Just when I thought winter was gone, it comes again. I had so enjoyed the last few days of sun, with temperatures hovering around zero. I even heard birds singing in the trees outside my room. I had almost forgotten that there were birds at all, or that their songs sounded so beautiful in the warm mid day breeze. Slowly the days begin to grow longer, and I start to consider taking the path outside to class, just to get a few moments of lovely sunshine. Puddles form all over the streets, promising an end to this reign of white and cold.
And then, the other night, the flakes begin to fall. Huge thick snowflakes covering the ground like a huge blanket. And winter is back, like a cold that just won’t leave. In fact, I almost got a cold again! I’ve already had my yearly cold that comes somewhere at the start of winter, and I’m afraid the warmth of a pseudo-spring, followed by the sudden snow almost fooled my body into thinking it was time to get sick again. Thankfully after popping vitamin C with the frequency of someone with a heart condition, I survived through and lived to continue breathing through an empty nose.
Today I decided to pack my backpack with some work and head downtown for lunch at Quenched International Coffee House. I work every Friday at this little coffee shop, right in the center of the downtown area. So often, while I’m working I see people come in for a while to get some work done, settle down with a coffee and soak in the lovely atmosphere of the place. I guess it never occurred to me that I could actually do the same. I’ve seen these people in movies, frequenting cute coffee shops, squeezed into some colourful street downtown. It seems so picturesque. And why not? Why couldn’t that be me? So here I am. It’s not New York, and the bustle of life is fairly subdued, being just an average city in Alberta. But all the same, after a lovely soup and a piece of banana bread, facing the windows and watching people go by, life is peaceful.