Fassionista

Monday, February 17, 2020

Countdown to Trinidad Carnival 2020

I can’t believe it! In two days I will be crossing one major thing off my bucket list. Trinidad Carnival! This is something I’ve wanted to do for the last 30 years but for one reason or another (work schedule, illness, finances) have been unable to.

Now the time is finally here. In two days, I will be leaving for Trinidad on Caribbean Airlines (another first) and ending up in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

My handsome hubby

My hubby is from Trinidad and is an avid carnivalissimo. He has been “playing Mas” (dressing up in a costume in a masquerade band with about 1000 of your closest friends and dancing, eating and drinking in a day long road party) since he was a teenager and cannot wait to show me the ropes.

I am paying close attention to all of his instructions. Working out to make sure I am in shape for what sounds like six days non-stop with little to no sleep. Buying insoles for my shoes to make sure I can handle the two day road party on February 24th and 25th, 2020. Hydrating like crazy to get my kidneys ready.
SPF sunscreen ✅.
Bug spray ✅
Soca 2020 playlist ✅✅✅

When we first decided to take the plunge and do Trinidad Carnival, we started looking at costumes as there was no way we were going and NOT playing Mas in a band. We looked at some of the top ones such as Harts, Tribe and Poison. While those costumes are incredibly beautiful, I’ve kinda been there, done that for 20 years and was truly looking for something different.

Typical BBF Costume

So, we chose the band K2K Alliance and partners, a medium band (that means 600 people or less😳) that won Band of the Year last year, an unprecedented feat for a medium band in Trinidad and Tobago. Their costumes are very different form the traditional BBF (Bikinis, Beads, and Feathers) costumes seen in the vast majority of bands.

They are focused on the intersection of Fashion and Mas, which (Fassionista, helloooo) really spoke to me. A friend of ours has been in their band for the past 5 years and she confirmed that the experience had been a good one for her. So, after a LOT of back and forth between the hubby and me, we decided to go with K2K for my first Carnival experience.

The band theme is “The Greatest Show” and all of the costume themes center around the Circus, with the circus being a metaphor for life https://www.k2k-carnival.com/shop

We are in the section “Send in the Clowns”. The costume on the right is mine 💞💞💞

Saturday, June 30, 2018

Three years ago my brother died. He was my best friend, my friend for the longest time I’ve been a friend to anyone. We were so different but we totally got each other. There are things about each other that only we knew about and about each other.

Today, I have driven up to the highest peak in Georgia to try to make som sense of all this. Nature brings me closer to him as the outdoors was our playground.

The memories are good but they have not and will never take the place of his physical presence with us. We will always miss you, Shaun. There’s a hole in our hearts that nothing can fill.