It's just words...

Am home again, sorry no phone calls, life has been a whirlwind!

Camping trip was pretty good, but, I am unlikely to go back to Cypress Hills. I think it is better suited to families with small kids. It's very scenic and lovely but the hiking trails, even the ones rated as "difficult" were really easy for Andrew and I - and we are not that hardcore. The park just didn't hold up well in comparison to last year's trip to Waterton, which has trails that are far more challenging and is even more beautiful, but also has more in the little town in terms of restaurants, coffee shops, etc. for when we are tired of roughing it. Still, it was pleasant to be out of the city (especially during the craziness of Stampede) and we did some hiking and went for a canoe around the lake, photos on facebook.

Got home just in time to catch thedirtyground's barbeque on Saturday night and then Sunday was frantically getting in the usual weekend stuff of shopping and laundry and cleaning out the Boler and so on.

And now I'm back at work and dressed like a cowgirl, since it is Stampede, and this will be a week of beef on a bun and pancake breakfasts and the golf tournament and not doing much work at all.

I'm not even feeling all weird or crisis-y over having a milestone birthday; I've been calling myself 30 for a little while now to ease the shock of it actually happening, and I think it worked. I guess it also helps to be turning 30 as I complete articles and about to become a lawyer at a great firm, happily married, with friends and a life I enjoy. I don't have that "I am 30 and what have done with my life so far" thing going on; I know exactly what I've done with my life.

Spent the milestone birthday weekend with the MD crew - the firm gave us a budget to plan an event to celebrate completing articles, and we realize it would go much further if we camped out and bought food and booze at Costco than if we did a catered dinner or a restaurant or anything like that. So we headed out to Beth's parents' cabin at Gull Lake... and by "cabin" you should read "heavenly gorgeous dream home." We were not allowed to use the cabin other than the bathroom and kitchen; the actual camping was on a vacant lot next door that Beth's parents also own. We golfed nine holes at the local course, cooked up a steak dinner on the BBQ and then settled around the campfire with plenty of beer into the wee hours of the morning.

I'm now feeling tired in the way that comes with lots of sun, lots of booze, and sleeping poorly in a tent on lumpy ground and being waken by the sun only a few short hours after going to bed. But I'm happy.

Next adventure: southern Alberta/Saskatchewan camping odyssey. Taking advantage of the official holiday on the 1st and the unofficial holiday on the 3rd (Stampede parade day for those not in Cowtown; my office is closed for the day) and taking the 2nd as a vacation day to continue the exploration of the prairies in the Boler. Destinations: Red Red Coulee Natural Area, Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, and Writing-on-Stone Park.

Got up at 4:15 this morning for the horse and wasn't home until 9 p.m. So I will make this brief before heading do bed. Great horse show - probably the best hunter rounds Arwen and I have ever done. We picked up some assorted placings with the highest being 3rd. Which is why I like jumpers better - we can have a great hunter course but there will always be someone else with a fancier horse who can also put in a nice round. The riders I was competing against all looked great to me so to be placing consistently was enough.

I'm leaving at 9 tomorrow morning for the MD camping weekend... so family, no need to call for my birthday tomorrow, I will phone sometime soon. The second package arrived the other day, too.

I don't think I mentioned that I went to my first golf lesson of the series of four I'm doing. It turns out that I was doing pretty everything wrong. Which isn't really surprising since I was basically just guessing how to golf based on how it looks on TV. So I was holding the club wrong, standing wrong, aiming wrong, and swinging wrong. Which together perfectly explains how badly I golf.

I am definetly the worst of the three of us in the group, but I have already improved based on the one lesson. In fact my "missing the ball altogether" issue is basically gone. Now I just have to work on making it go further and in a straight line. I have my next lesson tonight and I'm actually looking forward to it.

