I just may cut her

Last night TheCount and I decided to go out to dinner last minute. I had some gift cards from Restaurant.com and I picked the closest place. Two minutes later when we pulled up at Morgan's and walked in, we realized we were the only customers. Have you ever been the only people at a restaurant from the time you walked in until the time you left? We had some great customer service and great food. Linen table clothes and fresh flowers on the tables all for us :) I think part of the problem is the menu they have posted online is expensive, but when you get there, they have an additional recession menu with much cheaper prices. Perhaps Tuesday is just not a popular night for dining out, all the more reason why I will be going out on Tuesday's from now on.

 

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It hurts my soul to see my obese office mate guzzling Pepsi's all day. I don't understand why she doesn't get it! Her mother is in and out of the hospital and my office mate constantly chastises her for her health choices, but she is headed the exact same way. Uggghhh! I'll try and get a picture and post it later on today.

 

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I'm getting my hair done tomorrow, I haven't done that in so long! I'm going with my best friend to her new hairdresser. She talked to her hairdresser about me and she said she'd help me transition until I'm ready to cut it off. I hope this goes well, I've never had a regular hairdresser before.

 

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TheCount and I both seem to be fighting off a cold. It hasn't hit yet, but it's in the pre-stages. It makes me extra sleepy. Yesterday I almost killed myself trying to walk into our building. I was so tired that I missed the step and my hands were full so I could barely grab the railing. I left a puddle of sweet tea in front of the door, my shoe flew off and everything. As soon as I ate, I took a nap because I just couldn't function. Since TheCount wanted to be hardheaded yesterday, I just drugged his "tea." He figured out it was theraflu though, but I still made him drink it. He refuses to get the proper amount of rest required to fight off illness.

 

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Why is my office mate reading Harry Potter Synopsises (synopsi?, Synopsis'?) out loud to somebody on the phone. This reading is peppered with random singing, and conversations about her baby making plans. Lord Jesus, give me strength, and a plate of mexican food with refried beans- I'm hungry.

Transitioning so Far

It's been 7 months since my last relaxer. Every week I have to pry the scissors out of my own hands because I just want to cut my hair all off. Every day I have to not allow myself to stop by the Hair Cuttery by my job and get them to cut it all off. Y'all I'm tired of trying to manage my hair. I'm tired of trying to blend my new growth with my relaxed hair. TheCount has made it clear that he doesn't want me to cut it yet, so I continue to hold out. I am going to go get a hair cut this week though. Look at that mess on my head...it desperately needs to be shaped. I haven't had a hairdresser touch my hair since, I think, it's long overdue.

This is my go to hair style these days. I wash my hair and let it air dry. Then I cornrow it generously coating it with Whipped Pudding by Oyin Handmade, spray it with water and some foaming wrap lotion and go to bed. Every other night I re-cornrow it.

Unfortunately, I'm the worlds slowest braider and it takes me forever to braid my hair. It takes me about 2 hours to do 6 braids- how lame. I normally just do it while chilling and watching tv, which probably slows me down. This picture was taken at about 2:30 am, or was it 3:30, either way, I was ready to be finished. I need to figure out how to keep my ends looking nice while I sleep. The rollers get twisted and my scarf messes them up too.

Another style that I did while transitioning is twists. My mom helped me do this, because it takes me about 4 hours. We twisted it and set it on perm rods. This was the night I had to help work a birthday party so I did a faux updo and make it a little fancy.

This picture is old and reminds me that I need to get my eyebrows done this week. It's probably from back in May or something like that.

I don't know if I can even get my hair to look this nice anymore. It was my very first transitioning hair style to mask the new growth. You know what, this took a long time too. I notice a trend with me, it takes me a long time to look presentable.

Yeahhhhhhh, more and more I want to cut my hair off. 2 inches of hair has to be easier than this.


All of these pictures came from my cell phone, so excuse the poor quality. I have some more errummm disaster pictures that I may post, if y'all are nice to me on this one, lol.

Picture week?

Self snapshot of TheCount and I last month in Florida. The crazed picture crasher peeping through our heads is SisterTM.
Clearly I still have nothing to talk about, but I did find my USB cord, so maybe this will be picture week.

Nerdgirl, I'll answer your nail polish question later this week. I'm still conducting research on whether it was the top coat or the polish that allowed my nails to last so long.

Just let your fingers move

I don't have anything to talk about. We can't seem to find any USB cords so I can't post my pictures. I've had my nails polished for 3 days and they haven't chipped yet. This is a first for me. Maybe I finally learned a deep dark nail polishing secret. I've been craving cinnamon sugar pecans and I don't know why stores don't sell them. Where the heck can I get some of those things (seriously, if you know, tell me)? I guess I can make them. I also have been craving banana nut muffins, which is funny because I don't like bananas or muffins. But I do love banana flavor, I just won't eat the actual thing. I think I'll make some and take them with me on Saturday because I'm doing a walk for the babies. I'll wrap them all up individually and give them to people :) I've finally figured out my hair and a routine- I'd love to show y'all, but those darn USB cords are so sneaky! I'm really excited about seeing Fame. If I could do anything in the world it would be this: live in New York as a broadway star. That is my ultimate, ultimate dream job. Unfortunately, God clearly has other plans for my life because I cannot sing or dance.Want to know something I did the other day? I was in a public restroom washing my hands. I looked up in the mirror and said aloud, "I'm sooooo pretty!" Then I realized people could hear me and I felt sooooo vain. Enough of this stream of consciousness writing, I have some things to do today. We watch Cre.flo at our house in the morning as we get ready for work and he said something last week that I've been meaning to do. I need to get some Bible verses down into my vision book. I also need to figure out what I'm getting TheCount for our 1 year anniversary and my best friend for her birthday. Y'all have any random musings for me today? 

