This past weekend Penny and
I went to Edmonton for the Health and Wellness Show that Jenny produces. All
in all, it was pretty good but nothing special. The venue itself was pretty
small but the show itself isn't very big either. There were a couple of
things that limited the success of this year's show: the weather (too warm) and
construction getting to the venue. We even drove past the parking entrance
because of the lack of signage.
The main
reason I went at all was to see Jenny. She has promised for years to
come to Calgary when on her way to Medicine Hat or when she is in Canmore.
Since she hadn't made the effort I thought I would. Jenny was very sweet, she
put us up at their host hotel. She also gave us passes to enter the show for
free. Once we had seen everything we found her walking around giving vendors
coffee and water. She then gave us meal tickets so we could buy ourselves
lunch. That was super sweet and unexpected.
Health and wellness seems to be loosely
translated to weight loss because absolutely everywhere there were vendors
selling every type of weight loss program out there. Most of it I find
ridiculous and some down-right harmful. The only vendor I liked was the
Vitamix one. They were promoting and demonstrating - it was really good.
Penny asked me about my own Blentec blender since she admitted she had no idea
what on earth made me think it was so great.
One funny thing happened when we were walking
around. We spotted the MMA fighter up on the main stage, he looked like a
little kid. But his dad was something else to see. He was this massive, good
looking fellow. Of course Penny and I commented on how good looking he was and
moved on. We watched his son lead a fitness class with four overweight ladies
in attendance. The dad came over and asked why we weren't joining them. We
laughed it off but he continued to chat up Penny, he was clearly flirting and
she was clearly enjoying every minute of it. What I thought was funny, when
he asked what she did, she told him she was a dancer. Of course he thought
"stripper" and she said "ballet" but quickly added "burlesque" dancing too. I
was standing there thinking, "what the hell?". Whatever happened to the truth,
I mean, does it matter at all what you do ... what does it mean to a person you
don't know? I am still shaking my head at that one. She really likes the
attention, that's all I can and will say.
While we were in Edmonton, not on family
business, I took the opportunity to see some friends. My first stop was to
visit Jan at Christopher Clayton. She is an old friend from the Mayfield Inn
days. She looked a little different, a little older but still the same Jan I
remembered and adored. She has recently lost a member of her family, Aunt
Betty and when we talked about that, it brought tears to her eyes. Too bad I
didn't see her when she wasn't under so much personal stress.
When we finished that visit I phoned Colleen and
we drove out to St. Albert to the Earls to have dinner with her. That was a
fortunate turn of events actually. I had made the phone call just before the
dinner hour and worried that I would be interrupting her family's dinner but she
said she was alone (husband and foster daughter out of town) and the timing was
great. A hope to get together over coffee turned into a great visit over a
meal. Colleen is pretty determined to get another Class of 40 reunion
going. She wants Penny and I to help getting this thing underway. I'm up
for helping, but I don't want to do too much. Is that wrong? Yikes, I
hope it's not.
The next morning we took our time checking out,
we had until 11:00am so that was nice. I called Lisa Williamson before we
left the hotel because she had mentioned that she would like to get together for
lunch on Sunday. Truthfully, I knew it would be a 50/50 chance that we would
meet. The reason being, she has returned from Hawaii the day before. And
when she called back it was to say she wouldn't be able to meet with us after
all. She had slept in and now had to run to do some grocery shopping and go to
Guy's dad's for his birthday dinner. She seemed genuinely sorry and I sort of
knew that might happen so it wasn't a really big deal.
Penny and I ended up at Old Strathcona. I wanted
to go to the Farmer's Market because I remember it being so much fun. We found
it, parked close by just to find out that they are closed on Sundays. Closed
on Sundays!! Really?? Gosh that was a surprise, here in Calgary, Sunday is
a very popular day for the Farmer's Market. Luckily we had lots to see along
the street itself and didn't really miss it. I made an impulse buy of a
little recycled handbag made in the States. The store itself was lovely and
the owner had a little female Boston Terrier there that made my heart melt.
She looked like an older pup and oh so very sweet. I found out she was a
rescue doggy and she warmed up enough to let me pet her a few times. It was a
fun store. Penny and I had lunch at a place we spotted while we were walking
along. From where we spotted it, it looked interesting. By the time we
reached it, it was no more than a cafeteria type place with the wall opened up
to the front street. The tiling was half done, meaning columns were left
ungrouted. An oversight, or just sloppy, I don't know. We ordered
hamburgers and fries. We stayed because we were hungry and by this point in
time anything would do. The food was good enough for the price but nothing
special. If I would have known, I would have just had the fries though. They
were above average if you ask me.
We ended up leaving Edmonton at about 3:00 or
3:30pm. The drive back was uneventful. As I drove I was remembering and
telling Penny about Jenny, Jan, Lisa and the Mayfield Inn and all the fun I had
working and living in Edmonton. Those were good times and good memories. I'm
lucky to have them and I'm even luckier to still have these special people in my
life.
