Shopping: Achievement Unlocked!

Well, I now own a Canada Goose parka and some serious snow boots. Thank you, internet, for making that a painless process (painless in that I found everything I needed and it was shipped to me! painful in that I spent, well, a lot of money getting outfitted -- but investment pieces, blah blah blah, and, seriously, the quality of these items? through the roof).

As they say, winter is coming.

And because this is precisely the sort of thing I wished I could find when I set out to looking at gear for the serious cold, here is what I am wearing in the above picture:

Women's Expedition Parka (by Canada Goose), Medium

I ordered this from Altitude Sports in Montreal, after going to a store in the city to make sure a medium is the right size. If you buy a lifetime membership with Altitude Sports ($25), you save 5% on all purchases... which means that it was $40 dollars under the list price ($795 before tax), so I saved about $15. This may not sound like much, but I get that 5% for the rest of my life, and there's free shipping in Canada, and free returns for new members. SO. DEAL! Also, for sizing purposes, I would usually wear a small jacket -- I'm about a S/M shirt (the average M shirt is usually a bit baggy on me) and a size 6-8 pant. The medium is plenty big on me. I can comfortably layer underneath -- by which I mean a bulky sweatshirt and a medium-weight jacket with room to spare. Any bigger and I'd be swimming.

Men's Glacier Boots (by Sorel), Size 8

I ordered these guys straight from Sorel. They're rated for -70C! I usually wear a woman's 9, so the men's 8 is plenty big -- but not too big. They're clunky boots with great tread and rumour has it they last for about 20 years. Considering that a pair of winter boots usually costs, at minimum, $100 and will last for maybe two seasons, and these were $140, I can't complain.

I have one week left of coursework in my B.Ed., which is both thrilling and somewhat terrifying. I just filled out the paperwork for teacher certification today (and paid the province for printing me off that fancy card); I've been picking away on updating my online professional presence; I've attended a workshop on resume-building. This past week I went to see my students perform a play (spectacular!) and realized that, in a week's time, I'll be back to teaching. And the processes are in motion that mean that I will, in very short order, be certified to teach -- for real. It is, as I said, thrilling to know that I'll finally be doing what I want to do, but it's scary to be leaving the familiarity of the post-secondary schooling world. This is my seventh straight year in post-secondary studies. I am very much ready to move on, but it's always a bit of a challenge to leave what's familiar behind.

This is a theme, of course, you can expect to come up again, as I will definitely be leaving the familiar behind come March. At least now we know I won't die the moment I step off of the plane! Nakurmiik, cold weather gear!

Shopping lists (in the rain)

The skies have opened up today, pelting the ground with a cold, hard rain, while I stay snug and dry inside, my dog next to me and happily asleep.

That this is my reality at the moment -- cold autumn rain, soggy autumn leaves sticking to the sidewalk, weather chilly enough that I need to wear (wait for it) a light jacket and maybe some fingerless gloves -- makes my impending big purchases seem even more surreal.

This week, my wife and I are going to trundle down to the local outdoor outfitters shop so that I can try on a variety of sizes and styles of extreme cold parkas (I'm looking at you, Canada Goose!). After spending at least $700 on one of those babies, I'll be searching for some serious boots and snow pants, and other pieces necessary to very cold weather living: hat, gloves, layering pieces, snow goggles.

I'm searching for all of these items, clothing that will actually make it possible for me to step outside the front door in Pond Inlet, while we're barely dipping into autumn here in Nova Scotia. And I know that March will come quickly, but now, in the middle of my courses, it's hard to believe. The gap between where I am now and where I'll be in March seems impossibly wide.

And I can't wait for it to close. I am absolutely desperate to wrap up what I'm doing now and to move to the next phase of my education -- and my life.

Not that I begrudge the time when I consider things practically: I need to buy things! And study hard! And learn a few more words of Inuktitut (I have been practicing saying Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit all weekend -- admittedly not the best starting place, but it sure makes me feel like a winner)! And finish all of my courses! And teach my junior high classes! And somehow squeeze in the time to get my gun license!

So, yes, there is a whole list of things to do between now and then and I am eager to race through it. And although buying a coat designed to keep me toasty and, well, alive in arctic temperatures seems like an odd thing to be doing on a rainy October day, that helps bring me one step closer to taking those flights in March.