New laptop

Yea!!  I am writing this blog from my new laptop!!  My mom bought it for me b/c she knows that I’ve really been wanting one.  B/c of her position as the Minister of Finance at our church, she occasionally is required to teach classes about church finance and administration to people from other churches.  She is paid well for each time that she teaches the class and decided to use the money from her latest class to buy me a laptop.

The fact that I have it is not nearly as awesome as the story of how I got it.  I went to Best Buy yesterday, determined not to pay more than $500 for the laptop b/c as we all know by the time you buy the warranty, Microsoft Office Suite, antivirus software these days you’re practically buying a second laptop.  Plus I needed to buy a wireless router so that I could have a wireless network in my house.  CW and I read the specs for all the laptops that were $550 or less.  The one that I was most interested in had 3GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive and was only $400, but that was sold out.  Apparently there had been a mad rush for that laptop on Sunday morning, b/c it was advertised in the Sunday paper and they were sold out by 11:30 on Sunday morning.  That was clearly not meant to be my laptop as I am always in church at that time.

The second laptop that I wanted was also sold out.  This initially made me think that if they were both sold out, then the displays should be taken down, but what do I know.  So we kept looking.  The problem was that the other ones that were in my intended price range were just not as impressive.  I noticed some laptops in one of the cages, that didn’t have displays, so we asked one of the sales associates if he could find out the prices.  He was really nice and actually looked up the 4 that were there, but only told me the price for one.  He said that it as $431.  When I asked him what the specs were he said “Just trust me, its a steal.”  Long story short that’s the one I bought. 

This laptop is a Toshiba Satellite with 4GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, a CD/DVD burner and a built-in webcam and microphone.  This is actually way better than the other two that I had looked at since they only had 3GB of RAM, a CD burner and no webcam or mic!  This is one of the laptops that they had on sale at Christmas time and they thought they had sold them all, so the display one had even been sold already.  Its not even on the website anymore! 

Alot of people would call that luck, but I call that a good ole’ fashion act of God.  Who knows what other blessings I’ll receive now that I have this.  I’m so excited!!

P.S.  As for the job hunt it’s going okay.  I’ve applied for a lot of jobs, but one of the jobs actually contacted my references last week.  I’m expecting good things to come of that.

        

My Birthday!!

So last night it dawned on me that my 30th birthday is fast approaching and I haven’t started planning my party yet.  That’s a problem!  I haven’t had a birthday party since I turned 16 and I think that’s ridiculous.  My family usually just goes out for birthdays and the birthday girl gets to choose the restaurant.  Well, I want to enter 30 with a bigger “to do” than that.  I’ve been trying to get my parents to plan something, but they just laugh about it.  I’m sure they know that I”m excited about it, but I don’t think they take me seriously when it comes to me actually wanting a party.  Well, if I have to throw it myself then I will.

With that said, if anyone has any suggestions then let me know.  My first order of business will be to find a location, b/c I want to invite more than just my family, even though that alone is about 20 people.  Last night when we went dancing I was on the dance floor thinking “My iPod could DJ better than this guy is”, so I’ll save money there.  I’ve got about 2 months to add party songs to my collection, then I can just hook up my iPod, put it on “shuffle” and let it go.  I’ll also save money by making the cupcakes myself instead of buying a cake.  Real Simple magazine did a book about celebrations that I bought that has some great ways to spruce up box cupcake mix so I can easily use that..  I think this is going to be my best birthday yet!

An Entertainer

The other day CW and I were discussing the fact that I regularly say that I’m bored.  He asked me about a relationship I had where me and the guy didn’t argue a lot.  He was trying to say that it was mostly b/c me and that guy had sex regularly, saying that b/c he and I are celibate we need to work harder to entertain ourselves.  I said that wasn’t true b/c I could only think of one relationship where the guy didn’t get on my nerves on a regular basis and that was with GJ.  He asked me why that was, what did G do that I liked.  By the time I finished listing things he said that G kept me entertained.  He may not have been purposely trying to do that, but his personality was just naturally entertaining to me.

I’m realizing that that is true.  He was so funny all the time.  In other relationships I’m always the one who is funny and constantly making the other person laugh.  I don’t do it on purpose though.  My mother is always telling me that I’m funny, and from my point of view I’m just talking, but CW says the same thing.  I was never bored with G b/c he was a lot of fun.  We could spend all day in the house and I wouldn’t be bored once.  We watched a lot of the same TV shows, played games, our conversations were fun, I just enjoyed so much about him.  “Well why aren’t you with him anymore?” you’re probably wondering.  Well the relationship ended b/c he cheated on me.  He was man enough to admit it on his own, but it still happened and I wasn’t going to put up with that.  Honestly, if that hadn’t happened though I would have married him. 

