random holiday update

I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Mine was excellent. Surprisingly enough, this homebody went house-hopping. I am thankful to have friends that 1. love to cook and 2. love my company. It was a normal Thanks.giving in 'da wood'...I stuffed my face, clowned with the kid, danced, posed for pictures, and got hit on by a broke a$$ version of Jaz.ze Pha. Like I said, a normal Thanks.giving. And this normal Thanks.giving would not be normal if my dad hadn't called and left a msg, implying that I must not have wanted to talk to him b/c he had been calling me all day. Yep, the holiday guilt-trip in full effect.

I HAVE been feeling homesick lately, but its not something that a quick flight to the N.O. can solve. I miss the feeling and state of "home" from over 10 years ago, when everything was easy. But I didn't have time to wallow in that. My job is to make sure that my son has as many good memories and similar traditions as I had. One of those traditions will NOT be a visit to the barbershop the day before Thanksgiving. It was so doggone packed in there that I thought that Black Fr.day had started early and peeps were getting a free set of clippers and 'ish.

On Black Friday...you guessed it...go, go, gadget doo rag. This is going to be a low budget Christmas...and I say this as if I ever break the bank. So I was enjoying this wonderful day when I got a phone call.

LB: Hey Kat.

Kat: Hey girl, how ya doin'?

LB: Good.

Kat: So, we are going bowlin' tonight and I wanted to see if you and J wanted to come."

LB: Uh...I dunno. I am in MAD chill mode.

Kat: But we haven't seen you in such a LONG time.

LB: Right, right...I mean, its been what? A whole 24 hours..and I've fully digested your food, aged, and ev'rythang.

Kat: Unh hunh, so we're gonna meet up for 7 AND we're gonna bowl out there by you, so you won't have to drive too far.

LB: How kind! So you and Anthony...

Kat: Well, me and Anthony...and his friend...

LB: I smell a trap.

Kat: Naw girl, we just hangin'.

LB: **Laughing** You over there trying to bamboozle and hoodwink a sista and as soon as I get to the alley that's when Plymouth Rock is goin' to land on me.

Kat: **Laughing** Not.at.all. We just missed ya.

LB: **Yawn** You know what...I got that thang that I forgot about. So um...I'm gonna have to take a raincheck. We'll do brunch.

Kat: Now you know you're wrong.

LB: I'll holla left.

Anyway...since I've been blog HARASSED by that girl, I thought that I'd update with something that may tickle her fancy...fashion. So that Holiday Gala is quickly approaching, December 13th to be exact. I had it in my mind that after I went from potentially having two dates to zero I wasn't going. And then I dug around my archives dated around this time, last year and came up with this and this. I remember going through a lot of crap then (a helluva lot more than what I'm going through now), but surprisingly enough, my fashion-challenged self was able to pull off a fabulous night.

I am humble, but uh...I was the #1 stunna THAT NIGHT.

I've been telling everyone that asks that I'm not going this year. Honestly, I just couldn't imagine going to a semi-formal event by myself. But in the words of Kat, "...that's just loser-ish"...and she wasn't talking about going by myself, she meant the actual thought that I couldn't go BECAUSE I'd be going by myself. She didn't rock my world with that but, for some reason, it stuck with me. Now, I'm hinging on a maybe.

So, I did some online shopping, attempting to catch some of the sales this weekend. After browsing every black dress there is, I decided to buy this:

I was not going to wear that red dress again and I have been wearing the hell outta my little black dress this year. I thought to play it safe with another black dress but how many of those bammas does one need? I'm sure there is a fashionista answer for that, but I just don't know it. Plus, judging by the last 2 years, there will already be enough broads playing it safe. I picked this dress b/c I thought that if I walked in the room with that on, maybe I would forget the fact that I have no one on my arm. So then, I had to visit another website to buy these:

Those are some 4-1/2" stilettos. Merely typing that, makes me nervous but that's why I always look for an ankle strap. And that's where I stopped...attempting to accessorize would've made my head hurt. I do not own a flat iron but I was thinking that I would wear my hair straight, so that everyone would forget about that guy. People still call me Prince in the hall and the madness has to stop!