This is a busy week; I'm doing my first horse show of the season on Friday... it runs all weekend but I'm taking Friday off and just doing that day, since Saturday/Sunday is our articling student camping weekend, so I will be spending my 30th birthday with my fellow students at a cabin on a lake. Trying to get all my work done so that taking Friday off will not be a problem.

I suppose Tuesday afternoon is late for a "My weekend was awesome" post, but it was, and I haven't done anything interesting since. All I did was head out to Invermere, but I just love it out there. This time, dragged along mekkavandexter for company and that was good, and I think most of what I promised her came true:
- campfire
- barbeque
- better weather than Calgary
- wandering touristy little shops
- reading in the sunshine
- hot New Zealand pilots

Except the last one is a slight lie, because while there are pilots from New Zealand, they are not particularly hot; however, there is a very fine specimen from (yawn) Edmonton who thus lacks a hot accent, but is bringing in a whole new clientele for the gliding club consisting of teenage girls. So between them, that's sort of like having hot New Zealand pilots, right?

And I bought a painting at a gallery, that I really really like, even though I am supposed to be on my "buy nothing" resolution until the end of June. But what's two weeks? Call it an early 30th birthday present to myself, call it an end of articling present, call it anything, it's beautiful and I love seeing it on my wall.

I'm all twitchy at work, don't wanna be here, it's nice outside, I want go home and hit the road for B.C. But I am the back-up on-call for legal emergencies student, so I should really stay until close to the end of a normal workday. I am bringing mekkavandexter for as company for the drive so I can't leave for B.C. until she's done work too.

It probably doesn't help that today I am trying to research stuff that I don't really understand, about the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act and the Bills of Exchange Act, and this isn't a good sign since I may have told one of the partners, in an attempt at a recession-proof career, that I was interested in bankruptcy and insolvency litigation. Which would involve having to one day understand this stuff. Today is not going to be that day.

A few things:

- I have a fresh haircut, waxed eyebrows, and fancy new shampoo and conditioner. The salon has all my money.

- After having a weird allergic type reaction to Aveeno "Positively Ageless" moisturizer with sunscreen, I now have a (much more expensive, but I still had some $ left on an HBC gift card) Clinique hypoallergenic moisturizer with sunscreen. Buying Clinique being just one more sign that I am slowly turning into my mother. But at least Clinique will let me return their products if I have a reaction to them. If anyone out there would like to try the Aveeno, I'd hate to toss a nearly-full container, maybe you aren't allergic to it?

- I reluctantly signed up for golf lessons. I don't want to learn to golf; it's boring and I have enough summer hobbies. But lawyers golf and I will miss out on important opportunities if I cannot at least golf at a basic level. It turns out that the office supplies manager at my work, in charge of pens and toner by day, is a golf instructor by night and offers a discount to firm people. So along with two of my fellow students I will be doing a four-lesson crash course in how to golf before the firm's tournament during Stampede.

- Andrew is out in B.C. this week, living in the Boler and flying, and is having a great time... and has gotten enough good flights in that he's currently ranked #8 novice pilot in Canada. He wants to finish the year in the top 10 so this is a great start. There's a lot of season left for everyone to earn more points so being in 8 right now is far from a guarentee of how he will finish, but hopefully he can keep it up.

In case you were waiting to see what happened with our weather-driven logistical jam, Andrew and I made it out to B.C., he's still out there and I'm back.

Andrew decided that the snow would stop by Saturday afternoon and we would drive out then. Having made up that plan, he was determined to stick to it, even though the snow never really did stop. But a series of highway web cams told us that there was better weather along the way, so we hitched up the Boler and Andrew got on the Beemer and off we went. And he had to drive through snow and sleet until we just short of Cochrane, and then in and out of very cold rain until Canmore. I was in the Bleep behind feeling terrible for Andrew but reminding myself that at least he had his heated vest on and the heated hand grips on the bike. Until the gas station at Canmore where he said he was freezing since none of the heated stuff was working. But, tightening up the connections fixed the problem and with heat re-established, off we went again. Around the B.C. border it suddenly got quite a bit nicer so the second half of the drive was just fine. Why it would magically become sunny and 10 degrees warmer when crossing a provincial line is beyond me but I'll take it.

