Saturday, July 24, 2010

This is my town baby!!!

Huffington Post recently published an article naming Toronto as one of the coolest cities in the planet. Okay so I am a bit biased since I now live here, but I have to say I agree. There is not shortage of things to do, for every taste and every budget. There are film festivals, and I am not just talking about the big one TIFF in Sept, but small fringe ones. There are art shows, there is theatre, there is photography. If you are like me, a granola girl, then there is tons of farmer's markets, natural food markets etc. You like antique? We got that too. And every weekend it seem there is a celebration of some sort going on, last week was Indian Parade, this week is Salsa and Carribana... If you like to shop, we have tons of boutique-y place to shop right on the streets and for those that prefer malls we've got that too. We got wine country just an hour drive away... and I could just go on and on. Anyways I just thought I should give a shout out to my new hometown...in the following months as I get more settled in, I will be spending time exploring the many different neighbourhood in Toronto. It'll be so much fun. Years ago when I lived in London I used to take out the A-Z map, randomly flip to a page and then get on the tube and go explore. It never failed, I always found something new and interesting...I think that is the only way you can make a city your own. Finding like gems that are off the beaten path...so here I come Toronto ;0)

Friday, July 16, 2010

Fresh Start....

It's been an awful LONG time since I posted anything. Truth be told, after June 13th 2009, my online life was sort of hijacked, I suppose in a good way, well sorta. Twitter which I used for idle chit chat and some fun banter, became a tool to gather and disseminate news on Iran and the riots...Facebook, same deal...ditto on blog...

Now I don't know about you, but when you have a high stress job, you like to unwind with any extracurricular activities you do, be they online or in real life. So when you suddenly find yourself in a stress-"full" situation 24/7, well let's just say at some point you get burned out....

For me this manifested in a very, very physical way... I ended up with a colitis flare that knocked me out, quite literally. I was sick and at home for a month and probably should have been hospitalized, except well I was determined not to let this damn disease take me down with it...

My last entry in my facebook group for the Iran elections was January 13th, and that pretty much was the peak of my stress, work, health issue....so on doctor's order I needed to cut the stress the hell out of my life, or it was gonna kill me first....

The first step had already been initiated. In December I announced to my managers and CFO of my company that I wanted to relocate to Canada. 10 years ago I moved from Canada to southern california for a job and for what I assumed would be a short stint. One year later I joined a startup company and flash forward to 10 years later, I was still in the US...

It was high time I got back. Every fibre in my being knew this was the right thing to do... The nomadic life I'd lived all my life needed to come to an end. It all sounds so romantic and exciting packing your bag and moving to a new city and new country... but when you've been doing it all your life, you know it's not all that glamorous... You leave in your wake, family, friends, memories, familiarities, etc A quick glance at my facebook profile will tell you most of my 300+ friends live no where near me. And at some point missing out on all that is no longer an option... I need to get to some place I could call home and put down roots. I needed to be back somewhere I could belong...just like that "Cheers" song, where everybody knows my name...

The next few months, I had to deal with trying to get my health back into shape, I won't get into details, but the low point was having the doctor examining me, just shaking his head at how far things had advanced and me quietly crying because I was looking at the images of my ravaged insides and I knew the road back to health was going to be a mighty difficult one unless I started taking stock of my life and making some real changes....fast

Then there was the move, getting rid of stuff, clearing out what I had accumulated over 10 years and preparing for the trip back home.... And there were the get togethers with the many friends I had made in OC, I was going to miss each and everyone of them, but I think they all understood that this was the right choice for me.


And so it was that I found myself back in Canada, in Toronto, on May 15th 2010...hereafter this blog will journal my life in the city, one I hope to make my own... I give you " Marj and the City"