Outdoor Stuff

Today's been a good day.  A few weeks ago I decided to be open to anything and everything, especially anything and everything that could help me relax, worry less, and de-stress. Here's my hit list from today:

• Stopped by the Women's library and picked up two de-stress books and a mind/body kit.  The plan is to go for a drive to an unknown destination tomorrow and start reading as I lay by some creek or meadow in the sun.  Pack a healthy lunch. 
• Found out that W. offers Qi Gong sessions (even though I have no idea what that is), so I'll keep watching their schedule for an upcoming session that I could attend while I'm in the city.
•  Found a hatha yoga place downtown thatw ould work for when I'm in the city.  I still want to find one in B. or C. so that I could busy myself with more weekday activities there.
• The book that D. recommended is in transit to my library right now, so I'll pick that up tomorrow.  That should give me enough reading material for the next week.

I stopped by work and told them that I need more time for myself.  If there's anything good that's coming out of this situation, it's the fact that I can explore all kinds of things that I've been wanting to try, but never really had the time for.  My diagnostic imaging procedure rooms are still over a month off for design, so there's a bit of flexibility in the schedule.  Also, for the first time in a long time, I felt like someone understood me.  I sat on the patio with my boss saying how I'm torn because I want to spend time with my mom, but at the same time feel that I need some work back.  All my life I'd been raised to believe that success is measured by academic achievements or work accolades.  I got through internship faster than the rest of my class and feel like I've skipped a whole bunch of steps getting to the position I'm currently in, but at the same time had given up much of a personal life.  I feel like I had it all backwards.  Before I left, my boss said that once this is all over, I'd probably just want to take a month to travel to clear my head.  In a way it was so sad to hear that, but also so true.  I feel that I'd need to get away to clear my mind.  Maybe that's why I'm longing to go camping or just spend a night away from home. 

Speaking of camping, S. suggested that we could camp out around Lake Louise, so I'm starting to plan for that.  It would be close enough, the tent campground is as safe as they get (where else do you have an electric fence to keep the bears away?), and there would be cellphone reception, just in case.  MEC's rental tents are expensive and always have to be back at 1pm, so that really doesn't work for me if I stay out in Canmore before/after.  We had a Canadian Tire flyer in the mail the other day and I've come to see c-h-e-a-p camping stuff - because people aren't as weight obsessed as those of us shopping at MEC.  A tent that fold itself up in a few seconds for $29?  Sounds like a sweet deal to me, so I'm off to check it out and also get one of those collapsible camping chairs.

On an aside, spending more time at my parents' is a bit of a bonus for my car.  My dad rotated my tires, realized that I need to get more coolant fluid (another reason to go to Canadian Tire), and always washes it within ten minutes of me getting off that Spray Lakes road.