6 Months Home: Here For Good Time Not Long Time

It's been nearly six months since I've made an entry, mostly because I haven't much traveled anywhere. But I've been thinking lately that Calgary is still quite an interesting place to be for would-be travelers, especially ones looking for jobs in this labour-starved market of an oil-slick boomtown.

I love Calgary. It's my home, I'm biased, but there's great things about the town, which I shall get to in a moment. I do have to complain that Calgary is terribly spread out. As the largest city by area in North America, it is the poster child for what a town affected by urban sprawl can become. That said, it has a reasonably good network of public transportation, plenty to do, and a great public library that apparently goes unused by a population that seems none-too-enthralled by books, so I never seem to have to wait for my book choices. Either that, or nobody's interested in the information I find so interesting. Most importantly, it's the gateway to the Rocky Mountains, which happen to be deeply important to my psychology.

It's curious, but I think there's something deeply soothing about being close to the formations you were born close to. If it's the ocean, the ocean sooths, desert, scrub, nuclear waste dump, what have you. For me it's the mountains. Shamefully, I've spent very little time there, having partially to do with finding myself busy with the events of life, but also partially with having access to a vehicle only when my parents don't need one. They have been very accommodating, legendary even in their willingness to share, but life without one's own transportation requires compromise and sacrifice that many North Americans of my generation are not very accustomed to.

I've actually really enjoyed the opportunity to take advantage of Calgary's public transit system, which is quite good considering how spread out the city is, and what little population density it has. I'm particularly lucky to have an express bus leaving from my neighborhood that drops me right in front of whee I work. The one thing public transit doesn't much allow for is getting out to the mountains.

Today was a great chance for me to finally enjoy the Rockies in all their glory. At the invite of Janet, who I work with, and her partner Luke, I jumped at the chance to go snowshoeing. We decided the morning of our outing to head across the provincial border to BC to hike the trail leading up to Stanley Glacier. The sight is spectacular. Burnt out by a 1968 lightning strike, the blackened carcases of the original forest juxtaposed against the snow make for quite a scene. It's highly recommended.

Snowshoeing is just winter hiking, but devoid of people, with nature pristinely layered with snow, and the very slight chance you may be plowed under by hundreds of tons of snow. You probably won't be mauled by a grizzly bear though, so there's an up side to everything. There are some things worth remembering:

• Keep your snowshoes on, they are the only thing keeping you from sinking down to your face in snow too fluffy and soft to climb out of.
  
• Jumping in looks like a good idea, which is true if you enjoy being impaled by a large sharp stick known to some people as a broken tree branch.
  
• If you are walking in front of someone you can knock the snow off of a branch above your head as you pass and turn to watch your friend get showered in
  
  Goose With No Name
  It should have had a name like Chuck Norris, or Goosey the Brave...that Goose had balls coming up to people like they weren't a threat at all. No Fear, All Goose.
  snow.
  
• Item three can back fire if your timing is off, or you are too eager to turn around.
  

I managed to get Luke very snowy in this manner. It served him right I reckon, since he started the whole thing. I did, however, manage to get myself in a much smaller way. All of us managed to bail at some point with varying degrees of hilarity. I had a rather spectacular fall. I was climbing back up toward the path after a photo opportunity, and just as I managed to get clear of the little incline, I caught my shoe in the snow , stumbled, fell and rolled ending up twisted in my shoes lying on my back. I had a really good time with Janet and Luke and will certainly go up again if invited to do so.

So what have I been up to since I got home?

In Brief:

• Spending time with my family
  
• Working as a banquet server / waiter
  
• Investigating shamanism and developing my spirituality
  
• Watching a lot of hockey (it's been an up and down season for my team)
  
• Applying for my
  
  Room With A View
  The view from our deck. Well, the snow actually happened in October. Calgary's a freaking desert in the Winter.
  Ph.D in Education at UConn in the U.S. (Look for me to be heading South of the border in August)
  
• Taking some classes (French, yoga, energetic healing)
  
• Playing Dungeons and Dragons with my cousins and a friend of mine (I figured: I'm 30, living in my parents' basement...it's practically a requirement for me to do so). Actually, it's a game that requires a great deal of thought, imagination, and creativity. I enjoy it.
  
• Preparing for my next trip (in March) which will see me going to Vietnam and Cambodia with my brother and at least one other stop that is yet to be determined.
  

That's my life in a nutshell :)

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