Calgary Stampede

Hello my blog followers! I am so sorry that I have been away for so long, July was the craziest month! As my first blogpost back, I would like to share my experience at the Calgary Stampede this year!

After a devastating attack by mother nature on the city, the show went on. Hell or high water was the slogan, although to me a little too soon, the city banded together and stampede commenced with full force!

It had been four years since my last appearance at the Calgary Stampede and every year since, I had come up with an excuse to miss out on the excitement. Year after year, my friends ventured out to the Alberta town to have many expensive drinks, see good friends and dust off their cowboy boots. This year, with my new life, new boyfriend and newly graduated, I decided to throw away the excuses and go. For the first time in a long time, I decided to be spontaneous. As of June 30, I was set to leave July 3 and had no ride and no exact thought of where to stay. Normally, as the control freak that I am, this would be very unnerving to me, but as my lovely friends say, Everything always works out. And it did. My gracious friend Morgan took a detour from Victoria to Kelowna to pick me up and off we went. On the drive, I really began to think about maybe starting a new adventure in life and moving to a new city. A couple weeks before, I had applied in passing to a job ad in Calgary for a chiropractic assistant. Two days later, I had an interview, so the trip wasn't only for pleasure, but business as well (This appeased my practical career side).

 After 8 hours of country music and tanning mostly my legs in the window, we arrived in Calgary. First thing I wanted to do was see my love. Rob and I had been dating for 6 months and I was as my friends Corrina and Brandon called me, "Smitten". Never had I met a more caring, understanding and thoughtful man than my new boyfriend. He puts a smile on my face every single day! Plus it doesn't hurt that he looks really cute in a cowboy hat and boots ;).

After a night of rest and happiness seeing my love, I was ready to conquer the world! I had some drinks with Rob and some friends and more and more people just started showing up! It made me begin to love the dynamic my friends had here and the appeal of moving to this city grew on me. The camaraderie that my friends here had reminded me of home in Kelowna, and that was important to me. After a few drinks, we hit the cowboys tent. It was great. The energy and happiness that was filled made me want to jump up and down. So many people but I loved it all the same. Then seeing my best friend Jill peak out of the corner just made my day. I love seeing one of the Brothel girls ( I will explain that later) , as they are my forever sisters.

For the next 3 days after, it was clear to me that I wanted to be here. My interview went well, I had many drinks, shared many laughs and had gads of fun. I was so sad to leave and thought about it for a week when I returned to Kelowna. But until next year, I hung up my hat and plaid and cannot wait to do it again. WOO HOO!


xoxo
S.