Anyway, its official.  I’m adding that to my list.  I need a man who is naturally entertaining.  I never knew that about myself, but it makes total sense.

No excuses

Okay, no excuses.  Its been about 2 months since I’ve posted anything.  No too much has happened since then, but that’s still no excuse.  I couldn’t blog from the school where I was teaching and b/c I hate being tied to a desk I wasn’t turning my computer on.  Well, that’s all in the past, so today is the first day of a new goal to post at least once a week.

Let’s catch up!

My last day as a teacher was January 23.  That’s right, I resigned!  Teaching was just not a good fit for me, at least not teaching public school.  I still enjoyed working with children, but there is just too much wrong with the way schools here are run and it totally drained me.  I was loathing going to work in the morning and coming home completely drained even after one day.  If I’m going to work with kids, I’ll have to find another way to do it.  I totally enjoyed teaching writing though, much more than teaching literature so I may investigate ways to do that in the future.

Right now I’m just looking for another job.  I make it a point to apply for at least 20 jobs a week.  So at this point I’ve applied for about 27.  I know that something is going to work out so for now I’m just enjoying my time off.  That’s basically it.  I’m still dancing on Sundays and dating CW. 

I’m trying to convince my mom to let me volunteer to be her secretary until I get a job, but I think she’s worried that her boss will hire me and that it won’t pay enough.  She just keeps saying “there’s no money in the budget for me to have a secretary.”  I say “Mom, I’m going to volunteer to do it for free.”  She says “You’ll get a job soon.”‘ I know I’ll get a job soon, but I guess she just doesn’t want to risk that ending up as my job.

Well, I’ll mark that today is Tuesday and that by next Tuesday I’ll need to have updated you.

I’m so excited about my future!!

November

Well, November just flew by. I had so many lofty goals and only accomplished the one that I didn’t have a choice in.

1.  The dance group that I’m in was in a stage place that was performed on the 29th.  There were supposed to be 2 performances, but the writer/director cancelled the Sunday one (praise Jehovah for that).  Well, between rehearsals for that and doing my school work, and what I’ll explain in #3,  my only accomplishment was remembering my cues and the various dance numbers. 

2. I didn’t get the novel done.  I really like the idea though, so I’m going to outline it and work on it slowly instead.  Maybe next November I’ll have the manuscript done and will spend NaNoWriMo revising.

3.  I’ve sort of made a new friend and we’ve been hanging out on a regular basis.  I think today is the first day in a month that I haven’t seen him at least for a little while.  He’s not really a new friend b/c he dances at my church and that’s how I met him 6 years ago, but I didn’t know he was so cool. Its been a long time since I had a friend who could actually dance and of course he loves to do it, so every other Friday is our standing date to go out dancing.

4.  I’ve finished T’s penguin hat (finally) and now just have to sew the seam in the back.  Its really cute though so I’m determined to sew the seam tomorrow and get it to M next week.  I haven’t gotten hardly anywhere on S’s baby gift though.  This will be the first baby that will get the gift after they arrive. 

5.  Speaking of S and M,  I haven’t talked to them in ages and its totally my fault.  I’m turning into the kind of friend I typically am since I hate talking on the phone.  It had been my intention to talk to them like once a month, but I haven’t done it.  But since my schedule has calmed down, I’m making it my New Year’s resolution, but really I plan to start this month.

6.  I did, however finally finish painting my prayer board.  I was instructed to post my prayers, blessings, and other religious assignments on a board, but I didn’t want it to be a plain ugly brown cork board, so I bought a board, acrylic paint and brushes and was going to paint stripes.  First I thought I’d be cool with doing the stripes by hand.  They werent’ perfectly straight, but the first few looked nice then they started getting choppy.  With board #2 I wanted to tape the stripes off so they’d be perfect and CW and I found out the hard way that even the weakest painters tape picks up pieces of cork.  So I’ve finally done board #3. Almost the same colors, but this time I used a stencil.  I like it.  I was feeling very much like M, when I did that yesterday except she probably could have done the stripes freehand, as artsy and capable as she is  

6.  Oh and I’m dead set on being done as a teacher at the end of this semester.  I’ve been researching technical writing, which I had never heard of until M told me about it last school year.  Its like my perfect job.  If I had heard of it in college I would have never tried teaching, but then I wouldn’t have such awesome friends, so it was worth it.  B/c I need to build a portfolio first I think that when I leave teaching I’m going to find a temporary job like being a bank teller or something, like that.  Something that I’ll be good at and will enjoy, but won’t have a hard time walking away from.  No matter what though, this lady will not be a teacher at the end of January.  Yea!!

