winter blues

I know there are some people just loving the snow we've been having. I'm sorry, as one who shovels after each storm, I can officially say, IT BLOWS! Where is spring & can she please be taken off probation? I'm freezing here.

More snow Wed *sigh*

why, thank you fashionista!

I got some love from my well-dressed pal over at The Fat & Fab Fashionista

There's a song I know that goes..."love is something if you give it away, it comes right back to you. It's just like a magic penny, you put it in your pocket and you don't have any. But if you spend it or give it away, it comes right back to you..." So, I'm sharing the sunshine (if you live anywhere in the Northeast you're probably desperate for some right about now).

The rules:

1. Put the logo in your post or within your blog.

2. Pass the award onto 12 fellow bloggers.

3. Link the nominees within your post.

4. Let the nominees know they have received this award by leaving a comment on their blogs.

5. Share the love and link to the person who gave you the award!

Since I'm new to this public blogging thing, I don't have many blog friends (or followers) so you folks get twice the love...

1. Right back atcha, Nic-poo

2. Rach

3. Cucumber Juice

4. The Journey

5. Salfrico

6. My Life in Brazil

No you may not!

No, Ren, you cannot play in the playplace! Such a child at heart. Having intentions to go jam in BK's playplace with the 4 year olds hahaha

be a sweetheart!

So, it came to my attention that not all things sweet are tasty.

I was watching a popular show that had an entire chocolate room done by Godiva (yummmo!) and I've always wondered where on earth their chocolate came from because I know there is no cacao trees in Belgium, or Europe for that matter. Just curiosity. Color me surprised (not quite) when I found out most of the high end chocolate is from the birthplace of the cacao bean, the Americas, and the bulk of chocolate, 50-70% is from West Africa (think the more popular, cheaper, American brands). No surprise there. Of course, in the typical way of the world, most farmers of cacao (six major providers - Ivory Coast, Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria, Brazil, and Cameroon) don't receive anything near a fair price for their goods, many of the workers are underage - don't do it to the children, pleeeease :(, some work in slave-like conditions, and most have never tasted chocolate.

Now I have little to no money but I think that supporting fair trade vendors is more important than buying my favorite Hershey bar, or Mars bar (Milky Way *long sigh*), or Nestle product (me love some Milo). Maybe when I see the prices of Whole Foods chocolate I'll eat less. Good idea all around. Soon, I'll be broke trying to eat and dress fair (yes, I am going to go there one day *sigh*). I know we all can't stop buying cheaper, more affordable food or clothing but we can make small changes where we can afford to...so next time you have some chocolate, try to make it as sweet as possible by supporting free-trade chocolatier. Be a sweet tooth with a heart.

Read more... and more

Of course I spent some time making sure that Catch chocolate was fair trade...click here for that info

________________________

"We must become the change we want to see." Mahatma Gandhi

"Every mickle mek a muckle." Jamaican saying.
Translated: every good effort, no matter how minor, can amount to something meaningful.

surprises I like...

...catch chocolate and a pink water bottle to keep me on track with my H2O drinking. From a thoughtful friend & sister. Love u Renz.

...pink polka dots in my email inbox. See my new title background? Thanks Salfrico :)

accomplished!

So Thurs before last, I attempted Sudoku for the first time, and failed. Then last Thurs, I was determined to try again. After 3 hours I was 65% there. So Sat I decided to finish up & I did it! These things make my day...I'm a simple girl.

this week in review

-- In the news--

Numero uno - Vancouver winter Olympics. I am an Olympic gal, winter or summer. So I've been loving it. The beginning was sad with the death of Luge athlete, Nodar Kumaritashvili. Is there a reason those walls are so low? So sad. However, there are inspirational stories a plenty. The one of the Chinese pair figure skating coach, Yan Bin, got my attention in particular. Can you imagine not recognizing your own child because you'd been away so long working to make gold medalist skaters for your country? I hope he can retire soon. Who knew speed skating, biathlons, alpine skiing, and figure skating could capture my attention so fully? I'm proud of all the winners :) Does anyone know how the lone Jamaican skier did?

Toyota blues - They're calling it the Great Recall. O boy o boy! To think, the Camry for the past 2 or 3 years has been my dream. I mean, since I have to drive something before I get my Mercedes, and I need something sensible, why not? I always thought they were the most cost effective choice (most ppl consider Toyota, Nissan, & Honda to be somewhat comparable). Some how I went with the Accord instead and now I'm glad I did. I cannot keep track of all the models being recalled, or all the reasons. But I do know the U.S. regulators were slack on their standards during testing, that Toyota has had to (temporarily) close plants, and that I won't be in one any time soon. Have you noticed how Hyundai advertisement has been crowding TV? lol, them, Mercedes, Audi, and US manufacturers are taking advantage big time. I just Googled, and I guess I'm not the only one who noticed - click here.

