Right now, I’m the happiest I’ve been in a long time!  I’ve been having a steady string of favor and blessings that have come my way.

Work:  I was worried for a little while because some of my team members have been going out of their way to sabatoge my progress.  Not explicitly telling my manager of the situation, I simply stated that I need to focus my knowledge and experience on another program.  Last week, we planned an exit strategy from that project and directing me towards my official engineering assignments!

Church:  I am really loving my church and my pastor.  He recently celebrated his 15 Pastoral Anniversary and it has been such a blessing to see what he has done with families, ministry, and the community.  The way that I got involved with the church was through their tutoring ministry, T.O.Y.S (Tutoring Our Youth for Success).  Since joining in December, I’ve been a lot more involved with Bible Study, meeting more members, and even sang in the Women’s Choir for Mother’s Day!

NSBE:  I’m officially the Programs Chair on the Region 4 Alumni Executive Board for the National Society of Black Engineers!  I am the lead of the Programs Zone.  My Program focus will be mainly on NSBEpreneur, Chapter Development, and Leadership and Personal Development.  My Personal focus will be on unemployed Alumni support.  I have a personal interest in that area and want to create an want the Alumni to serve as support for those going through recent graduation, layoffs, or entrepreneurship.

Toastmasters:  I am really enjoying my local chapter at work.  Toastmasters is a speaking organization to improve communication and leadership development.  I am still pursuing my first certification for Competent Communication, but I was asked to be on the leadership board as the Vice President Education.  It is the second highest ranking officer in the club, where my purpose is to get others excited and involved in the club.  Personally, the best way to do that is by illustrating what made me come to my first meeting and stay!

Relationships:  I’m finally out of an incredibly hurtful situation, and taking it slow towards the future.  If nothing else, that gives me something to shout about everyday!  I am very happy with my current situation.  I believe that I have already experienced many of the characteristics that I like (and don’t like).  The #1 must have is someone with a compatible personality – someone to rejoice in my happy times, and cheer me up when I’m feeling low.  The #1 dislike is trying to convince someone else that your plan is correct with no room to compromise or have a friendly debate.

Everything is on the up-and-up and I’m really enjoying my life right now.  BUT for every action, there is an equal and OPPOSITE reaction, which I am not excited about (Thanks Ike).

Okay, okay.  There has been a little confusion and lots of questions about the first line of this blog [I'm single again, doosh.] compared to my recent ones.  I was never really single.  Corbin and I did need to take a little break away from each other to figure out a couple things.  We really worked on not bringing negative things from our past into our present relationship.  I never stopped thinking about him and read numerous sites trying to deal with it.  However, it never quite felt like a break up.  My favorite site (and the guiding tool for life) is Wikihow where I looked up How to Get Over a Break Up.

I tried all of these tips on different levels, but I wasn’t happy. I did a really good job with 3. Keep your space and 6. Talk to your friends.  I talked to friends that were angry, friends that were concerned, friends that liked him, and friends that just listened.  Many things have changed since those convos and I trust that I have made a great decision.  Now comes when I need friends to support.  I am happier than I have ever been and excited for the new life to come!

I had a date weekend with the boo!  We’re still long distance and instead of driving the 4 hours, we sometimes meet in the middle.  We’ve met in Fort Wayne, IN twice, but this time it was a city equally as ‘unique’, Dayton, OH.  It was a 2 hour drive for me.  I recommend it to anyone in a semi-long distance relationship and we highly recommend Priceline for hotels under $50 a night.  We’ve had the best luck with 3 1/2 star rooms.  The only difference between 3 and 3 1/2 is a flat-screen tv.  I don’t like to spend much time in a hotel room when I visit a new city so I really don’t need anything spectacular.

The first night we got in and visited downtown Dayton for dinner at The Spaghetti Warehouse.  We won’t be back there to eat.  The best things about the place were the decorations and the train that had dining tables.  The complimentary bread was bland, and the spaghetti AND meatballs weren’t seasoned at all.  I had the lasagna and it was just a step above the spaghetti (bland.3).  It really seemed like it was a local favorite though because there were a couple of large birthday parties while we were there.  We also ate at The Waffle House (personal fav) and Chick-CanDoNoWrong-Fil-A.

We went to the movie theater Friday and Saturday to see Hereafter and Paranormal Activity 2.  Hereafter was aight.  I wasn’t a big fan of the ending, and the previews gave away a little too much information.  It basically tells the entire plot and nothing in the movie really surprised me, so don’t watch the trailer… unless you don’t want to watch the movie.  I really liked Paranormal Activity 2.  I’m a huge fan of sequels especially when they connect in a great way to the original.  The movie definitely connected to the original in a way that no one expected!  Corbin hasn’t seen the original so I did have to fill him in on a couple details.

The other highlight of the weekend was the Majestic Nursery & Garden Corn Maze.  It took us about 30 minutes to get there, but it was well worth it.  It really gave us time to bond and I think it really help us understand our roles in our relationship.  I let him take hold of the map and guide us through.  I would give my opinion, but it was definitely a task for me to just follow him.  The maze was a lot more difficult than we thought because we had the added task of finding 5 different scarecrows along the way.  After about an hour, and much exercise, we found all 5 scarecrows, but only 4 of them had cards to prove it. :/  Corbin was the navigator keeping us on path, and I scoped out the scenery finding the scarecrows along the way.  We made it to the end to get our surprise gift (see below) lol.  I highly recommend taking a random vacation just to season your relationship or spice up your life! #spicegirls

Last weekend started great with me meeting up with a friend back at home and us going to the free concert in Amnesia at Motor City Casino.  The headliner was B.O.B. for the Rising Icons 2 Tour on BET.  We had a fantastic time after a little foolishness of people taking their jobs way too seriously.  Playboy Tre opened up for him and then came back on their track together I Bet I Bust.  It was an ATL dirty road good time with good music!  We danced a little bit more after the performances and walked around the casino floor before heading home.

