Slow Metamorphosis

Its my birthday!!!!!

I had a great weekend and I am just happy to be alive and healthy today. I had an extremely busy weekend and thank you to all my friends and family who made this a memorable day for me.

I will have to give a recap of the weekend complete with pictures and all but not today :-P

This morning a sista is TIYAD! Yes yes ya’ll that’s a step past tired. Lol

I went to the social step event again…game night. I brought my co-worker and friend Kim and Reenie met us there. We had such a great time. Kim and Reenie got along great which was nice…we were all talking like we had been old friends, we are all Virgos so you know how we do!!!! Lol I had intended to STRICLTLY play Scrabble and some poker but ended up doing the Karoake thing instead. Can I say that I made a total fool of myself, but had a great time doing it. We did Lauryn Hills That Thing, TLC No Scrubs, um um…there is more but I cant remember right about now. There was this guy there that had us cutting up whooping and hollering for him cuz he did Ushers ya make me wanna and he had the dance moves and all that. Carol (tigrebalm) was there doing it big solo style. Lol. L came and got us and took us home and I didn’t go to bed till 2am. TIYAD! BUT all in all I had a great time, I will be back!
My birthday is fast approaching—Sunday is the big day! And Yve is coming to town, Ro, her and I are supposed to be going out Saturday night for a grown and sexy night on the town. I can’t wait. We are thinking dinner, theatre and perhaps a club/lounge, I shall see how it goes and I will definitely keep ya’ll informed.

Happy Hump Day

The weekend was pretty calm and uneventful. Friday I went to the gym after work…did the elliptical and then went and got my eyebrows threaded and went to BK to hang out with my sister. We watched Buffy, the first season. I used to be such a Buffy FANATIC in college. I had a friend who she and I would sit every week and watch Buffy….lol sad. Then I went to the BX to see L and show him the hair…he didn’t like it…men and the whole long hair thing…I wont get it.

We have a stray dog in our backyard, she has been there since Thursday and she won’t leave. She will go for a walk and then come right back to the house. She took our dog’s cushion that we put out to dry and has turned that into her bed. Apparently my cousin has been feeding her and that’s another reason why she aint leaving but she is sooo darn cute, and VERY friendly. It appears her owners didn’t want her anymore because the clipped the name tags off and they must have just turned her loose. She loves to be petted and is trained (if you tell her to sit she will – unlike our dog. Lol ) Needless to say my parents got this guy from our church who wants her to come and get her and they got her.

Saturday I went to church and then came home and chilled. L came over with his daughter and we went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which I thought was such a cute movie. I loved it. L and some of the younger teenage girls were in the movie theatre heckling the screen….cracking jokes on poor Charlie and his poor family and “gay” Willy Wonka. SMH. I cant take him anywhere!

Sunday I got up early went to the gym with my sister and her friend, sat in the steam room for a bit. We did the elliptical and then took this class that WHOOPED our asses! We had to sneak out. It was no joke. The instructor asked us to come back next week…hmm we will see bout that one. Hot Steam….I’m telling ya’ll I was sweating like nobody’s business. That’s a sure fire way to clean everything out your system. Now in the steam room this girl comes in and damn near puts her crotch in my sisters friends face…she gagged and moved to the other side of the room which had us cracking up. I will never understand why folk at the gym feel like its ok just to have all your stuff hanging out and thrown in other people’s faces. I know it’s a locker room but can we have some damn shame please. UGH. Went home and was so damn tired I napped for a bit. Saw a little bit of the Dove Awards and then went to the BK to see my friend Reenie. She got me a souvenir from her trip to Disney. It was the most adorable mug…love mugs….I kinda have a lil collection going. Reenie and I were supposed to go this party last night for a friend of a friends birthday but we never quote made it. Lol. We sat around while she took her hair out and just talked and looked at pics from her FL trip and watched Moniques Fat Chance on the Bravo channel. The girl who won was my personal choice but the second runner up…the lady who was bald…was GORGEOUS!!!! I missed the dancing in the beginning which is what I wanted to see but oh well. Lol Well back to work!

The surgery went well. They kept her for a little bit because she was feeling dizzy and nauseous but they let her out about 1. My sister and I took her home and fed her and she was knocked up but up in time to watch Oprah. Lol. She has been complaining of chest pains so my sister is taking her to the doctor today so they can check her out, but all in all things are looking good for the time being.

