Urges

Sometimes I have urges that I can't explain. They're just a feeling that if I do a certain thing, eat a specific food, or even try to fall asleep in a particular position, it will ultimately be the right thing to do.

About an hour ago, I was looking out our bedroom window. Amanda and I were actually going to bed, but I looked out at the lights reflecting off the wet road, and hear the rain, and had a sudden desire to go for a drive.

So I did. Amanda didn't feel up to coming (as I said, we were heading to bed when I got the urge), so I put on a jacket and went for a drive. I picked up my iPod on the way out, and chose an album that ended up being perfect, and drove for a little over a half hour.

It was wonderful, and just what I needed. Something about the drive and following that initial desire just *worked*. I felt a huge weight lift off my shoulders, and when I got home, I was my normal cheerful self, not the cranky Jake who was around earlier in the evening.

Sometimes my mind knows exactly what I need, even if I don't understand why. I'm very glad I followed that urge tonight!

Busy but Unbusy

Evening everyone!


It was a crazy, busy, but unbusy day for Amanda and me.


We only did a few things, but they took the entire day and left us absolutely exhausted.  We started our morning with breakfast at the Mason's Lodge, before heading to the Prairie Mall for some shopping.  My new job has a slightly more restrictive dress code than my previous one (by actually having an official dress code), and I needed to add a few things to my closet.


By the time we were done at the mall, we had to stop by Amanda's to pack for vacation, wrap her niece's gifts, and pick up her car before driving to Amanda's sister's house for the niece's birthday party.  When the party was winding down around 6:30ish (Alberta time), we said goodbye and drove to Tumbler Ridge (Amanda led from Grande Prairie to Dawson Creek, and I led the rest of the way).


If you look at the number of things we did, and the overall energy required to perform them, our day looks like it was incredibly easy.  After all, we had breakfast, shopped, went to a four year old's birthday party, and then drove a route we're both very familiar with.


...it didn't feel like it though.

Wa-a-a-a-iting...

I'm well aware that for the most part I'm a lucky guy.  Amanda and I don't have what I'd consider a long-distance relationship.  If I want to go see her (or vice-versa), I just have to make sure my car has some gas in it, and away I go.  If the roads between Tumbler Ridge and Grande Prairie are decent, I'll be seeing her in less than three hours.

If I ever had some kind of emergency here, she could come on fairly short notice.  If I ever had an incredibly bad day and desperately needed to see her, I could drop everything, drive out after work, stay the night, and still get home for work in the morning just fine, if a little tired.


It's nothing like people who work out at camps, or in the oil patch, or in diamond mines up north.  I'm not sure how those folks manage it.  It'd drive me nuts if I didn't get to see Amanda for three, four, or six weeks at a time.


That said, we do live in the north.  Last weekend we didn't get together.  The roads were icy, it was my shorter weekend, and Amanda had plans with her family on Saturday night.  We had hoped that Amanda could drive out to Tumbler Ridge this weekend, but the forecast is for 4-6 inches of snow.  There's a good chance we'll have to delay getting together for another week.

We're going to keep an eye on the forecast and hope for the best, but in the meantime I find myself with a Tom Petty song stuck in my head.


*singing* "You take it on faith, you take it to the heart // the wa-a-a-a-iting is the hardest part"