make it thru march

Before we moved, I did a lot of research online to try to find mom and baby groups, storytimes and playgroups. Since we don’t know anyone in Calgary, I was counting on these kinds of things to meet new people and get out of the house. Back home, I had a group that I went to every week on Mondays, and I went to see my mom every Wednesday. Other than that, I would meet friends for playdates. In Calgary, I had to start getting out right away to meet people, otherwise I would go crazy. To my disappointment, it seemed like all of the programs in Calgary were pre-registration only – no drop ins! Plus, to make things worse, all of the programs were either already in progress by the time we were going to move and therefore full, or they didn’t start until April. So, I knew I had several weeks to fill somehow, with something… anything. In my head, I had the mantra M.I.T.M. “Make It Thru March”

The very start of the month was not bad at all, since my mom was in town to help us get settled in. However, once she went home, I was on my own. Murray was at work, and since he needs to learn his new building, new staff and new operation, it requires him to work long days, usually not getting home till 5:30 or 6PM. I found one drop-in program that ran on Tuesdays, and through that I met a mom that I got along with well, and also found out about another website for mom and baby meetups. When Madison had her 6  month immunization shots, the nurse also passed along some other resources for drop-in programs. From these, I’ve pretty much filled up my calendar with something to go to every day except for Fridays. I’m so glad that it didn’t turn out to be too difficult to find things to do! To my surprise, March has actually gone by extremely quickly.

For weeks, I had 10AM this morning marked off in my calendar as a priority appointment. I had been waiting for March 28th since before we moved – it’s registration day for the Mother Goose program. They have these in Vancouver as well, and they are supposed to be fantastic. Moms rave about them, and since they are so highly thought of (and free…) they fill up extremelyquickly. I was told by several people that you need to be at your computer at 10AM sharp otherwise you would miss out.

I did my prep last night. I had the program page for the library up on the screen, ready to hit F5 for a refresh at 10AM sharp. I also added it to my Favorites just in case something went wonky. I had typed in my library card number and Madison’s library card into an email draft so I could quickly copy/paste it into the registration field instead of having to type it in manually and possibly make a mistake. I kept the cards next to my laptop just in case something happened to that email draft, too, of course. Lastly, I had written down a list of library locations, from my first choice down to my sixth.

At 9:55 this morning, I had eaten my breakfast and had Madison playing in her playpen. I was ready. Finger ready on the mouse. At 9:59, I tried refreshing the page just in case. Nope. 10AM rolled around and I hit F5 again…. Boom. The page changed from “Registration begins at Mar 28 10AM” to “Register”. My prepwork paid off and by 10:03 I had the prize: Registration Complete. I got the third of fifteen spots, and by 10:07, all of the spots at the Country Hills library were gone. I felt like I had won the lottery!

We’ll repeat this process again tomorrow morning, for Baby Storytime. Wish me luck.

Once we’re registered for that, we’ll have programs to go to every Wednesday and Thursday in April and May, and various drop-ins and meetups for most every other day of the week. Looks like I made it through March!