I want to thank you all for all your prayers and kind words and for those who emailed me on the side checking in and showing genuine concern, even Ro for her crying story cuz errr umm… I was doing the same thing at work. I appreciate it all so much. Have a great weekend guys..


Oh by the way!!! On the hair tip…I took my braids out. And went to the barber shop :-O Yes ya’ll I got my hair cut off and I am chilling. Ok let me stop fronting. I almost cried when he first put the clippers to it, but hell. Its hair and it will grow back and I am so excited about this whole thing. Moreover I read NatiDreads page and she was talking about not being able to just wear your own hair and not that she was saying this but instantly I felt like I was gipping myself of the experience of just doing the whole cut and starting from scratch. But Alas I am here. I got over myself and just did it….. Wanna see it? Here it goes

My family is known for its meetings. We have them all the time. Anytime there is an issue in our house, my parents call a family meeting. This morning my mom calls me at 7 am to ask me to come upstairs because she has to say something to both my sister and me. So of course I’m like oh great a family meeting at this time when I am already behind schedule on getting ready to go to work. JUST what I need.

The meeting lasted all of 5 minutes. She is going in for a procedure at the hospital on Thursday and she wants one of us to take her….What procedure? Why? What’s going on? She doesn’t want to answer which only manages to make me ask more questions and get increasingly nervous. So I finally get her to admit that her EKG showed some type of mini stroke but that’s not what they want her in there for. They think she may have uterine cancer….so they want to go in…..

I don’t know how to feel about this. I mean a mini stroke…she never said anything to me at least about it. I know that she is stressed with all the stuff that is going on in our house with family and all that, but a stroke? I keep trying to get her in the gym to work out…..pump up the heart a lil bit, which I think I may have to enroll her myself at this point. And then uterine cancer? In my mind I keep telling myself that that isn’t solid yet…they don’t know that for sure soooo….for now I am not worried, well maybe I am worried just a little bit. But she is going in on Thursday and even though my sister said she would drive her, I want to go as well.

This weekend was interesting to say the least. I may have to go back to Thursday though since I haven’t posted in a while.

Thursday – We had our annual company softball game. We went to Jersey to play our Jersey office, we had the whole company tees and all that. We were the Soho Sluggers and they were the Bloomfield Bombers. Here is the team shot. Last year when I went I was NOT playing. I went as a cheerleader but this year I decided I didn’t want to be anyone’s cheerleader. Let them cheer for me dammit. Lol. While there I hit and I made a run and dammit to hell I pulled a muscle as I was coming round 3rd base to home. I kinda sat it out the rest of the game and just chilled. I had my friend who lives in jersey come and pick me up because unlike last year this year I was NOT gonna be stuck in Jersey with my co-workers while they got slooshy drunk and then try to make it all the way home to queens and come in to work in the morning. Come Friday morning I gots work to do and lots of it and Im not trying to be all dog tired…..10:30 people. Lol















Friday- A lot of my co-workers called in sick on Friday---or rather drunk and recooping from their binge on Thursday. I came in…did some work in the lab….oh I didn’t tell you. As a part of a new product we are offering to our clients we are drilling…surfacing and finishing lenses. So basically we are making rimless frames in our office. We have a lab and everything. We are supposed to each put in an hour a say or so doing a few frames per week. At first I was like count me out but I was like what the hey…and I actually like it. It is sooo interesting to me. So Friday I did that…my lab partner tho didn’t come in cuz you know he was recouping so I got a new partner and her and I were in there giggling up and chatting up a storm! I wonder if I can trade partners??? Lol anywho I went home and chilled a bit…relaxed cleaned and all that.

Saturday—I pretty much slept all morning… my brother was coming into town from Canada so I was waiting to hear from him. I took some stuff to church for a friend and her and I chatted about our hair and the whole natural process we are going through. I am so ready to take these braids out it’s a shame. Then my dad asked me to take him to BK to pick up his car from the mechanic and I did and instead of going home I went to visit my sister and cousin. Ended up staying there pretty much the rest of the day, my brother came and we hung up…giving bf advice to my sister and we went to visit my aunt. She has the cutest natural…after seeing her I was inspired to take the braids out and just rock my lil fro; so bookclubbers be prepared, lol. So some time this week I am going to start taking the braids out. YAY!

