Oh, Canada Day...

Friday night I realized quite suddenly that it was Canada Day. Being so far outside the Canadian context, it had completely slipped my mind. Not that I ever really need an excuse to drink, but this seemed like a good one to me. Subaru Kazoo and I loaded up the laptop with the Tragically Hip and started calling people up. Beer seemed the obvious drink of choice, but unfortunately, since Canada Day took snuck up on us, we were woefully unprepared. Friday is the Islamic Sabbath, so any liquor stores (yes, they have them, but they’re only for the 1% foreign population, wink, wink, nudge, nudge) are closed. So we were stuck drinking left over, local peach flavoured vodka. Not exactly ideal, but in the land of the pure, you drink what you can get. Eventually, some friends arrived with some Scotch, so we were all set. I messaged all the Canadians I know in Karachi (both of them) and they replied, "Oh yeah, Happy Canada Day" which made me feel better, because it hadn’t occurred to them either. I messaged friends to come over and join the celebrations and got a couple of "Canada has a Day?" type responses. Typical. Doesn’t every independent nation have a day? Maybe no one thinks of it because we’re one of the only nations that gained independence by asking politely. I don’t know. Everybody loves Canada, but no one knows a damn thing about us. I guess maybe that’s a good thing.

Being the only true, blue Canadian, and getting a little tipsy, I announced that this was really "my" day, that my drink should never be empty, and that I should be catered to in most every way.. Zubair tried to cut me off saying, "Ok smartass, it’s not your day anymore, Canada Day is over." I looked up at the clock, 12:30 am. I was crestfallen for a moment, but then I realized that Canada Day was only just beginning in Canada. It reminded me of the time my friends and I in New Brunswick celebrated New Year’s Eve for every time zone in Canada (4:00 am? Happy New Year British Columbia!) So here I was with the better part of 12 solid hours of Canada Day left. Nothing could stop me! I would celebrate the birth of my proud nation until the break of dawn!

Then I ran out of booze, so I went to sleep.