Tiger's back - Am I the only person who doesn't care? I don't want to see any pics of him or hear about his return to golf. I guess golf fans missed him, women were mad at him, and yes, he may have some issues. Truth be told, I never really liked his public persona. He's done nothing to endear himself to me recently so I still don't care. He has LOTS of issues but who doesn't? If his wife is as gangsta as she's been made up to be, I'm glad of it, and she should keep the golf club elevated over his head until all's clear.

Clearly there's someone madder than I was yesterday. It's Joe Stack. Now he is some hero. All I have to say is, I'm glad I wasn't in that building, I'm sorry for all who were victims of his attack, and I'm relieved there werer't more casualties (though even 2 is already too much). He can be no hero of mine, flying planes into buildings of people working hard to survive what he was too coward to deal with. Real life. The rest of us are still here.

Give me free! Circus zebra breaks free and causes traffic in Atlanta. He prolly needed to go "find" himself...I mean, he doesn't even know if he's white with black stripes or black with white stripes! Yes ppl, I love me some Madagascar.

-- Funnies --

Quote of the week "Men marry women with the hope they will never change. Women marry men with the hope they will change. Invaribly they are both disappointed." Albert Einstein. Sooooo funny :)

-- Shumpy --

Mi back mi back mi back mi %#@ back! (& no, I don't know much more of the song lol) Well, I decided to add another class to my gym routine and it knocked me out of the gym all week. It has nothing on kickboxing of course but I must say I did one of those funky jazz dance moves wrong and now my hip is all out of whack. Well I'm back on Monday cause I can practically hear the fat cells rejoicing...

Biostats - I literally don't want to talk about it. I'm hoping if I keep my head down and close my eyes, my professor will forget I'm in the class :(

For those of us with undiagnosed seasonal affective disorder we are supposedly gonna have sunshine this weekend so no complaining at the moment. But with last week's storm, and Tuesdays mess, I'd just about had it! Supposed to see more snow showers Mon eve. Goody goody gum drops *smirk*

Counting my blessings! They finally sent my updated transit card so now I can purchase my bus passes via my pretax dollars that have been chillin' in my account while I shelled out of my pay check to get into work all Jan and most of Feb. Also, March is on the way, which means April is on the way, which means warmth, more living space (I'm moving!), and hopefully other great things.

Bad hair days have been numerous. I needed a relaxer like 2 weeks ago. But instead here I am going 10 weeks without one. I watched Good Hair, Chris Rock's documentary on black women's hair. It kinda sucked. I looked forward to it sooo much but that whole hair show segment ruined it for me. I don't know much about southern hair culture but I'd have done well without that. The other parts weren't so bad. I loved the barber/beauty shop talk parts the best. I'm still keeping my creamy crack, thank you very much. When I choose to give it up, I'm doing locs.

mail rage

It just took me over 45 minutes to mail a single solitary letter from Washington Heights, NY. Right there on 165th and Audubon.

First of all, they open at 7 am but start window services at 9 am. Smart. Then the postal workers who are to conduct window services don't come in until 9! So at 9am the only window that has started business is the passport window. Then they're bickering and complaining to their boss about I don't know what. I mean crying first thing in the morning kind of anger. So after the workers sort out their issues, they SLOWLY starting getting the till and stuff they need to start working. Great. Late, disgruntled, unproductive workers. I got there early (before 9 because I didn't realize there were half open post offices around), was third in line and even though they had 3 people working at the mail related windows, it took 20 minutes from the time they finally started working to mail my letter. WOOOSAHHHH. It would be remiss of me not to mention that the guy who dealt with me was rather friendly. I could have punched the smile off his face at that point though.

I am NEVER going back to this post office. Never. Did I mention the bulletproof glass between the customers and the workers? One heck of a contraption which is clearly telling me to stay away. Hint taken.
____________________
Want to see what others think of this place? Click here.

how squeezable!

Thanks Vicky for the photo!
Devin, my new God-baby this weekend at his Christening dinner

hey mary j blige...

...can I have 15 minutes alone with your closet? I'll only take what I can carry.

Recently I've been noticing that Ms. Blige has been looking stunning. My true loves in both photos are the necklaces *swoon*

Photos from YBF (here and here)

I have a dream

So now, after reading Rach's blog, I have decided to put myself in an awkward position by declaring that this summer I'll be donning a monokini! Yup. I have decided that my body will be of such a quality. Wearing a bra and panty in public isn't really my thing so I'll likely be rocking this look on a lonely beach lol. Maybe I'll even post a VERY blurry pic. Keep in mind that even in my tiny days, this would never have happened so we shall see.

