At 10:00 am on  Sunday morning my boyfriend, our daughter and I joined one of the many line-ups strewn all over Vancouver to get into a restaurant. While J joked around with the guys behind us in line, Princess made a request to go into the store we were outside of – Hello Kitty gets her every time. As I was buying her a Canada pinwheel on a stick, I noticed that the line had almost disappeared – Yes! – I thought to myself – We’re getting in!

At this time Princess took it upon herself to yell at me in the store – Mom! We need to get Dad! He’s going away! Mom! We’re going to be late! – I waited for the debit machine to print off its’ slip and grabbed her hand and ran up to the restaurant, hoping that J was getting inside or had already found us a seat. Instead, we find they had shifted the line from our side of the sidewalk to the other, and we were still near the end of the line. It barely moved. It was over 100 people long. We’re not getting in.

Suddenly, the guy from the line-up before comes to grab us, You wanna come in? And we went in. I was a little confused but commended him on good karma, it turned out they sneaked their way in, switching seats from the patio to inside, and then a few of their friends weren’t coming, so they gave us their spot. Because we wouldn’t have gotten in otherwise.

The place was packed. A restaurant that seats over 700 people was already packed at 10:30 am, two hours before the puck hit the ice. And these two guys, brothers from Calgary, found it in their heart to go pull us out of the huge crowd outside and allow us to watch the game, inside. They even bought us beer. Seriously.

The game was amazing. I have to say I really didn’t pay attention to it, other than when people were scoring of course, but we were almost devastated when it was a tie game and going into overtime. I have little faith in our home team, I know, kill me, but as I say, I am a ‘citizen’ here, I wasn’t born here, but if Poland or  Austria were playing I’d tell you they’d win no problem. Also, the whole ‘Loooouuuuu’ chanting really freaked me and my boyfriend out at first, even after everyone explained they were cheering for Luongo, the goalie, it still sounded like Boo-ing.

When Crosby got the winning goal, the whole restaurant erupted into a frenzy of craziness, everyone was hugging strangers, people were screaming and shouting and jeering, Princess was up on J’s shoulders, taking everything in and rooting for the home team. It was amazing.

And all I kept thinking that it was thanks to these two brothers that we even got to experience this. Amazing how two complete strangers can make your day, isn’t it?

March is here, which is even more amazing, the weather’s feeling a bit warmer, flowers are blooming and trees are full of buds – oh I love it! It feels like there’s a change in the air, new beginnings, a time for nesting and cleaning, and maybe brightening someone else’s day.

I know I’ll never forget the Olympics, the parties and craziness that occurred – and the drinking! – but I will never forget the strangers that made our day, strangers that had turned into friends within hours and completely and absolutely made our day as special as it could be.

Thanks to them.

Now I call out to all of you – do something special for someone today – smile at someone, hold the door open, offer your seat, give something to someone – someone you know or someone you don’t – it doesn’t matter. Just put a smile on someone’s face today. I know that’s what I’ll be doing!

xoxo

Fab Brunette