I turn 39 today, y'all! First off. I borrowed this title from Ms. Janet Jackson. This album of hers, a compilation of her greatest hits from 1986 to 1996, was one of the very first CDs I purchased. I listened to it religiously. Back then, I was a proud member of Rhythm Nation—I still am. These lyrics from Control soon became my motto: Got my own mind I want to make my own decisions When it has to do with my life, my life I wanna be the one in control But this is not what this

It’s my birthday today. This year, the plan was to keep things low key. But I headed to Montréal over the long weekend. Needless to say that the plan went south pretty quickly. My homie the mixologist Come over, he said. Some sausages on the grill. Nothing big, he added. He lied. Three (very colourful) drinks later, his wife had cooked a storm and other people had joined us. What started out as a visit to a couple of friends we hadn’t seen in a while turned into an evening of