Art, Juno and a Total Eclipse of the Moon=mini vacation

What does one do when one is single? I ask myself this constantly. It seems that time must spread out like an ample serving of Skippy peanut butter over white bread for those who have no children. I am pretty sure that this is an erroneous presumptious, but, nevertheless, the possibilities seem endless when you do not have to rush home after work to get dinner, do homework, bathe children, make lunches and then collapse like a zombie in front of a movie borrowed from the library that probably skips for a half hour before you can’t stand it any longer and have to go to bed.
And last night proved my point. I was not in a rush to leave work. In fact, I took another twenty minutes to give a lost community group of young children an informal tour of the library. Then J met me and we went to free night at the contemporary museum. In passing, I have never seen so many hispters in one place. If one felt the necessity to annihilate all cool hispter people, staging a free event at the contemporary art museum would be a good lure. The only thing of note was this great piano wrapped in metal with mechanical fingers that looked liked something a fiendish doctor might stick to your head or use to claps you to an IV that played a haunting tune. But I must admit, we cleared that museum in about 10 minutes. Mostly contemporary art is a series of obvious and insulting in-jokes. But no matter. The evening continues…
Next stop, Cinema du Parc, to see the movie Juno. We were a bit early and were going to have a beer before the movie, but the place was cheesy and was charging 7 dollars for a pint of Rickard’s Red. We skipped out and grabbed a falafel before the movie began. After purchasing our tickets from a small, pale bald man and having them retrieved by his doppelganger at the bottom of the stairs (truly a Beckett moment I can assure you), we sat down and waited for the lights to dim. Most memorable was the crotchety french woman sitting behind us who missed the french ads before they came on and then commented on how all the ads were in English. Before I could stop myself I turned toward her and let her know her mistake. Wow. I am truly losing grip on what is my inner and outer rage. One day something is going to snap and I am going to be the person yelling and smashing bottles in the middle of traffic. Anyhoo…
The movie was excellent. Not too sentimental, but still a funny, convincing coming of age portrait. In fact, it reminded me that we are basically the same person we have always been. Just the details change.
We got out of the movie theater in time to see the total eclispe of the moon. Although it was colder than a well digger’s ass, it was worth being out on Mount Royal to see the moon bleed ochre. We walked to our friends’ house after the moon had completely entered the penumbra and drank beer and watched The Daily show and the Colbert report, two shows I usually miss because well, I don’t have a television and even if I did, I would be asleep when they came on. I have to admit, I was a little upset at hearing a Republican speaking as if Bush’s presidency was successful. Okay. Horrified. Because either he is lying through his teeth in an Orwellian 1+1=4 kind of way, or he actually believes it. I don’t know which is worse.
Time to go home. To an empty house. Where I slept without anyone waking me up until 8:00 (I don’t have to work until later tonight and am still in my pyjamas!)
I love my children. But I am very glad they are gone right now. I know they are having fun and I am not worried (except for a twinge of anxiety about the school bus- The Sweet Hereafter is always hovering at my consciousness when they go on these field trips). It’s just nice to have a moment where you don’t have to look after anyone. Where I can finish my vampire book in peace and maybe even watch a movie during the daytime… I have to admit, I am feeling little more human than usual right now.