Friday, July 08, 2011

Friday

It's Friday, and I'm taking it easy.

I had a rough night.  I've been dreaming a lot lately.  And it was the one night of the year where the heat actually hit the basement, and I tossed and turned, sweaty and uncomfortable between dreams.

So, the city has gone crazy, because it's Stampede, and even crazier than usual because the Royal Newlyweds, Will and Kate are in town for the first days of Stampede - the last official stop on the Canadian part of their first tour.  That means I'm pretty much going to avoid downtown for the next ten days.  Stampede is a major tourist attraction, but mostly it seems to be an excuse for the entire city to party and drink to excess for ten days every summer.  Calgary actually has a baby boom every year nine months after Stampede.

That said, Stampede always means free food.  If you know where to look, you can get a free pancake breakfast every morning and usually a BBQ lunch and supper somewhere too.  I'll definitely be getting pancakes at least once or twice, and I'm going to my first BBQ, hosted by Dad's church, tonight.  (I'm providing the country music CDs for that one!)

I accepted a two week temp position as a receptionist, starting next Wednesday.  It'll be good to have a bit of income again.  And, in the mean time, I'm going to take it easy for a few days, see a few friends, do some reading and resting.  And then, then it'll be time for new things to start again.

I'm thankful for Fridays.  For time to be quiet and rest.

4 comments:

christianne said...

I like your quiet Friday, too. :)

I have no idea what Stampede is. I found myself wondering, "Is that some kind of rodeo event?" But the way you described it, it sounds kind of like Mardi Gras here. Not sure.

How does it work out to be all about free food? You would think with a major event that brings people out so much, people would be charging up a storm for food!

Lisa said...

The Stampede (you can read about it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary_Stampede) is kind of like a cross between a giant fair, a rodeo, and Mardi Gras. It still has the art exhibitions and competitions, the livestock shows, and rodeo and chuckwagon racing, but it's also turned into a giant excuse to party. For those ten days every July, all the businessmen downtown wear Western clothes and cowboys boots instead of suits, the policemen wear cowboy hats with their badges on them, instead of the normal caps, and the city kind of goes crazy with this twisted version of western culture that someone has evolved to include a great deal of drinking and partying and girls dressing rather skanky. In fact, I cracked up reading one of my friend's facebook statuses tonight. It read: "Making a conscious effort to mentally applaud women for embracing their sexuality rather than silently judging the super-skanks. Limited success so far."

As for the free food, it's sort of part of the cowboy hospitality mentality. It used to just be the pancake breakfasts,and they'd be served up chuckwagon style, but it evolved to include the BBQ lunches and suppers as well.

christianne said...

I'm pretty hungry while reading this (again!), so now I'm wishing I could hang with the Stampede crowd for the moment ... except for all the skanky party stuff. :)

Lisa said...

:D

I think I'm going to try and find a pancake breakfast either tomorrow or Monday!