Monthly Archives: November 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Well folks,

It’s that time of year again…where turkey is on the table, and all of my favorite sides are on the table…yum. By the way, no holiday is complete without Canada Dry Cranberry Ginger Ale…not none of that Cranberry Sierra Mist crap, getchu some of the original. :-)

I figured I would take a little bit of time out to say what I’m thankful for this year. 2009 was a rough, rough year, but I am extremely grateful that 2010 has been loads better. I’m thankful for the learning and growing process that I’ve been on all year, and I’m extremely thankful that I’ve gotten to know and love myself a whole lot more than I used to. I’m thankful for every single experience, both positive and negative, that I’ve had this year. Some of them changed my perception for the worse, some of them changed who I am as a person for the better, and the person I am today thanks all of those situations for making me who I am at this point.

I’m so thankful for my family (which includes my friends). I don’t know where I would be without the support and love from them all, even when I make some ridiculous decisions. I’m thankful for all of the conversations, the late night/early morning counseling sessions, the ridiculous rantings on GChat, and every other way possible that friends and family can support me. I’m so thankful that my friends held me down when I didn’t have a job, and when I didn’t know how I was going to be able to afford certain things. From the bottom of my heart, if I call you my friend, I love you and I thank you.

I’m thankful that I finally got a job this year! Not only one job, but two! I’ve finally gotten into the sector I want to be in, and here’s hoping that I can make the transition into the field I want to be in within the next year. Professional experience is a monster like none other that I’ve encountered, but I’m happy to finally be getting some…

I’m thankful for the power of social media. Yeah, that sounds strange, but without it, I wouldn’t have like 7-10 of the friends I have right now, some of whom I have yet to meet. Between Twitter, UStream, and the blogosphere, I have met some of the most amazing, intelligent, and hilarious people, some of whom I actually spent days with in Florida. I’m thankful that we all mesh so well together, and that I now have a new support system that keeps me grounded when I get out of hand. :-)

I’m also thankful for these meals (yes, I said meals) that I’ll be eating this evening. With that being said, I may just need to wrap this post up and get to peeling four pounds of potatoes for mashed potatoes. :| I hope everyone who reads this has a fantastic holiday, and that you all have something to be thankful for! I am thankful for each one of you that comes across this blog and happens to read whatever rambling I decide to put up on here. Thank you so, so much, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

An Ode to The Foreign Exchange

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If you’ve spent any amount of time with me within the last calendar year, you would know how much of a Foreign Exchange fan that I am. And I don’t mean a “oh yeah, their new CD comes out tomorrow, lemme go cop it” type of a fan. I’m the “let me pre order the CD, order the CDs I don’t have, and put everybody and their momma onto these things” type of fan. I mean, in the words of my good friend Cheekie, I STAN for these two. Let me give you a bit of a history on how I became such a Foreign Exchange fan…

Thanks to Twitter, I had started “meeting” people that I had never met before in real life. One of these people was an MC from my alma mater, DK aka Wayne Watts. He and I built up a rapport based on music, and when he released his “24” mixtape for his 24th birthday, there was one song in particular, titled “Birthday Party Guestlist (R.S.V.P.)” that caught me as soon as the beat dropped. Since he took the liberty of shouting me out at the end of the mixtape (that still touches my spirit btw), I decided to ask him where in the world he got the instrumental from for that song. He excitedly replied that it was from this group called The Foreign Exchange and the name of the song was Take Off The Blues. Ya’ll know I went to YouTube IMMEDIATELY and found the video for it. When I tell you my jaw hit the ground as I listened to the song…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a6OueWQ0O4]

That wasn’t the first time I had been introduced to FE. I remember a few years ago, hearing some tracks off of Connected, but I never thought to ask who the group was, or where I could find the music…but when I was re-introduced to them through DK, I. FELL. IN. LOVE. Never in my life had I experienced such a strong connection to music before…as someone who defines every event in her life through a soundtrack, it literally felt as if I had just discovered the soundtrack to my life. I can literally piece together songs off of all three albums to create my own personal soundtrack. From the chill flow of “Come Around” on Connected, to the introspective flow of “Daykeeper” on Leave It All Behind to the smooth groove of “Don’t Wait” on Authenticity, I have been able to musically describe my life and my thought processes for the last year thanks totally to The Foreign Exchange.

