Oh, the highway...

The lovely highway....

I'm here, and I'm safe. Where's here? Cold Lake, Alberta. I'm visiting my mom for that most hallowed of all post-secondary traditions: Reading Week. It was a pretty good drive, although surprisingly not as uneventful as one might think for a drive 250km north-east of Edmonton on a Tuesday morning might be. I had to pull over at Vilna (the home of the world's largest mushroom... and no, I'm not joking - I think I'll pick up a disposable camera while I'm here and get a picture for you) in order to get some more windshield washer fluid, because the snow, while not enough to actually implair the driving conditions, was nonetheless adequate to make washing my windshield a necessity every kilometer or two. So I pulled over into Vilna, and stopped at the store (the only one in town) which is a charming little family-owned grocery. As I was pulling back out onto the highway, I came upon a pilot car pulled over into the wrong lane (as in, MINE) facing me. So I pulled up to him and stopped, which allowed him to explain to me that I'd be waiting for about 10 minutes or so while they brought an oversized load through (it's not a divided highway up here). And I mean oversized - they were moving a GRAIN SILO. I kind of wish that I'd had a camera at the time.... although, the guy waiting right behind me did. He was taking pictures like a madman. I thought it was pretty funny.
After it was past us, and I could start moving again, I got up to about 120 km/h, and sort of thought I might stay at that speed for a while because there were probably still cops in the area from having to do traffic control for that thing. But the guy behind me was right on my tail. Now, I know that in driving school, they say you should never speed up just because the guy behind you is tailgating you, but the thing is, 120 is NOT my usual cruising speed (as anyone who has driven with me on a regular basis can probably guess. I'm not a speed demon, and I don't drive recklessly or overdrive the conditions, and I DEFINITELY don't speed at night if I'm out in the country and the visibility/light is poor. But on a straight highway with no potholes, next-to-no moisture, in midmorning? Come on.).
So anyways, I accelerated up to my usual cruising speed (which I won't divulge online) thinking that this guy would realize that he wasn't going to pass me, and also assuming that he wasn't going to particularly want to keep pace with me. But he surprised me, and we drove the rest of the way to Bonnyville together. It was actually kind of neat - I never actually met him, or anything, but we still had a great time together.

In other news, I also had a really great time this past weekend. Spent pretty much all of it with the Ninja which will be unsurprising to any of you who read his blog - we've been hanging out a lot for the last couple of weeks, and decided to throw caution to the wind and actually declare ourselves a "couple". I did work all weekend, which is pretty much par for the course, but we went out on Friday night to see Curious George, and on Saturday night for Jago's Birthday Karaoke Bash, and had dinner with some of my siblings and their respective SO's on Sunday, and then went back to Karaoke for another birthday bash with another of Ninja's friends (all of whom that I've met so far have been FANTASTIC people! I love meeting new people. And old people. And all the ones in between). Then we hung out in bed being lazy till noon or so on Monday (a blessed - and rare - day off for me). Had breakfast, hung out some more, and then I drove him home for what was ostensibly a Kow rehearsal, but ended up being cancelled - but I had to take care of some things before I could come out here for my vacation (HA! A vacation! Spent with my mom! Right!).
But, all in all, a great weekend.