Seneca Library Holiday Song

My very talented friend at work made a "holiday" video for our annual divisional meeting. Check it out!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian bloggers out there. Take it easy on the turkey and stuffing, and enjoy your family.

Run for the Cure

For the past five years I’ve been up before the sun on the first Sunday in October to volunteer for a worthy cause. The CIBC Run for the Cure. It's an annual event that raises money for breast cancer.

My role is team leader in the food booth. You'd think that it would be an easy job but it's not. We unpack boxes of food and hand out thousands of items to runners, walkers and breast cancer survivors.

At times the mood can be quite somber when you read the messages on many people’s shirts: running for Grandma or Mom. Last year a little girl, no more than three years old wore a shirt that said, “In loving memory of my Mom”. How tragic for these children, grandchildren, husbands and sisters to lose their loved ones to this disease. I'm glad that I can contribute in a small way by giving my time. Hats off to my sister who ran the 5k race, along with her friends (see pics). Also, hats off to my mom who has been volunteering for seven years, its people like you who make this world a better place. God Bless you.

Word on the Street

I love to volunteer and I love to read books. So naturally one of my favorite events is Word on the Street, an annual book festival. I get to volunteer in an environment where I’m surrounded by books. At the festival there are lots of author readings and thousands of books on sale.

This year I was in the LongPen booth. All of the authors were in other countries (including the Canadian author Margaret Atwood). We were able to communicate with the authors live and the cool part is that they could sign books for fans from wherever they were. What a concept! People in remote areas will have the opportunity to see, hear and have books signed by their favourite authors. What a different age we live in.

I've included a few photos that I took while freezing my buns off in the cold....enjoy.

Happy Birthday To Me

My birthday was a week ago (I know I'm late) and I celebrated the day with a few friends and family. Here are three shots of the lovely hair style my consultant gave me for 'THE BIG occasion' LOL

Tragedy for us all

As I read the Toronto Star on August 30th I came across a familiar picture
(in the obituary section nonetheless), and as I began to read I realized that I knew the person. Actually we went to high school together many moons ago. We weren't close friends, but we'd speak in passing. I'm still in shock over the loss of such a young man, I'm not sure if it's more tragic because of way he died or simply because a Mother had the horrific burden of burying her son.

Yesterday (August 31st) was the viewing and I must say it was one of the most troubling experiences of my life. Why? Simply because of how I felt sitting in that room that wouldn't stop spinning, I couldn't pull my eyes away from the casket, or the woman who was sobbing uncontrollably at the side. I thought to myself, this could be me or any of my friends, he was only 29 years young.

His name was Keith Bogle, a person I wish I'd known better. I can tell by the vast amount of people that came to pay their respects that he was truly a special spirit. Not to mention a devoted Christian, so rare in life we meet a person like this, and I missed my opportunity.

I truly believe that there is a reason why I saw his picture in the obituary section, and a reason too why I felt drawn to attend the viewing. In some way I had to honour and pay my respects to a man who truly knew what friendship, loving and supporting of a friend meant.

Over the past week I learned the true meaning of friendship, and how easily one person can destroy that. I will try not to take anyone for granted and I will no longer let anyone take me for granted. Keith was laid to rest today (September 1st). I was unable to attend, but I will visit his grave to pay my final respects. R.I.P in Keith, I know you've found happiness with the Lord. God Bless You.

THE FUGEES - Nappy Heads

How many people remember this song? One of the best fugees songs ever

Sisters sisterlocked

As I've mentioned before, I have sisterlocks and so does my sister. Mine are about 3 months old (really 6 months due to awful slippage), while my sister's are more than 4 years old. We decided it would be fun to take a picture together to show the vast difference between the stages of sisterlocks growth. I can't wait until my hair is that long. Well, I have at least another year or two to go.

Caribana 2006 Weekend

Well the weekend has come to an end and my feet are killing me. Wow, my sister worked me like a slave on Saturday. On Sunday I went down to Harbourfront for Island Soul , I had a henna design put on my hand (pic below). My sister had her head wrapped at the Rasta market, and I ended up running into one of Toronto's great spoken word artists Dwayne Morgan from Up from the Roots (pic available). Island Soul is one of many events that took place over the Caribana weekend. It's also a long weekend for those folks in Ontario, Canada.

I chose not attend the parade this year or any of the endless parties because the Caribana scene has changed. Friday night used to be the best night, you just hung out on Yonge street (downtown Toronto) and 'people watched' until the wee hours of the morning. The last time I was down there I saw little girls walking around in there underwear (well close to it) being violated by men three times their age. That is just not my idea of fun. Although the people watching is still fun, I still wonder why women chose to take off all of their clothes and parade around downtown in front of hungry/thirsty men. Is it really for the attention? Or is there something about the weekend that leaves them feeling free? I'm thinking, your co-worker could be in the crowd or maybe your mom's good friend from back home. What would they say if they saw you in your best Caribana 'batty riders'.

Nonetheless, it's still a fun weekend, but its time for me to experience the original carnival in Trinidad and play mas, yes play mas. I wonder if I can do it undercover? Next thing you know I'm on the front of the Share newspaper (one of Toronto's Caribbean papers) or yet a student from school sees me (LOL) oh lawd.

R.I.P Louise Bennett Coverley aka Miss Lou

Miss Lou will be buried tomorrow in Kingston, Jamaica. She lived a long life and blessed so many people with her gifts. Importantly, she legitimized the language of patois. Thank you Miss Lou.

Rest in peace Miss Lou, you are a cultural icon and a one of a kind spirit. Walk good.