7.  Monday marked the 1 year anniversary of me leaving ExH.  December 1, 2007 was the day that I moved out.  How fast that year went by and I wouldn’t change a thing!!  I can’t believe that its really been a year.  I didn’t celebrate, but I’m no less excited.

Okay that’s it so far.  It would be so much easier to blog if I could do this at work, but alas I can’t.  I’ll just have to stop being lazy and make it a point to turn on my computer at least once a week.

S and M, I hope you can forgive me.  And if I don’t get my original gift done by the end of next week, I’ll send Baby B a handmade back up gift, and send the original one when I get it finished.  I love you ladies!!

Aaaaah!! Today is WHAT!!

For some reason it just dawned on me what day it is.    Today is October 25, which means that in 6 more days I’ll be starting another National Novel Writing Month.  For those of you who don’t know, National Novel Writing Month, (aka NaNoWriMo) was started about 10 years ago by a guy named Chris Baty who decided that he could write a 50,000 word novel in a month.  Well, not a perfectly written and edited, ready for publication novel, but at least the rough draft.  If you’re interested in the whole story, just click the link to see the official website.

I stumbled upon this annual event when I was trying to get inspiration to write my first novel.  I discovered Baty’s book, No Plot, No Problem, in the summer of 2004 and in that novel he gives tips on how to successfully complete NaNoWriMo.  That November was the first year that I participated and I’ve done it every year since.  However, I have yet, to actually complete the task.  Last year I was the closest having written over 38,500 words.  I think that its because I can always think of a million things that I should be doing for school, and in the past I would use hanging out with my husband as an excuse.  Well, one of those excuses is long gone, so this year I aim to win.

Winning of course is really just for your personal satisfaction.  You don’t get any money, but I think you do get to download a swell certificate and your name added to the list of winners.

I have an idea this year that might be more up my alley than what I’ve done in the past.  In ‘04 and ‘07 I tried to write love stories.  I hate reading them, so I don’t know why I thought I could write one.  My stories for ‘05 and ‘06 were sci-fi.  I hadn’t fully flushed out my idea before Nov. 1 came and so eventually those stories became stagnant.  This year I’ve come up with a soundtrack (I need music for inspiration) and I can “see” the setting of my story with every little effort.  I’ll be sci-fi too, but that’s what I think I’ll be good at since that’s what I like to read and watch, and I understand the underlying tone of sci-fi. 

Good science fiction is always an allegory for our society. (S- am I using that word correctly?)  Good science fiction shows us the problems in our society and is the authors interpretation of what could happen if those problems aren’t fixed or how they could be.  Think about it. . . aren’t we living in a time just begging to be a sci-fi movie.  I think so. 

So, if anyone reading this would like to join me feel free.  LDD has already said that he was going to try this year.  I don’t know if he’s come up with any ideas yet though.  You can sign up at the website or just play along on your own.  If you do though, let me know how you come along.  I’m going to try to post here regularly next month so that I can be accountable to you all for my progress.  I always do better when I know someone’s watching.  That’s why I’m telling everyone that I can, that way I won’t risk having to embarrass myself when they ask how its going.  AND I found a great NaNoWriMo tracking spreadsheet on the internet.  Someone made a tracker just for those event.  You just plug in some information and it automatically lets you know how far you have to go and creates graphs and charts for you to visually see your progress.

So. . . wish me luck!!

A Serendipitous Moment

Last week, I desperately wanted to go shopping for yarn.  I haven’t done that in a while, mainly b/c I haven’t had much money, and this urge was only made stronger by the fact that I had a reason to buy yarn.  The days are counting down to T’s 1st birthday and the arrival of S’s baby boy.  I promised M that I would make T a penguin hat for his 1st birthday and of course, b/c every other new baby has received a handknit gift since I learned, S’s baby must too.

Well I drove to the yarn store even though I knew I couldn’t afford to spend any money there.  It was only 3 days until payday, but I couldn’t wait and I was bored.  (boredom will always get you)  So I drove there anyway.

