Well, the other Mr. Daffyd and I are moving on to our next adventure… I’ve accepted a job in Los Angeles in January…
Living in Toronto for the past three years has been an adventure - and not always a good one.
We had to deal with a bar opening five houses away, (Do a search on “My house has turned into a disco” for more info.), and finally realized that no one else in the neighborhood wanted to actually deal with the noise… We even received a letter from the neighborhood association telling us we were too “negative” because we complained… and the “City Councillor” here never lifted a finger to help.
We had originally moved here because I was offered a job in a very specialized field, and when we got here - after selling our house in the Bay Area, and quitting our jobs - they actually had the nerve to give the job to someone else… So I spent the first year or so floundering… Three degrees, and I wasn’t able to work in my field here… I ended up going back to school since there was nothing else to do… Luckily the husband got a job quite quickly, so we survived financially…
Going back to school, I quickly realized that homophobia is alive an well here in Toronto - I tried to ask a student in one of my classes to not use the word “fag” in class, and ended up with him in my face screaming that he could use the word “faggot” any time he wanted, and besides, I was “old”, and not going to go far in life anyway. I literally thought I was going to be attacked on campus at some point.
When I complained to school authorities, I heard excuse after excuse - from “If we talk to him, it will just make things worse”, to “you asked us not to take the issue any farther, so we closed the case”(!)… and no matter who I talked to, nothing happened - and I kept trying - all the way up to one of the deans… but nothing ever happened.
When I think back, I realize that a twenty year old punk got to assault a 48 year old, with no consequences.
In another one of my classes, a student stood up and screamed, “Shut up, you fucking American!” and no one in authority said anything to her.
There have been some good things, but overall, our experience in Toronto has not been a good one… So when I was offered a job in L.A., I jumped at it…
We’re now finishing off renovating our house here in Toronto, and will be putting it on the market ASAP… Now we just have to hope the Canadian dollar goes back up - since every time it goes down a cent, we lose about $5,000…
The husband will be staying back here until the house sells, then will be packing up and heading down to join me… It will certainly be nice to actually work in something that uses my expertise…
Now just gotta drive cross country in the winter and find a place to live… L.A. here we come!
Something doesn’t add up here.