It’s hard to believe that another year has begun. Just last night as I was settling on my couch ready to relax with a glass of wine and a good book, I found a stray pine needle poking out from in between the cushions.

The holidays may have taken place just a few weeks ago, yet somehow it already feels like a distant memory.

Isn’t that the case with everything? Every January I make a point of taking stock of the year’s events, trying to remember what took place in those 12 months … and, if it weren’t for my photos and Daytimer, I’d think we did next to nothing at all. Yet I never fail to remember the not-so-good stuff.

I remember when our cars were broken into and our personal items were stolen. I remember when the doctor told me I might have early signs of arthritis in my neck.

I remember how terribly claustrophobic I felt lying in an MRI machine for 20 minutes (turns out my neck is fine!).

I remember when my husband was in a small car accident, nothing serious, thank goodness.

Granted all of these things can build our character and make for great dinner stories … but why is it so easy to remember those types of events?

Looking back at my photos and the notes I meticulously take in my agenda every day, I also see that this past year my sister and I, along with our husbands, took our first ever weekend ski trip to Mont Tremblant sans kids (we almost forgot to ski — we were having so much fun!); my husband and I were finally able to buy our dream vehicle; my grandmother celebrated her 100th birthday; and we took an incredible trip with our kids to Washington, D.C., and Myrtle Beach (which reminds me: my son was bitten by a jellyfish! Poor thing!).

We also celebrated lots of birthdays, our 19th wedding anniversary and a new school year. There were spur-of-the-moment pool parties and family gatherings. There were also many moments of great pride in our children’s achievements and loving moments when all six of us crowded together on one couch to cuddle while watching Glee!

Two thousand and ten may have come and gone, but that pine needle in my couch reminds me to stop and take it all in a little more often.

We get so busy with our dayto- day lives, but 2011 is the year I will make an effort to smile at the small stuff, like the sleepy hugs I get from my family every morning or when the six of us are able to have dinner together or when I hear one of my kids playing the piano (even if they choose to play the same piece 100 times in a row!).The small stuff, those are the things that often matter the most if we just stop and live it as it’s happening.

That’s my New Year’s resolution for 2011, and I invite you to do the same. Let’s focus on the good, the love, the positive. Most of us will have not-so-great moments this year, but we don’t have to let them define the entire year.

And just to remind myself of this pledge I’ve made, I have taped that pesky pine needle I found in my couch on the first page of my 2011 agenda. Let the New Year begin!

Catherine Marion has been the much-loved co-host of Slice TV’s The Mom Show since 2005. The former stay-at-home mom and teacher has four kids (including twins!).

At first it’s hard to notice them. It’s easier to spot the café, the children’s clothing shop, the restaurant.

Illegal massage parlours are found in just about every neighbourhood in the city often masquerading as spas, holistic centres or even hair salons. But, hidden from view they are potentially offering a gamut of unlicensed and illegal services, including sex.

According to concerned local residents, the places are not only eyesores, but hotbeds for unsafe activity as well. The more that open up, the more it becomes a problem.

“Once your eye opens to them,you see them everywhere, whether you are driving along Eglinton or Bayview,” said Paige Cowan, owner of Canadian Wild Bird Co. on Mount Pleasant Road. “You look up above the stores and you see a shining light that says ‘massage.’”

Currently, the city caps the number of “body-rub parlours” it licenses at 25.

The city licensing rules state there can be no “offering, selling, giving, performing or soliciting of any service other than bodyrubs,” meaning no sex services. According to the city, a body rub is a massage that “does not include medical or therapeutic treatment.”

Cory Crawford, a constable with local 53 Division, said unlicensed establishments continue to operate outside the established rules and are difficult to police.

Tammy Kenward used to work as a receptionist at a licensed massage parlour and said before she was hired the owner evaluated her based on her looks.

She said parlours will hire a girl as a receptionist and then train her to be a masseuse.“A lot of them were really young and just kind of brainwashed into it,” said Kenward. “They would see how much money the girls were making, sometimes $500 a night.

They think it’s easy money; it’s not.” Moreover, even though it is illegal for girls to offer sex on the premises, Kenward said it would still happen.

“There were a couple of girls who were doing things they weren’t supposed to do,” said Kenward, in reference to the place where she worked. Many of the guys soliciting services were seedy and wanted more than they paid for.In some instances, she had to act as the bodyguard if someone started threatening one of the employees.“I didn’t really feel safe in that sense at all,”said Kenward.

While Kenward worked at a licensed massage parlour, there are even more parlours that operate without a license.

Cowan has owned Wild Bird Co. for nearly twenty years and said there have always been parlours in the area.

But she really started paying attention 10 years ago. “They started to stick out like sore thumbs,” she said. Over the years she has worked with locals, contacting councillors to have the places shut down.But, she said, efforts have largely failed. Today she can see several from her store. “At any one given time, within my view of the store there are like five of them,” she said.

Louis Ourique, the owner of Lolo Restaurant on Yonge Street near Briar Hill Avenue, said he too is surrounded by massage parlours. When a place does get shut down, such as a former parlour in the Castle Knock Road and Eglinton Avenue area, he said it is the exception rather than the norm.

While he worries about how the parlours affect the quality of a neighbourhood, he said he is more worried about the safety of the girls. “You have a woman alone in an apartment with an open door,” said Ourique. “Something will eventually happen.”

Despite these concerns, both legal and illegal massage parlours continue to operate.

According to Constable Crawford, only certain officers in Toronto are qualified to do undercover work in places such as massage parlours. Oftentimes they’ll wait to investigate until they have a lead, something to go off of.

Other times, they may investigate a parlour for bylaw infringements.

“The little bylaw stuff is easier to prove than criminal allegations,”said Crawford, who notes that often the fines are too expensive for the business to continue running.

However, one trend is making it even harder to investigate the illegal places: more and more parlours are opening up in condominiums.

“They seem to be moving into condo buildings and private residences,”said Crawford.

“People are complaining that they’re living across the hall from a massage parlour or brothel.”

Cowan said she is frustrated by what she calls a lack of police action in shutting down the parlours.

Although she said she does not approve of them, if they are going to operate regardless, then for the sake of the employees she would prefer them to be legal and licensed.

It may happen sooner rather than later. If a decision by Ontario Superior Court Justice Susan Himel is allowed, which will strike down laws restricting how prostitutes solicit clients, then bawdy houses — or places kept for prostitution acts — will become legal.

“I’m not an advocate,” said Cowan. “But if it is going to be condoned anyway,then I hope it can be legalized in a way that would make it safer for the girls.”