The beginning...

Why did I decide to blog? The main purpose of this is to keep my many family and friends in other parts of the world in the loop on my life in Calgary. It’s also convenient that I know I have to create a blog as part of a course (read last MBA course!!) in the fall. I also hope that this will be a good creative outlet for expressing my opinions/thoughts on the world around me. I’m aiming to blog at least once a week and I’m optimistic about sticking to that schedule. We will see what the coming months bring though and I apologize if I slack on the schedule.

Just over five weeks ago now I moved from St. John’s to Calgary. It was a huge shift for me because I have wonderful friends and family in St. John’s who I am close to, but I got a really wonderful job offer and it’s definitely the right decision for this moment in my life. The last year or so has turned my life upside down in many ways, and I felt like spreading my wings and standing on my own two feet independent of anyone else was what I needed the most right now.

Here’s a very quick update of life in Calgary.

My job - As I have quoted to ever so many people, I feel like I work at Disneyland. The people are amazing, I’m helping kids and families develop and maintain more active and healthy lifestyles, I feel challenged intellectually every day, and I get free yoga and personal training. I always thought when I left my last job that I would never love an organization or coworkers as much as I did there, but it turns out I’m lucky twice! J

Stampede – People in this town are serious about Stampede. Everyone wears western wear for 10 days and many of the businesses basically shut down and just party for 10 days. I had a lot of fun during Stampede, but the actual highlight is a little sad in that it was a deep fried Snickers bar. Oh my gosh. I am drooling typing about it now. I’ll be recreating them, so don’t worry, you too can have this amazing experience and not have to pay whatever I did for it. I’m already looking forward to Stampede again next year, since I feel like I’ll know more of what to plan for the second time around.

Summer – The weather here since I’ve been in town has been amazing. There was one week that got a little hot, but otherwise it’s been perfect. It also stays light here until a bizarrely late hour. It’s not dark until like 10pm. It took me a little while to adjust to the altitude, especially with running. Everyone tells me now though that running on the east coast will be really easy, which I doubt since I’m kind of a baby about running even after three months.

Ok, that is only a very minor life update, but I didn’t want to write a book and I promised I would blog soon, so here it is.

I’m going to end blog entries with things I think you should listen to or that I might be listening to that week. I’m a bit pushy when it comes to songs I like, so this is my way of pushing it on people without harassing.

I’ve listened to the Dixie Chicks’ Wide Open Spaces WAY too many times in the last two months. It’s kind of corny, but completely too true for me at the moment.

My hands down favourite song of spring/summer 2012 is Walk the Moon’s Anna Sun. It’s crazy fun and always makes me dance no matter what kind of mood I’m in. The video is barrels of enjoyment as well.

Last for this week is Dan Mangan’s Post War Blues. I’m going to see this guy at folk fest this weekend and I can barely contain my excitement. Great Canadian talent!