Perfect Day

Note: Shane McGowan had teeth in this video. That means it was shot sometime in the mid- to late-nineties. You can tell the passage of time by the number of teeth Shane McGowan had. In the seventies, he had most of them. In the eighties, he was missing one or two. In the nineties, he was missing at least half, all from the front. In the aughts, he had two left. To be honest, I don’t understand how Shane McGowan is still alive.

This post is not about Shane McGowan. Well. It’s not *supposed* to be.

Yesterday morning, I kept The Captain home from school (it was a field trip to a place he’s been to a zillion times before) so that he and I could go to The Nipper’s final Preschool concert. Which was AWESOME. The kids sang a few songs and ate cupcakes and basically got all wired up before lunch. Which we had at home. Then I took the boys in to the city to meet up with The Captain’s class at the art gallery. Which was AWESOME. But something Weird happened.

We were looking at paintings by…oh Jeebus. I’ve gone and forgot the artist’s name. He’s a Métis painter…did the flags…David Garneau? Anyway, we were standing in the corner of the gallery where four of his paintings were installed. The tour guide asked the children to identify each of them…they got the UK, the US, and Canada, but the fourth one was a mystery. One of the parent helpers said, “Well, it’s France!” and another said, “Actually, I think it’s Switzerland”, in that voice that teachers sometimes get when they’re pretty sure you’re wrong. I thought they were kidding. “That’s the Métis flag,” I said. The teacher looked over at me.

“Pardon?” she asked.
“That’s the flag of the Métis people,” I said. The teacher looked at me blankly. “The blue flag with the white on it? On that wall there? That’s the M&eacutetis flag.”

Then the tour guide started trying to explain to the children that the blue flag was the flag of the M&eacutetis people, and that it is an infinity sign. And then The Captain’s teacher said “The children don’t even know what that is.” So the tour guide explained. And before the tour guide could talk about the artist or why his work was important, some of the children said how much they liked the paintings because you could see the flags moving…and this started a really good discussion about art. At which point, The Captain’s teacher kaiboshed the whole discussion and moved the kids to another area. I just want to point out that The Captain’s teacher was rude and belligerent and she interrupted and talked over the gallery employee whose *job it is to know about the art in the gallery*. And the teacher also told the kids they couldn’t *do* art because they had to go to the gift shop. Like. Seriously. The gift shop? Over getting to do watercolour landscapes? Gah. Anyway, that part of the day ended up awesome because The Captain and The Nipper and I got to stay later and finish our watercolours and go see more art.

Then we went for a late lunch, the three of us, which is always awesome because The Captain and The Nipper are some of my best friends. And while we were at lunch, a Big, Gorgeous storm rolled in and we watched it and ate our lunches. Then, The Captain had his RCM Examination, which he did very well at (in my opinion), and then The Captain and The Nipper went home with my cousin so that His Nibs and I could join our friends the Ninja, Ringmaster, the Quiltlady, and Cha-cha at a movie.

So we saw Jonah Hex, which was really, really good. And there were Twits in front of us who talked through the WHOLE SHOW, so the Quiltlady went and talked to the manager about it (who, to their credit, did come and ask the Twits to be quiet…which lasted for about five minutes). Eventually, it got so bad that people on the far, other side of the theatre were shushing The Twits, and I leaned over and said, “ladies, *we* didn’t talk all the way through Harry Potter, so please shut up.” And they said, “pffft. No.” But there were only five minutes left in the movie. And then the BEST THING EVAR happened!

As the Twits were leaving, they walked past us and shouted out something about how we are LOSERS! and how they’re glad they WRECKED OUR MOVIE! hee hee hee hee. The Quiltlady then went and talked to the manager *again*, who gave us FREE MOVIE PASSES! And, even better, The Quiltlady followed the Twits into the mall to tell them that because they were effing jerks, we got free movies. And then as the Twits were getting on the bus to go home, we did make a point of saying that sometimes, it’s good to be a LOSER because LOSERS don’t have to beg to use mom’s car, and LOSERS don’t have curfews. And how we weren’t going to be grounded for hanging out at the mall instead of doing our homework. Because we’re LOSERS and did our homework when we were teenagers so that we all have jobs now so that we can go to movies and contribute to the economy and not have to ask permission from mommy to do those things. So that turned out well. And the best part ever?

Well, we got those free movie passes, and we’re losers, so we don’t have curfews, so we went to another movie. D’you want to know what movie we went to?

THE A-TEAM!

It’s the best movie ever made.

I have often been disappointed in movies, and so I have come to lower my standards and/or to not expect anything. But I admit, I’d heard Good Things about this movie, so I kind of had expectations. And the A-TEAM so far surpassed my expectations that I almost don’t even remember the original cast of the television show. Anyway. Yes. Best. Movie. Ever. Made.

So that was the wrap-up to my best day ever.

Oh! Except for the constant lightning on my way home. That, also, was awesome!

Thanks, Universe!