Upon walking in I was, as usual, greeted by the owner.  She’s awesome and even though I’ve only been there about 4 times she knows my name.  It’s most likely b/c I’m young and Afr-Am and there probably aren’t many of us that shop there.  So we went through the typical casual small talk and then she said “I have $50 of yours”  Of course I was speechless b/c I had no idea why she would.  Then she explained.  I had signed up for a sweater knitting class that was to start in July and paid the $50 registration fee.  When I planned my trip to Atlanta I had forgotten all about the class and didn’t remember until I was already in Atlanta.  The class was to run while I was out of town.  Well, I figured that it was my fault that I had missed the class and that was just $50 wasted.  They ended up not having enough people sign up for it, so the class was cancelled.  She couldn’t refund the money to my card, b/c you have to pay for classes by check or cash, so she just held onto.  She knew that I’d be back eventually so she put a $50 bill in the office with my name on it.  And sure enough, I returned.  It had been about 3 months since she had seen me last, but she waited anyway.  If she hadn’t said anything I never would have known.  It is a rare find, to know someone that honest.

How about that?  Here I am going to a knitting store, knowing I don’t have enough money and it turned out I did have the money.  God is awesome!  And, T and Baby B can have their gifts. 

ER. . . you let me down

I have been a fan of ER since its premiere episode in 1994 and the days of Dr. Greene (Anthony Edwards), Dr. Ross (George Clooney) and of course Dr. Benton (Eriq LaSalle), who you may know as the prince of a jheri curl activator empire from the movie “Coming To America.”  Eriq LaSalle was the only major Afr-Am character who wasn’t a nurse.  He was pretentious and quite arrogant, but he was a good doctor.  After he left we didn’t really have a Afr-Am doctor who was as good and who stuck around the way he did.

There were a handful of supporting female characters who came through.  There has always been Afr-Am members of the nursing staff, two of whom have been on the show since the beginning and are still there right now as I watch.  Omar Epps was around for a handful of episodes; Don Cheadle played a career-changing, intern in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease, but he wasn’t around long either. 

There was an intern named Gallant who was Afr-Am.  He of course dated the Indian doctor, Neela, but it was cool.  He was around from 2001-2006 leaving b/c he was in the military.  His character is eventually killed overseas, so he never returns.  He came onto the show one season before Mekhi Phifer’s character Dr. Greg Pratt. 

I’ve watched Pratt grow from being a pretentious, arrogant, stereotypical black man with a chip on his shoulder, into a mature, stable and excellent doctor.  Truly a role model for black kids who live in poor situations, but want to become something unexpected.  He was the reason that I kept returning week after week, when they turned Noah Wyle’s character into the rich, oblivious snob that his character had previously always hated.  Tonight, ER let me know, b/c they killed Greg Pratt. 

This was the first episode of the final season ever, season number 14 or 15 I think.  At the end of last season two main characters, Mekhi Phifer and Maura Tierney’s characters got into an ambulance that exploded.  Today, they let us know that the two of them were okay.  At least that is how they wanted it to seem.  His condition got gradually worse until at about 10:45 he was pronounced dead and his organs donated.  We find out about 5 minutes later that he was going to get the position as Chief of Medicine over the ER.  CHIEF OF MEDICINE!!  That means that he would have been the HNIC for real!!  I’m so disappointed.  I know that they want to start this season off with a bang, and continue, but did you have to get rid of the only major, positive black character.  I love Dr. Pratt and they didn’t even let him finish out the show.

The only saving grace is that in 2 weeks Angela Bassett will join the cast.  Hopefully she’ll be around until the end.

A lesson to be learned

I haven’t really been blogging b/c as far as I’m concerned there’s nothing to talk about.  I don’t have any children or a husband to laugh at.  I’m not dating, I’m not really hanging out with anyone at all.  I go to work, come home and do it over and over again for 5 days.  Saturdays I hang out at home alone, until I decide to go to my parent’s and hang out with Mom.  Sundays its church, supper with the cousins and then back home again.  That me, week after week.

I also don’t blog b/c once in a while ExH somehow enters a conversation I’m having with someone.  If they aren’t my parents then its me informing someone that we aren’t together anymore.  if it is my parents then its them telling me about another irresponsible thing that he’s done.  I don’t write about those b/c I think its gossipy, but I guess I shouldn’t care b/c this is my blog and I can say whatever I want.  Plus I don’t see S&M everyday anymore and they’re the first ones I would have told these stories to.  So here are the latest two installments.  Maybe some soon to be divorced man will read this and learn a lesson.  The lesson to be learned. . .

