Man Wednesdays: The next step forward...backward

I am a creature of habit. Anyone who knows me would probably say that that is one of my true "man-isms". I can eat the same thing, at the same time and do the same things for months and be perfectly content. If Chantal asks me what flavor ice cream I want her to make next, I'm most likely to want the exact same one that I just finished. If she "borrows" my keys out of my right front pocket, then I want them put back in my right. front. pocket.

This can be an inconvenience when you move a lot. Had a favorite brand of chocolate? Maybe the stores here don't sell it. Finally made friends with every staff member at your gym? Well now you're a stranger.

So, whereas I approach most moves with a degree of reluctance, our next move holds an exciting change for me, something I've never done before: We're moving back to a city that I spent over fifteen years of my life in, but that I haven't lived in for almost a decade. We're even moving into the exact same neighbourhood. It's like the best of both worlds. I get to go back to many of the aspects of my life that I left behind when I moved to Kingston. At the same time, I have changed enough, and Ottawa has changed enough, that it will be like discovering a whole new city.

I can return to my old martial arts school to study under the one man who is my longest enduring friendship, and yet he teaches a different style now and all his students have changed. Many of my old friends are there, but we will have all new stories to tell each other. Even the city itself has changed, but the Glebe retains it's old world charm.

And, yes: I can even get my favorite brand of chocolate.

The biggest thing for me will be that, although I love DC and will miss it like a dear friend, we have always been the only Raw Foodists that we know of in this whole city. In Ottawa we have already found a wider community of people who are on, or have already taken, the same journey. Best thing is, they're all based right in our neighbourhood. Love to my girl for again finding us the perfect home, in the perfect location.