On My Birthday...

Today couldn't have been more beautiful! As the sun blinded my pupils, I stomped through ankle high snow the color of onyx soot. And though the color lingered with me throughout the day, I especially appreciated this quiet day...for myself.

This morning at 6:45am, I became a 21 year old undergraduate senior. Where has the time gone!

I woke up to an argument with my mother but nothing else is new so I will skip ahead. Upon waking up, I received two very important phone calls! One from my Godmother H. and another from my Godmother U. These women have led my life along in slow paces and I owe a lot to them...for never giving up on me as my last Godmother has done. But that is another anecdote.

After a good cry and a recharge of my cell from getting so many received Facebook birthday wishes, I made my way downtown with mum. After some debate, she purchased a Nikon Coolpix S3000...an incentive and her way of saying "stop stealing my damn camera when I'm not looking". After the morning with mum, I met two very special people downtown Atlantic to celebrate my birthday! Kathy and Jor were in the mood to see ME and I was in the mood for some Thai so we went down to Lemongrass to toast to another upcoming year! I love them so much.

We seperated on the way out of downtown Brooklyn, though! I hoped on the B45 and bumped into an old High School teacher. One who told it like it was whenever she wanted! lol.Such joy! I came home in time to pick up my brother's package from the post office and get unconsciously cursed out by an ignorant postwoman at the local USPS. I hope to report her as soon as possible =D.

Other than these events, I rescheduled with a friend till next time. We were suppose to go to the theatre to see Black Swan, but that never happened! No matter! Next time will always be better and best of all, I was able to watch it in the comfort of my OWN home! YAY! and I must say it........BRAVO!!!

Overall I really enjoyed my birthday and it was very much expected!

• Cake I never got to cut
• Presents I never technically saw to open
• Cards and promises that warmed my heart!
• and quiet!...peace *sigh* and quiet!

PS: I also saw my JHS friend, Gina C. and of course she is looking as beautiful as ever! 

Didn't I say I would get them!!!

 I LOVE MY NEW RED PUMPS!!!!!

Courtesy of Nine West!

WHEN YOUR OBSESSED 2: Should it be Mine?

Been on the search for red pumps to go with my lil black dress this holiday! 


Any suggestions? I've looked on Zappo's (too old), MMC (too painful), and a general Google search (just found this pic to the left) lol. 


Pray for me guys! I'm going shopping tomorrow after finals with money i DONT have! hahahaha! Hmmmm might just go back to damn Nine West and cop those "hotlinks" I tried on! hahaha!

A Rainy Day w/ the Loves...

Moment of the Day!

Yasenia James and Myself

I woke up this morning with a headache but got a big smooch from my 20-months-old niece. She is going to be my prodigy when she gets older! LOL I love this little girl with every fiber of my being! 




My Movie of the day!

Google Find

Wish I had this on DVD! But I woke up just thinking about the classical line... "NO WIRE HANGERS!! lol


I'd love to watch this movie today!






Song of the Day!

Google Find

This song resonates emotions from so many levels, it's just unbelievable. Had it stuck in my head and thought I'd share it with you!
It's listed in my "Project Playlist" below! Enjoy

Just Go to Sleep...

Today was the beginning of my challenge and I'm taking it slowly! I won't be able to go to the gym until the semester is over but I feel like I'm on the right path. I'm:

• Drinking only water and a lot of it!
• Eating in moderation
• Taking longer strides when I walk

It's 11:35pm and my stomach has not growled! I think this is good!!! However, I went downstairs to talk with a friend and smelled something so delicious! And what was my first thought? JUST GO TO SLEEP!! 

It's a known fact, in my case, that whenever I feel like I need to eat, I just go the hell to sleep! LOL Then I wake up feeling okay. So instead of putting those unnecessary morsels in my mouth, I just shut off my craving by going to sleep. Try it and see how you like this method.


...awww, I forgot to take my third Vitamin for the day =( Hmmm... well tomorrow is a new day!

I went shopping this evening and yesterday evening and this is what I got:

• American White Cheese (Craft)
• Cold Cuts
• Cereal Bars
• Kashi Oatmeal Cookies
• Aloe Vera Gel (for my hair) 

Anyway, so I don't feel as accomplished, yet but it's coming! LOL I am just praying to lose these 6lbs before my birthday arrives! 28 Days Left!

LESSON 1: Intervals! ...on Protective Styling

I've learned a lot since starting my research on Natural Hair but the key lesson learned would have to be patience. So in this installment of Hair blogs, I'd like to share that retaining length is all in a year's work! You must be patient and one way to do that is in intervals. When I say intervals I mean to rule out your timetable for protective styles. I use to do my hair every two weeks. I'd keep it in braids/twists then wash it. However,  now that I wash on a weekly basis, my regime has changed. Here's a Protective style I sported for a week straight

So I had these plaits (if that's how you spell it) in 

my hair for two days. I'd wear a hat over it 

for class and just go!