Sunday, Monday

We went to church Sunday and then went over my parent's house. My team was playing my dad's team in Fantasy Football so I really didn't want to be around him because he is very irritating. He kept coming up to me pointing in my face yelling the score- dude get real. As usual I was rolling around on the floor claiming I was starving to death and that I had to have food, so my mom told me to plan dinner and make it. We decided on those oven fried chicken tenders, green beans, and pasta salad. I taught my mom about panko breadcrumbs and thyme as I fixed dinner. Surprisingly my dad really liked it. My mom said he always likes my food just to make her mad because if she made the exact same thing he wouldn't eat it. Oh well. We started my sewing lessons :) I made 2 pillowcases and some lace sachets to put in my drawers with some smell good stuff in it. Lavender scented lingerie ;) well that might have been TMI, lol. My dad fell asleep when my fantasy team started winning. My mom told me to go jump on the couch and scream out the score so he can see how annoying it is. I don't talk trash before a victory though. I let my results speak first, THEN I talk a little trash.

 

Yesterday my coworker came back from maternity leave. She kept saying how glad she was to be back, and that she was glad she didn't have to stay at home every day with her kids. Then she had the nerve to try and tell me how I was going to feel/react when I have kids. Speak to your own experience, you don't know me like that! We are not the same person and we clearly don't have the same values so don't push your issues onto me, mmmmmk? That being said, she looked fabulous, and 6 weeks after giving birth she was back down to a size 2! She told me about some products and things her husband bought her to help her get her figure back because she told him he would have to pay for liposuction if she didn't drop the weight. If you want to know about them, email me, I'll find the links and send it to you.

 

Have you ever took a nap in your car in the middle of the day? This is about to be my new thing because I sure needed it yesterday. I can't get any work done if I'm nodding off and can't see straight so why not go get refreshed? I don't really take a lunch most days, so I'll turn lunch time into nap time. I drive to a different parking garage because I don't want any of my coworkers to see me and think I'm being lazy. I'm still working on getting our office building to have a nap room, I think it will improve productivity.

 

Last night, in Fantasy Football my team was up by 30, and I had no more players in the game. My dad still had a quarterback and a wide receiver to play. For those of y'all who don't know the game, those are your biggest point makers. For every 10 yards they throw/catch that's a point. Touch downs are even more points. Thankfully, they had a sucky night! I was on the edge of my seat. His wide receiver missed TWO touchdown catches! If he had caught either one of those, it was over for me. In the last 40 seconds of the game my dads players were in the game. The quarterback kept throwing to the wide receiver- and he kept catching it. Minute by minute my dad's score was catching up with me. With 6 seconds left, the quarterback threw for a touchdown, and it was intercepted! I screamed so loud! I beat my dad by 1 point. I called the house and he picked up screaming "shut up, just shut up." I did the evil villain laughter for like 5 minutes. Now my team is 2-0, I'm ranked third in the league. Not bad for a girl :)

Friday/Saturday

Good Morning :) Peep the footnotes when you get to the asterisks, I go on way to many tangents so I had to just throw some stuff at the bottom.

 

My plans for a do nothing weekend were changed by TheCount. Do nothing weekend quickly turned into, you do everything weekend.  He decided that we should keep his 8 year old niece since it was his sister's birthday. I agreed because nobody wants to be the evil sister-n-law/aunt. He went down to pick her up on Friday and stopped at the barbershop while he was waiting for her to get ready. Then this dude called me and tried this line, "umm, babe, I got invited to a fight party tomorrow night, so can you watch NieceCount while I go?" He got hit with, "you better get off my phone and don't call me with no dumb mess like that again," and then I went about my evening. When they finally got to the house, she was sleep so we just put her on the couch since it was way past her bedtime anyway. Then TheCount tried this line, "so you gonna get up and fix us breakfast?" Oh dear people, when will this dude learn? I hit him with the Why Did I Get Married line, "you better remember who you're married to," I don't remember the exact wording, but he got the point. I am not now, I wasn't then, and I don't foresee myself in the near future becoming the person that wakes up early on Saturday morning to do anything but what I want to do*. Saturday is my day of rest. It was before we dated, it was while we dated, and it has definitely been since we got married. When we were in school, I only did school work on Tuesday-Friday. I had classes on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday most semesters and I refused to do school work on weekends which meant I wasn't getting much sleep on Tuesday-Friday. On Saturdays my roommates quickly learned not to knock on my door before 1pm, to get out of my way if they saw me stumbling down the hall to find the bathroom with my eyes closed, and to only be alarmed if I hadn't emerged by 6pm. I always woke up to notes under my door asking me to come get them when I woke up. It's amazing how these ladies could learn this, but TheCount can't. Back to the point, I looked at TheCount and politely (well it was more polite than pushing him off the stool which is what I wanted to do) said, "baby, when you invite people over, you take care of them. You don't decide to do something and then make it my responsibility. You're going to get up and cook breakfast, and please don't set off the fire alarm like last time** and make me have to get up. I will be mad. You knew the fight was tomorrow, you shouldn't have agreed to pick up your niece. You fussed at me all week long about going to Lame-O's baby shower, then when I finally give in and say I'll go, you decide to bring up an 8 year old meaning I can't even go to the baby shower because I'm not taking her. Please tell me what the heck you're thinking about, cuz I'm not digging it." We had a very productive conversation that lead to some very positive ideas about how things were going to work.

