Another Year Older, Another Year Better

         Today I celebrate another year on this earth.  Thankful isn't even a good enough word to describe how blessed I have been throughout my life but even in the past few months alone. 

          So, I told you a lot of stuff went down recently and that has been why I have been MIA. Well to sum it up, I quit my job, moved out of CT back to Mass to start a great new job at a company that is more tailored for my personality and interests.  I moved into a nice little cozy studio downtown within walking distance of everything I need essentially (besides my beloved Market Basket) and I am loving having truly my own place again. 

          Its true, at least for me anyway, that you never miss something until its gone. Never in a million years would I think I would be this happy to be back in the state I called home for so long and closer to a growing family I didn't know I'd miss so much. 

LESSON OF THE DAY

          If its one thing I've learned moving out to CT for a job I found I didn't really enjoy, its this; life is too short to waist time being miserable in any situation.  I mean everything isn't always going to be roses and new things take time to adjust to, but if you find that its not getting easier overtime, or that you don't even fully care to try, then stop, re-evaulate the situtation, and think about the things that would actually make you happy.  Are you getting them?  Are the available to you where you are? And if you got them right then would you still be happy where you are?  If the answer is no, then maybe you need to change your situation.  I know I did and needless to say I'm LOVING where I am now.



I'm Back...Again

          Sorry I've been MIA.  Lots of stuff went down over the past week or so and I needed to take a little me time to attempt to figure some stuff out.  There is much to tell but its been a while since I've been this happy with life aside for one certain thing but I've come to realize you can't have everything your way (sorry, but Burger King lied).  However, you can focus on the things that are going right, let those blessings uplift you, and pray that in time everything else will fall into the place you hoped it would. 

            I'll update you on the status of my life, She's A 10!, and other such things later, but now I would like to just take a moment to relish in the fact that tomorrow marks the beginning of the best month of the year.  That's right people May is upon us.  The month for Grads, Mom's, the start of beautiful weather, holidays and most importantly ME!  Yes it is my birthday month, and I'll be celebrating this weekend and all month long with the people that are closest to my heart.  To all my May babies, happy soon to be Birthday!

The Reason(s) Why I've Been MIA...

          So as you may or may not have noticed, I've been neglecting my little baby blog :( but for 3 good reasons.

1.  NSBE Nationals:  NSBE stands for the National Society of Black Engineers and from Thursday-Sunday, that is where I have been.  Networking, socializing and taking a break from the working world to meet new people and have a different setting. 

2.  The Flu:  Without fail I always seem to get sick at the most inconvenient times.  This time it was right in the middle of Nationals.  Aches, fever, chills, headache, congestion, etc.  Lets just say I was not in the mood to get up, let alone think about writing anything. 

          But the main reason why my lost have been MIA is because I've been working on something big with my partner in crime Yetti.  I would now like to introduce you to....

3.  She's A 10!:  I would go on and on about it but I'll let the website speak for itself shes-a-10.org.  Keep an eye out for our facebook and tumblr pages as well. Want more info? Email us at info@shes-a-10.org!

Wake Up, Wake Up, Wake Up Cuz' Its the First of the Month

          Ahhh, February 1st.  A fresh new month filled with tons of possibilities.  I like to start off the month by cleaning out my phone, email, and apartment of all the stuff that's clogging my productivity.  I make a new set of goals and clean out my to do list from last month and probably my favorite part in it all and starting fresh on my financial spending.  It sucks looking back at all the things I spent money on that I could have avoided but the new month brings new hopes.

          In the spirit of new beginnings, I even tried a new style on my hair.  Having thick unruly natural hair often proves difficult to have neat tamed styles like a simple bun, which is why I never usually attempt them but armed with a fresh twist out, banana clip, bobby pins, and some advice from one of my new favorite bloggers lykelambswool I tamed that bad boy into the meanest looking bun I ever seen. 

            So proud of myself :)! So with all this positivity I will leave you with my lesson of the day (I know its been a while).

LESSON OF THE DAY

Everyday is a chance to start anew, don't let yesterday's worries prevent you from accomplishing today's goals.  

A Fresh Start...Again

          Random fact about me, I'm a big fan of fresh starts.  So to try and change my funk around I'm starting anew. My friends have been amazing in trying to lift my spirits and get my mind off of the negative and its about time I listen to them.  To be honest I don't know if I'm ready to fully get over everything that has been going on but I got to at least try and put forth a valiant effort. 

          So today marks the start of it.  I'm doing a mind, body, and soul detox of all the negative shit in my life.  It includes...

1.  Keeping up with my workouts, which have been very relaxing mentally

2.  Drinking half my body weight in ounces of water each day to help clean out my body

3.  Taking my vitamins, to help put the good stuff back in

4.  Sticking to a good eating plan free from red meats, processed meats, and making a conscious effort to reduce and eventually eliminate ALL artificial ingredients (sugars, flavors, colors, etc)

5.  Getting on a weekly schedule and keeping productive
6.  Setting at least 2 hours every week to just sit, breathe, reflect, and think. 