When getting a divorce take your soon-to-be-ex-wife’s-parent’s information off of your documents.

Installment #1
Years ago, we changed ExH’s address on his driver’s license to my parents address b/c a couple of pieces of mail that had been sent by the DMV, did not get to us.  They were mailed to his father’s house, since that was the address on his license, then but that correspondence was misplaced, or something like that.  Well, my mother’s track record for informing you of when you get mail at her house is impeccable so we changed.  Now the price of that is her policy that if it comes to her house, and it seems urgent or like it has a deadline, she will open it and tell you what it says. 

In August he received a letter from the DMV that was labeled urgent.  She opened it and told me to email him letting him know what it said.  Basically it was informing him that he had two weeks to show proof of insurance or they were going to suspend his driver’s license.  Now he had had a little trouble proving it before b/c his car was still in my name and I had to fill out something saying that I had given it to him.  But that had happened weeks before.  Why hadn’t he shown proof of insurance yet??

Installment #2
Yesterday my parents received a phone call from L- H- which was the apartment complex that I had been living in with him.  They left an urgent message for my mother on the voicemail and as soon as my dad heard it he called my mom.  She was quite confused that it was urgent b/c she knew that I hadn’t lived there since December 1.  When she called she was if she was his aunt b/c it looked like that was what was written in the “relationship” box.  My mother was still listed as his emergency contact.  She told them that she is his soon-to-be-ex-MIL and the woman said “Oh! You’re C’s mom.”  Well they were calling his emergency contact b/c he owes them a month’s rent and they are trying to be nice.  They hadn’t seen him in a while, he wasn’t returning their phone calls and they knew that he still had stuff in the apartment.  They are getting close to evicting him and just putting the stuff out on the street.  Long story short, my dad called ExH and ExH called my dad back.  ExH is in VA somewhere and it is true that he has stuff still in the apartment.

What’s going on?  I don’t know his side of the story obviously (and I hope he doesn’t take that as a hint to inform me b/c I really don’t care), but I can tell you what it sounds like.  It sounds like nothing has changed.  Not keeping up with your car insurance, or at least not making sure the DMV has the right paperwork; not paying all of your rent, and then just abandoning your stuff there.  That sounds just like the same irresponsible man I married.  Its over 5 years later and he still hasn’t learned.  As much as I hounded him about keeping up with paperwork, following through with important tasks and being financially stable and he is still making mistakes.  He used to accuse me of nagging all the time, but clearly I didn’t nag enough for him to learn anything.

I’m not worried about the apartment coming after me b/c my name hasn’t been on that lease since December 12, so all I can say is oh well.   At least my stuff is straight.  I pay all of my bills on time and my savings account is growing and growing.  My life is looking up and up!

really?? here?

(post 3 of 3)

We danced at a women’s church conference tonight.  The venue wasn’t a church it was the conference center which is like renting out a ballroom at a hotel.  We didn’t have a room to change in, so we changed in the bathroom.  Just before it was time to perform we all put our stuff by the phone booths that were right next to the bathroom and covered the purses with our large garment bags that hold our dance clothes.

When we came back from dancing (we were gone maybe 10 minutes) two of the girls went to change clothes.  Kay came back with tears in her eyes b/c her purse was gone.  She just started 9th grade so it was kind of traumatic for her.  We all go over to help her look for it and my aunt notices that her purse is gone.  Now my aunt’s purse isn’t small.  Its like the size of a large tote bag, so you can’t just tuck that in your shirt and leave.  Well then we all notice that all of our stuff this thrown all around.  Our bags were opened and clothes were thrown about.  My cousin’s wristlet was missing too.

One of the other dancers called Kay’s phone and I called my aunt’s just to see what would happen, if someone would pick up.  2 of the girls had gone back into the bathroom and they’re talking while one of them changes when they hear something ringing.  Sure enough it was Kay’s phone and Auntie’s phone.  They purses were in a stall behind the toilet.  My cousin’s wristlet was found in one of the trashcans.  The only thing we found missing was the $20 that Kay had in her wallet.

We assume that the person who “tried” to rob us worked there b/c they put the wristlet in the trashcan like they were going to be able to come back for it later.  The women who were running the conference, who of course don’t work there, gave Kay $20 to replace what was stolen from her b/c they felt bad even though it wasn’t their fault, which was really nice.

It just goes to show you never know.  We were performing for the Lord and someone was trying to rob us.  That person won’t know what hit them when God chastises them.