Last February I won $1000 in gift certificates to stay in any Fairmont Hotel property worldwide. 16 months later, determined to use the gift certificates (the only reason I'd spend $399 a night on a hotel room would be because it didn't actually cost me anything) we're leaving tonight for Lake Louise.
I LOVE driving through the mountains. I LOVE the energy, the air, the life, the view. I love the way it makes me feel.
So I said to my husband as he left the house this morning, "I want to take the David Thompson highway tonight and travel through Rocky, Nordegg and then head down towards Lake Louise. We don't have a deadline.'
To which he responds. 'Okay, I'll stop at CAA get a map.'
"Why do you need a map?" I protest. "You've got a van full of maps. It's the mountains. There is only one road that direction... when it forks you either turn left towards Banff or right towards Jasper. You won't get lost. I don't want a map."
And so there is the truth.
I don't want a map.
Ever.
I don't enjoy planning. It's boring. It stifles my desire to explore and figure things out my own way.
Ask my mom, I called her on Monday morning at 7:50am from rush hour traffic in downtown Calgary saying, 'Okay I tried to find the Conference Centre twice but I think I need some help. Here's where I am - where do I go now?'
But that's okay for me.
I tried.
I failed.
I asked for help.
I figured it out.
That's the way I like to do my life.
I realize that it is not always the most effective way. Or the most responsible way. Or even the recommended way.
But it's my way.
And when I finally get where I knew I could get, without the map, the destination experience is that much sweeter.
If he brings home one more Alberta/BC map, I'm going to tie it around his neck like a cape and call him Super Nerd. (No offense to those of you who prefer to have a map.) And believe me... I drive him as crazy as he makes me.
I still love him. And he is the yang to my yin.
And face it, diversity in personality makes the world interesting.