It’s safe to say I needed a break. After working multiple positions, some at the same time, a vacation lasting longer than five days was in order. A friend of mine moved out to Lacombe to take a cataloging job for a public library system in Alberta. Lacombe sits not far from Calgary and Edmonton, not even far from Red Deer where I saw The Avengers.
I remember one person expressing dismay spending a chunk of time in a part of Alberta. My first reaction, the one besides who the heck asked you?, involved feeling perplexed. After all I did say a friend of mine lived there and we hung out in Winnipeg therefore why not hang out in her new hometown?
So there’s me, my friend V, and the cats hanging out in between excursions. We shopped in a place called Cross Iron Mills, or what one person called the ‘giant mall of doom.’ While not as big as West Edmonton Mall, Cross Iron Mills looked large to me and well maintained. The next best thing to cross-border shopping is shopping in a province with one tax to worry about during a purchase. After V tried on a dress I suggested, I rushed out to get her a size smaller along with a white shrug to possible go with it. As I explained the shrug, the woman in the change room next door requested I go get her another size in a pair of pants.
She thought I worked for Ricki’s.
I explained the situation and she replied, “Well, you sounded like you know what you were doing.”
“I learned from the best,” I said remembering one friend taking me out shopping after witnessing my wardrobe falling into a rut. I pretty much employed the same philosophy experienced many years ago; I simply selected a garment and said, “Give this a try.”
This evening I met the people she worked with and tomorrow it’s a day trip to Edmonton. The location may not seem exotic, but this amount of time away from home fulfills the primary goal of a vacation:
A break in routine to recharge in a different place.
Unpaused Life 