          All of Saturday I spent cleaning out my apt of all the junk.  I relaxed, reorganized my room and took in where I am in life right now.  Cleaning and reorganizing are definitely stress relievers for me.  Sunday I just sat.  Nothing special just sat, watched TV and waited until I became a cursing sailor as I watched the AFC and NFC championship games.  All went well after nearly collapsing from multiple heart attacks from the close game between the Ravens and my beloved Patriots.

           But I digress.  Here is my fresh start, and here is my plan to a "Happy, Healthier, more Positive" Q  :)

Reflection

          So in a valiant effort, despite my current mood (hence the depressing posts), I'm going to try and force myself back into my routine of exercising, writing, and overall trying to keep myself busy.  I find that is the best way I coupe with negative feelings, drown them out with things to keep busy with.

          I know, it may not be the healthiest method but in all honesty I will end up like Bella (reference "Heartbroken for the Holidays" post) if I don't.  So yesterday I went to Zumba  and tried this new Hip Hop class which was awesome!  Got me out of my rut for a while.  But of course it was swamped with all the "New Year, New Body" people who will crowd gyms for a few weeks make regulars like me pissed and then never come back.  Don't get me wrong I'm all for New Year's resolutions but in my opinion they should be somewhat realistic. 

          For example one of my resolutions is to reach my goal weight of 130 Ibs.  But loosing weight is nothing new to me.  At my heaviest I was 170Ibs, that's a lot for any woman but especially for someone who is only 5' 3".  But that was almost 4 years ago and at my lightest I was down to 137 Ibs, only 7 Ibs away from my goal, so clearly my goal is very attainable. 

          Now if your resolution is to lose 50Ibs and you have never step foot in a gym in your life, then maybe you should reevaluate and make your resolution a little more realistic.  I find that my most successful endeavors I just did, no planning, no resolutions, etc  I just realized something I didn't like and began to change my actions so that I could fix it. 

          But I didn't write today to bash your resolution hopes.  I just wanted to reflect on a few things that have and have not worked for me in my life up until now and highlight the ones I want to carry with me as the New Year starts...

• Being an Introvert:  By nature I'm a quiet reserved person.  People who know me always joke that you would swear I'm the meanest person by the way I look sometimes, but I'm real generous and friendly once you get past the deterring facial expressions. But to be honest I kind of like it that way.  It would be easier to make a lot more friends if I were an extrovert, but I value quality over quantity.  But to tweak my sometimes extreme introversion, I'll make and effort to be a little more of an E to meet people in this still very new state.

• Being Honest:  So I feel like this past year I took this to a whole new level.  There is such thing as being too honest and I believe I went there.  Now don't get me wrong, I've told my fair share of white lies that have gotten me into some trouble but I think the lesson taken from this is to know what's appropriate and not appropriate to say based on the occasion, the person, and your relationship with them.  Definitely something that is being taken with me into 2012. 

• Being Thrifty:  I pride myself on being very good with my money.  Finding great deals, saving money on DIYing, I always found a way to save my hard earned money.  Unfortunately I lost my mind after I took out more than I needed on my college loans and developed quite a bad shopping habit.  Going into 2012 I need to get back to the mentality I had in high school about my money.  With only an $8/hr 25 hour a week job over the course of 4 months and saved enough money to buy my first car.

• Being Me:  Through all the bullshit, amazing highs, and terrible lows I still remained the same.  Refined overtime with experience, but nonetheless the same.  Someone told me that if you stay true to yourself, things will work out the way they are suppose to and I truly believe it.  So as I enter 2012 I will continue to be myself, keep my mind open to new things, learn, and hope that everything will work out the way its suppose to.

25 Days of Blessings: Dream Big!

          Hello, Good Morning, and Happy Holidays to all!  Yes I'm in a VERY good mood today.  Why?  Well this morning I discovered I have $200 dollars on a company health care card that I can use to pay my bills and its Thursday!  My last day of work until next Tuesday when I have a 3 day work week.  Saweeet! 

           But in addition to that I'm just in a good mood.  Everything is going well and I have no major complaints.  Did all my Christmas shopping and I must say I'm very proud of the gifts I got for the fam.  I'm so thoughtful ::pats self on back::. 

          In other news, I'm prepping for the New Year.  Every year around this time I go through my things get rid of old stuff I no longer use, throw out the unsalvageable and donate the rest to make room for the new.  So what is the new?  Well I'm in the process of putting together a vision board and discovered that I tend to dream big.  The good thing about it is that I'm fortunate enough to be able to have these aspirations and know that if I put in the right effort I can actually achieve them and for that I'm blessed.  

          What's on my board you may ask?  Well here's some of them!

Goal Weight: 130 Ibs

Au Natural:  Step up my natural product game

Grad School:  Get accepted to all my choices 

My Latest Obsession: Mr. Louboutin

A Motorcycle: Started bike, Kawasaki Ninja 250r Blue (or white)

New(er) Car:  The Nissan Juke

 



LESSON OF THE DAY

Dream big or small, but dream!  Aspirations and goals keep you moving forward.

