Day 16–Breaking the news… Part me

That last post of Michelle’s is a great post because the topic sucks the big fat juicy one! Even if we know and completely understand the reasons behind why we are making such a seemingly drastic, fairy tale-ish, unrealistic, stupid, emotional, selfish, unpractical and foolhardy decision, you know that many friends and relatives are not going to understand no matter how well thought out you tell them your decision was. Even if they really do understand, they will make it seem like they they don’t just to try to knock some sense into us so we don’t actually leave. Of course, at the moment I am speaking from the relatively safe distance of still having a few months before I need to say anything to my friends and relatives and even then I don’t know what they will say. Part of me wants them to put up a fuss. If they are all smiles and are immediately happy, I think that is a much bigger problem then them turning into blubbering idiots begging me not to leave. I guess what I’m saying is that they had better not make me feel guilty for making this already very difficult decision, but for Christ’s sake they had better make it clear how less filled in their lives are going to be for my absence! I want middle ground, damn it!
*Sigh* This will not go the way my over imaginative minds wants it to go is it? I feel like I am going to break up with Canada.
I am not going to get into details in this blog about all the hurdles I will have to face by telling my friends and relatives. As Michelle said, I will tell them and I will tell them soon. They will need time to digest my decision and no matter what they show on the outside, I know they may feel different on the inside and that always comes out at some point. If I tell them like a grenade, pull the pin, throw it at them and then run away, trust me, they will start throwing their own grenades at me. In case you didn’t know, grenades hurt! Don’t worry, I’m not going to go into a sidebar about the scars that will be left behind by the emotional shrapnel with their grenades of love and hurt! I think you get the picture.
There is one bonus to us moving to Scotland. My Dad and his wife. I do need to make something clear that may at first seem kinda rude. They are in no way ANY factor in us moving. Whether they are there or not, we are moving. If my father lived here in Canada, we would be moving to Scotland (although, if he did live here, I wouldn’t know Scotland at all). Having said that, it is a fantastic bonus that they do live there. They are great people (says the son) and to see more of them is a great thing! And I think, or would like to think, that the feeling is mutual.
Here’s the kicker. I have absolutely NO idea what his response is going to be! I don’t know him nearly as well as a son should (of my doing, not his) and as such have a very difficult time gauging his response to anything. Part of me wants to say that the very practical side of him will ask me a cazillion questions to make sure that I have thought this all out or to make sure that this isn’t an emotional decision. We have really only been to Shetland once for a short holiday that was somewhat fogged by the whole getting married thing, and that is a VERY poor way to make such a decision. I’m sure being in the dark, fiery chasm of Hell seems neat and interesting enough to pull out the camera to bring home some sweet memories, but I don’t think there are too many of us out there who would want to live there. The reality is that we have been mulling this over for a year, we are going back in a month without to oogly-googly glasses of the first-time-visitor. We have thought about residence, an income, savings plan, and so much more. These things and more we will tell him when we go over to see him. His wife, Becky, on the other hand, as much as she is just as practical and would probably ask all the same questions, I do think that she would just say that if that’s what we want, we will figure it out. Canada will always be here if things really don’t work out the way we thought.
I’m still thinking about the best way to tell my father, but I am thinking that there may be a bottle of scotch in the equation somewhere.
No matter what, I hope is as happy as he looks here:

- Will