Quit fooling around.

It's snowing. Again. Spring is starting this week. I think it's supposed to snow on that day, too. I'm over this Winter. We got a tease of Spring on Friday when it was in the 70s, but that didn't last long at all.

There was an intriguing job opening (well, is an intriguing job opening, actually since the job is currently open) in Canada this week. I'm not actively searching for a job, mind you. I have one and I like it a lot, but I do keep an eye on new openings and I'm on a committee at work that looks at pay equity and I've spent oodles of time lately looking at jobs. But, this one was really intriguing to me because I think I mentioned that I was feeling restless? Kind of adventure-needy of late. This was was in the town of Inuvik, in the Northwest Territories. It's north of the Arctic Circle and I was seriously imaging myself trying to live there for a while. It sounds like a real adventure. The town is relatively young, only being created in the 1970s for an army outpost that is no longer there. About 3500 people live in this town that has 59 days of total sunlight each year and 30 days of total darkness. It's built on the permafrost, so all the buildings are either on pilings or on deep gravel pads to add stability. The job is for a librarian at a college in the town. And the area is a hub for two of the native communities around there, so there are three main languages, which I think is kind of cool. It sounds like quite the adventure, in all. I wonder how difficult it is for them to get people to stay? I showed the job to a couple of my co-workers, none of whom were interested in living in a place like that. Still, I bet there are plenty of people like me who are completely taken in by the idea of living somewhere so extreme. But, then I remember that I'm tired of this Missouri winter, which is nothing like what it would be like up there. I looked at their weather this week and the high was -5 Fahrenheit. I think my imagination romanticizes a lot of places and thinks 'Oh, exciting! Living north of the Arctic Circle! Like an adventurer! You'd probably see the Northern Lights! You could snowshoe!' In actuality, my skin would never forgive me and I would probably never ever be warm again. And, if I could snowshoe, I'd probably only be able to stand to be outside long enough to walk out the door of my mobile-home-on-pilings to get the mail, before I'd freeze to death.

I have no idea where I'd get groceries or anything. It didn't appear to have any sort of grocery store on Google Earth. No Wal-Mart. I went to Wal-Mart this morning and I hardly ever go there. In the town I grew up in, going to Wal-Mart was the must frustrating experience because the store was built in a sort of pit. And it was always crowded and you felt as though you had driven down into this hole and were now crawling all over people to get some discounted food or shoes or something. It was not a good experience. So, I just never did it. Well, here, there's a Wal-Mart not very far away from me and I'm on the hunt for some decorative wall shelves for my dining room. I'm kind of particular about them. Goodwill had nothing, which I found surprising. Kohl's was over-priced and didn't have anything that really fit what I'm looking for. So, I thought I'd try Wally World today. It was a bust, too. They only had black shelves. That was it. I was disappointed. But then I decided to wander around a bit since it was a snowy Sunday morning. They carry all these brands and grocery items that Gerbes and Hy-Vee don't carry! Things that I've missed for so long, never realizing that they were still around. I just wasn't going to the right places. So, I'm wandering around and each time I see something I've missed for years I sort of let out a chortle and a 'ohhh!' before rushing my cart over to pile things in. Going from aisle to aisle, I found myself silently apologizing to Wal-Mart for all my disparaging remarks about them. Anybody who carries Sunbelt granola bars and Hamburger Helper singles has my support. They also had the first season of The Mary Tyler Moore Show for 10 bucks. HELLOOOOO. I own that now. So, although my walls are still bare, my cupboard is full and I am a happy girl.