 

Saturday morning TheCount got up and fixed breakfast while I slept. I kept hearing him come in and out of the room and then I heard him come in, but not leave, and the room was silent. I opened my eyes and this dude is kneeling down next to the bed staring me in face. "I really want you to wake up because NieceCount and I have some plans we want to discuss with you." He decided to have a fight party at the house and wanted to know if I would fix some food. I'm not going to lie, I was still agitated as heck because I was not ready to get up. I stayed irritated for about 2 hours, but NieceCount's insane laughter helped perk me up. My mom sent me a text (cuz she knows the rules) telling me to call her when I got up. She ended up coming up and we took NieceCount with us while we went to get some Oyin Handmade hair products (oh how I love them). Since my momma was in the hanging out mood, we also did our grocery shopping for the party and had lunch via the samples at Sam's Club. NieceCount was a big help because she liked pushing the cart (even though it was bigger than her) and reading the grocery. We got back to the house, said bye to MommaTM and got to work fixing food for our guests. We made oven baked chicken tenders (I posted that recipe before), honey garlic chicken wings (I hated them) and loaded potato skins. TheCount did all the cleaning and such. We had a good night with our friends. This post is getting kind of long, so I'll finish it up tomorrow.

 

*This weekend I decided that when I have kids, there will be a Saturday morning nanny. She will come over, fix breakfast, walk them through morning chores, and do one activity with them. By then TheCount should be done with basketball/barbershop/or any church duties and he can take over until I'm ready. Don't rain on my parade with your opinions here, this WILL happen. I can't be my fabulous loving, creative self without some time to recharge.

 

**This fool was making bacon in the oven. The bacon was hanging over the edge of the pan in our gas oven. Everybody knows that bacon is greasy, right? Everybody knows what happens when that grease drips down into the gas oven, right? Everybody knows how TM reacted when she had to get out of bed to assist because of foolishness, right?

Oh yeah, I'm going to make some bread this weekend

I skipped a vital step in my morning routine and I don't like it one bit. I want to go back home and start my day again. It's my own fault for oversleeping.

 

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At 3:45 am I heard a dog barking. I got out of bed to see that the police had pulled somebody over. Y'all know my nosey self stayed by the window until they were all finished. I'm thinking they arrested the driver or something because somebody walked from their home to the scene, where the person whom I presume to be the passenger, asked the police if he could leave because the person that was going to drive the truck had arrived. They let him leave. It was really interesting. I like making up stories for the incidents that occur outside our window.

 

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I haven't eaten out once this week. Not even on Wednesday, our "Eat Out So We Can Get To Church On Time" night. I've been proud of the discipline. Actually, I don't think I've even spent any money this week outside of groceries and that was less than $60.  I want to try and not spend any money next week too, but I'm not sure how it will pan out. I'm running out of face wash and lotion. Buying those are a gateway drug. I see one thing, then another, then another next think I know I have a cart of clothes and shoes and makeup and headbands from Target. I'm not willing to risk it.

 

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TheCount and I have had some trying times these past 2 weeks. Not with each other, but with situations that require us to really use some faith and know that it will work out. When your car won't start at the gas station at 10 o'clock at night, mannnnnn you realize how much faith you have! You also learn the power of prayer :)

 

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I hope I have time to pamper myself this weekend. A deep conditioning hair treatment, home done mani-pedi, and exfoliation sure are in order. I'm going to look up some good scrub recipes, ohhh I'm going to do the one like PJD bought from Lush

 

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I have to tell y'all about TheCount's latest life theory. I think I'll save that for next week though. That was more like a note to self type thing.

 

Have a wonderful weekend!

I got the juice!

 

I am going to learn how to sew. My momma used to make clothes for us all the time and looking at all these sewing blogs in my google reader has inspired me. Since my style is so basic, sewing really is the perfect hobby for me. I would get one pattern, 5 fabrics and BAM! I'd be set. I have a skirt pattern picked out that I like, I'm going to make 5 of them. Then I'm going to get a dress, and make 5 of them. Then I'll get a blouse, and make 5, then I'll be ready to make pants, you guessed it, 5 of the same pattern. Then I'll be ready to move on to the next pattern and repeat the process. Well tailored clothes make everybody look better and I think that's what I need. I LOVE dresses, but can't wear them because my bust is a size 4 and my bottom half is ummm, much bigger. Custom fit baby! My mom is already about to plan a trip to New York for us to buy some fabrics, although I think she just likes to find any excuse to go up there.