Sunday – After leaving BK all late and crap…I didn’t get to sleep until 12:30 about, but come Sunday morning I was up EARLY!!! So I asked my sister K (let me clarify sister that lives with me is K – sister in BK is Rush for the future…ok) if she wanted to go to breakfast and then to the gym….she wanted breakfast but not the gym…but I told her she cant do one but not the other. Lol. So we went for breakfast my treat and then headed to the gym….belly all full. Lol. Well I hit the elliptical and stayed on that for an hour – 4.6 miles and 600 calories later I was feeling good. My sister….I don’t know WHAT she was doing. Lol. She was walking around acting like she was doing something and not a sweat did she break. Lol. Went home showered and headed to BK to get Rush because she wanted to go to the Aqueduct flea market. That didn’t quite happen. Lol. We ended up watching the first season of Buffy which I LOVE LOVE LOVED back in the day and didn’t get to the flea market till they were getting ready to close. Lol we did get some cute bags for $5. After I took her back to BK I took my behind home…folded some laundry and got ready for work. Talked on the phone to L and took my behind to sleep.


I have to say that this weekend was kinda hard because they released the 9/11 tapes to the public. Hours and hours of taped 911 calls and it was really emotional to say the least. They had it on the news all weekend and it was just like everything came back all over again. I know that a lot of the families who lost loved ones in the WTC collapse need this to help with closure…to know what happened. But the news has been playing segments of the tapes over and over again….showing people running away from the towers as they collapsed and I found myself looking and the old feelings of despair and sadness taking over so I had to turn it off. *sigh*

Last night I finally made it out to the SocialStep event in Brooklyn that Carol (TigreBalm) who I met in Chicago) had been telling me about. It’s just a gathering for folk who wanna play games. They have all the card games, so you know the card sharks were out to play spades and poker, they even had the PS2 hooked up, but most importantly I heard they had Scrabble…. *sigh* Ok…I LOVE LOVE LOVE Scrabble and I am sure that makes me some kinda geek or something but I just don’t care. I used to play all the time in college with my roommate but ya know after college is the real world and it just seems I never have anyone to play with.

I had originally planned to just go right after work which in hindsight was a great idea. Instead of going there, I went home to take my contacts out which were killing my damn eyes and I changed my clothes and got comfy and got the driving directions from mapquest and emailed it to my cell and then I headed out in the ole hoopty. Oh by the way…the hoopty has a name now. I have decided to call him Rocky. I know most people consider their cars women….but my car is a man….and there are several reasons I think so….but at the risk of scaring you even further with this….imma stop now. But it’s a man…Rocky. Lol

Anyway, I headed out there without any mishaps…found the place in a quick and timely fashion when I walked up…there wasn’t much going on. It started at 6pm but there were just some people sitting at the bar drinking and just chilling. I looked through this free magazine they had at the door with Goapele on the cover. Her locks are the BOMB. I asked one of the patrons there if he knew when and where they would be playing scrabble and he called the guy over who apparently organized the whole thing. He asked me to give him a lil bit and then he came over introduced himself and proceeded to take me into the depths of the spot to the seated patrons to introduce me. And guess who was there?? Danjaruz! Lol yea in all her Queendom chatting away. We hugged and exchanged pleasantries and then headed to get some grub rather than the $6 fries. Lol. We talked a lil bit and she is cool as hell. Then we got down to the good ole fashion Scrabble playing. I was elated to be playing again…and with people who knew how to play. Of course I won….cuz I am the shit. First word out the box…..Quays! Then the went to play poker with the chips and all these folk are big time lol and I sat back and learned how to play the game. Next week L is talking bout going with me cuz he wants to shit talk and play spades….lol. I will be back for the scrabble and potentially the poker. Either way I had a good time. Thanks TigreBalm for inviting a sista and thanks Danjaruz for chilling and introducing me to ya peoples.
I have some pics…will try and post tonight.

Needless to say…today I am tireder than I don’t know what. And I know that’s not a word but oh hell well. You know a sista gotta be at LEAST in bed by 10:30 or Im just no good. Anyway have a good one!

Oh this is a good one....please check this article out..
Sinead O' Conner records a reggae album.... *sigh*

http://music.yahoo.com/read/news/22608546

R.I.P. Peter Jennings

I wake up this morning to hear that Peter Jennings died of lung cancer at the age of 67, it is sad to see my grandfather died of the same thing.

