I am a Remembrance Day whore

Okay, so being a piper I have the unique ability to profit from most major events in people's lives. I get to be paid for attending weddings, funerals, birthday parties, you name it.... and while I don't pimp myself out as much as some people I know, I also don't shy away from a paying gig. And really, who would?

However, Remembrance Day is different. I have no relatives that have ever fought in a war. My grandpas were either medically unfit (flat feet) or too young, so I have no real emotional yardstick to work from.

That said, I played two jobs today, and have thus financed an unmitigated disaster next weekend at John Orr.

Also, having actually not played any paying jobs in a while, I forgot one little detail: Everyone has a story about bagpipes, and when they see a piper, they feel the need to tell it to you. Especially when it's old people, and the one this morning was at an old folks home, so they were plentiful. I can promise you that I'm nothing but polite and cordial (hard to imagine, I'm sure) while they're talking to me, but sometimes I just want to put my pipes away and find the person who's supposed to pay me. And by sometimes, I mean all the time. I've heard too many stories of people getting stiffed, and I don't ever want to have one of my own.

[Minor aside: There was a room in the place with a sign on it "Resident Storage". Am I a bad person for, even just for a split second, wondering if that was the morgue?]

Anyway, the one tonight was actually pretty cool. It was the Mayor's Gala in Mississauga, which was obviously for Hazel McCallion (the mayor of Mississauga), who is a crazy old pisstank that everyone seems to love, and included attendance by none other than our lovely Premier. It was quite the snooty black-tie affair, and it was actually kinda fun to pipe in two legitimately "famous" people. I even got a wink from old Hazel herself! She loves the pipe band.

More joys of playing with the Peel Police!