We'll see how this turns out...I'm leaving it up to circumstance. I just ordered the dress and shoes, so if they arrive too late then I'll take that as a sign and I'll send the items right on back. I haven't arranged a babysitter, so if that falls through then go, go, gadget doo rag and a book. At the least, I've made an effort.

la-Z

Have you ever had someone cancel plans on you and instead of being disappointed, relief washes all over you? That's how I felt towards the end of last week. Relieved. Finally, I had a weekend when I could marinate in the previous day's funk if I wanted to. If you looked up homebody in the dictionary, you'd see a picture of me in my pink robe and a doo rag, cheesing next to a spoonful of yogurt Cheerio.s. Yes sir, I planned to put a serious butt dent in my recliner while watching movies. And that's just what I did...on Saturday. Today, I reworked my budget sheets, helped J with his book report on Ba.rack Oba.ma, and hit up one of my fave stores...Tar.get.

My aunt called and asked, "Whatchu doing?" I answered, "Nottadamnthang!" with a smile in my voice. Her nickname should be Negative Nelly, so I try to keep my convos with her short and sweet. I have been so tense at the job lately that I needed a mental vacation. And the great thing is that now that all the leaves have fallen, I got this new natural light bursting through the windows as if the gates of heaven opened up. And then I cracked the blinds in my livingroom and saw the many sh*tloads of leaves on what I assume to be my now 10 dead blades of grass and thought of hell. My neighbors will just have to be pi$$ed with me b/c I'm leaving that job to my daddy. He called to tell me that he'll be in Richmond for Christ.mas. I swear fo' lawd, that man nags me to death but he is far from lazy, so I'll just swallow my tongue for that week and a half that he's here.

Once I confirmed that I wouldn't spend Thanksgiving in the N.O., Tee happily informed me that I would get full and tipsy at her house. Honestly, if I didn't eat turkey and I wasn't surrounded by people, I would be just fine on Thursday. I have these moments when I seem to detach myself from folk, especially when I'm going through some things b/c I don't want to be a drag. But since I adopted Tee's crazy family, I look forward to seeing them again and doing an electric slide with a plate of food in my hand. But come Black Friday...go, go, gadget doo rag. Me and JJ might put up the Christ.mas tree, sip hot cocoa, and watch "The Grinch..." repeatedly.

Speaking of Tee, her man is/was trying to hook me up with some dude(s) that he knows. I'm unsure as to how I became "that girl" but I really don't need another Hype-man/PR rep and I surely don't need another dude to start trippin' on me over some dumb mess...i.e. Navy. I'm good for the time being. Or I will be once I have a few good books in my hand.

Any recommendations?

to speak or not to speak

Maybe I wasn't inebriated enough and that's why I was easily annoyed. Or maybe b/c I haven't been myself lately, as told to me by 2 different people, but I just have little tolerance for dumb stuff. Tonight, a small group of us celebrated Tee's bday. And as swigs increased, so did the gripes and complaints about certain coworkers. So ok, I can understand that (at some point) someone might've pi$$ed you off and you decided that (besides the common cordialities ?), you weren't going to fool with that person anymore. That's reasonable. But I was sitting there while listening to 2 of my close friends say that they disliked people just b/c said people don't speak to them in the hallway. I don't even know what I was sipping on, but I wished that I had taken a huge gulp just to say, "Who the f*** cares???" Are you kidding? Especially when I know that the one who started the conversation has the propensity to mean mug some folk, so what exactly does a person owe her? I kept interjecting to say that the people that they were bashing were actually nice, but that fell on deaf ears and drunk mouths. And once the cosigning started, I could forget about sharing my opinion anyway and just decided to chill and eventually make my exit from all the negativity.

I can agree that its disrespectful if I initiate the greeting (and I doubt that they do), but I got too many other reasons to want to pi$$ in someone's coffee. So I guess one of my pet peeves is when people get angry over little things. Man up and move on.

What's yours?