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.