Photo credit

non stranger danger

This week I tried to watch an Oprah episode where she interviewed convicted child molesters (click here). Couldn't do it. But before I switched I noted something. In the two cases I stuck around to listen to, one offender was an older man whom the victim thought of as a grandfather figure, and the second was the child's FATHER (he had custody of daughter after divorce). I wanted to learn, yes, but this was one of those cases where I just couldn't deal.

Then, this morning on Good Morning America, I saw an interview of the mother whose daughter was kidnapped last fall and found dead two days later (click here). The 'person of interest' in the case is a former neighbor.

Seems like strangers aren't the only people to be wary of and that's sad and disturbing. Is there no respect of person anymore?

___________________

"One should rather die than be betrayed. There is no deceit in death. It delivers precisely what it has promised. Betrayal, though ... betrayal is the willful slaughter of hope."
Steven Deitz

I may have mispoken

I was looking at my old fashioned post and the glaring skip over my college years motivated this post. How could I forget the year when "bitch" was like a term of endearment for me? A couple of my friends would remember those days. I always wonder to them, what on earth was up with me? lol For like 2 years words like that and other choice ones held some appeal to me. A bit out of character, yes, but it happened.

So now you know. It is only fair that you are allowed to tell my future kiddies that mom wasn't always so proper (when I'm trying to pretend I was never 18).

winter wonderland

It snowed and snowed and snowed yesterday. Hugh got to see his first snow storm. Most of the time he was like, what on earth is this and when is it gonna stop? Then he was initiated into the chore no Jamaican has to deal with - shoveling snow. I think it was overwhelming for him lol. First pic was taken in the morning when it just began to snow. Beautiful. No matter how inconvenient and cold winter is, snow storms always look so serene.

Enjoying his first snow...

Still falling at about 7 pm

The fall out after shoveling...great exercise. I got all kinds of muscle aches. Feels great! I wanted to make a snowman during the day but Hugh was looking at me like I was missing screws. In the city, the sidewalks are a beast! I mean, there are garbage trucks collecting snow, front loaders pounding the ice on the sidewalks so people can shovel. But as always NYC goes on...the pigeons (my friends. NOT) are still walking and blocking the way, and there still had to be at least one diva rocking breakyourbehind shoes.

snow day!

I can't wait to go out and take pics.

I'm home but working. Hate that I'm up so early but like a good employee I was planning to head in so I got up at 6:35 am.

I'm dragging the snow newbie (it's my brother's first snow storm!) outside later. Stay warm everyone & be safe!

valentine's day

Of all the commercial holidays, I think it is the worst culprit. I remember one valentine's day back in the 90s when this guy got his wife a Rover (really nice car to us in the Brit commonwealth). It made front page news the next day...my teenage mind thought that was just the best thing ever. But really, what was it for? V-day gets a fail in my book.

First of all, I'll admit, I wouldn't be writing this is if I got a day off. Yea, I'm that shallow. Then there's the pressure to do something on Sunday when I really just wanna chillax...well, too bad. We're chillaxin'

Now onto my spiel.

What really is valentine's day? Like, seriously. I won't say I've done exhaustive research into v-day but if I can't figure it out at almost 30 and no one can offer a brief sensible history of why we even celebrate love on Feb 14th versus Feb 10th, or why it's called Valentine's day, we should rethink. The first thing is we could rename it. I don't hate on Mother's day or Father's day cause we've all decided that we'll celebrate mothers and fathers, respectively. I sure am not celebrating Valentine or Saint Valentine or anyone associated. The next, lets start a love everyday revolution. Who cares abt Feb 14th?

Second, who is it about? When I was younger I thought it was about celebrating love in general. Parents would do cute things for kids (my mom still wishes me happy v-day and I love it of course...but she does cute stuff everyday) and kids make cute cards but somewhere along the line there's a transition. Once you get older it gets all messed up. The net push is toward people in intimate relationships. So single people (if they even care) aren't included. Granted holidays like mothers day and fathers day can suck if you've lost (a) parent(s). Maybe this ramble should be about how all holidays suck...

Then, even if you are married, dating, or in a relationship, it isn't even fair. My very reliable wiki source led me to American Greetings who reports that men spend twice as much as women on average. Why am I complaining again? lol

That leads to my final grievance. It is one heck of a expensive holiday to be having no meaning. It's not an anniversary nor a birthday. Some nerve.

In conclusion, yup, even rambles have shape and form, *gigglesnort*, v-day surely isn't the lone culprit of why people hate holidays but it's a great target. I can find something to love about most holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving, mothers day, and fathers day but any grievance you have related to holidays (expense, loss of meaning, wasted calories, etc), take it out on this one. It can be all your holiday-related issues rolled in one. I still plan to wish people happy v-day (when I remember) and I am most likely gonna do something (tho nothing compared to the average person) so am I a hypocrite or just a hamster on the wheel of life?