If for some unknown reason, you have NOT been blessed by the sheer talent of this amazing duo, please do yourself a favor and go download their catalog. You can get it in the iTunes store, or go to their website to getchu a piece of glory. From Nicolay’s amazing beats (like seriously, I have a heightened level of respect for anyone that can come up with music off the top of their head, but where does he GET the inspiration for this stuff? Listening to his instrumentals is like listening to magic be made, for real.) to Phonte’s verses so eloquently laid over top of said beats (and once again, this dude is the truth. He spits some real words about life and everything that comes with it in every single song on every one of their albums; I promise you, if you listen hard enough, you’ll be thinking about a lot by the time the album ends…), you can’t be disappointed in this group. You just can’t.

And let us not forget Darien Brockington, Zo!, and Yahzarah, all members of the Foreign Exchange family. Talk about people that can sing and compose music like none other…all of their features on FE albums, coupled with their own solo efforts…high quality music. I’ve put numerous people on to the entire FE family, and I literally get excited at the mere mention of new music from anyone in the group.

Everytime I listen to a Foreign Exchange piece, no matter what mood I’m in, a little piece of my soul smiles. From the bottom of my heart, to both Nicolay and Phonte, I thank you for making the music you make. You have no idea the positive impact that each of your CDs has had on my life. You literally speak to my soul and have helped me get through and process through many situations over the last 12 months. I’m SO looking forward to the next time you come to DC, because I will DEFINITELY be front and center!

Til next time, folks…

Florida: A Retrospective

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Now I know good and well I said I was going to blog a whole lot more now that I have these fantastic e-digs over here, but…well…between work and school, I pretty much am tired of staring at a computer in general (lol). Now that I have a tad bit more time on my hands, you’re going to see me a whole lot more than you did before. Aren’t you happy? With that being said, I have a post on my little heart about something that means a whole lot to me now that it’s in the books.

A couple of weeks back, I did something I had been itching to do for a very long, long time. I got on a plane, and took a vacation from this lovely place called the District of Columbia metropolitan area. Don’t get me wrong, I love my city and my life, but sometimes I just need a break. I and four other ladies who have been talking a lot on these here innanets decided that we would all convene in Miami/Fort Lauderdale and actually meet one another and spend a few days together, and take a vacation. To make a long story short, I believe we all met in the chat function of UStream on the night of the Modern Day Matchmaker’s Web Event in New York City…thanks to the web stream being funky, there was a lot of extra ratchet and equally hilarious conversation that occurred. I ended up with at least 5 new blogs to follow and 15 new friends on Twitter because of it. (Hey Paul Carrick Brunson, if you ever read this…thanks! *smile*)

We planned this trip for actual months. Almost from the time that we all met, we started scheming up ways to actually meet each other face to face. It started out with more people than those that ended up being able to come, but the anticipation built like none other. I typically get excited about travel, but with my own personal situations, my work situation, and being bogged down with work for grad school, the opportunity to go anywhere had me extra amped. Now if I’m going to be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had met one of the ladies previously (@MsEsquire77), but the other three, I had only spoken to over GMail, Twitter, or text messages. Never on the phone, and obviously not in person. Was I nervous to go? Not really. Apprehensive, slightly. Excited, hell yeah! I felt like I knew them from all of the conversations we had online, so it was now just a matter of putting a face and a voice to their personality.

Sidenote: Peep the view…

you mad?

By the time I woke up Friday morning, I honestly was completely grateful that I had come on this trip. I had been there all of 10 hours, but I knew from the minute I touched down that the trip was going to be a success. We all got along famously, we all gave each other the space to do our own thing, but we all spent time together when we wanted to. Waking up to go grab breakfast from Einstein Brothers bagels, coming back to play Bingo by the pool, taking EPIC naps on the beach, drinking Miami Vices poolside…I wouldn’t have traded my experience in Florida for anything. By Saturday night, if I already didn’t feel like I had gained four big sisters, I definitely did. The epic 3 hour long conversation laying across the bed (yes it looked like a scene from a cheesy 80s movie lol) that really reassured me that I had found people that had my back. Of course I’m the youngest in the group, so I naturally got ragged on the entire time. (.____.) I’m glad that I got the opportunity to just sit and listen to women older than me in my own generation that go through and have been through some of the same things that I have. How often do people really get that opportunity? I don’t have older sisters of my own, so I’ve never been granted that chance to just sit and observe. It really sucked to leave at the crack of dawn Sunday morning, not only because I was going to have to give up my view of the beach, but because I knew it was going to be a while before I saw them again…no worries though, modern technology has us all up and in each other’s lives!

To each of my newfound sisters, I love each and every one of you! You are all amazing and beautiful women, and I’m so glad to have you in my life. Miami 2010 was a success, and I am so looking forward to DC 2011! :)

Cheekie, Nick, Me, Max, and Shon...I love my sisters! :)

Oh yeah, find Max, Cheekie, Nick, and Shon all on the web!