So I had a nice brief little visit with the valley, I just love it out there, I start to feel this relaxed calm feeling as soon as I drive out of the last mountain pass and the view opens up. Andrew even got to fly today in a short window of decent conditions this afternoon. The Boler is all set up in a lovely spot as Andrew's home for the week, and I will head out next weekend to pick it up. Let's hope work is calm enough that I can head out on Friday and come back on Sunday, two nights between the drive is better than one.

Right now in Calgary it is zero degrees and snowing.

And I'm up and about this early for work. But not even real, billable hours work... because two lawyers from my work on are doing the Law Society's trial advocacy course, and are running mock trials today, and recruited students to play their witnesses. The course is very similar to the one U of C does for third-years, so this is actually the same mock trial that I ran last January. So at least I know what it's about. Of course I managed to leave the script I was given in the car of the co-worker who drove me home yesterday evening, and I didn't realize that until late last night when I thought I'd get my things in order for the morning. So here's hoping E. gets my late-night email and can print me another copy.

The snow, more so than the trial, is what threatens to make the weekend really awkward. Andrew is taking next week off to go flying in Invermere, and he'd like to stay in the Boler for the week. Entirely reasonable, since that's what we bought it for. We planned to drive up together in convoy, him on his motorbike, me with the Bleep and Boler, on Friday after work, spend the weekend together, then I'd go back to the city leaving him with the trailer to live in and the motorbike to get around. Repeat in reverse the next weekend.

Except we couldn't go up on Friday with the bad weather and this trial thing this morning. If it clears up enough to drive out today it won't be so bad, at least I can spend a night out there before driving back. But if it keeps snowing all day then I'll have to drive out Sunday morning to drop the Boler and back Sunday evening and that won't be fun.

Alternate plan was, maybe Andrew can just take the Bleep and keep it all week, and I can use the motorbike to get around through the week. Only I never rode all last summer, I'm out of practice, I'm not familiar with the BMW, and I don't feel ready to drive it through dense traffic and on the highway to get to the barn just yet. I could not see Arwen for a week, while Andrew is on holidays and I have nothing else to do, but that doesn't seem like fun either.

So please send along some warm up and stop snowing vibes... this is no fun!

A quick update to say that Evil Dead: The Musical was fantastic, I laughed and laughed and laughed, so if you are in Calgary, or anywhere else where it is playing, go see it right now!

We had seats in the Splatter Zone, which cost extra, but turned out to be double-extra worth it, since the night we went turned out to be the grand gala opening with wine and cheese and cookies, all of us Splatter Zone folks got free foam chainsaws, and after the show, since we had to stay until the rest of the theatre left, we got to meet the cast. The stage blood drenching in the Splatter Zone is even more extreme than it's advertised - you can't leave with everyone else because they don't want you dripping blood all through the theatre, so you get escorted out the back way. Then we walked home from downtown covered in fake blood. Despite a plastic poncho I still got it on my clothes, I am blaming secondary transfer, but thanks to copious amounts of Spray N Wash, my clothes came clean in the wash.

Also: congrats to my mom on bringing home "Carribean Babe", a three year old greyhound fresh off the track from the U.S. Here's hoping she settles in and learns to do the stairs!

This is my last day with the in-house law department here at Big Oil Company. I'm taking tomorrow, which should logically be my last day, off to ride in a jumping clinic that runs Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

It's been a great experience. I thought that I wasn't interested in doing in-house work, but I had made assumptions about what it would be like without actually experiencing it. I still want to work in a law firm for at least the next couple of years, but it's nice to know that if I get burned out or bored or need a change, that in-house work could also be a reasonable fit for me.