 

We're going to start practicing on Saturday. My mom already has some old stuff lying around that will be my test patterns/fabrics. I'm really excited! Of course, if it doesn't work out and I'm horrible at it, I'll cut out the patterns and fabric and ask my momma to do all the sewing. If she can sew 100 bookbags for the children in Africa, surely she can sew some clothes for her favorite daughter. She also has an embroidering machine. I should design my own logo! I'll be making polo shirts with my custom logo on it. Oh! I think I'm going to embroider some fall decorations for our apartment. Man, my creative juices are flowing, I can't wait (please don't let me suck, please don't let me suck). Do any of y'all sew? Any tips? Would you try it? What are your hobbies?

2 posts today, scroll down for the other one

I should not have asked what my mom would call me with today. Sigh, here we go:

 

MamaTM: Can I ask you a question?

Me: Sure

MamaTM: Why do you love yourself?

Me: Have you met me? I'm a ball of awesomeness.

MamaTM: HAHAHAHAHA. Wanna hear something crazy?  Polly is pregnant with twins.

Me: So?

MamaTM: Did you hear me?

Me: You said Halle right? Halle Berry?

MamaTM: Polly! Polly that had the baby with the gay man. Polly!

Me: Oh my gosh. So one wasn't enough? What the heck!

MamaTM: I know, they're both trying to be nurses, do you think they skipped the "where babies come from class?"

Me: They must have! I don't understand how people keep making babies!

MamaTM: Well I can see how somebody would forget.

Me: I don't! I'm 24, I'm married, and I have never, ever, ever, not even once forgot to get him to wrap it up! NEVER! {dear Jesus, I really am humble, I had to be dramatic to make a point, please don't make these my famous last words. Amen}

MamaTM:  Hmmm, good point.

 

Now we're sitting on the phone going down the list of people that I grew up with that are my age or younger, that decided once was not enough. It turns out that everybody so far that had one baby young, with somebody dumb, decided once wasn't enough. If it happened when you did it that way the first time, it can happen again. I'm not throwing stones, my momma wasn't married when she got pregnant with me. I am saying this: use good sense. If you got pregnant from having unprotected sex once, don't you think it can happen again? If you can't take care of your first child, do you think it's wise to have another? If you want more babies knock yourself out, if you don't, take precautions! If you're having issues with this, email me. I can break it down for you in easy to understand language. You don't HAVE to get pregnant. It's 2009, pregnancy is an avoidable condition.

My mom needs a 9-5

MamaTM: Umm, why do we like Tay.lor Swi.ft again?

Me: I don't know mommy

MamaTM: Is it because she's a pretty little white girl that our kids can look up to now since Mil.ey is tripping?

Me: I guess so

MamaTM: Ohhh noooo, it's because she can sit down and play the guitar! (few seconds later) Ohhhhh wow, now she's standing up and playing the guitar! I wanna see this video, where is the video?

Me: Ma, stay off the internet

MamaTM: Oh I see it, I'm with Kahn-Yay, this is dumb. Ok, let me see Beyonce. What? Oh no! She can't be moving her hips like that, oh no, this is not ok, oh! oh! How did she do that? How do bodies move like this? Oh no, how she get on stage and accept an award for gyrating her hips like this? And who is this Lady Ga.Ga? Does she worship the devil? Whyte people are crazy, I mean, we crazy too, but they're really crazy. This is some devil stuff.

 

Later that day....

MamaTM: So Jay told Beyonce she was...

Me: Ma, who you been talking to? I already know what you're about to say. For the last time, you only listen to celebrity gossip from me, now, who you been talking to?

MamaTM: Well Wen.dy Will.iams said that Jay thought B was being disloyal to the brand and he left without her.

Me: Ma, have you seen Wen.dy Will.iams? Does she look like a woman that exercises good judgement? Get off my phone, I'm at work. B flew overseas to do her concert after the awards show. Don't listen to nobody but me, ok?

MamaTM: Ok, Ok

 

Can somebody please bring my momma out of retirement? She has too much idle time on her hands. At home sewing bookbags for the children in Africa while watching The View and Wen.dy Williams. I wonder what she'll call me with today?