But on this day I decided to pull out the

braids in the front. You'll see why...

This was my outcome in the end! 

  A BEAUTIFULLY curled 

and shiny Braid-Out Bang!!

(please ignore the line in my forehead) LOL

so0o... Anyway, on my cap went!! and this

was the end result! Tell me what you think!

I don't always do this particular style. Especially because the real interval that occurred involved the braids I did all over my head and taking out the two front ones seemed to go against my Protective styling. But, when I got back home from class, I'd lock the loose suckers back up moisturizing with my special Shea mix and some of my new, favorite, Nature's Blessing Pomade! (Because my hair NEEDS hair oil). Then I'd do it again the next morning till it was wash day. I loved the finished results! 

33 Minutes Ago...

I wasn't looking forward to Thanksgiving today...

I woke up early expecting my day to be burdened with a screaming mother, and the sights of food that would eventually make me queezy by the time it came to sit and eat it. So I stayed out of the kitchen (as much as I could). I was never a cook anyway. and my mother didn't want me in there from the start. Whatever...

 Happy Belated Thanksgiving viewers =D

Thanks to L.R.D!!

Want to join a CHALLENGE? Well this one begins on December 1st, 2010 for four hopeful women.

Aiesha T. is an ass kicking mother, wife, educator, and mentor determined to see the heights her 'fro can reach! lol
I can't wait to see her tresses progress into a thick TWA!
~Photo via Aiesha T's FB Album~

 

Courtney J. can't get enough of her mane either but come Dec 1st, she'd really like to crack down on her out-of control eating. Being a full-time student does come with it's trials but that doesn't mean she has to neglect her body -___-.

~Photo via Tiffany Brown NerdScarf Photography~ 

Netchem H. has a love! And this love relates to the constant braid outs and twist outs she sports on an almost daily basis. In her hair blog, Afropuffs: A Natural Hair Diary, found at http://afropuffs.tumblr.com/, Netchem is on her journey to discovering a love and humble respect for protective styles. Hey! Can you blame her! lol 

~Photo via Netchem-Is~

Lauren F. and her Kashi cereal have always been best friends! But now she's taking it a step higher! Joining the challenge my friends and I have created for ourselves, she's just as excited to not only polish up her skin but to also get her body back into gym mode! And she's begun by helping all four of us along the way.

~Photo via Lauren F's FB Album~

The LINKS below lead to a marvelous article posted on Frugivore: Fruitful Lifestyle Magazine (http://www.frugivoremag.com/) but she found the article reloaded to Clutch magazine's site (http://www.clutchmagonline.com/). All in all, you may choose which website to read the article from (I will post both links) but I saw it as few helpful. It basically spoke about the five foods all women should try their best to eat plenty of. On the list were the following:

• Salmon
• Blueberries
• Walnuts
• Broccoli
• Beans

Check out the article here or here! You may like what you see....and read of course!

This Semester...

You think your life is over. Then, the professor attacks you with finger thick xerox's.

This is how my semester has been. Filled with

• Scribbling Women
• The Great Short Works of Mark Twain
• The Great Short Works of Edgar Allan Poe
• The Great Short Works of Herman Melville
• Selected Poems and Letters of Emily Dickinson
• The Portable Charles Chestnut
•   Triggering Town
• A Poetry Handbook
• Making of a Poem
• American Poetry
• Grammatically Correct
• Classic Slave Narratives
• Impact/ Media
• Review of Grammar
• and David Sedaris

Hmmm.... One would think life is easy as an English Major. However, It's tough on your brain, stess levels, and wallet. If I were to purchase all these books, my bill would be about $400. But thank God the Library exists!! LOL... I've been renewing these book (half of which I rented for the semester) over and over again for the past 12 weeks. And it's allowed me to save the money I could've spent. 

Yeah, it's kinda cool being an English Major.

Weekend Tunes: Suppress the Stress =D

Dwele "Hold On"...


Ledisi "Round Midnight"...


Jesse Boykins "Fever"...


Jazmine Sullivan "In Love with Another Man"...

WHEN YOUR OBSESSED 1: Makes Me Wanna....

Crochet....

I've always had this love for Arts & Crafts. Now that doesn't mean I am a pro at it, but ask me what I've made and I'll proudly list:

• A Ipod Snuggy
• Scarves upon Scarves
• A hat for my precious niece
• A book cover
• an many more to come...

What's my next project?? Hmmm...well my new fad of course! LOL

I've fallen victim of these luscious Loop/Infinity/Circle scarves!

