The wire

Some of you adventurers and risk takers, you brave hearts and reckless crazy people .....you....you like it down there at "the wire".

Some of us cautious and conscientious planners, organizers, control freaks ..... we ...... we do  NOT like it down there at "the wire".

Even getting close to "the wire" makes us sweaty and nauseous and wobbly.

We are incompatible with proximity to "the wire.

It is not our "happy place".

But like it or not......not by my choice, not because of anything I did or didn't, could or couldn't do..... there I stood on Thursday morning with my feet dangling over "the wire".

And it was NO FUN.

I was calm, even smiling when I got the email to say there were no keys to the brand new child care centre I had to take possession of on Thursday......not only because it was 6 years a month late, or that shipments from across the land were headed to that location, or that 45 families were hours away from arriving to see their new child care centre....... I could smile in such a dire circumstance as this because I was already sitting inside....... too late to tell me there are no keys ....too late to lock the previously unlocked door.... I am in.....and I know squatter rights are a "thing".

To find out a few minutes later that my "squatter rights strategy" was in jeopardy because not only were there no keys, there was also no occupancy permit..... felt like someone pushed me over the line without  parachute.   

There was a space in time here - where things were a bit ........ messy....tense....

The long and the short of it was we got a provisional permit.

We still don't have keys.  Officially.

But as I spoke with new staff and new families who made it to the Open House as scheduled .... some tearful with joy at the beautiful space and the opportunity to be part of it.....I had to shake my head to believe that this day.....this day.....actually came.

7 years after applying for the money to do it.......5 years after walking away and then finding a new location at the 12th hour.......2 years since a fire burned the development down.......a day so long thought of, imagined, dreamed about...... that seemed so elusive for so long..... was here.

It felt good...... it felt great......

There is still SO SO SO much to do (like get official keys and a lease).  I wish my budget was big enough not to be stressed. I wish we had an extra four weeks. I wish there were more than 2 of us to do all the work.

But IIWII ....... It is what it is......... our current motto......

We are in..... the wire be damned.......there ain't nothing stopping us now..... not several hours of assembling IKEA furniture......not unpacking endless boxes, not carrying furniture around, not figuring out the thermostat, not finding great deals on toasters and carpets and curtains.

We....are......in.......