Change is gonna come

Yesterday I decided to try a revolutionary new concept: working. It went well, I'm going to do it again today. Well, as soon as I finish eating my breakfast and dropping some players from my Fantasy Football team. I would like to point out that team Perry the Platypus was victorious in its first week! Now, I'm going to change my tagline to: You're about to lose to a girl. Fantasy Football is much more stressful (fun stress) than I thought it would be. Last night during the Chargers game I had to turn off the t.v. because I was getting so mad that my players weren't getting me points. Anyway, let's get to the title of this post. Y'all during the summer I have gotten so lazy. I stopped cleaning my kitchen every day, I stopped vacuuming at the frequency I require to be happy, I wasn't remotely on time for work, I didn't work while at work, it was just an all around bad situation. As I was sitting around reading "Real Simple" magazine one weekend, there was an article about what families did to stay on task in the mornings. I was so inspired to get my lazy self back on track. I went and picked out all my clothes for the week. I went into the kitchen and fixed TheCount and my breakfast for the next morning. I washed my fruit and prepared my lunchbox. I put my morning devotional books in the bathroom so I can read over them while I'm still trying to rev up and get moving. I read them before I shower so I can have 15 minutes of uninterrupted meditating on what I read. I haven't left any dishes in the sink overnight. I've made sure to take steps to insure that I would have a decent hairstyle in the morning. I feel my old organized calm self coming back- and I like it. TheCount and I are also beginning to look for locations for our fall hikes so we can make sure we keep our bodies looking good all winter because we've pretty much stopped exercising. Maybe my mind was still on school mode. Hustle hard September through May, then relax. I guess I have to remember I'm a grown up now. "Real Simple" always has tips that I love and use often, it's one of the many magazines I subscribe to. My current list is: Real Simple, Food Network, Bon Appetit, Glamour, Harper's Bazaar (I haven't gotten one yet) and Essence. I'm dropping Essence from my roster. I have never been inspired by anything in there and read more annoying things than useful, so it's time to let it go.

 

What about you? What changes are you making for the fall? What are your current favorite magazines?

It was all a dream

I'm still trying to figure out if yesterday actually happened or not. I'm kind of hoping I dreamt it all, because some of it is just that bizarre. Unfortunately, I do believe it all happened so at least I got a blog post out of it.

 

At work yesterday I was trying to help this man that called me screaming and yelling. What are the rules of engagement for talking to TM? That's correct, no raised voices- I don't tolerate it. So I had to talk to him like he was 3 years old. "Sir, you aren't going to continue to yell at me. You need to be quiet and listen so that you can get the help you need. No sir, that is not correct you aren't listening properly. It doesn't matter when the policy started. It could have been 5 minutes ago or 5 months ago, it is in place now, and you need to follow it. You're making this much harder than it has to be. Look! I'm helping you now, I don't know what you were told, but this is what I'm telling you." Y'all in the time we had that conversation he could have filled out the paper faxed it back and gotten it approved. But since he wanted to argue and act like king of the buttholes, he'll be bringing the me the paper today. Pray for me, I don't know how I'll handle it if he is in my face hollering. I'm pretty sure it's not professional for me to sit and act like I don't hear him talking.

 

Moving on, last night I was sitting on the couch painting my nails watching HGTV while talking to TheCount. All of a sudden we hear a screech and a boom. We run to the window and see that there has been a car accident, but we can't see what happened because the trees are blocking it. Then we see 2 hispanic males running from over there. A few cars stopped so I was like oh they have it taken care of. Then I saw the young black guys that hang out together across the street walking over there. No ambulance has shown up yet and it's 3 minutes later- for my neighborhood that's late. The ambulance is normally there in 30 seconds. I saw another group of dudes walk over and look confused. Then the police came. One car stopped at the scene. The other car talked to the black dudes and pulled off. Then I realized the guys that were in the car ran. I got dressed and went outside to tell the police what I saw. We (and by we, I mean all of the police in our town, while I stood and talked to people) had a dang search party at 1am. They gathered up all the guys that fit the description and did a line up on the street. It was quite interesting.

 

When I got back in the house TheCount was fussing at me for my midnight crusading, but I really didn't care. I am a responsible citizen...and a snitch. By now it's like 2 am and I was ready to go to bed. I got in the bed and I'm sleep and at 2:30 TheCount comes in and tells me I'm missing all the action. I look out the window and the police are out there with a group of dudes and they're cursing each other out. I have no idea what is going on. As I'm looking out the window I see 2 guys riding their bike down the street talking and laughing like it's not 2:30 am. TheCount and I were so baffled. At one point somebody was in handcuffs- I think. I got back in the bed and then I heard the conversation outside even more loudly than before. Y'all I looked out the window to see 4 white police officers racing 3 black men in the middle of the street. A dang foot race like they were 10 and it was 2 in the afternoon. They were all out there talking and laughing and loud! I have no idea what was going on- I'm still hoping it was all a dream. 

 

 

Find the positive

Last night I was at home and tired. I didn't feel like cooking so I just had tomato soup. I decided to put my hair back in cornrows since my crinkles didn't come out like I wanted. One hour and 5 braids later, I was done. I tied on my scarf and decided to go to bed early. I went in the bedroom put on my nightgown and got in bed- then my phone rang. It was my coworker Z telling me I needed to come to his house to get the laptop because I won't be working from my office, I'll be working from his for the rest of the week. Excuse me? A bunch of blah blah blah later I'm on my way to his house at 9pm. I'm going to leave out the part of this scenario when my dear sweet husband told me to calm down when I was explaining to him the situation- I'll leave it out because I don't feel like bad mouthing my baby today- I'm trying to like him again. Anyway I get to his house and get the laptop and go back home. Of course I got lost in his apartment complex, whoever designed their parking lot and streetlight ratio was an idiot. I got back home and realized dangit, I don't have any of my stuff. My passwords, the things I was working on, all the things I need like his voicemail password and such. Oh well. Dangit, I also have to go to the bank because I have to pay to park now. I did find the positive- working from his office means I get reimbursed for my mileage so I get an extra $150 next week (I'm definitely going shopping now- do you know what my cheap self can get for $150? Well I'll show you when I get it).