Why does it seem like everybody is dying from cancer? Is it something in the air? Something in the water? Some cancers I can see, I mean lung cancer you are introducing it to your body but still it seems like cancer is sooooo prevalent and no one really knows why......

*singing* I went to the gym….I worked it out….

I was working so hard that my damn fingers were sweating. Lol. And why oh why after all this time and gaining back 10 pounds of the 23 that I lost do I run into my old trainer? Curtis! – Such a Black name aint it? Lol and he black, black tall and skinny so I don’t know how he can tell me anything bout working it out and losing weight. But when he was working with me…..I felt the pounds melting off….hmmmmm

*note to self* Get Curtis to give you the hood rate. Because I sure as hell WILL NOT pay 700 for 10 sessions….bad enough I got that other package to begin with.

Anywho….so needless to say despite it being only my first day back I feel mightier than a sparrow hell I even feel skinny this morning…

And I am wearing my shirt from Chicago that I HAD to have….

Wanna see it here it go!

I signed up to volunteer at the BRC, which is a facility that deals with homeless men and women in NYC. It gives them places to stay, take showers, food and help with getting on their feet. Yesterday was my first volunteering experience and it went well. I walked there from work….6th and Canal to Bowery and Bleeker…ok can I say that was my damn workout for the day. It was SO hot out yesterday. On the way over I noticed that the closer I got to that are the more dismal it looked. I am used to seeing homeless people, what New Yorker isn’t but in that area its so in your face that it’s ……sad. Across the street from the place where I was to meet with the coordinator was a seemingly abandoned building and on the steps all around it were homeless men in various stages on dress and undress if you will….laying on the steps…sleeping. One man had his head back hand over his eyes, mouth wide open…all his front teeth….GONE. I wanted to round them all up and drag their asses to the BRC….stuff food in their mouths and shove them in the shower…but Rick (the coordinator guy) said that a lot of them DO not want to come. The BRC has a van that they drive around especially in times of extreme weather be it hot or cold in all the 5 boroughs and try to convince people to come and some people just flat out refuse. I can’t help but feel like something more has to be done, its apparent that a lot of those men are more than just homeless they are mentally ill, some are substance abusers…would it be a violation of their rights to force them into a program for their own good when they are in that far gone of a state? I mean they can’t possibly be in charge of their own wellbeing when its obvious that they are ill-equipped to make those choices on their own….or at least that’s the way that I see it. But I got off the point….um

Yea so we put together little baggies with the basic essentials which included: washcloths, little hotel style mini soaps, razors, liquid deodorant (don’t ask- it was even in a mini sample tube), mini sample size toothbrushes and toothpaste and I think that was it. When I say sample size ya’ll I don’t mean the small ones you get at Target or something. I mean flat mini sample size kinda like the ketchup they give you when you go to the deli or something. Yeah that. Lol. I’m like what are they gonna do with this…this is a one maybe 2 time use at most. Ugh. But I guess when you have nothing any little bit helps. It was cool. The only thing was we ran out of a lot of the supplies and so we ended up having to stop so the program director lady has to re-order everything and then we are going back in to make about 1,000 of these bags a month. While we were there we all chatted to make the time go by, some interesting folk....Rick the coordinator, who is half japanese and white...was an army brat, one japanese girl...many careers just passed the bar, a librarian at an elementary school, a guy who just came back from some trip where he stayed for 10 days and meditated....wasnt allowed to talk, watch tv, talk on the phone not even make eye contact with his fellow cabin mate....that was what we really talked about more than anything. lol.

When I left…..I felt good because I felt like I was doing something….instead of complaining or just turning my nose up in disgust, but at the same time….it was sad. I felt like 1,000 bags weren’t enough but I’m sure their funding is limited and they are doing an awesome thing as it is. I think I want to work more with the ladies though…because if I get another toothless man trying to gum it to me….I’m going to be ill. LOL. Just kidding….trying to lighten my mood a bit. But more than anything I want to talk to them….you know get to know them better….maybe that’s doing too much I dunno…..

