Canmore Mountain Treat

Last week wasn't going particularly well. I was homeless, my credit card was pirated, I got a sunburn and Owen called me an asshole. In addition to these fun facts I had hiked to a park to call HEC Montreal for my grad-school interview and just before I dialed three mowers started mowing the park. By the time I got to the second park I missed my call in time. AUH..Siick!

When I had stopped in at the library to check my bank balance earlier and found that my credit card had been pirated and had to call UMB in Kansas City. The first call to UMB was a complete success and Mr. Latourneau was extremely helpful. Unfortunately I didn't have an address as of yet and had to hang up and call back with an address that didn't entirely have as my own and didn't know at all. That's when UMB turned back into the bank I was more familiar with and told me that no card could be replaced to an address out of the country. After many unsuccessful attempts to explain that this was unacceptable I pointed out that Crosby Kemper and the rest of the Kemper clan traveled extensively. What if Mr. Kemper lost his card? Do you you tell them to stay domestic? It's Canada for the sake of Maple leaves and Hockey...not some war torn fraudulent country with shady postal systems and warlords wielding machetes! (PS. Fox news and their fraudulent propaganda can please stop referring to the Canadians as socialists. They're capitalists.)

The week seemed to have been heading down the path a truly crappy week when miracle of miracles we got to move into our apartment early!!!!! Yippee!! I went to the campsite and loaded up the car and had everything (including the bikes) moved-in in under and hour. I put everything in a line down the middle of the apartment and by the time Owen arrived home from work there were no boxes left and everything was unpacked and put away. The kind of joy I felt can only be compared to one of those crazy wives on Exteme Home Makeover who see their new house and, in spite of their obesity and fact that everyone in America is watching, they start jumping up and down. Yeah, I was that kind of happy.

Today I woke up all excited and went mountain biking on Powerline Trail and I BLEW a tire several miles from the house. I didn't even know that was possible on a bike. I had to walk it home. It felt shameful. Every spandex laden weekender from Calgary must have rode past thinking, "what's that homo in the 'Where the Wild Things Are' t-shirt doing out here?"

Defeated, but not exhausted, I packed up the computers and hiked to Canmore. I took Owen his lunch at the Museum and helped move Bud the American Bison (more on Bud later).

As I was leaving a lady named Debbie, who works with Owen, put a treat in my hat. There is a Belgian Chocolatier here in Canmore. I thought I would just have a bite. I then thought I would just have one more. Then one block later, as I entered the library, I put the last piece in my mouth. I started to write about my crappy week but it just didn't seem that crappy anymore.

To recap: yesterday I moved into an apartment at 15 Shellian Lane and had a fantastic interview with HEC Montreal. Today I had a short but energetic bike ride, learned to change a bicycle tire, enjoyed a picnic in the park with Owen, spent several relaxing hours at the library, met a North American Bison named Bud and I ate one of the biggest and most delicious bars of chocolate I've ever had in my life. Whew.


Chocolate makes everything better.