BEST DAY OF MY LIFE

I had a dream so big and loud

I jumped so high I touched the clouds

Woo oh oh oh oh oh ooohhh…

I have spent the entire lacrosse season (which is now over) singing this song by American Authors.  It was my travelling theme song for every away game I went to by myself this past season.  You know the song, right?

This is gonna be the best day of my life, my li-uh-i-uh-iiiife…

Part of my obsession stemmed from the fact that this was my last scholastic lacrosse season as a parent, and I really did believe that every game I got to see really was the best day of my life.  I also learned to travel alone, stay in hotels alone, and count on myself to do a lot of things I hadn’t done ever before alone.  Every time I accomplished these tasks without screwing them up, it became the best day of my life.  My li-uh-i-uh-iiiife.

Today driving to work the song comes on the radio, so I do what I always do when it comes on: I turn up the volume to deafening levels and start singing along.  I am still singing as I pull into my parking space at school, so I continue singing (long after the radio is off) as I wander the hallways in the morning.  I am still singing when my cohorts come in to their classrooms. 

After all, we are going on a field trip today.  This could very well be the best day of my life.

We go to the New England Aquarium, and my group of eight kids turns out to be the Awesome Eight.  While wandering the Aquarium with me, they randomly engage employees and guides in active conversations and presentations, asking and answering questions and showing general interest and respect for the people.

Quite honestly, it’s frigging awesome.

When it comes time to go to the IMAX and watch the 3-D movie about whales, I don’t even obsess about sitting near them or even behind them.  My supervision isn’t needed as they are all fine with me and without me.  So, I grab my crazy glasses and settle into one of the front-ish seats. 

A little while into the movie, I hear a familiar tune, a Calypso version, steel drums, marimba.  Hmmmm.  I start humming a little.  Sounds like … No.  Really?  No.  Then the music changes to a guitar sound, almost flamenco, but still.  Hmmmm.  I find my brain singing to itself: Woo oh oh oh oh oh ooohhh.  It cannot be.  Can it?

Suddenly the part about the young whales playfully slapping water around and having a grand old time starts, and the soundtrack overpowers the booming sound of the whales’ playfulness.

Wooo ooo ooooooo

This is gonna be the best day of my life

My li-uh-i-uh-iiiife…

Holy crap.  What are the odds?  Of all the music in all of the world, seriously, what are the freaking odds?

Infinitesimal.

And yet this is how my life goes.  Once when I was telling someone about how this happens to me a lot, I called these episodes “synchronicities.”  Right after the word left my mouth, the song by Sting came on the radio:  Synchronicities.  I mean, riiiiiiiight after, like the moment the word left my lips.

My picture from the tank.  ;)

So, as soon as the movie ends while leaving the IMAX, I’m singing along with some of the students:

Wooo ooo ooooooo

This is gonna be the best day of my life

My li-uh-i-uh-iiiife…

And when we get back to school and get off the bus, and when we walk in the hallways to our lockers to get our lunches, and when the day ends and we’re packing up to leave:

Wooo ooo ooooooo

This is gonna be the best day of my life

My li-uh-i-uh-iiiife…

It may not have been the best of the best, but it is the best today of my life.  Woo oh oh oh oh oh ooohhh.