, but it isn't as bad as she feared and we're being a bit more diligent about vacuuming (central vac for the win!).

We also picked up a circular cat toy (the one with the ball in the middle) for him from friends whose cat didn't use it, and he seems to enjoy it. It's the first toy he seems to really like. He also LOVES his cardboard with catnip scratchers-- he goes ape-shit scratching at them and even falls asleep on them. Which keeps him from scratching anything else, so that's good.

They say that the first year of marriage is the hardest. Well, our first year was spent predominantly apart, which was very hard. It is difficult to be away from the one you love for short trips, let alone for months at a time. However, our second year was spent adjusting to life together, and was difficult for a whole different set of reasons; adjusting to having a living, breathing person in your life is a challenge. However, I feel like we have successfully navigated both of those hurdles, so we can move on to the challenges of the third year... whatever they may be.