Father's Day

In our interim custody agreement there is a provision that I get William for part of father's day, even if it's not my scheduled time.  Originally Jaime had asked if perhaps we could go to see Toy Story 3 as a family on father's day and then I would keep him into the evening.  This morning I got a call from William wishing me a happy father's day and Jaime backed out; it was going to be too hard emotionally.  I understood.

So I hopped out of bed and grabbed a shower.  I was exhausted because I was out partying until 5am but with 4 hours of sleep under my belt I started a great father's day.  I picked William up and he was very excited to have me open my presents right away.  A Buzz Lightyear plush toy and a Where's Waldo book.  They were completely his idea and I loved them.  We grabbed some lunch and headed to the movie.  

He snuggled into my lap during the previews and was there most of the movie.  It was a good third part in the series but of course the lack of sleep and some residual gin being in my bloodstream made a few scenes a little more emotional than it should have been.  It's strange how a cartoon can make you realize how fast kids grow up. 

From the movie we swung by the house to grab a sweat shirt and headed down to the ferry terminal and caught a ferry across the harbour.  We walked the waterfront and sat on a park bench at one point watching the sailboats and looking for Waldo in the new book.  Then we grabbed some supper and I took him back to his Mom's.  

All in all it was a great day.  I have no complaints.  Sure in a perfect world he would live with me and have woken me up this morning in person, but I'm very blessed and that technicality is not something I have the least bit of focus on today.

The Jeff Show

There is a movie that came out in the late 90s that is forever etched in my mind.  It's not a movie with an epic storyline or probably even won an award, but it will always stand out for me.  It's The Truman Show.  That movie where Jim Carrey's character, Truman Burbank's whole life has been created by studio executives in order to entertain the viewing audiences around the world.  And Truman has no idea that he's on this reality show and that everyone in his life is just a character.

I love this movie.  I had owned a copy, at least up until the last move, and it's one of the rare movies I could watch over and over.  I like how you can imagine network executives putting profit in front of some one's ability to have a real life, and how creative they are in keeping Truman from leaving this make believe world. 

But immediately when I watched this movie I wondered if there was a chance that I was actually watching a parody of my own life.  Could all of this I experience in life be somewhat fabricated for the world around me?  There have been times when I have looked around wondering if there are cameras all around me.  There are times when I am doing mundane chores like washing dishes, where I wonder if the director is queuing music and playing a flashback sequence, to give audiences a potential sneak peak into my thoughts. 

Part of me would like to think my life is a semi-scripted reality.  That certain things have happened to influence thoughts and experiences in a way that would be more entertaining and thought provoking to the millions of people sitting at home in front of their televisions right now.  And if it's true... someone please give me a sign.

2012

So I did something this weekend that I have never done before. I went to a movie alone. Not something I could have done back in my insecure days, but it didn’t even really cross my mind yesterday as something I wouldn’t do. It was a decision that I made after spending the majority of the weekend alone, because my closest friend went away and I just wanted to get out of the house.

I checked the movie listings for four locations trying to find something that would catch my attention. But unfortunately the vampires have taken over and bumped a few movies I had hoped to see out of the theatres. I resolved myself to instead heading to the gym or back to yoga for the second time this weekend and then I thought I would look at the trailer for 2012 again.

The first time I saw the trailer I was put off by the over-the-top scene where John Cusack is driving a limo through the streets of some California town while the ground is being ripped apart and buildings are crumbling to the ground. However, late Friday night I found a short investigative show on VisionTV (I know, Vision TV) about the Mayan culture and the date of the winter solstice 2012. They explained how predictions have been made, and how sun flare activity can be matched with earthquake activity. Then there were the specialists and full believers who claim that the magnetic poles will shift, volcanoes around the world will become active, flooding, every building destroyed, countries at war over the few resources left. So I thought, what the heck, I will go see the movie and see how things play out.

There were huge amounts of unbelievable scenes, but that’s what a big budget film is about. What really hit me about the film was their take on how things would transpire politically. From passengers on the Arcs paying for their spot, to governments using China to produce the Arcs and hide them, to the governments producing the arcs without any public knowledge, and fatal “accidents” happening to anyone involved who decides to speak out on the subject of Arcs being created.

The movie was exactly what it was supposed to be. It was a distraction; one that kept me in the theatre for two hours forty-four minutes to be exact. And it made me think about what would take place if that type of catastrophe did take place. Life might be shorter than we think.