Very much looking forward to the clinic, Arwen seems to be back on track and going well, but her fitness isn't quite back to where I'd like it and she has only jumped a few times this spring. So I've been put into a group doing smaller jumps than where I wanted to be. But that's okay... it's not actually a step back, just that we haven't moved forward from last year. We'll get there eventually. cola_keeper is going to come out to take pictures on the last day, so I should have some great shots of Arwen and I in action coming to facebook then!

I haven't updated because I haven't done anything interesting all week. That would probably include the weekend too, since it was the sort of weekend that when people ask about it on Monday, I won't be able to say I did anything, since I did not go to any parties or away anywhere or climb any mountains or anything. I did, however, spend a lot of money at the farmer's market, grocery store, gourmet store, doggy health food store, hanging flower basket lady, and today I will go drop more money at the garden centre. So, while not very exciting, I have a house full of things that I am looking forward to eating (not the dog food, but Casta looks forward to that) and the condo looks lovely with new hanging baskets out front.

Other than the hanging baskets and a few other flowers, all I am trying to grow this year is tomatoes in my hanging planters, and I got a new planter that I will devote to swiss chard. My internet meanderings recently brought me this blog post How to Grow Swiss Chard and Why You Should. What this lady learned is exactly what I learned from my community garden plot two summers ago: swiss chard is awesome. It is super easy to grow; it has all the nutritional super powers of spinach but it's tough enough for Calgary's horrible gardening climate where lettuce and spinach just give up and die; it grows so fast that you can pick it and it grows right back so you can keep eating it all summer long; and when picked fresh from your own garden and eaten that day, it's so yummy that it's hard to believe this is a vegetable that's all good for you.

Swiss chard in fact is probably the only thing I have ever grown that makes gardening seem worthwhile from a financial perspective. I would like to believe, as it only makes sense, that a person can save money by growing her own food. But my reality has been, by the time I buy some planters and buy some soil and buy some fertilizer and buy the baby plants, and then collect my meagre little harvest, those are some very expensive veggies. But the swiss chard I could harvest every couple of days all summer long, and since it's about $3 a bunch even at the farmer's market, I actually felt like it was saving me.

Take that, May long weekend nay-sayers. It was actually very quite pleasant. I'm not sure how camping in a tent would have been, but we were plenty cosy in the Boler. We had the electric blanket running off the battery but that turned out to actually be too warm. Just warm PJs and our big cheap comforter were enough.

Andrew got in several flights, I read most of a novel, we drove around enjoying the mountain scenery, soaked in the hot springs, and baked Pillsbury cinnamon buns on a campfire. When noisy youth having drinking contests and blasting Eminem at the campground threatened the peace and quiet, we did not even have to complain before the park wardens were right there being all zero tolerance and threatening eviction if their music could be heard by any other campers. So yay for the National Parks folks for not taking any crap.

I'm glad Redstreak worked out, because there is getting to be a real shortage of places to camp out there. Several of the campgrounds aren't doing short stays any more and are only doing seasonal rentals. I think for next year we are going to have to give in and get a seasonal site and leave the Boler out there for the whole summer because we just won't have any other option.

So, a little while ago I watched a short but intense hail/snow storm move across the city from my office window.

Tommorrow, we are joining the rest of the province for the collective stupidity that is camping on the May long weekend. We're in the mountains. The weather is unpredictable most of the time and May is barely out of ski season. It frequently snows on the May long weekend. But everyone camps anyway and then acts so surprised when they have a wet, cold, miserable time.

I know this, Andrew knows this... and we're going anyway. I have a theory that the winters here are so long and brutal that it makes everyone become so desperate for warm weather that they treat everything above zero as if it was the middle of summer. It would explain all the people who wear flip-flops in 2 degrees as well as the rush to camp on May long weekend.

Now that said, we are mostly going so Andrew can go flying, so we'll be spending most of our time at the gliding club, not the woods. And sleeping in the Boler, which is much warmer and drier than a tent. And if we're truely miserable, well we can always check into a motel, or just come back home. But let's hope that May long weekend brings decent weather for once and we can have a good time out there.

