Oh Canada!
It’s Canada Day! Our proud nation turns a big 141 years old and everyone is happier than hell to have a day off. Celine asks some people at work if they know what July 1 symbolizes – most just shrug.
For the record – July 1, 1867 is when Canada formally becomes a nation of its own rather than a British colony. Though we were pretty much ruled by the British by default as we didn’t have the right to change our own Constitution without British consent. Not until 1982 did we finally gained complete political independence from the British and our own Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Big win for the late Pierre Trudeau.
http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/const/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Canada
More to the point, I’m up early (can’t sleep due to stomach problems) typing away on the computer like some sort of internet-addicted geek. She walks into the room in her nightie holding something that looks like a flattened pen.
She stands beside me looking a bit out of sorts and says, “Look”.
I look. It’s a plastic thingy with what looks like cardboard inside. There’s a dark pink stripe, and a lighter pink stripe beside it. I have no idea what the hell it is or why she’s showing it to me.
“So what?” I respond.
“I’m pregnant” is her response.
“WHAT? No way!”
We stare at the strip. It doesn’t really do much.
“What’s that supposed to tell you?” I ask. “Isn’t it supposed to be blue?”
“That stripe means I’m pregnant,” she says.
“Oh shit.”
“Crap.”
Oh. Canada.