Last week my sister kept talking about her getting a car. The problem is that when she went to get quoted for insurance, they were all trying to charge her like 2G’s for 6 months. She asked me if she could go under my insurance….at which time I laughed so hard I almost pissed on myself. THAT! Is NOT going to happen. Neva Eva Eva. First off, she has no job to pay insurance so not only will my rate go up but I will be paying the whole thing myself. Second, there is no WAY I’m going to put her on so that she can get into an accident and then I get stuck with either higher rates or getting dropped all together. This morning I realized why telling her no was probably the BEST thing I ever did.

My mom called me to tell me she was sick and would not be going to work so I was either going to take the car or have my sister take me to the train station. I opted to have her take me because I wasn’t trying to find parking and all that. On the way there she is behind a truck with another truck right next to us on the right hand side. She swerves over in front of the truck on our right hand side and of course he honks because she did it so closely that he almost ran into the back of the car. Um was that necessary??? NO! She could have waited, but NO she has to prove to everyone that she is big willie driver and not the typical “female driver”. Then the clincher. We are approaching a light that was orange and then turned red, the car in front of us stops. Nothing is to our right. She swerves again from behind the car and continues to drive through the now SOLID RED LIGHT. I see a car on the other side about to make a right hand turn and would be running right into us, she does not see the car and of course that driver is NOT expecting a car to be coming from behind a blatant red light. I SWEAR TO GOODNESS the car was 2 inches from us, she screams and swerves to the right and we JUST JUST JUST missed getting creamed and splattered all over Liberty Ave. I am sooooo pissed off at this point that I am like WTF is wrong with you? To which she replies the light was orange!!! Knowing GOOD and well that it was NOT orange but red, I was soooo shook, hands were shaking…still shaking. I wanted to kick her ass. Even the dog in the backseat was shaken because he came over and laid his head all up on my arm.

If she thinks that I am going to be putting her name on my insurance OH HELL NO! that crap will never happen in this lifetime.

Needless to say I THANK Jehovah for everyday miracles – dangers seen and unseen and for breath of life this morning.

This weekend was cool I will start with Friday and I have to cross-list my post from my hair blog to fully update SO!

I DID IT !!!!!

I finally did the big chop. I know this isn't my hair blog but I had to cross-list this post, cuz I'm happy bout it. I know I had intented on transitioning for a year up until February, but I woke up Friday morning feeling frustrated and just got a pair of scissors and lopped it off.

I had two things that concerned me. First my bf was NOT happy about me cutting my hair, in fact he said on many occassions that he would break up with me if I did! lol. Needless to say I cut it anyway and we are still together. What is it with men and hair...? The second thing was my own fear. I dont know what my hair will do or what to even do to it, which is a damn shame to say the least but I was afraid of cutting it and then walking around looking crazy all the time. lol. But I sucked it up and did it! I cut it and then I got braids to help grow it out to be even and get some length on it, that plus Im too lazy to do it for work in the morning. I do have pictures of the BC and the braids and I will get them up once I upload them from my camera. I will share. But it will definately be over on my hair blog not on this side.

Saturday - no church. I had a doctors appt and even though they called me to come in earlier than the scheduled appt. I got out of there too late to get to church. So I stayed home and chatted it up with my sister. Then Sat. night I went to the Musiq concert at BB Kings, which was HOT! I love me some Musiq and I am happy I got a chance to go cuz he sure did rock the house. Now let me tell you what happened while I was there…why the man standing next to me with his wife in front of him was winking at a sista??!?!?!! I was too through. I'm like no he did NOT just wink as he is grinding all up on his wife. EWWW YUCK! Get away! I swear! Then afterward my friend and I went to Red Lobster in Times Square for dinner, and WHY I found plastic in my damn cheddar bay biscuit! So you know how I do---get the manager over here pronto and he apologized up a storm and gave us a discount. Needless to say my homegirl told me when she got home with her leftovers she found more plastic in her food…UGH. I got home about 3 am and went right to bed, but my mom and my dad KEPT calling me every hour on the hour from 4 am on because they were going on the church picnic and kept needing to borrow things. UM….why are ya’ll waking me up!!!! I was sooo heated. Finally when they left I got up thought I was bout to go to the gym, but it didn’t quite happen. I ended up waiting for my sister to get ready and in the process fell right back to sleep. When I finally got up, I cleaned a lil bit and then my sister and I went out on a double date to see Stealth with Jamie Fox. It was oooook. The movie went kinda slow and it could have been done better.
All in all it was a good weekend.