I feel like I sort of salvaged what was trying to be a really crappy long weekend (Andrew and I each had Friday off as our magic free day per month). The bad started on Thursday when my back went completely bad. I rode, it felt fine, I got off my horse and it seized up to stabbing pain whenever I moved or reached.

So instead of spending Friday at the barn riding, giving my tack a good cleaning and enjoying the day off, I got to spend it at an emergency chiropractic appointment and then getting x-rays (chiro's orders). I've had problems with my back off and on (last month I missed some riding and needed three chiro appointments to feel normal again), but usually it starts as mild pain and only gradually gets worse if I don't go get an adjustment. The sudden onset of this round of back pain had my chiro concerned so I was off for x-rays.

Which I have to say, was a pretty smooth process. We have private x-ray clinics in Alberta, so I phoned the nearest one, they said they were not busy, so I hopped on the train, went in, no waiting, got the x-rays and walked out 15 minutes later with digital x-rays on DVD to take back to my chiro.

The chiro treatment must have helped, because Friday was pretty miserable but Saturday was better and today is better still, only a mild ache. But I didn't get to ride all weekend and that sucks.

However... took the time off to spend my tax refund at IKEA furnishing the spare bedroom. So it is now all set for people to come visit me, with a sofa bed, dresser, and new curtains. Well almost set; I still have to assemble the last two drawers of the dresser.

Saturday was also the new Star Trek and it is good! I like this young new cast and I love that there is new life in the franchise and we're all set for another series of Star Trek movies.

And that takes us to today, when we crossed an activity off the Year of Doing Things list by hauling the bicycles out past Bragg Creek to ride the beautiful, scenic section of Highway 66 past Elbow Falls that is closed to traffic from December 1 to May 15 every year. With the 15th coming up this was the last weekend to ride that road free of cars. We didn't get all that far, since it is a bit too hilly for bikes with only 3 gears, but it's a beautiful area nonetheless.

I spend a lot of this weekend in kind of a bad mood because of the back pain but looking back it seems like there was lots of good there too. I just feel guilty for having three days of no work and not seeing my horse on any of them.

I realize it's been a long hiatus and people have been asking me to update. Something happened, shortly after the last entry, that I did not know how to write about, but felt odd writing about anything else. Hence, nothing.

What happened, briefly, is that one of my online friends (who I have met in person, but know primarily from various internet communities), passed away. She was not someone I was very close to, but she was close to people I am close to, and her death is a loss to communities I belong to. So I am not deeply sad on a personal level but have had a lot of concern and worry for friends of mine who lost someone quite important to them.

She was someone that I learned quite a lot from over the years; her online postings about her war with mental illness taught compassion and understanding to many people. There is much I would not know and would be too quick to judge, if it were not for her. Someday maybe I will be able to better express this, but I'm quite there yet.

So there it is, for those of my friends reading this who aren't part of those same online families and didn't know about this. I don't need any sorrys or condolescences, her loss was far more serious to many other people than it was to me. Maybe it's some kind of journalistic thing... if this journal is the "paper of record" of my life, then it would be wrong to have entries about snowboarding or my horse or home renovations without acknowleging that this other, more serious event occurred.

Having made that acknowlegment, here are a few of the things that have happened lately I would otherwise have written about:
- had the last snowboarding trip of the year
- rode Arwen in her first jumping lesson since last fall and it went well; we seem to be on the way to overcoming her issues
- Andrew and I have been married for one year, as of Sunday... it has gone by very very fast and has been a great year
- Along with Sarah and Amber, we went to the Opera (Barber of Seville) as part of Year of Doing Things, and it was excellent (attractive men singing beautifully in Italian = good)
- I will find out later month if I will be hired back after I finish articling.

35, sounds like one of those milestone birthdays, but Andrew in typical curmedgeon fashion, does not care to celebrate.

