I was invited to a nine-year-old's birthday party yesterday... 20 nine-year-olds in one small room. Despite the tylenol-commercial feeling, it was way more fun than i expected.

Parents came to pick up their kids and stayed for food. Neighbors and family friends stopped by. I love the way that generations mix here. I hadn't realized how age-segregated we are at home.

I blinked, and suddenly there were a million people in the flat, and they were all dancing. And then, of course, someone's grandmother sat down at the piano and three generations were singing old standards I remember from cottage days when i was small.

Being here makes me realize that my parents and family have carried on traditions with us and we didn't even know it. The tendency to play party games? The intergenerational new year parties? The singing? the dancing? All normal!

We're not caught in some 1950s movie. We're not just lucky to have musical people. We're not idiosyncratic throwbacks who have get togethers that are unlike every other canadian family i know. We're Catholic Indians!

That's what they do here!

Who knew?

*

Blood pressure is rising in inverse proportion to the speed of this internet, and i'm on the verge of a stroke. Definitely time to get out of this cyber cafe and back into the heat.

It's 33 degrees, with 95% humidity. I don't really know what that means, but anything that has "95%" and "humidity" together can't be good.

2:40 a.m. - 2003-10-12