Monthly Archives: May 2011

Living for the Weekend…

17 Replies

Ah, the weekend. It’s the best part of the week if you ask me. Sometimes the work week can be so long and mundane that I’m practically begging for Friday to come back around. On the weekend, I don’t have to get up early (at least not early like I would if I was going to work), I can lounge around in bed if I want, and it gives me time to do the things I really love to do…like writing, taking pictures, and hanging out with my friends. But this past weekend? This past weekend was unlike any other weekend I’ve had in recent memory. It was chock full of things I’ve never done before. Now normally, I wouldn’t be particularly intrigued by me doing random things on the weekend, but this time is different. Things happened this weekend that I swore in a million years would never happen, and I’m still in awe that they actually happened. Well, are you going to tell us what happened?

Glad you asked! For starters, I went thrift store shopping for the first time ever in life. Peebz sent out a Facebook invitation for people to join her at the Unique Thrift Store in Silver Spring, MD, and I figured what the hell? I’ve never done it, I’ve heard that people have gotten great deals on clothes, and I wanted to go do something different. While there, I finally met my Twitter buddy Eric, and me, Peebz, her daughter Tee, and Eric all traipsed around the store, finding random hilarious things along the way, and having a ball roaming around that HUGE store. I had a really fun time thrifting with them, and I got somewhere around 8 pieces of clothing for just about $60. That definitely wasn’t the last time that I plan on doing that, and I now have friends and family members that want me to take them with me the next time that I go find some more things out in Silver Spring.

Although I’ve lived in the DC Metropolitan area my entire life, I don’t take the time that I should to properly explore my city and surrounding areas. Going thrifting on Saturday and taking Peebz back home allowed me to see parts of the city that I haven’t seen in a while, and I really enjoyed the experience. Far too often, I just hit 50 West, head onto New York Avenue, make a right on Florida, end up on U Street, or keep going to Adams Morgan, and I’d forgotten that DC is so much more than that. I saw parts of the city that I had never seen before, and other parts that I hadn’t seen since I was a kid…I’ve got to take some time out this summer to go to the less-traveled, but exceedingly authentic parts of where my family is from.

To round my weekend out, I went to and participated in One Degree From Me’s DC Quarterly Flow Dating event. Now, anyone that knows me knows that I don’t even go to work alone (my mom and I commute in together to save money – stop judging), much less go to a dating event alone, but guess what? I did it! And to top it all off, I had an amazing time doing so. It was so nice to meet different people from all parts of the country that ended up in DC, as well as people that had been here their entire lives. There were people from all different walks of life, from all different professions, and at all different points of their lives with one goal in mind — to have meaningful conversation with other like-minded individuals. I got to meet some very friendly men and women on Saturday evening, and the entire atmosphere was warm, inviting, and pleasant. I was especially proud of myself for actually engaging people in conversation…I love talking to people, but sometimes my introvert starts to show and I end up in the back of the room just taking it all in. I didn’t let that take me over this time. I started conversations with people, maintained ones with others, and ended up with contact information for a couple of guys and a couple of women. I’m sitting here in anticipation of the email that I’m supposed to get with my mutual interests’ contact information in it, but regardless of the outcome of that email, I’m extraordinarily proud of myself for getting out of my own way and doing something I never thought I was capable of doing. It was just the boost I needed to not only become an active participant in my dating life, but to get out there and to try new things and see what life has to offer me. I have to give a special shoutout to Paul Carrick Brunson and his One Degree From Me team for putting on an amazing event, and him for being such a warm and inviting person, and for striking up conversation with everyone that came to him wanting to talk.

Takeaways from the weekend? 1) Try new things – there’s no telling what can happen if you just go out there and do something that you were previously afraid/skeptical of doing. 2) Have some fun – I literally spent all weekend laughing, joking, talking, and with a smile on my face. That doesn’t happen often, but I’m making it my priority to see to it that it happens more often than not now. 3) Get out of your own way – I don’t know how many times I had to tell myself this on Saturday night, but I’m certain that if I didn’t, I wouldn’t have had as much fun as I did. All of these lessons can be applied to my life, and I have faith that they can be applied to the lives of you all reading as well. If you’ve gotten this far in the post (I salute you), let’s talk about what things you think you can do to add some variety back into your life, or some things you’ve always wanted to do, but have always been too afraid to attempt.

Until next time…

Back Down Memory Lane

18 Replies

Picture it…
Sicily, 1932…

No really, I want you guys to come on a trip of sorts with me. We’ll start from last year…May of 2010, to be exact.

Beach 2010

Awww...:-)

Now this was me about a year ago. You see that color? See those bangs? See the waves? I was too cute for school, wasn’t I? ;-) At this point, I was trying out the idea of growing my hair out to try and go natural. I was concerned about length, so I wasn’t about to chop it all off, but I wanted to see what my hair would do in its natural state. So, I stopped getting perms, and started doing more roller sets, more crinkles thanks to my friend Vogue, and a lot more trying to hide the new growth coming in on top with the permed ends I had. Well, that eventually got really old, and really tiresome…so one day I went to the hair salon and decided, hey, let’s cut all my hair off, and go natural from here!

