Chances are.. not yours right? Nope! But let me tell you a story first before we talk about this birthday.

So, I was out with Monica (friend/co-teacher) and her daughter at their summer club, Bay Terrace Country Club, in Bayside Queens today. We played some tennis, swam around in the cool water of the surprisingly mostly unpopulated pool, laid on the chairs, chatted.

As Monica and Savannah went for a second round in the pool, I sat under the umbrella reading and listening to the voices around me. Voices that are quintessentially Long Island voices. Italian. Nasally. Semi-loud. Voices that make me chuckle a little.

As I listened and read, watched people jump in the pool or walk for their frogurt, I was transported to the setting of the movie Way, Way Back that I saw last summer with my movie buddy Tina. I thought about the boy who took a job at the summer club to escape his mother’s horrible boyfriend. For some reason I could relate to him. Not because I was escaping my mother’s awful boyfriend, or even a hard-to-deal-with family member. It just made me feel like a typical American on summer vacation. You know, the family (or some of them) goes to the country club, they enjoy their time doing summertime activities day after day. Days filled pools, beaches, reading books, playing cards, bonfires, late nights outside, enjoying the perfect weather.

But alas! I am not American! I am Canadian! And although I have been enjoying American summers for several years now, these summer days are different from my summers in Alberta. Not good or bad different, just different.

Yes, I enjoyed my share of lake days with Jill, boating, playing cards, drinking, dancing, walking in the river valley, attending festivals, and so on. And today, sitting there, at the poolside of a summer club in Bayside Queens, listening to those nasally Long Island voices made me think of the celebrations that proud Canadians will be attending tomorrow. Wearing their red and white, eating poutine, drinking a double-double, a clam-eye or a Caesar or maybe Molson. And I want to be there… but I’m not… so enjoy my fellow Canadians!

It’s Canada’s birthday.

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