And I just figured...

Why buy, when I can make!! 

Update to come...

after all, I'm heading to my fave crafts store tomorrow! YAY!

His name is Jesse... Jesse Boykins III

Ever since my bestie and sister, Lauren R.D, introduced him to me, I have been infatuated. I don't know. All I can say is the feeling was unimaginable. You ever felt like something so classic was just dying away right in front of you? Well I have felt this or R&B ever since the "Souljah Boy" characters have let themselves go--running on a rampage trying to make extinct, everything we knew and love about our Neo Soul. Hmmm.... but not this man. He's my Maxwell, if I must say.

"I thought I'd ask her out tonight 

and maybe she'd say 'yes' and go.

She was way to fly for me

so we ate on the top floor

I'm hoping all this altitude would impress her even more

She was amorous...."

Jesse Boykins Iii - Amorous (2010)

Linked In's: Career Explorer

The week has been dedicated to finding my career path. After having a conversation with a not-so-optimistic classmate, I realized that no one--in this day and age--is going to lend out jobs. Especially in the publishing Industry. So how can I boost myself to being a valuable worker? I have to study this business back and forth. Kind of like the way I study my hair.

You can call it an obsession but these days, I'm all about being healthy and productive. I may look obese, but my doctor likes my insides. And I do as well. There is only one month left before my semester ends and now that I'll be free in my latter semester of college, it is time I begin to look for a job. A real job.

Then it came to me! In an email of course. Linked In, a social network I'm not as "linked" into, told me to map out my career path. So I did, and I swear, it's it so0o helpful! More updates to come!

Which job is that? Well, an entry level Editorial Assistant of course!

Have an interest in publishing? Want to find a job in it?
Visit www.bookjobs.org

Need help differentiating? Check this link out!
http://www.ehow.com/about_6297079_job-description-associate-editor.html

Pretty Girl Rock!

I love this compilation of classics! Keri Hilson is really doing her thing!

A New Tactic to Suggest! RQR!!!

It has been a few weeks since Netchem and I committed ourselves to taking better care of our manes. However, I have run into a problem. I have been experiencing the early stages of carpel-tunnel, in my wrists and so my doctor suggests that I give them a rest. Though this entails all exclusion from typing, doing my hair, and overly exercising my wrists, I can only stop the latter two. 


So for now, I am on a timeout. Good News though! Starting December first, I am determined to get back on board. Not only will I continue my weekly co-washes and monthly deep conditioners, but I will start the regimen seen below. It is called the Real Queens Regimen and consists of 4 things: 
1) EVOO
2) The Green House Effect
3)Planned washes
4) Protective styles.


Want more info? Just press play! 
**Updates will be posted 

Two years to the Date

PHOTGRAPHY BY NETCHEM HAIRSTON

Two years to the date
I received a call that you left
There was no understanding in pursuit
No question that it wasn't theft


You didn't see it coming
And neither did our friends
You stayed strong for us though
and made us reseal our ends


Don't tell me you did no such thing
Just reminisce about the good times
That day on the beach I lost my glasses
But you stuck by me; an extra set of eyes


Sometimes we throw it away 
And say life sucks ass
Sometimes, we shed tears unknowingly
And wallow in our past


I know you prayed before you went to sleep
I know your time was due
But God knows why he took you from us
To see how easy a new day, without a good life can start anew. 


R.I.P SHANNON

On this Journey...

 I've never had to go through such a change. I've never had to put my honesty to the brink of extinction. Colors collapse around me all the time and all I can do is drop hints on how many times I won't catch them. My friend and I have this trust going on. A trust that involves cuticles, and shafts. A trust that delves into the world of pH and courage. Netchem is my friend. Our hair is our trust. Our fund. Our bond. Nothing breaks us up when it comes to our bond. Individually and collectively, there is no such thing as letting go of what we were blessed with.

I've never had to go through such a change. But Netchem did and she posted it a while back on http://afropuffs.tumblr.com/. That journey to natural flowing wisdom! And my coming out of ignorance. The ignorance that involves parabens and Lauryl Sulfates. I am on this journey with Netchem for two reasons. (1) We want to push our hair to the limit. Retaining length is no easy feat. It's comes with slow nights of gentle unraveling. It comes with organic products our hair originally want to reject. Did you here that? Our hair wants to reject what is GOOD for our hair because it is addicted to the bad. I attended my Advanced Grammar course today and the professor stated what I know is true. When my children are born, their vocabulary will be made up of "pretend irregular verbs/sentences" like He snook into the movie theatre.