 

This morning I got up and got on my merry little way. My hair turned out nice and I made my way to the bank. I decided I deserved Panera Bread since I didn't have time to prepare meals for my day out of the office. I don't eat anything prepared in this building and it's a cold and rainy day so I probably won't be able to walk anywhere and I have to pay to park so I won't be driving anywhere. Two minutes and a toasted Asiago Cheese bagel later I was on my way to work. Folks act like fools in the rain so there was a ridiculous amount of traffic. I finally made it and dragged myself in the building. It is freeeeeeezing. Z has a heater- but it's locked in the cabinet I don't have the key to. Hmmm, let me log in and tell the people in my office where I am. Oh joy, my email doesn't work. Hmmm, Z has a voicemail- but I don't know the password. Let me call somebody- oh, all that information is in my "Cover for Z folder" that is in my office because I have been covering for Z from there. Find the positive- I got help expose this woman and her doctor for all this excessive pain medication- I love doing investigations. I also look really pretty today :)

 

My fingers are freezing and my joints are getting so stiff I can't type anymore so let me just go peruse the innanets since I can't do my actual work.

 

{I do believe I just felt like complaining. Shame on me. Tomorrow's post will be filled with positivity and light. Maybe if I stop being all dramatic my fingers would work. Let's try that.} 

Food, Family, Fun

Can I tell y'all how fabulous my weekend was? I haven't had that much family and friend time in a long while, and I thoroughly enjoyed it! It threatened to start off bad, but after a lot of prayer, and a little downtime, I was good to go.

 

Friday:

My client's office was closed. I thought it was going to be a light day where I could just finish up a report I was working on. No go. My boss sent over a list of 260 people that needed to have some prior authorizations entered. At this exact moment (no lie man) I got a headache so bad I couldn't see straight. I kept looking at my screen but I couldn't focus on any words. I called my oh so loving husband and told him and he said, "are you driving? well then you'll be alright." I hung up on him. Y'all may not know this about me, but I hate when people say to me, oh you'll be alright. If they say, it will be alright, then I'm ok with that. The first phrase seems like a brush off to me. I know it's odd, but hey, my husband knows that about me so he shouldn't have said it. For hours I sat at my desk in pain. I finally went out to my car and laid down for an hour. When I got back up, I could see even though my head was hurting and I got some of my work done.

 

Saturday:

My mommy came up and spent the afternoon with me :) She never, ever does this so I was excited. We went to a flea market, and Target, and the grocery store. Just mundane stuff but since I had my momma, I was happy. TheCount went down to my parents house that day so my dad could help him fix the brakes on his car. Fixed brakes for $40 is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

 

Sunday:

We went to church and service was really good! My best friend came back to church and this time she brought her boyfriend with her. It made me smile :) Since MamaCount's birthday had just passed we took her out to brunch. Normally I don't really enjoy time spent with MamaCount, SisterCount, and NieceCount all at the same time- in fact, nobody does- but this time we actually had fun. They all went shopping after brunch while TheCount and I went home to get ready for our evening get together. They decided to stop back by the apartment after shopping and NieceCount helped me cook. Let me be honest and say, I never particularly cared for this particular niece, but I think in her 8 year old self, she has become much more enjoyable. Now if only I can get her to stop kissing me, we can really hang out. I'm glad she's affectionate, but I cannot sit and let you kiss my cheek for 30 seconds without pushing you off of me. Thankfully Mama, Sister, and TheCount know this about me and normally pull her off of me after 5 kisses. Anyway, she helped me make pecan pie cookies (recipe coming, they were heavenly), we walked to the store together, and she helped me make a pizza roll (recipe not coming, I need to find a better one). In fact the pecan pie cookies that I made with NieceCount came out much better than the batch I made the previous night, I'm glad she was there.  MamaCount kept asking if she was in the way or getting on my nerves, and she honestly wasn't. She has learned to obey and calm down, wonderful traits in a child! Mama and Sister Count also kept telling me how proud they were of me (y'all know I'm crazy, I guess they had doubts about my skills as a wife). My house was immaculate, it was smelling good and I had everything perfectly organized for the get together we were having that evening. I even had time to finish painting a piece of furniture that I made TheCount drag in from the dumpster (I've had a lot of projects lately, pictures to come). As MamaCount sat on the couch and flipped through my food magazines, she commented on how. "TM has become quite the family chef. " It made me smile, she doesn't through out compliments often. Anyway, they left around 9 and then TheCount's friends came. I served lasagna (recipe coming), gorgonzola garlic bread, bean dip (recipe coming) and chips, and pecan pie cookies. All the guys gave me a thumbs up, and didn't even stop to warm it up when they went back for seconds and thirds, so I guess it was good. At 10pm, we had the fantasy football draft. This year, I'm participating! I'm the only girl, so all the guys were laughing at me. I did my research, asked advice from some guys I knew that weren't in our league, and had a list of good players and some strategy. They really thought I didn't know what I was doing. My own daddy (who's in the league) called me to make fun of me. When we started picking players, they realized I knew a thing or two about the game! Hearing somebody scream out, "dang, who just took my player? TM! How dare you!" I just smiled to myself and stayed focused. At the end of the draft they asked me if TheCount told me who to pick. No sir, my own husband wouldn't help me, he will not get the credit. My team name is Perry the Platypus, if you don't know, ask somebody with kids. After that, I was worn out so I went to bed. The guys stayed over and played video games until about 5 am. It was crazy. Two of them fell asleep and just spent the night.

