For miles and miles

One of the really awesome things about Alberta is the space. Once you get out of the city there is just an abundance of room and air. I suppose this is true of almost anywhere, as I'm sure my friends from places like Ontario and Saskatchewan will attest, but having grown up in Alberta, I feel like we just have an abundance of this space. You won't run into trees for miles. Or buildings. It's just land and sky. And sometimes I appreciate this. I'm a bit claustrophobic at the best of times, but when I get stressed out I always want nothing more than to stand in the middle of one of these giant fields and scream at the top of my lungs. (And if you just read that and wondered how on earth a slightly claustrophobic girl came to love big cities...don't worry, it is profoundly confusing. I'm often a walking paradox. You get used to it eventually.) Space, room to breathe, is definitely part of iconic Alberta imagery. The fields that stretch for miles and miles are one of the first things I think of when I think about this province.

Just Give Me a Sign

I am someone who is constantly asking for signs. I am Gideon asking for sign after sign, never satisfied. Well, I feel like I've been continually confronted with small signs over the past week or so. No two-by-fours to the head, which is usually how God has to get my attention, but a slow and steady build-up of things pointing me in a certain direction. The signs are there. I just need to work up the courage to follow them.

Trucking Through

So we have reached the point in the semester when students begin to realize that 24 hours in a day is simply not enough time to get everything done. Particularly if you want to do small things like sleep or grocery shop (although if you take the time to grocery shop, you probably don't have time to eat...). And if you decide that you should really continue to have some semblance of a social life in order to maintain your sanity you can just forget about accomplishing anything. I've been learning recently that I have to take time for myself and need to make sure to interact with people and take the time to hang out with them. It's the only way to maintain my mental and physical health. Unfortunately I am having a rather hard time balancing full-time school, part-time work and a social life. As a result, the last few weeks of this semester are going to be absolutely crazy. I will get through though. Just have to keep trucking through. Sadly, many days I feel like my truck looks like this one: buried under stuff and in a general state of disrepair.

Speaking of trucking through...I just got back from a whirlwind roadtrip. Friday morning Gabby, Sinead and I set out for La Crete (which, for those of you who are not up and up on your Alberta small towns, is way up north) to go to Rosi and Joe's wedding. It was a whirlwind trip - we left around 10:00 a.m. on Friday and arrived back at about 6:30 a.m. on Sunday - but was totally worth it. It was such a beautiful wedding and I am so happy for them. Plus it was just nice to get out of the city for a while. Anyway, the drive back was long (somewhere around 10 hours) and since it was straight through the middle of the night there were definitely some crazy moments. We just pushed through though and made it back safe and sound. I slept from like 7:00 until 12:30 this morning though, so now my internal clock is all wonky. Fortunately this means I can get some more work done.

The picture is from a trip a couple years ago down to Sinead's family farm in Champion. I like how it is such a mess, but can make such a great picture. Beautiful mess. That's often what I look for in photos. Possibly because that is how I feel a lot of the time.

Just a housekeeping note: I'm taking the advice of one of my friends and starting to assign pseudonyms to the people in my life. That way I can tell stories without them getting really complicated. If I post photos of actual people I'll always put their real names (and make sure to ask their permission, obviously) and in cases like Rosi and Joe's wedding I will probably use real names (although, often nicknames that I use in real life). Just thought I would let you know in case you are reading this thinking "I know Bree and her friends, but I don't know a [insert name here]". That's why. You are not going crazy.

Oh give me a home, where the [bison] roam

Sorry, that song is going to be stuck in your head all day now. If it is any comfort it is going to be stuck in mine as well, and I am almost ready for bed so it will be playing on an endless loop as I try to fall asleep. Wow. I just realized how much mental pain I inflicted upon myself with that title. Anyway. I worked today and one of the stories was about a herd of bison that broke free from their farm in the Camrose area. This prompted the great "are they bison or buffalo?" debate in the office. (They are bison.) It also led to the inevitable use of the phrase "where the buffalo roam" over and over again. I thought that in light of this it was appropriate to share some of my own pictures of bison. One of my roommates comes from a family that has a bison farm in southern Alberta. I've spent a couple of Easter breaks down there. The first time we were out there her dad took us out to the fields to get up close and personal with the bison. Let me tell you, they are big. It was pretty cool though. I do think that my spectacular inability to climb over the gate demonstrates that I am NOT "home on the range" though. Oh well. I got a good story out of it. And some good photos. I like the first one here because it also shows a bit of the vastness of the prairie as well as the bison. It seems to fit the song.

Worn Out

Hey. Sorry about the hiatus I've been on the past few days. I had a minor meltdown Tuesday night and then I spent Wednesday, Thursday, Friday writing exams and starting the slow and unsightly process of moving back home for the summer. Half of my belongings are now at the apartment and half of them are here at my parents' house. Fortuantely, I only have a take-home exam left and then I am free and clear. The unpacking process will be ugly (it always is), but I'm looking forward to having an organized room (because right now it really isn't). I'm feeling a bit worn out. Four exams in three days is pretty nasty. Although I know people who had five in three days, so at least I didn't have that. This rundown house and beat up car seemed to suit my mood. Exhausted. Yet there is still something gorgeous about them that just cries out be be documented photographically. I am in no way implying that the gorgeous part is also applicable to me, just the worn out part (although the other day one of my roommates told me that it is unfair that I can spend an entire day studying, go write an exam, and still look good at the end of the day...). Moving on, this picture is from one of the Easter breaks that I spent in Champion. There is definitely something about small towns. I think it is best described as charm. Cities don't tend to have charm, many other positive attributes, but it seems that charm is a quality almost exclusive to small towns. I like it.

Fields

As I've been wandering through the blogosphere (did I really just use that word?) this week it is clear that spring has sprung and all over the place people are starting to dream of long walks through grassy fields. The number of pictures around this week that featured fields was pretty incredible. It makes sense though. After all, what makes a person more wisful for warm spring days than images of strolling through or lounging in sunlit fields. Personally I can't really think of anything.

The past couple of years over Easter break I've headed home with one of my roommates. She's from a small town in southern Alberta called Champion and her family owns a bison farm. Now, I'm a city girl, but I enjoy spending time down there. It's just so relaxed and we've been lucky enough to get some absolutely gorgeous weather, blue prairie skies, golden fields stretching into the distance where you can see the Rocky Mountains. Just glorious. I took this picture the first time we went down there. I'm actually pretty impressed because we were sitting in the back of a moving truck at the time and I only had to crop the image slightly. This is what spring looks like in Alberta. At least, this is what spring looks like in Alberta on a nice sunny day. And we have fields to spare.