I'm writing from a Tim Hortons in Calgary. In many ways, it is no where and everywhere all at the same time. It is among probably (I was going to say 30, but wanted to be close to accurate so I googled it. I was close, there's only 229 in the Calgary area) in Calgary. With so many Tim Hortons shops in the city, this one is really nothing special. It's got the same tiled floor, serves the same donuts, the same drinks, muffins, sandwiches, and bagels. It has the same colors, menu style, and flatscreen televisions that a lot of them have these days. Yet this Tim Hortons IS special. As I look around I see one family with kids (about 13 and nine), two couples (one middle-aged and the other a little older) eating together with their drink of choice (milk for the older couple, they're really cute), and a dad eating supper with his little girl (probably eight) and sharing Timbits. Maybe for all of these people it's just another night out because no one felt like making dinner, but guessing from the smile on the dad's face as his daughter asks him a childishly inquisitive question, I would say not. I bet he never forgets it. I know I'll never forget my memories here. This is one of my top Tim Hortons ever (the only rivals that come close are Moose Jaw and on Tour Choir; maybe you remember Alyssa, if not I have two words for you: Mini Eggs). Alyssa and I used to frequent here, I dropped her off at work here and when I had to leave, took an extra twenty minutes to go through the drive through (and missed her, sort of), and we even had an important talk with "Mom" (her mom, but when you get to know her and live with her, she becomes your mom too) throughout which we got Andrew to leave like three times. I'll never forget this place or the good times in it. So now that I've wasted however long of your life it took to read this, I'll continue on with my blog from this very special place with my pumpkin spice tea.
Today was one of those very lonely days. I did a pretty good job killing time this morning before bartending class, but after class it became quite lonely. I had time to spare and went Christmas shopping at our mall: Chinook Centre (before I keep going, I'd like to point out Christmas shopping in Canada is much more difficult because I can't afford any of the jewellery and I have NO IDEA what to buy for Christmas gifts...I need some help by the way). It was a bigger trip down the lonely side of memory lane than I expected.
It starts by parking where we always did, in the parkade uptop behind the food court. Walking past the Build-A-Bear store headed the same way we always did (it really didn't matter what our actual destination was, we ALWAYS turned left past it first, not quite sure why, but oh well), I walked past dozens of shops with memories behind them (If you're wondering if I actually found any gifts I'll save you reading my memories: YES I found ONE thing). I got my knife sharpened (I absolutely failed at doing it myself) at the Knifery across from the Starbucks we always stopped at (Mmm, white chocolate mocha). I went through Zellers (not sure why), but I found the Christmas section somehow. That was hard to swallow because we both really like Christmas and one of the things I got super excited for was just to cuddle and share a warm drink during Christmas. Then I found the candy section and that was even harder because it was a mix of candy and Christmas, but I made it through alright...until I saw candy canes. For some reason I remember Alyssa trying to buy candy canes and for some reason I can't remember (probably time) I talked her out of it. Well, today I bought candy canes.
I'm going to interrupt the memories of Alyssa and jump to cadets for a moment. My first year at cadet camp (and the only one in Penhold) I had one guy in my room who used my bed as his washroom to just to get at me. Thoroughly disgusting and horrible. I talked to my staff seargent and he was Returned To Unit and failed the course because of it (on graduation day no less). I figured I had pretty much ruined his cadet career and for that I felt terrible. Today I saw him and we talked briefly. Turns out that he now out ranks me and is going to be promoted again soon. He's also been staff a few times, something I never got to do in my time at cadets. It was good just to see him and see that he was doing well. I think it's behind us and there seemed to be no hard feelings on either side. So that was a side note.
I won't go through all of my memories today because that's a lot and I don't think anyone has the time (or will power) to read through them as they don't actually pertain to anyone's life aside from Alyssa and myself. However, there are tons of memories in that mall: The Body Shop, L'Occitane, La Senza, Aldo, Old Navy, lots of dress shops, the Bay, lots of clothing shops (I found so many cute tops, it wasn't even funny, but know I have no one to buy them for), Bluenotes, and Chapters. They have a whole SECTION on weddings and more on relationships. In addition to that, there were tons of super cute kids and couples (we used to work hard to restrain ourselves from kidnapping cute kids). It was a very hard shopping trip and I didn't buy much, but it was well worth the time to go.
For anyone reading this, I hope you cherish the time you get to spend with your loved ones because the time will eventually come when you can't spend time with them anymore. I have memories and pictures (foufou!) for now, but they can never be as good as the real thing. Never forget the way they smile or get comfortable and accustomed to them, when you do you can't cherish the moments properly (for anyone who cares, one of the best ways to do that is to be very cautious with what physical attention you give them and stay away from any sexual related activities) and when the day comes that you don't get to see them smile anymore, trust me you'd give just about ANYTHING to see it one more time. Love them, cherish them, and hold onto them.
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