At lunch, I noticed everyone in Calgary (or at least everyone downtown) was walking around holding or wearing a cowboy hat. Nothing remarkable, of course, in this city of rednecks. Just a whole lot of white, new, crisp cowboy hats with a demure black band and a couple of black accents. Yup. Nothing remarkable.
I couldn’t believe how badly I wanted one.
I couldn’t believe how badly I wanted one considering that if I had one, I wouldn’t wear it, because I hate cowboy hats. Don’t I?
Clearly I only wanted one because everybody else had one and they’d gotten it from some central source that had escaped my noon-hour stroll. Clearly that’s the reason.
It wasn’t hat envy at all.
Update: I met up with Mirko for lunch, who informed me that the hats were being given out at RBC across the street and did I perhaps want his?
Me: “NO. I mean, no. I’d never wear it.”
Him: “Are you sure?”
Me: “…No.”