…And always will. Yes, technically I was raised in “The Area” (never actually lived within the DC borders) but I love DC like it was my own, because it’s an amazing city. You can routinely find me telling people I’m from DC, talking about different parts of the city I’m familiar with, before mumbling the requisite side-note that I actually grew up in Maryland…. #shrug. I still rep the District. And pretty much every DMV-raised person I know does the same.
So when I saw this, my heart did a little nostalgic happy dance:
And they have other cities too! New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Philly, Boston…. All with really cool typographic style of ID’ng the neighborhoods. Check ’em out and see if they have your city! Meanwhile I’ll be buying this one… and putting it prominently in my new home come the fall…. (more on that soon ;)
I busted out cackling at these graphs, no lie! Originally posted [here], author Wylo takes a hilarious approach to the lead-up and fall out of the year’s most emotional holiday, Valentine’s Day. Enjoy!
I know, I know. It’s been forever. :-x But like I said before, my life has been in shambles lately, a whooole lot of mess pulling in a bunch of directions. So what have I been upto? Lets run through it.
1. VEGAS. Yes. I was there. It was unbelievable, I had the most amazing time! Me and 3 of my very good friends jetted out to beautiful, sunny Nevada to live out our own version of “The Hangover”. We went out, saw a show, played tourist, gambled (I won $7.14 y’all. Can we say ballin’?), had In-N’-Out Burger for the first time in life (Dear Lord. If I can eat nothing else for the rest of my life… I’ll never complain again. Amen.), spent WAY too much money, and bonded with my Wolfpack. Vacation of EPIC proportions. Can’t wait for the next one :)
2. Grad School. One interview down, 3 to go! The first one went REALLY well, I have high hopes that I showed Vandy without a doubt that I am AWESOME. Like, seriously. lol. And Nashville was actually a LOT of fun. A friend of mine was nice enough to take me around town and show me a great time, I had a blast. Who knows…. I may be moving to Tennessee y’all :) lol
3. My Poor Pookie.
Yes. That is the formerly sleek and unblemished driver’s side of my Pookie, otherwise known as my ’09 Camry. *cue the hot salty tears of depression… and pour out a little Turtle Wax for her.* Note to all: I don’t care how little regard you hold for your piece of $#!? car, but I LOVE mine. Blind turns in parking garages have 5mph speed limits FOR A REASON. *sniff*. Stupid ’96 Cavalier. At least the cop was fine though. Officer Jones….. #yesplease. lol.
4. Workworkwork…. and BS co-workers. Any of you who follow me on Twitter knows that I faced quite the debacle with a co-worker last week. #deeeeeepsigh. Lets get one thing straight, shall we? I am many things, but a pushover is not one of them. When I ask you to do something and you don’t, just because I don’t say anything, doesn’t mean I’m not aware of your bull. So don’t act all shocked and surprised when I stop asking you to do stuff. There is NOTHING on this planet I despise more than people who don’t have the decency to follow through when asked for a favor. If you don’t want to do it, SAY NO. Seriously! So that I know not to bother next time. Because I will only put my work integrity in your pathetic, incapable hands so many times before I relegate you to a box reserved for the lazy and irresponsible. Do NOT mess with my job. I take my image at work VERY seriously, and don’t appreciate those who can’t do the same. < /rant >
5. SuperBowl Commercials …meh. Except for these two!:
Greatness. And no, I’m not going to comment on the game this year. I was bored to tears. And the Steelers…. just…. fail.
6. New Ink …Yes I know. I’m an addict. But I can’t help myself lol. Officially saving up for tattoo #6… Once I finalize the design, I’ll share. :)
7. BookyWooks! I’ve been reading up a storm in my web-absence. “The Unnamed” (Joshua Ferris),”Bitch Is The New Black” (Helena Andrews), “Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self” (Danielle Evans), “Naked” (David Sedaris) and always more to come. Each VERY different, but I like the variety. Hit me up for more detailed reviews if you’d like, but I’d recommend them all! Long Live REAL books!
8. Tiger In the wake of the insanity that is my life, I had to give up my baby boo, my dog Tiger. Still miss him something FIERCE! :( Hopefully once my schedule dials back I’ll be able to get another dog…. But I miss my Punkin’ Face. I really hope he found a good family though.
Anyways I should really get back to work… Though this was a nice break, time to mosey on back to the craziness that is my work day. Later folks :)
Raise your hand if you can confidently and without a doubt say that you love every single minute thing about your body, yourself, who you are, etc.
Don’t worry. I’ll wait.
Nobody? alright then. That’s what I thought. Why is that?
It’s frustrating and sad. Even the most outwardly confident of us all have something they take major issue with. Too big, small, loud, quiet, sticks out too far, too short, too long, yaddayaddayadda. And then we try to justify all of this in the name of “self-confidence” “conceitedness” by throwing in “well at least he/she/it has it worse than me.” WTH? That’s not self-confidence. That’s petty and destructive. And it’s not going to work anyways.
So why do it? Sure, at the end of the day you’ve created a booster seat with the pile of dashed self-lovin’ of other people, but if you have to KEEP DOING IT, clearly it’s not working.
My dear sister, who makes her home on the interwebs over at Les Coeurs Solitaires posted this fabulous quote the other day. Thought I’d share with y’all :)
“At some point in your adult life, you’ve probably walked into a party and felt a frisson of relief upon discovering at least one woman there who was fatter, uglier, and/or dressed more inappropriately than you. We sure have. But if you want to have any hope of making peace with your own body, you need to knock that shit off.
