All Hollowed Out

The entire city looks like this right now:














As in, grey, dirty, snow-covered and unpleasant. Well, it did, but the above picture is linked to a webcam on Churchill Square so now it's all nice and sunny. Maybe when you read this it will be yucky again.
I sat in my cubicle yesterday listening to office phones ring and AM radios drone on thinking about our new home:

Vancouver, I hope it makes me stronger, better, happier...

This weekend I'm off to Calgary for a girl's weekend of fun. While the girl's part is going to be rad I have a feeling it will only add to the growing discomfort I have with this province. My list of reasons to leave keeps growing and the "Alberta Boom" is near the top. People are flocking here and I'm ready to run for the border as fast as I can. Just watch Deadwood and you might get a sense of what I mean.

If I Could Do It All Again I'd Make More Mistakes

It's the first day of spring. The sun is finally out after two days of absence and wet, cold mornings that come much too early.

Life has been slow and stunted since my return from Europe. I have been working at the worst (one of the worst) jobs I've ever had. Ironic since it's the one most closely aligned with all the things you're parents tell you should want: a decent salary, benefits, security, a strong union, work with the government. I even get paid extra to speak en Francais but that never happens here in northern Alberta.

So I continue to wait. For something to happen to me because since Christmas I have been so lethargic I don't seem to have the energy to make anything happen to the world around me. I am trying to save every last penny for tuition for this coming September when I will go back to school in Vancouver. Art History...seems like a stretch for me but why not? The only thing that puts a spring in my step these days is knowing that I might get to learn a thing or two and use my brain again soon.

I try not to worry about money, always money. How will I find a job in Vancouver? Where will J and live and how? Will we have any fun or will it just be stressful? I want to believe it will be all about bike rides to markets and cooking fresh food; beaches and sunshine and warm rain; new friends and old; rock shows and bbq.

I'm going to miss some of the new friends I've made in Edmonton this past year too. The dinner parties and pint drinking but I'm beyond ready for a change. I just hope it isn't a crushing disappointment.

In good news, now that the weather is turning gorgeous, I will be able to ride my new bike soon:


Her name is Rosie. She needs a basket, I know. For the baguette and brie and red wine.

I would really like to go to Sasquatch this year to see to this and this. That would make everything sweeter.

Need big puddles and buds on trees, that's all.