However, I just scored some free tickets to whatever play is on at Theatre Junction tonight, so I guess we're going out anyway. Take that!

(He says to say thanks to my parents for the gift and my sister for the card. He is wearing the shirt today!)

I was meaning to write a post about how it was spring in Alberta finally, how we got the motorcycle out of storage and I washed my -40 degree parka and exchanged it in the under-bed boxes for my motorcycle jacket and sandals, how I booked a campground in B.C. for May long weekend (for the Boler, for I am dumb enough to try to camp in a tent in May), how I gave Arwen a bath on the weekend and she's starting to look sleek and less fuzzy, how I had a window open in the house on Sunday.

And then Alberta had a good laugh at me and it snowed this morning. Just a little and I don't think it's sticking around, but still. I was just starting to get into spring.

I'm just about halfway through my rotation to the oil company. I like it here but it will also be good to go back to my firm. By the time I go back, we will have switched to the summer dress code, which is business casual and means I don't have to wear suits except to court. I am so tired of suits so this is good. I have eight suits, which seems like plenty, until you go several months wearing the same eight outfits in rotation, especially because I am less into wearing the three of them that are skirt suits when it's cold.

Basically, I am ready for summer, for skirts and sandals and getting to wear jeans to work during Stampede, and motorcycles and bicycles and camping and jogging in the park instead of the treadmill, is the point of this post.

We used the holiday Friday to go snowboarding, getting the last slushy days out of the season and taking advantage of buying passes for Sunshine from one of my co-workers who meant to ski a lot this winter and then never got around to it.

Snowboarding was only so-so, we called it a day early and adjourned to the Banff hot springs before heading home. On the way, I asked for a quick detour into Canmore in search of the gourmet meat shop that is rarely open. It was not open, but we spotted a large and decrepit van at the side of the road with Quebec plates, a very flat tire and a group of good-looking young people standing around it. One of them held a sign saying "Got a jack?"

We did indeed have a jack so we stopped and jacked up the van for the group, who turned out to be members of Montreal-based indie pop/rock band Bad Flirt, en route from Vancouver to Calgary for a concert as part of their North American tour. They were grateful for the help and offered to put us on the guest list for their show. We planned to attend, after getting home and googling them and reading reviews that compare them to Metric, but snowboarding makes me too sleepy to go out for a late night show. Glad to help nonetheless since I know how few people will stop for a flat tire!

My favourite moment may have been when Andrew was crouched down, jacking up the van, which apparently was very impressive after their various failed efforts, the lead-singer chick exclaimed "oh, I should be videoing this" and pulled out her cell phone and filmed. So with any luck, coming soon to the band's blog should be a clip of Andrew in fleece pants, crouched down with his underwear showing, jacking up a van on the side of a road in Canmore.

My bar call is officially booked. August 27, 2009, 1:30 p.m., with Madame Justice Romaine, Court of Queen's Bench, Calgary.

I wanted to have my bar call on a Friday early in August. Managed to call dibs on just such a date amongst the other students at my firm, only to have my plans foiled - first by my principal's vacation plans in early August, and then by the logistical difficulties. August is the court vacation, most of the judges are off and there are only limited judges sitting, and those judges will only do a couple of bar calls each week. So I had to take what I could get, and I like Justice Romaine, so it's all good. Just means even more waiting before I am officially a lawyer.

The call date will make it just about four years between starting law school and actually becoming a lawyer. Quite the long haul. And for me, that's as far as I've been working on this goal, because my undergrad degree was done with a whole different objective in mind. I can't imagine how the people feel who have wanted to be a lawyer since day one; eight years is a long time.

Anyway, if you're in Calgary, please try to come; an individual bar call is pretty unique in the legal world, only Alberta does this. And it's a chance to be in a real-life court room, something many people never experience, or if they do it's for a scary-bad reason (getting divorced, charged with a crime, etc).

The firm throws a reception for every bar call and then Andrew and I will follow that with a BBQ at our place, should be a great time.