Nachos at Midnight :: Life in Ottawa

Some friends and even family members were shocked to see that Toronto was one of my so-called options when it came to dealing with last week’s problems.  I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought of it quite a bit.  But would I really go through the headache of moving all over again… only to end up in the city I just left?

Sure, it’s easy to say “No you won’t.  You’ll stay right here in Ottawa” which is a nice thought and in a perfect world, that would be the case.  But in the real world — you know, the one where you get paid to do your job — the highway is always an option.

And of course, friends left in Toronto were pleased at the idea of my heading back to Megacity.  But that’s just not the way I’m rolling now.  I have to look at the bigger picture.

When you choose a career in the media, you go where the jobs are.  Many radio announcers who you hear on the airwaves have moved around a lot.  They lose their jobs, or get better offers and they pack their bags and their families and sometimes, move as far away as clear across the country.  Same thing for TV broadcasters and even the folks who work behind the scenes.

And don’t forget professional athletes.  Many of them only rent condos or apartments in the city they play in because they know they could be traded at any point.  Others take the chance that they’ll be around for a bit and end up buying a house.  But when that call comes, you have to be ready.

Ottawa was (and still is) a fresh start for me.  A greener side of the fence.  Something I wanted to try, and it’s something I’m proud I did.  But is it forever? I can’t honestly with 100% certainty say that it is.

That brings up the Toronto issue again.  And with that, comes the nagging questions such as “You complained so much about wanting to leave Toronto, and here you are saying you would go back?”  What gives?”

As I mentioned in a post the other day, I didn’t HATE Toronto and I honestly do miss it.  I miss it because I miss the good times.  I miss the fun places I used to go, the familiar neighborhoods, the nice restaurants, my friends and good memories I have.  I even miss the cold and foreboding feeling of a big, cosmopolitan city.

Sitting here, looking back at almost eight years since moving from Montreal, the past seven in Toronto weren’t bad at all.  Like any place, there are good and bad.  But when I really think,  it was a damn fun ride.

Toronto was seven years of my life and for the most part, when you shave away the occasional bad thing, it was an all around good experience.  I did some things I would have never have gotten to do otherwise, and worked at some places I probably never would have worked at.

I can — with total honesty — offer you this line as said by Johnny Carson during his last Tonight Show back in May of 1992:

“If I could, magically somehow… make it run backwards, I’d like to do the whole thing all over again” — Johnny Carson

But that also means I’m not ready to pack my bags and head back to Toronto after only one year in Ottawa. (At least not unless there was a really good offer.  And I mean REALLY good.)

Besides, while the idea of moving back to Toronto to solve some problems may seem like a somewhat good idea, it in no way means that there won’t be a handful of new problems or that somehow all the crap I didn’t like about the city won’t be there when I go back.

The move was emotionally, physically and mentally draining.  More so than you know because I haven’t actually gone into detail about it because of legal reasons.  (Yes, legal reasons.  But soon I promise you I will.)

And these are the things I think about…