Thinking

I've been thinking a lot lately. Thinking about work, thinking about school, thinking about friends and family and thinking about life. Sometimes I get stir-crazy, thinking I should be doing something else than what I'm doing. That I should be somewhere else in my life rather than where I am.

Learning to give myself a mental shake when this feeling comes on has been hard but necessary. Life is not a race to get to the next "goal" first and then speed away on the hunt for the next goal. Life is the opportunity to slow down and enjoy the journey, learning so much more about yourself along the way.

I'm still learning about myself and my place in the world and although I haven't achieved some of the goals I set out for myself years ago I don't take that necessarily as a negative. I've achieved in other areas that have made my life so rich. The beautiful thing about goals is that they're always there, waiting for you to reach them. So I vow to push myself in new directions this year and into 2011 no matter how uncomfortable that might be. I'm starting by putting together my application for my Master's (wish me luck).

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving weekend in Canada ~ it always comes much earlier than Thanksgiving for our neighbours to the south. It always signifies the end of harvest, celebrating a bounty of health, happiness and family.

There's something about the haze of grain dust in the air, the whirr of the fans on the grain bins, drying the damp grain deposited, the glare of the lights at night as farmers combine as long as they dare to get the crop off.

For the first time in the longest that I can remember my father and his family were actually done their harvest and could enjoy the weekend without working all night swathing, combining or running grain to the bins.

I had a fantastic long weekend with my family reflecting on all of the things I have to be thankful for. It's been a tumultuous year and reflecting back on the things that have happened I couldn't be happier. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your loved ones this long weekend.

Edmonton Fantastic #5 - corn maze!

Sunday I decided to literally get lost in the Edmonton corn maze located just south-west of the city. This year the maze partnered with the Edmonton Food Bank and had a design cut into the corn to represent the Food Bank's mascot ~ you can check it out here.

I thought "how difficult could a corn maze be"? ~ I soon realized how mistaken I really was. This corn maze provided skill testing questions to patrons to help them decide which direction they should choose. There were 10 questions and 10 checkpoints they had to reach to safely navigate the entire maze.

Getting lost was the name of the game and I succeeded at that many times (I found checkpoints 1, 2, 3 and then ended up at 8 somehow). I finally fell in with a group of friendly bikers and finished the rest of the maze in the proper order. It was a gorgeous day and yet another fun way to be a tourist in my own backyard!

Election = silly season

It's a few weeks away yet until the civic election in Edmonton but you can tell that "silly season" (a term I picked up from a friend out East referring to campaigning) has already begun.

Door-knocking, T.V. commercials, flyers and signs in front yards declare loudly who should be the best candidate to lead our city, form our council and represent children and parents in schools.

I'll admit I've been less engaged previously but as I grow older and consider setting down roots in Edmonton I'm suddenly a lot more aware of what's happening around me. I'm interested to hear what the mayoral candidates have to say about their vision for Edmonton, but so far it's been hard to get them in one place to hear their platforms in a non-debate type manner.

Enter #politweetup. A good friend of mine decided to bring all candidates together for a relaxed evening of meeting with the Edmonton public while shooting some pool at Metro Billiards. It was a great way to get up close with candidates and really hear more about their platform. I hope more of these events will happen in the future to re-engage voters with their city but also politicians with their audiences.

Hiking at Bluerock

We're enjoying a last-minute run of summer weather and I'm fortunate to be on vacation at the moment (well it's more like a stay-cation). I was down in Calgary for a few days catching up with some friends, former classmates and co-workers. As always I found most of my time being spent with my two former roomies Paisley and Denise.

On Sunday Paisley introduced me to a little known area back in Kananaskis Country called Bluerock. With the full fall colour and the warmer temperatures we were entranced with the landscape as we made our descent into the gorge that holds the Sheep Creek in Bluerock Park.

We enjoyed a 3-hour hike beside icy glacial waters, scrambling over rocks in rapids, stopping to enjoy the landscape, getting our feet wet, enjoying a lunch with beer in the sunshine, climbing up sheer cliffs, getting war wounds and screaming to the world when we'd gotten out of the gorge "We didn't die!" (yes folks at one point in time it was that close).

These ladies constantly keep me on my toes and I'm proud to say they are in my circle of close friends. I love the trouble we seem to get up to.

Streetcars, farmers markets & hanging with my mom

The nip of fall is really in the air here in Edmonton but it really hasn't stopped people from getting out to enjoy the usual weekend activities. This past weekend my mom was in town for a visit and I made sure her schedule was jam-packed with neat things to see and do.

Saturday we were all about walking around the historic Old Strathcona neighbourhood. We strolled Whyte Avenue window-shopping, visited the Strathcona Farmer's Market and ended up at the Edmonton Radial Railway Society Museum to learn more about the history of streetcars in Edmonton.

We were in for a treat as we hopped the High Level Streetcar which took us from Old Strathcona, underneath 109th Street, up on to the High Level Bridge and finally into downtown Edmonton.

The streetcars run from the May long weekend until Thanksgiving in October. The whole operation ~ from restoring streetcars to conducting the High Level streetcar line ~ is run by volunteers. It was an unique experience and for the $4 round-trip it is something I will do again and again.

Mom and I were able to cruise Edmonton in style this weekend thanks to friends at Focus Communications (thanks Sue and Dean!) who hooked me up with a 2011 Ford Fiesta to test-drive all weekend and blog about. You can read my review here.

We shopped, we visited, we laughed, we watched football, we saw family and we had fun. I already miss having mom here.

Labour Day long weekend in Banff

The Labour Day long weekend signals a few things to most people. It is usually an epic match up in the football realm between bitter rivals (why yes, the Roughriders did beat the Blue Bombers this weekend). It also signifies the end of summer and return to school.

Last year it was the Labour Day long weekend that my friend Amy and I went camping at Two Jack Lake in Banff National Park, freezing our butts off but having a great time. This year we had plans to camp in Kootenay Provincial Park near Radium Hot Springs, but a short summer meant that snow was already starting to fall in the mountains guaranteeing we'd have an uncomfortable camping experience again.

Instead we went "glamping" opting to stay at Amy and Dave's place in Banff, cooking our food over the firepit in the backyard. It couldn't have worked out better as we had the best of both worlds - campfire food and a warm, dry place to sleep at night.

Saturday we went hiking to Sunshine Meadows, near Sunshine Village ski resort (where Dave and Amy both work). It was an amazing hike even if the wind was blowing and the weather was chilly. I felt like I was living out a scene in The Sound of Music ~ I kept expecting Julie Andrews to come tripping down the mountainside at any time.

Sunday the weather was poor so we stayed inside for most of the day. In the evening some of Amy's friends were in town for a birthday and so we hit up Banff hot spots The Dancing Sasquatch and Aurora. Let's just say that we were the most popular girls in the bar that night and it was due to our friend Mustafa!

Many thanks Dave and Amy for a fun-filled weekend in Banff!