 

Monday:

Surprisingly, I walked out to a clean house. That's the quickest way to get re-invited over, act like you have some home training. TheCount and I just chilled all day. I did my hair, we watched a Criminal Minds marathon, and enjoyed each others company. Good times had by all.

 

How was your weekend?

 

These are my confessions

* It's 3am and I'm up watching The Steve Harvey Show with a Mario Badescu face mask on. If I continue to like the products, I'll be going to his skin care salon. That sounds like a good idea for my 25th birthday :) A trip to New York to get my hair cut and go to a day spa afterward to either celebrate my new hair or dry my tears! New York people, are y'all in?

*I think one of the reasons TheCount and I get along so well is because I can't remember stuff after an hour, and he can't stay awake if I leave him in a room alone. He asks what I'm mad about and half the time I have forgotten, so we just keep it trucking.

*I'm going to get my work done at work today, I've been lazy beyond belief and it's not acceptable. I will be productive today!

*I made TheCount drag in some furniture from the dumpster the other day. I went out on the patio and primed it earlier. I'm going to get some paint and some sturdy wood for the back today. Dang it, I forgot to measure it- note to self.

*I always mean to respond to comments on the blog. I"ll keep that email as a reminder and then I forget, and when I remember again it's days later and I figure everybody has moved on by then.

*Did I tell y'all I finally got a diagnosis from my doctor? Y'all one of the symptoms is concentration/memory loss. I actually felt relieved reading that. I've been thinking I had a mild form of retardation because some times I could not get my brain together (my mom fell out laughing when I told her this). There will be days when I'm typing blog posts and I can't get the words right. I was an English major, I know their, there, and they're. There were days when I messed up every single homonym in the post. Well now I can blame it on something :)

*I cornrowed my hair in 5 big braids. It took me 30 minutes to do each braid. I've decided I'll invite my best friend over for dinner once a week and get her to do all braiding for me.

*Garlic butter with Mexican food is the best thing in life. Please try it sometime.

*Our bank account is off the hook :) I've been finding exceptionally great deals lately that allow us to save even more money! I also get a reimbursement check next week for my traveling :)

*Answer honestly, would it be very wrong of me to take my reimbursement check and use it to fund my fall wardrobe? I want some booties, some other heels, I need tennis shoes, I want an orange purse, and I would like some blouses. I mean, I can keep it a secret and pay WalMart $3 to cash the check, or I could just be honest and TheCount and I both go shopping with it. In November I'll be getting an even bigger check because I have a lot of flu shot clinics to travel to, and we'll use that for Christmas shopping. See I've thought this all through.

*I don't like taking pain medication. It's odd, because while my foot has stopped hurting, my knees and left thumb have decided to constantly ache. Who in the heck can remember to take a pill twice a day? I used to have to get a text every day to remember to take my birth control. This pill has to be taken with food and I don't eat at the same time every day so I always forget.

*TheCount had the opportunity to participate in a big meeting at work yesterday. He was meeting with the engineers and investors of a property and was the sole representative for his company present. Go baby, go!

*I'm having a ball on twitter still. Are y'all on there yet? That's a lot easier for me to keep up with because I always have my phone with me. I finally have a place to store all those random pictures I take on my phone.

*Alright, I'm going to bed now. Y'all got any confessions for today?

Out of Retirement

Can I be honest with y'all? Lately I've been having an internal battle. I haven't been able to understand things about God that I feel as though I should. Certain things I can understand and apply, and other things I'm like, well what does that mean? This Sunday at church our pastor was teaching on changing lives as a witness for God. As Christians, people should be able to look at our lives and see God's hand in it. We have a year long campaign at church, "each one reach one," because in the end, if nobody is in heaven that you helped get there, you have failed at life. Being that I am a shy person, I've always had problems with talking to adults about Jesus. Kids? I'm all on it! I was even on the news before because I was going around teaching a summer long camp about Jesus to children in Maryland and DC. It was a lot of fun, but I can't let that be my peak in life. I can't get to heaven and be like, "Jesus, you don't remember back in 2002 when I was teaching all those kids? Man, I thought I could retire after that." Anyway, on Sunday we prayed that God would use us to make a difference in at least one life this week. I've already exceeded my goal :)

 

On Tuesday I had to travel for work. When I got to my location, I set up my table and there was a nurse sitting there with me. We had 4 hours to be there and not a lot of people were coming through after the first hour so we just sat and talked. Y'all she sounded so defeated. The whole time, I felt God saying, 'talk to her about me, talk to her about me'. So I did. How about by the end of our conversation she had her hands raised up in the air (FYI: I didn't make her do that, lol) and gave her life over to God. She told me she was going to church this Sunday, so I took her phone number so I could call and check up on her since she lives to far away to come to my church. I hope she sticks with it, because there is no way any one person is supposed to be that miserable.

