Letting Go

I've decided to be more pro-active about my new life in Edmonton. I've been letting my past and things back in Winnipeg stop me from realizing the amazing opportunity that surrounds me. By no means am I shunning Winnipeg, it's still my home and I still really miss everyone there. But I need to focus on where I am, and at this point in my life, this is where I am.

I had lunch with some of the people from work on Friday, and it was a good time. All the other terms are really cool guys. I might do something with Dann tomorrow, we'll see.

Today was the beginning of my second weekend. Last weekend I just lay around the basement the whole weekend, and that was what began my bout of homesickness. So I decided 'hey, I'm in Edmonton, might as well go see it!' and jumped in my car bright and early. I drove around town for a while, checking out some of the cool scenes, and eventually made my way to West Edmonton Mall!

I'd been there once when I was really young with my Mom and brother. I didn't plan on buying anything, mainly cause my first paycheck will be 3 weeks of work, so I'm broke until then. It took 10 minutes to find parking, lol. Once I headed in I walked around and just explored. Lots of cool stores, and one of the nicest things is there actually seemed to be just as many guy stores as girl stores. Lots of nice men's clothing, electronics, a huge arcade, and sports stores and gyms (if you're into that).

The biggest mall in the world is CRAZY during Xmas! Not that I'd expected otherwise, but still! CRAZY! All sorts of people. And today I saw some good looking girls, finally a place that can remotely compare to Winnipeg's ratio of good looking women!

I stopped by the food court and had some lunch. Afterwards I went out for a smoke. As I did there were 2 attractive girls standing there too. I just enjoyed my cigarette until these 2 guys, complete wiggers who kept calling each other "soldier" (like come on, really!?) came up all "yo yo, whatup homedawg" and that. All I could think of was what losers these guys were. Then the 2 girls started hitting on them. *Sigh*. I can never seem to save up much faith in humanity before I lose it all again.

I walked around the mall some more and kept recognizing places from distant childhood memories when I'd come with my Mom and brother. Like the giant aquarium, the whale who's mouth you could walk in, the floating ship, etc... It wasn't quite as I remembered it. Felt more like... A mall. Go figure.

Afterwards I decided to head home, and other then getting caught in traffic while really having to take a leak, it was mostly uneventful.

Later that night Bill, Tia and I went to check out the new Futureshop that just opened in South Ed Common, now the biggest in Canada (and maybe the world, I dunno). Pretty cool stuff.

Believe it or not, despite spending my whole day in the capitals of consumerism, the only money I spent was for lunch! The fact that I didn't actually have any other money to spend may have had something to do with that though.

Came home and talked to Andi on the phone for a while, then just chatted with Chad on MSN. It was a really good day, and I'm finally starting to accept that I am here. I don't know what the future holds, what will stick and what will drift away, but the one thing I can be in control of is how I appreciate the current moment. And today was a good day.