Van-ished Co-Worker

Fly me to the moon is no longer a romantic-jazzy song, but more of an enticing vacation these days…

However, at the end of the month I am flying to Vancouver for the weekend with a good friend of mine, which seems to be the next best thing. I’m looking forward to delicious food, bottomless drinks and men in bicycle shorts.

Did you know Vancouver ranks among the top 5 most livable places in the world? I’m sure Torontonians are NOT happy about that. Who am I kidding? They don’t know anything happening outside of the GTA.

Vancouver is also the land of umbrella start ups since it rains 200 days out of the year (that may be an exaggeration – I do very little research for these posts). 

It’s also the land of ‘worst drivers in the snow.’  

Aside from that, Vancouver is known for its breath-taking views, mild climate and Ryan Reynolds.

This will be my first time visiting Vancouver, which is shocking to many since it’s a quick hour and a half flight from Calgary. Or for those who enjoy an old school road trip, only a 10 hour drive.

I’ve always wanted to visit, but I was worried I would fall in love with the city and then want to move there. Only to realize I would need to work 3 jobs to rent a condo that I would never get to enjoy because I would be working 3 jobs. 

Fortunately, my friend suggested we plan a weekend trip to celebrate turning 30. I was on board the moment she said she would plan everything. In my opinion, the best ways to travel are: alongside good friends, with an itinerary someone else created and a credit card that blindly taps.

I usually have no problem following along with someone else’s plans. I said usually…

In Keeping Up with the K-haos, I didn’t know how to dress myself. Today, I didn’t know how to find my co-recreation therapist. 

One busy Friday, my co-recreation therapist and I had some time sensitive tasks to complete which included: sorting donations and completing next month’s programming calendar. This means we would end our week off with a bit of bickering (friendly bickering). 

I had assumed we would meet in the basement (also known as ‘lower main’) since this is where our donations are stored and a room with side by side computers to coordinate. Needless to say, my assumption made my mood lower and my “mane” frizzier. 

That afternoon, I looked for her in the basement, but she was no where to be found.

I felt like I was playing Where’s Waldo except the only red I spotted was on my cheeks. 

I thought I must have misunderstood, so I left the lower main and searched the building. Her office – empty. The main floor – no dice. The charting rooms – no charting. Washrooms – didn’t go that far.

By this point I was out of ideas, out of breath and out of patience, so I resorted to texting her. She immediately replied, “in the lower main.”

Oh, she must have just arrived there, I thought to myself. 

So I returned to the basement and again found myself looking around aimlessly with no luck. If this was an April Fool’s joke, she was a tad late.

I had now been looking for a total of 25 minutes. I am no quitter, but I am a whiner, so I decided to stop looking and began to organize the donations on my own. Another 10 minutes passed, so I texted her again asking for more details, “where in lower main?”

Again, she immediately replied, “education room.”

She may sound like a woman of few words, but that’s usually not the case and in this situation, I would have preferred her chattier side.

I beelined to the education room where I found her working away on one of the computers, looking like she didn’t have a worry in the world.

Whereas I looked like I had just finished a shift with the Bounty Hunter. 

We had discussed our plans for the afternoon, but we never determined which task we would start with. We’re usually on the same page, but today we were reading different books.

I sure hope I’m better at following the plan in Vancouver or I truly may never come back.