Like two seasons in one day

Today was a great day, and for those of you keeping score at home, that means A) I was not at the library and B) I was not in my mid-sized Canadian city. I took the Greyhound to my closest bigger-sized Canadian city to renew my passport and after locating the end of the long line-up, had the amusing security guard come around and tell us the wait would be roughly 3.5 hours. He was a joker, kind of like a Westjet flight attendant, showing us where the exits were and that if we had to bail out we should make sure we had parachutes. One grumpy lady complained that if she had to wait that long, he was fired, and he said to her "6 hours for you, madame". It turns out that he really knew his shit, because that's almost exactly the length of time it took. Now most people would think a wait of that length would be annoying, frustrating, boring and any other number of negative adjectives, but as I have the uncanny ability of making a new friend every time I wait in a long line, the wait was not a problem for me. In fact, I made two new friends. One was a 78 year old retired oil worker whose name is, I kid you not, Rod Stewart. Not only did he get a free ticket for the home show and enjoy box seats (for the price of floor seats) at a recent Rod Stewart concert due to his name, he was also very grandfatherly and sweet and said that it was shame we couldn't smile in our passport photos anymore because I had such a nice smile. The other was a middle aged guy named David who is a paleontologist/ geologist, and has travelled all over the world (South America, China, Mongolia) on expedition digs and published numerous books on the subject, which I think is just about the coolest thing ever. Talking to him was especially gratifying because he looked like the grumpy guy who wouldn't talk to anyone, and he ended up being the chattiest guy around. Needless to say, both Rod and David heard all about my library problems, my past and future travel plans, and any other number of topics that took up the 3.5 hours. This may be difficult to believe, but those 3.5 hours flew by, and when I was stamped and approved, I was actually sad to leave the office because it meant I'd never see them again.

After being released into the bright sunshine and wonderfully warm day (all the snow had melted in this city), I visited some of my favoutite stores in the real city (and by real I mean over 1 million). Maybe it's just "grass is greener" syndrome, but while I was eager to get away from Vangroover's big city feel, it only took 10 minutes to start thinking "fuck small town charm - give me smog and traffic any day!". I walked down a pedestrian only street (no such thing as that in my current city) to my favourite bookstore, spent some money (on two graphic novels and a picure book) and when I came out an hour later, the temperature had changed about 10 degrees - from 15 degrees and sunny, to 5 degrees, windy and cold, and not 10 minutes later it even started to snow. Yes, by now you may be equating this strange weather to Chinook winds, which would give you yet another clue as to which province I live in, and to that I say "good for you". As long as you don't know my boss's name, I don't care. But regardless of rapid seasonal change (granted, it isn't officially spring yet, so these sorts of things are to be expected here) that happened while I was wearing my light summer coat, I still had a great rest of the day, especially because much of it (and my money) was spent at the Patagonia store - $300 on precious few items. For those of you who are not familiar with that brand or with me: A) it is an expensive line of outdoor clothing and B) it's fucking awesome and I am willing to spend any amount of money on things made by them, including my growing collection of $30 underwear. The good news is that the guy, who I spent an hour talking to before even going into the fitting room, must have given me some type of discount, because the items I purchased should have come to about $340. Took the Greyhound home again, and by the time I got back to my shit hole (sorry, lovely city) it was snowing sideways, and I had the lovely opportunity of walking home from the bus station wearing my previously mentioned spring clothes. And plus my heater has not been fixed yet after leaking liquid and anti-freeze on my carpet a week ago, so roll on cold night and morning!