Just For the Weekend

Regina. It’s just so temptingly close to all my nearest and dearest Manitoba family members that I simply had to book a plane ticket to Winnipeg for the weekend. (Having leftover travel allowance money didn’t hurt either!)

Friday afternoon didn’t come soon enough but the time finally arrived for me to jump into a taxi in front of my downtown hotel, arrive at the airport 10 minutes later and proceed to wait 1.5 hours to board my plane. Yes, It seems I slightly overestimated the time required for Regina’s airport procedures! I guess you never know out on the prairies…


I'm getting good at this.

After being in the air for less than an hour with a whole row of seats to myself, I safely landed in YWG and descended the escalators right into the arms of… no one.

Where are they? I didn’t even have any checked bags to grab (business traveller that I am), so I just proceeded to look around for my lovely sister. The thing is, the arrival section is not that huge, so this took all of 2 minutes. So I put my glasses on, looked around some more, phoned my sister, left a message, phoned my dad, phoned my sister again, and basically just stood next to the display case with the stupid Chicago Blackhawks upholstered chair in it (of all things) for over 10 minutes not knowing if anyone loved me enough to pick me up.

I guess I didn’t have to wait too much longer before my sister finally called me back in a frenzy. We’re on the way! We were at a wedding! We’re sorry! We’re coming! What door are you at?

Steph. I'm at THE door.

Then before I knew it, there she was in her fancy summer wedding-attending dress, running full speed along the drop-off lane median in her flip flops.

Always excitement with that one.

Well, I’m happy to say we eventually got to their car and my very handsome suit-clad brother-in-law chauffeured us all back to their country home in Rosenfeld, where fresh garden flowers were waiting for me in my own little bedroom.




I’ll take this over the Holiday Inn any day!

The whole weekend was just perfect. It’s so quiet in their little town, my little bed was so cozy, the smell of fresh flowers was all around me and the only thing I could hear when I woke up to in the morning was birds singing! No buses hissing and squeaking, no cement trucks roaring, no police cars wailing. Just little birdies. Ahhhh.

The Parents showed up on Saturday morning, we had a big breakfast together, then Steph and I worked out in the garden and just relaxed in the sunny yard for the rest of the afternoon while Mom took a nap and Dad and Trevor worked on building the new limestone driveway.


Oh yeah. And my crazy brother-in-law randomly purchased a wood chipper that morning. Those guys played with their new toy all afternoon.

Later on, we set up the fire pit and got out the hot dogs and settled down for a good old campfire. Grandma even showed up with rhubarb cake!


Grandmas are the best!

We made sure to finish up before 7:00, however, because there was a Canucks game to watch on my parents’ new big screen TV. And to end a perfect day, they won!

Later that evening, we also caught up with a special someone on the webcam.


"Make sure you get my good side..."

The next day I was privileged enough to attend Steph and Trevor’s tiny community church. They even let me practice with their choir!



After that it was lunch with Dad who then whisked me off to the airport for my early evening flight back to Regina.


Even better than the Casino Regina bus!


I really am closer than I appear, you know.

Oh, it was such a great weekend! Thanks guys!
I hope you're prepared for me to invite myself again at Christmas ;)


* * *

My flight back to Regina was good. I had a seat-neighbor this time but I was nice and shared my newspaper.

Then there I was on Sunday night back in Regina I was hoping to just sneak my grungy, well-travelled self into my room and let the peace, quiet and birdsong linger in my mind for a few more hours. Unfortunately, though, Dad’s egg salad and pickle sandwiches had long worn off and I had to eat dinner. And it wasn’t like I had cupboards full of food in my hotel room so I had to go out. In the spirit of avoiding contact, I decided to just slip away and get some takeout. Of course, it being downtown Regina and a Sunday evening, everything was locked up tight. Then I decided on the next best thing – obtaining something microwaveable from Safeway.

I donned my yoga pants and sneakers, grabbed my purse and headed down for my little trip to the store – only to find a group of like 8 of my fellow trainees in the lobby. “Hey Jen! Come have dinner with us Jen! How was your weekend Jen?” It was really nice to see them, of course, and I was happy to chat dreamily about my nice weekend, but there went my secret escape! Being in old sweatpants and everything, I politely turned down their invitations and did eventually head out to the Safeway for my microwaveable "delicacies".

No more flowers and birds, though. I guess my relaxation would have to come in the form of popcorn and Food Network once again.