Friday in Toronto

Hello everyone,
I am so excited. Last walk and it is in Toronto and I will be surrounded by my incredible group of friends. Here is an idea of how great these people are. Every year we hold a golf tournament in May to raise money for the walk. The money raised is put into a pot and who ever is short we use this money to top them up to the $2,000 mark. Well, last year when we decided to do this (7 walks for Pat and I) my teammates agreed that any money we had left over from the golf tournament (from 2006) would be carried over to 2007 in case Pat and I needed it. Well, thanks to your incredible generousity we did not need to dip into it very much. So, once we made sure that everyone on our team had enough money for the $2,000 an e-mail went out all of the Centurians about donating $1,000 of this money to Karen and Joseph. If you remember, they are the couple from Cambridge who were doing the walks in all seven cities also but were having some problems raising the money. Within an hour and I do mean an hour the team vote was...a unamious YES. Let's do what we can to help get them to that level. It did not surprise me...but it still made me feel really good about the people I was about to share my weekend with. Even with our donation Karen and Joseph were still short...but through the spirit of the event another person came up with the difference and Karen and Joseph reached their goal. When we saw them on Saturday morning the expression on their faces said it all. I was able to share with Karen and Joseph what I receive from these people everyday. It felt real good.
Registration opens at 3 and we leave for downtown at 2. By now we are spoiled at how quickly we can register at each of the events but the sheer numbers of walkers and volunteers in Toronto brings it all back to us. It took us 45 minutes just to get into the parking garage at the CNE. Usually I would be so fraustrated with the traffic...that day was different. This crowd of people were all doing the same thing...raising money for breast cancer. As we enter the Energy Centre it is shortly after 3 and already the line up for the safety video is snaked back and forth across the hall. We have no choice but to enter the line up. As we cross the floor one way, back the other and back again, there is a reception line waiting for us. In this line is Paul Alofs, CEO of the PMHF, Christine Lasky VP of Communications PMHF, Dr. Tak Mak,a world renowned breast cancer scientist who works at Princess Margaret, Dr. Ben Neele and two other Dr.'s (I am sorry I can not think of their names) and they are shaking the hands of each and every walker and volunteer in line and thanking them for this weekend. It really gave a "face" to who the people of the Princess Margaret Foundation are. It was a very nice touch.
We all get registered and we arrange to meet at what has now become a tradition. Dinner at Canynon Creek on the Friday before the walk. As we take our seats many of the staff ask us "is it that time of year again for the walk?" They always treat us well there but even better...they remember why we are there.
I think all of us are well behaved this night and off we go to the Sheraton Centre for a restful night in our very comfortable beds. I usually had trouble getting to sleep on the Friday nights partly from excitement and partly from nerves. So as usual I fall asleep around midnight and sleep soundly to exactly 3:50 AM when the fire alarm goes off!! Now, I have stayed in many hotel rooms but I have never had the fire alarm go off before and we are on the 21st floor! So this reassuring female voice comes over the loud speaker..."we have detected a problem and the fire department has been called. We will advise you once we know more there is no need to evacuate". Will to me that is a bit of a contridiction if you are on a floor higher then were it has been "detected". Once again, she comes on in a smooth gentle voice..."we have detected a problem and the fire department has been called. We will advise you once we know more there is no need to evacuate"....This weekend traditionally always falls around Sept 11 and I am thinking this is what they told the people in the towers too. My roomie...Pat...has two pillows over her head and is trying desperately to get back to sleep. So I cautiously open the door (after feeling it first) and pop my head out the door like a prairie dog. Only to be met by a couple of other prairie dogs too that are my neighbours. Nobody says anything and we all just shrug however you can hear the footsteps and voices in the stair wells as people are heading down the stairs. But alas, the voice comes over the intercom...and I am expecting her to soothly say..."everything is fine...go back to sleep now" instead what we get is..."the fire department is on the premise and we will advise you more but there is no need to evecaute"....easy for her to say she is standing in the lobby surrounded by firemen!! Again, she comes on and this goes on for about ten minutes. Well, by now I know for sure, that if I start to go down the stairs with my luck, just as my foot touches the last step after 21 flights of stairs the alarm will stop. So, I prairie dog again outside the room but this time I am met by fewer dogs which does not help me at all. Pat now has three pillows over her head. So as I pace the room, my heart racing trying to decide if I should "waste" precious movement by taking the stairs the soothing voice comes over the intercom again..."the problem has been detected and contained. We will be turning off the alarm now." Detected and CONTAINED? What the heck does that mean?? There was a small fire but we assessed it ourselves and we decided there was no need to evacuate? So, as my heart started to return to a normal rate and these questions that I kept asking myself slowly left my head...I slept like a baby from 4:45 till 5 when the alarm went off!! This time though it was not the fire alarm.
As we met in the lobby, our peeps had already been to Tim Horton's for us, we talked about what we all did about the alarm since we were all on different floors. Some of us kept hitting the clock radio thinking it was the alarm, some of us actually did leave the building and took the stairs all the way down, some prairie dogged it and some did just take the pillow and rolled over and figured if it was important they would let us know. Either way it gave us something to chat about on our way to the Ex. I knew it would be an exciting weekend.
With love and thanks,
M.J.