We’re not even telling you to stop just because it’s nasty, petty, and beneath you to judge other women so harshly; it is, but because you’re not a saint, and neither are we. We’re telling you to stop because it’s actually in your own self-interest to stop being such a bitch. ‘Cause you know what happens when you quit saying that crap about other women? You magically stop saying it about yourself so much, too.
Judging other women negatively creates a constant stream of nasty thoughts in your head. It is inevitable that you will end up applying those same standards to yourself. We think we’re building ourselves up when we do this but, really, we’re just tearing other people down to our level. And we hate to go all Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood on you, but tearing other people down isn’t really productive. It leaves you in the same place you started, which is full of loathing for your own body. “
And the church says AMEN. Let 2011 be the year we let go of petty crap, self-destructive thoughts, and unnecessary negativity about ourselves, and everybody else for that matter. Please and Thank you.
ForGET going outside. This crummy cold weather has me staying inside my apartment instead, and finding entertaining things on the interwebs lol. I just had to share some amusing web stuff I found recently. Ch-ch-ch-check it out!
1. How I Met Your Mother is the best show I didn’t realize I should be watching. HI-Larious!! I love it lol. Great clip from an episode I watched the other day: Hot/Crazy Scale lol. Ladies, where do you think you fall? :)
Math can be fun sometimes. HA! lol.
*I preeety sure I’m teetering below the “Vicki Mendoza Diagonal”. #crazyandproud! haha! Besides, anyone who tells you they’re not a lil ‘ cray-cray is lying. lol*
2. In case y’all didn’t know, Diddy is low-key ridiculously funny. (Have you seen “Get Him To The Greek”?? iDie. lol. (“I’m gonna cover the whole outside of my house with this material. My house gon’ look like a f**kin’ werewolf.” <–THIS!!)
So when I saw this Ciroc commercial with him and Aziz Ansari, I could NOT stop watching/laughing. lol.
“Smooth don’t sneeze…..” lmao!
3.
*melts from adorablness overload*
4. Prince treated Sherri’s life on “The View” the other day. Did you see it?! I was at work, but I saw the clip afterwards. Never have I seen a man run SO FAST from an offer of some lady’s love box. A part of my soul HURT for her lol. Just…. watch. lol. and laugh. And please do me a favor and watch Sherri’s face as Prince emanates awesomeness next to her lmao. Poor thang.
5. So I have a mini-crush. And when I say mini, I mean he’s a child…….. But not in a sketchy way!! lol.” Lil’ P-Nut” is about to blow up the airwaves y’all!!! Seriously. I am totally just enamored with this teeny-tiny rapper. He is about the most presh thing I’ve ever seen ever in life. With his adorable lil’ jheri-curled self. *melts again*. Please watch the following. You will love it.
“Would you like some ‘tater-chips, bubble gum, or a freeze-cup?” – Lil’ P-Nut
6. And now I leave you with an awesome link as an exit.
Ladies. We all like to go out and hit the clubs with the girls, right? And there’s always that sketchball who thinks he’s the flyest thing on two feet when he’s the lamest dude in the club. Right?! I know this has happened to me. Well the following link is something we can ALL relate to. I canNOT stop going to this page. This chica is a friend-in-my-head for putting this together. #EpicWin. Click it!!
Reading is awesome. For serious. One of my bestie’s favorite quote is, “If you can read this, thank a teacher.” When did we all give up on the amazing art of disappearing into a book?
I won’t lie, I’ve been skimpin’ on my reading quest of late, but I just picked a new book before my Thanksgiving trip, and I cracked it open on the bus this morning. I think it’s a genuinely bad idea to forgo reading in favor of lesser entertainment forms…. Yea I can hear you all calling me a nerd. I don’t care. #nerdygirlswag. On a thousand-trillion. lol.
According to the BBC, the average person has only read 6 of the following books in their lives. SIX!! That’s it?! Maybe I’m just a bookworm, but I think as humanity we all need to do wayyyy better. Read my blog (lol) then log off the interwebs and head to the nearest bookstore/library. Please and Thank You. lol. Anyways, below (after the cut) is *my* version of the Top 100 Nominated books on The Big Read list…. Bold if I read it, Italicized if I didn’t finish it (Yet!!!).
Enjoy! And pick up a book or two off the list why don’t ya.
I’m officially on the bandwagon. Willow Smith is just so frickin’ adorable. Congrats to her on a fly song and a rocking video. I need braids in my life… ASAP. lol
Seriously. I’m a fan from wayyyyy back, (Gawrsh has it really been 20 years since I was their target demographic?! O_O) so I’m glad that PBS is still putting out quality learning-ness for the kiddies to this day. (Get the heck on, Barney. *side-eye* lol)
They did a clip featuring a monster with natural hair! (well, curly. but close enough lol). I thought this was the cutest thing ever, and I hope they keep this clip around in the future for my one-day napped-out babies to watch too lol.
"Wherever you go, go with all your heart."
- Confucius
"In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love."
- Mother Theresa
"I'm selfish, impatient, and a little insecure. I make mistakes. I'm out of control, and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best."
- Marilyn Monroe
"May the bridges I burn light the way."
- Unknown
"Binary thinking is the mark of a simple mind."
- Gordon Gartrelle
"There's more to life than watching other people live it."
- "Hitch"
"Don't buy into anyone else's standard; set your own."
- Shayna Rudd
"When I'm good, I'm very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better."
- Mae West
"Don't ever be someone's slogan. You are poetry."
- 28 Days
“Why should my happiness depend upon the thoughts in someone else’s head?”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Beautiful souls and positive energy keep me grounded. Even my thoughts are clearer."
- Marcus Washington
...go with all your heart. 