Why celebrate my birthday all week? Maybe it is making up for lost time. Growing up in my family, birthdays were not a huge deal. I had two parties as a kid and one as a teen, probably after pleading with my mother that other kids were having their parties (and it was rare to get invited). So in "keeping up with the Joneses"-style, I had a party at Chuck E. Cheese and also one at home with modest numbers (under five). My Sweet 16 was not quite what I expected. I pictured an amazing wild teen party with dancing and lots of folks. Yet, being a bit of a nerd, my friends and I sipped punch in the basement and had quiet conversation. Although the food was good and most of my closest friends showed up, I was seriously lacking in the boy department. Little has changed (except I'm engaged, of course).
My younger middle sister's surprise Sweet 16 that I organized, on the other hand, made up for that with a basement party reminiscent of the Sean Paul's Get Busy video (linked below). Her party was complete with deejay and my father, who looks and dresses a lot like the Caribbean dad in the video, coming downstairs to lock off the music and shut down the party (when it was just getting good, okay, okay, the van load of guys who showed up probably hit his limit). By the way, did they film this music video in my parents' house? The basement looked a lot like that. I know this music video was filmed in the Greater Toronto Area so it probably was not too far from my parents' house.
Sean Paul - Get Busy
My birthdays have been bittersweet in the past. Great since I am a bit of an egotist and love all things me (including a day to celebrate my birth). But bitter too, since I have a birthday at the end of August, my invitations sometimes go out unanswered or turned down since this also the time when folks are b-u-s-y going to barbeques, vacations, the cottage, and squeezing every last bit of summer before it's "back to school again." August 24th is when the summer heat starts to cool down and it gets windy at times and rainy sometimes depending on what remnant of hurricane makes its way to Canada, it starts to get darker earlier, and maybe, just maybe, you find yourself getting more depressed that summer is ending real soon. (In case you're curious, my sister's birthday is in June.)
So fastforward to my current birthday, my 34th! Aaahhh! I can't believe I'm 34.
It is a blessing I know especially since I have also survived cancer as well. I am also blessed to have loved ones who can share this occasion with me.
So here is an event list, the rundown, an itinerary of my 34th Birthday Week 2012! (Gosh,I sound like Joan from Girlfriends.) Some of these also overlap with another Funky Sexy Manifesto as well.
- Eat at Hogtown Vegan restaurant (Check out Vex in the City: Part 11 Hogtown Vegan)
- Celebrate a birthday with someone else who shares the same birthday (I know several and coincidentally we are all artists: a make-up artist who used to dance on television, an artist/deejay, an art administrator/film critic, a tattoo artist, and even Dave Chappelle, a musical comedian, and me? I'm the writer. Maybe all this creativity and artistry is from the angst of having an end of August birthday.)
Dave Chappelle and I share the same birthday
- Day in Waterloo with my friends and breakfast with a professor there who I have been planning to get together for years
- Attend a potluck with other survivors
- Latin Dance Girls' Night
- Funky Sexy Manifesto #1 Have a "Celebration of Life" party (instead I changed the name and called it the ICanSurvive Picnic)
My Latin Dance crew.
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