 

Yesterday I was about to turn into my complex and my best friend called me. She was at work and her dad was supposed to pick her up an hour ago, and she hadn't heard from him. She works about 5 minutes from where we live so I just kept going and picked her up. She called her dads phone, his girlfriends phone, his wife's phone- yeah, he's one of those dudes. He never answered. I told her to just come to church with us and we'll take her home afterward. She agreed and wouldn't you know she went down for the altar call and rededicated her life to God AND she joined our church :) I love her so dearly, and she has come a looooonnnnngggggg way since I first met her. She used to curse out her boyfriend and call him a princess in public (that all stopped when he snapped one day and popped off on her). She was so hot tempered and vindictive- because she was hurting. Over the past 5 years, she has truly blossomed, but this past year she kind of was falling back. I'm so glad things happened the way they did today. Now she'll be riding with us every Wednesday to church, and she'll be bringing her little sister on Sunday's since she spends the weekend at her moms house.

 

I hope y'all don't take this as me tooting my own horn, cuz it's not like that at all, I was just so glad God showed up this week the way he did.

 

Funny story time: I had to work in the nursery at church last night, so TheCount and Bestie went into the sanctuary together. Folks were looking at him like, "harpo, who is dis woman?" The ushers were like, umm, do you need seats for 3? He was like, no just 2. This OtherWoman was like, "ohh is this your wife, I've never met her before," knowing goodness well she knows who I am, she just wanted to make sure TheCount wasn't a complete fool. I'm glad to know EVERYBODY has my back because he was like people kept on making sure bestie knew TheCount was married, and that TheCount knew they saw him with this woman that was not me, lol. When the 3 of us were leaving. The OtherWoman from earlier was like, "ohhh I see you and is that your beautiful wife?" One of the elders was outside too, and she was like, "oh you guys have a visitor with you." I turned around cheesing, and corrected her, "no! we have a new member." How about everybody turned around and started clapping and cheering for bestie, it was hilarious. OtherWoman was finally at peace with the situation because she pointed out, "you can always tell best friends because y'all look just alike and both have super bright smiles." We're going to ignore the fact that we look nothing alike (she's 5 inches shorter, about 3 shades darker, 30 pounds lighter, and is super stylish) and I'll take it as a compliment or her subtle way of digging for more info.

What You Said?

I have work out the wazoo to do today, thanks to my laziness last week, so this will be brief. Here is a quick compilation of quotes from the past few days. The title is not courtesy of moi, but my sister's best friend says that all the time, I don't think she knows it's supposed to be, "what did you say?"

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OldToothlessManOnACane: Dang girl, you know you fine. What's yo name?

Me: Jennifer

OldToothlessManOnACane: I know that's right

Me: Actually it's not walks away briskly laughing at my wit and quick thinking cuz my name sure ain't Jennifer

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Daddy: TM, your car sounds horrible. I was scared to drive it. You better get it in the shop right now, it sounds like the transmission. It's probably gonna cost you a couple thousand dollars. Don't drive it over 40 mph. If I were you I wouldn't even drive it home tonight.

Me: Ummhmmm, ok daddy drives 75mph the whole way home

 

Yesterday

Mechanic: This is a great car, it's in great shape. It's only the wheel baring(sp) that's messed up, I'll have it ready today.

Talking to my dad later

Daddy: Now, TM, that's gonna be around 3 or 4 hundred dollars, you got that?

Me: I'm rich bi#$h (ok, I'm lying, I didn't say that, but Dave Chappelle always pops in my head when I'm talking money) mmmhmmm

Later that day

Mechanic: Ok doll baby (he's known me since I was like 5) that's gonna be 222.91.

Me: Dear Jesus, Why you make my daddy so dramatic? He always trying to make my situation worse than it is. I'm so glad I'm your favorite.

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Me: Babe, I just emailed you a picture of a watch. It's a $695 Swiss watch, but I can get it for $85. You like it?

TheCount: Well, why don't we go shopping for watches this weekend. Blah, blah, blah

Me: You're an idiot, and this is why God doesn't love  you. Why would we go to the mall and get an $85 watch for $85, when you can get a $695 watch for $85. You were just complaining yesterday about how I always get what I want and get really nice stuff all the time. I told you, it's the blessing of God on my life to find sales, DO YOU WANT THE WATCH OR NOT?

TheCount: Yeah...did you research the company, who is it, how do you know, blah blah blah

Me: You are your own blessing blocker. Get off my phone.

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Me: Hey TallWhiteCoworker, do you like this watch? It's a good watch right?

TallWhiteCoworker: Yeah, wow, that's the price?

Me: Yeah, I'm getting it for my husband cuz he loves watches and this is excellent quality.

TallWhiteCoworker: D$$n it, I need a wife. You always find these crazy sales. If you weren't married, I'd marry you right now. Right in this office. You amaze me That's the third time he has told me that, lol. Anybody looking for a tall white skinny man in his early thirties? I can get you the hook up!

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Ok, time to get to work :) Had any interesting conversations this week? Y'all know I love dialog, leave it in the comments section.