Something New...

As we can see from this picture up here, it didn’t quite happen that way. I saw my stylist’s haircut, and BAM! I wanted almost the exact same one she had there. She had to put a perm back in my hair in order to achieve desired results, and while it sucked at the time, I was genuinely happy with the haircut I got. I loved how vastly different it made me look, how easy it was to deal with, and the feeling of getting a shape up. Why didn’t any of my guy friends tell me how awesome shape ups were? What I didn’t like was the amount of money I had to spend on the upkeep. My hair grows extremely fast, so every trip to the salon included a cut, which brought my grand total to around $60 every two weeks including tip. Needless to say, there were other places where that money could be going.

And that brings me to today…

This is me...now!

Yep! You guessed it folks, as of Saturday, April 30, 2011, I cut about 90% of the perm out of my hair…there’s still a few strands that are not like the others, but that’s quite alright. I am so happy with how it turned out! I’ll be honest, I was scared of what I was going to think, scared of going shorter, scared I wasn’t going to know what on Earth to do with my hair…but you know what? I absolutely love it. It’s so me! (Ironic, right?) Of course, I’ve already got the faces that look like O_O when people see that I’ve cut it again, but I don’t care…I’m ready to see what my hair looks like, what it does, how it reacts to certain things…it’s been a long time coming, and I’m glad that I finally decided to cut my hair and see exactly what I’m workin’ with. :-)

Until next time folks!

Sometimes It’s Better To Lose

12 Replies

Even though it’s now May, it feels like January was just here, and we were all doing the ever-so-famous New Year’s Resolutions. Some of us vowed to make better choices, to let some tagalong people go, to save more money, or the ever so popular one: lose weight. Now, if I remember my New Year’s correctly, that was the farthest thing from my mind (mainly because I was too focused on the alcohol and the appetizers and avoiding the police – another story for another day), simply because I didn’t want to make a cliché promise to myself that I knew I couldn’t keep. So, I downed a few more chips, meatballs with dill sauce, and drinks, and kept along my merry “not caring about my weight” way.

That is, until February. I was sitting at my desk, talking to Cheekie, when I realized that I needed to join a gym. I’ve been the same size since about 2005, and that’s two full sizes bigger than I was when I graduated from high school. My eating habits had gotten terrible, and my physical exercise was at an all-time low. I figured that there was no time like the present to take matters into my own hands and do something in order to put my life back in order.

Needless to say, the gym worked…somewhat. Though I recognize and appreciate the value of a good gym, I will be the first to let you know that I get bored very easily with conventional exercise. Getting on the treadmill was cool, burning calories on the elliptical was motivating, and getting on the weight machines was more challenging than I expected, but for the most part, I was doing it alone, and felt pretty unfulfilled. That’s when I got the bright idea to pay attention to my high school classmate Deanna’s Twitter page and eventually went to her website. I registered (and coerced one of my best friends into registering) for the April session, and determined that April was going to be the month I got my act together. I joined a kickball league, an aqua class, and resolved to go to the gym to supplement it.

Can I be honest with you guys for a second? I walked into Deanna’s class that first Tuesday and was PETRIFIED. I thought I was too fat, too out of shape, and too physically weak to actually make it through an hour and fifteen minutes of constant exercise. When was the last time I did that much exercise at once?! High school, that’s when. I just knew that day one, I was going to pass out, see stars, and run away from the class kicking and screaming, begging to never go back.

But I didn’t. I actually made it through! I was sore, tired, and wanted a hug and some juice afterwards, but I made it! And four weeks after the start date, I am still sore, still tired, and still would like a hug and some juice, but I’m noticing drastic and subtle differences. For one, since February when I decided to do something about this weight of mine, I’ve lost 10 pounds. Five of those came between April 3 and April 28 while in My Fitness Boot Camps. Five pounds? In twenty-five days? What? Talk. About. Motivating. I’ve changed my diet (mostly), changed my relationship with food, and I can feel my confidence rising and my self-esteem lifting after every single class I take.

The environment that Deanna has created in class is one of true camaraderie, true support, and most of all, it’s a lot of fun. Yeah, even when I feel like my arms and legs are going to fall off, it’s still one of the best ways I can think to spend time getting myself in shape. Her and her entire team of trainers are extremely helpful, and push me to be successful, work through the pain, and achieve the goals that I want to achieve as it relates to weight loss.

I’m far from where I want to be, yes. But I will never, ever go back to where I used to be. Now that I know that I actually can lose weight, and that I can do some of these exercises I never thought I could…I’m so motivated to actually see this thing through. It’s my goal to be in a size 12 by my birthday, and with the structure of Boot Camp, and the changes I am making outside of the classes that I am taking, I’m certain I’ll get there. My family and friends have been there every step of the way, and I’m so grateful to have them during this journey. Ten down, about thirty to go…and with that said — sometimes, it really is better to be a loser.

Until next time, folks…