-----end of ramble-----

green/black thumbs

This poor thing used to belong to me. Over a year ago, I managed to kill it and my co-worker revived it. Now it's dying again and we don't know why. We're hoping it is the growing cycle. In anycase, my co-worker dug it out, irrigated the soil, gave it warm water (that's supposed to help), and trimmed it down to its skivvies.

Let's all hope it makes it. I don't know how I plan to garden orchids if I can't take care of house plants. I currently have a lovely houseplant combo on my desk that was a birthday gift which I'm working really hard to keep green.

how dare they?!

I cannot believe they're canceling my Ugly Betty ::insert indignant outrage here::

ABC is blaming it on poor ratings but why on earth do they keep moving the show???? How will people watch the darn show on a Friday night. Everyone is out. Most partying and people like me are at choir practice but I still DVR'ed it. Then all of a sudden it got kicked to Wed at like 10 or sometime everyone's trying to head to bed. Boohoo! Let me just say, that is how they killed Christina Applegate's Samantha Who? When you get moved to Friday night, you are on your way o.u.t. OUT!

I watch such little TV that this is a huge dent. Thank goodness I discovered Biggest Loser last season or else I'd be dumping the major networks in favor of prime time TV in Food Network, HGTV, Bravo, and GSN. There's abs nothing else I watch on the big 4 (CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX) - well, outside of Oprah, who is now also done after this season, and news. Oh! I forgot abt Dancing w the Stars (but that's booooring now).

old-fashioned?

I was never the cool kid but I never really thought of myself as old-fashioned...I may reconsider.

This morning I was walking in to work from the bus terminal and a bunch of about 5 boys walk by me. Based on their height (to about my armpits) I'll guess they're about 8 or 9 years old. They are clearly engrossed in their convos and heading to school and I hear them talking about "them bitches." Now, excuse me, but when I was that age neither me nor my friends were saying that word in private. Not to mention in the presence of adults, walking in public, and chattering loudly. Would never happen. No one in the group looked befuddled either, like, "ohmigoodness, Ralph's* so cool since he said that word." It was like nothing big happened. I should say even at 27 I still choose heck over hell, crap over shit, and wth over wtf in my day to day convo so I know I'm a little, shall we say reserved? Even typing those made me cringe just a little. In any case, I didn't realize my day to day curse vocab, which is apparently stuck in the 80s, would be surpassed by that of a 3rd grader...

*clearly a made-up name

no pain, no gain for realzzzz

o.m.g.

I gave my body to the kickboxing gods yesterday at 8 pm and I think they broke it.

Was I ever exercising before? Like, seriously. I loved my time at Curves. I've been doing my classes 3, sometimes 4 times per week (not a circuit girl) for over a year. I lost 18-20lbs there. I thought this new gym experience would be similar. As soon as I noticed they offered kickboxing, I said, "I have to take that!" I was excited to see how I could do because I did kickboxing back in college. I def thought I could hold my own even if I'd be winded at the end. That must have been some moment of delirium. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. No need to tell you all that I forgot the class in college was called cardio kickboxing. Yes, that made all the difference. This class was clearly for professionals. I should have taken the hint when I saw class members take out boxing gloves, and the instructor put up punching bags. OH CRAP. Push ups, jumping jacks, step ups, mountain climbers, squats, bicycle, suicide runs, and a whole range of other exercises I have never had the displeasure of meeting...my arms hurt, the joint that connects them to my body hurts, my back hurts, my thighs hurt. I want to take them off and put them down to rest.

Of course I called in for reinforcements and complained to Ra & Hugh. What did I get? Betrayal. "That's so cool!" "I wanna join!" "Now that's a good exercise!" At least I'll have company in the class soon cause I'm not quitting. By the beginning of summer I will have this class by its ovaries.

my secret job, fashion critic

Unfortunately I haven't the dough to deck myself out as I would like but my sis, Ren and I love fashion (we even still have our 13 plus year old fashion dreams that I won't divulge as we still are planning to make a go at it *blush*). Anyhoo, we bbm, IM, or talk our way through the major red carpet events, critiquing make up, hair styles, shoes, and clothing....we have similar tastes but Ren's a bit more adventurous.

These are my favorite looks from the past weekend's Grammy Awards. The color and cut of these dresses are lovely! I also love the make up...I've decided to start focusing on my eyes too (whatever that means since I still can't apply lashes) and letting the rest be lighter.

And here are my "wouldn't wear it if it were free" styles. I'm a chic and polished kinda girl so I may never learn to appreciate mesh dresses with bathing suits underneath. Then that flesh tone, sequin dress Katy has on is not cute at all. I should say I loved her dress at the EMI party...

all photos courtesy of/stolen from Just Jared