25 Days of Blessings: I've Got Options!

          How do you like it? My new blog layout that is.  Kinda the same, but a fresh new layout.  I still have a lot of work I want to do with in in terms of the content and tweeking the look of it but I'm even more proud of it than I was before :).  I've gotten tons of inspiration from fellow bloggers and can't wait to expand on it!

          This brings me to my 3rd blessing in my "25 Days of Blessings" series which is that I have options.  Whether its something simple like changing the layout of my blog or moving into a whole new apartment, I have options to pick and choose from if I want to (and boy do I ever). 

          You see, I get bored of things very quickly, hairstyles, cell phones, apartments, but especially home decor.  I haven't been in my new apartment more than 2 months and I'm already ready to give my living room a make-over.  I'll admit it, I may have a problem but nonetheless I'm fortunate enough to able to change little or major things in my life at my leisure which is more than what many people can say. 

LESSON OF THE DAY

          If you have options, you have decisions.  If you have decisions than you have choices.  If you're unhappy with something take those OPTIONS, DECIDE on what you're going to do, and CHOSE to act on them. 

        

Today's A New Day



View from my Hotel Room

         So finally I'm on my way back home after over a week of being on the move.  I can't say that either trip was amazing but nonetheless a learning experience and after all thats what I'm here for... to learn, but because I don't want to write a novel. I'll save the details for later.

          Last night was truly an eye opener for me which was only solidified with meeting a great energetic woman from my company.  Yesterday night I didn't go to the social hour or dinner for my training in Dallas because I wasn't feeling well. I stayed in my room and played around on the internet. After messing around with my blog and catching up with The Misadventures of an Awkward Black Girl on YouTube I stumbled onto my favorite hair care girl Naprural85 and discovered she had a blog and another Channel on YouTube.

          After reading more about her and watching her channel it gave me inspiration to "accept the things I can't change and, change the things I can't accept" (quote taken from a background I downloaded to my new iPhone 4S). Her energy and enthusiasm about the things she talks about for some reason resignated  with me and I was so inspired in that moment that I wrote her a brief thank you explaining how I felt.

          It felt good to let someone know how they have impacted you even id it's only in a small way. But that gave me energy to really take the opportunity to get to know todays speaker, a successful woman of color (which is very rare in my industry) out of the Atlanta office in the community service division. She came from a bachelors of arts in communication and landed in marketing for the construction industry and after hearing her enthusiasm about the work she did, I realized that maybe if I ask to switch departments maybe I could still stay at my company, make the money I want, and actually enjoy what I do.

          The realization came after I got an email from my boss saying that I can participate in the annual employee evaluation (originally I wasn't because I was so new to the company). So when I have my review I will ask if there is any space in the business development or marketing office. I'll keep you posted on the status! Excited but EXTREMELY nervous. If it doesn't go well, let just say I always have my initial plan of going to grad school and working in higher Ed.

LESSON OF THE DAY

Don't be afraid to do what you need to, in order to go after what you want.  Afterall it doesn't affect anyone but you.

Wake Up, Wake Up, Wake Up, Its the First of the Month

          Ahhh, a new month, time to start fresh.  Even though all my bills are due today, I feel good.  Its a bright, sunny Thursday, new music is on my iPod and there is only one more day until Friday and to put the icing on the cake, I have a half day tomorrow before the long Labor Day weekend.  Now only if I had some money and some solid plans to do something for the weekend.  It doesn't need to be big, elaborate plans but anything besides staying in my apt.  I know one thing though, I WILL NOT be in CT this weekend.

And So it Begins...

 “I can’t see through the tears streaming from my eyes.  Is this what I waited all those years for?  A miserable job in a profession I just stumbled into? A relationship strained and cracking at the seams because it doesn’t look like it can hold the weight of a long distance relationship? Sitting alone with my dog in a great apartment with no one to share with.  Was it all worth it?”

                                                                                                -8/8/2011 A Bad Day

And so begins my journey as a blogger.  It all started with this excerpt where I decided to type what I was feeling on the computer instead of writing it in my journal.  I don’t know what possessed me to do it, maybe because my computer was the closest thing to me at the time that big wave of emotion came over me or because I didn’t feel like finding a pen.  But whatever the reason was, it got me thinking…why not?  It’s not really convenient to bring my journal to work with me, at the risk of someone finding the small out-of-place brown journal and reading its very riske and deeply private contents.  Not only that, but electronically I can write anywhere and access it wherever I might be without the worry of someone finding my open book.  No, my book, my journal, my LIFE, well at least on paper, will be confined to the bookshelf in my apartment away from prying eyes. 

So I will take my life to the electronic pages of my keyboard and begin my journey as a blogger, in hopes that I can spread a little piece of me and all that I go through for those who chose to read so that you can take a look at how my life is through my eyes.   From my daily life lessons, my love of food and my battle to sustain it along with my goal healthy weight, all the way to my complicated love-hate relationships with my friends, family, and hair I invite you to see A Daily Piece of Me.