And miraculously, she is correct. My computer didn't underline the "pretend" verb, snook. It underlined my British-spelled theatre. Anyway! All I am trying to say is, Netch and I have decided to take the reins (if that's how you spell it) on correcting the mistakes our parents made with our hair. (2) We want to learn from our mistakes, miracles, and makeshifts! There's only one way to find the true remedy and that's through trial and error!!

Want to take the journey with us! Ask questions at any time by simply leaving a comment!! I'm red, and Netch is blue... but idk. In this world there is no choice to pick from except the correct one!

HAPPY MOMMY'S DAY!!

I don't know why but this awful Haiku was going though my head... So I had to post it!

Mommy dearest Loved

But she can beat like a thug

Happy Mother's Day! 

Our Greatest Fear by Marianne Williamson

Sometimes we let our insecurities ruin the good things following us in life! 

I don't need that!

Read this poem the other day after watching:

AKEELAH and the BEE

It was P-H-E-N-O-M-E-N-A-L

"Phenomenal"

Our Greatest Fear —Marianne Williamson

it is our light not our darkness that most frightens us

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other
people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

—Marianne Williamson


LET IT MARINATE!

BHSA DAYS MISSED

So I found a youtube video a minute ago that is promoting the essence of the high school , along with so many other spectacular people, graduate from! My girl, L.L told me to write down anything that comes to my mind and so I believe this is one of them...







So this is a video of what my high shool brought and now brings to the table and what I never realized is how much it sculpted me as a young woman. I really did take these days for granted but in all I've learned a valuable lesson... Remember where you come from or else, no one will do it for you! I love and miss my high school dearly. Especially the people who made it, at the time, what it was; a success in my eyes!

Signed off: CDBMJ 9:59pm (4/25/10)

Inspired by Sade's "Lover's Rock"

Simpletons touch hands

Then become extraordinary beings within themselves

Unlike the tarred street before them, their streets zoom into millions of colors

This is my road

My trial and error

I am in the wilderness, she sings

Somewhere in my sadness

Can you guess who serenades these words into my mind?

No one can describe what my path will foretell

But it is within you; MY PATH

I am in the Wilderness

And somewhere in my sadness, there is no melancholy

An oxymoron of synonymous feeling

But I was listening to her serenade

Joining hands like the two simpletons in my dreams

PHOTOGRAPHY BY NETCHEM HAIRSTON!

 

Signed Off: ~*CourtyJ*~ @ 1:27am

Playtime with Yasenia!!

My Winter Wonderland!

I've always stated how much I loved the winter. I think my next goal will be to take an Alaskan Cruise. Just look at this beauty!

Hmm! Well for now, I must suffice for the home struck winter wnderland I was given this year by mother nature! I shoveled seven times this year. But I don't mind. I actually love it! Check out our ice land!
Signed Off: ~*CourtyJ*~ @ 12:11am

My Pride and Joy

Meet my gorgeous niece. Born at Methodist Hospital on March 28th, 2009 in Brooklyn, Ny, Yasenia Nevaeh Cameron James weighed 6lbs 4oz and measured at 19inches long. I love her with every fiber of my being and although I can't see her as much as i'd like, she seems to be growing up well. So fast they say. She's already trying to walk which is weird because she has yet to crawl. I try my best to see as ften as I can but times collide so much in my life and right now, I need to work it out.

She said her first word before the year ended. But i remember those days when sh'ed lay in the middle of my couch with a pillow on either side and she'd just scream!! Scream till se sounded hoarse. and you'd run in like "are you okay mama!!" and then she'd smile and grab your hair and scream even louderin your ear when she was close enough to the ear drum.

I remember the nights she'd wake up for milk. All you'd hear was a faint whimper. Like she'd had a bad dream. Then when her grandfather died in the summer my mother, her grandmother, adorned her in red. She found a red scrunchie i'd put in my hair and put it on her tiny wrist. Or she'd clip a red bow in her hair. The last thing I saw my mother do, is tape salt crystals abouve every doorway in the house. Hmm. You ask why? Because she--my mother--was afraid her dead grandfather would haunt her at night, being that he never got to see her before he past away. A opule of weeks later, when I returned from an internship up at Yale U, I noticed a fretful look on her face.

Yasenia James was christened July 5th, 2009. Just two days after her grandfather, on her mother's side, passed away. There was a small funeral the following days in which I was not able to attend but i heard she cried for him. Just like her mother did. Yasenia was a copy cat. Doing what her elders would whenever she got the chance. But now a few monthslater, she has he own show. Her own playbill. I strive to see her grow up to be successful. Even if, and when I have my own kids, i know she'll share that smile with me! Here's a pic of her now. At ten months, 2wks, and four days old. Her first birthay is coming up and i have a feeling she'll be a princess!! LOL

Signed Off: ~*CourtyJ*~ 12:03pm