Saturday was the funeral for my good friend Sanuwell Landrum.  He was a great person that had a passion for educating and preventing HIV.  He was in the process of founding S.O.S Stomping out STDs and had done a few keynote speeches around the city.  There were plenty of tears that day, but we all know that he is in a better place.  The best quote from his service was “Learn like you will live forever, and Live like you will die tomorrow”.  It was an opportunity for a lot of my homies to get together and reconnect.  We all decided that we need to get together more outside of Holidays, Weddings, and Funerals.  From Sam, I learned that you have to leave a legacy here while you can because tomorrow is not always promised.  This was also a factor in me actively pursuing my bIg plan.

Random Link of the Day: Zombies (coincidentally, I picked this link a few days ago for my next post; weird huh?)

The day before leaving Hong Kong, my friend an I exchanged books that we had been reading.  I gave her my Wicked for her Eat Pray Love.  I have yet to read it and don’t even know where it is.  I plan to eventually see the movie too.  Anyway, I’m trying to make some major steps in my life over the next 6-12 months and I figure I have to be the change that I want to see I’m gonna change the game.

When I return from my cruise, I am starting a new eating plan.  It’s geared towards making me a healthier person on the inside.  1. I am going to become more strict with my Portion Control plan by eating amounts closer to the recommended portions.  2. I am going to work more towards being a vegetarian.  I’ve always wanted to try it, but never have.  The plan is to start by allowing myself 1 day per week to eat meat.  If this is too easy, then I’ll cut out the meat altogether.  I started to research the Blood Type Diet again, but I just love too many of the foods that it suggests that I shouldn’t eat.

Next, I’m going to set aside some God time everyday.  My plan involves spending my evenings researching and acting on “my bIg plan” <which hasn’t been announced to most>.  Before and after that research time will involve prayer for guidance and praise for whatever progress was done.  I was considering combining the prayer with my eating into some sort of fast.  Of course it’s not going to be something super intense or anything to make me lose weight.  I will still use many of the principles of fasting, but I compromised and decided the veggie thing was best for me and my lifestyle.  Instead of me continually praying for what I want, it will help to show me God’s will.

Regarding love, I’m taking this step the slowest of all.  I found love with my boyfriend, but we had to work on ourselves separately from each other.  Hopefully, love will find its way back to me and will slither in and align itself with “my bIg plan”.  I have started living the way I want to live and actively attempting to reach and succeed at my goals.  I know all of this will be difficult, but I am excited for the journey.

Quote of the day: “If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got.”

Since I’ve moved to Indy, I’ve gone to a total of 5 different churches: Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church, Eastern Star Church-Main Campus, Eastern Star Church-Northeast Campus, Phillips Temple CME Church,  and St. Luke Baptist Church.  Eastern Star is the mega church of Indy that is working on its 4th location.  And the pastor goes to all 3– 8:30am at Main Campus, 9:30am at Northeast, 10:45am at Northwest, and back to the Main Campus for noon service.  I have no clue how he does it all, but it just seems pretty ridiculous to me.  He just pops in for the sermon and dips out right after to head to the next location.  One of my girls, a native Hoosier was brought up in Phillips Temple.  It was my first time going to a CME church.  Nothing was too different from normal, I just didn’t feel like I belonged there.  Emmanuel is the first church I went to out here and has stuck as my favorite.  Initially, my coworker invited me to tutor after work with her and then I was convinced to stay for bible study, and then I was invited to come to Sunday service.  I really enjoy the pastor and the casual vibe, but they are on their job of helping the community.  They even started a partnership with NASA and I’m all for it!  Yesterday, I was intending to go to EMBC and when I get there at 10:30am, nobody was in the parking lot <I figured they went to another location or were having a special service> so I went right down the street to Eastern Star to find out they didn’t start service until noon.  Between the two is St. Luke Baptist Church that had a marquee to celebrate the 27th pastoral anniversary.  I knew this meant  a long service, but it started at 10 so I parked and went in.  Of course, I was right and they had a guest preacher so I had to dip out when they were giving more gifts to the pastor and first lady.  I may come back another Sunday to hear the preacher, who can allegedly sang very well.

Also, this weekend I spent all day Saturday doing my hair in a full sew-in weave.  I’ve never worn my hair this long, but I wanted a different look.  It took the most time to do the closure so that it looked somewhat real.  I combined a regular closure method with a sew-in invisible part method because I am not for glue in my hair.  It took extremely long to close the weave and make it look okay.  I took it down 3 times before it was tolerable.  I may take it down and redo it one last time before the weekend.  It really just take practice.

During this hair stuff, I had to track down the cable man to freggin fix my cable cord that Cooli O. just decided to eat one day.  That same day, he ate my window blinds, and eyeglasses.  I found the lens on the ground and he found my hand on his rump!  The cable would go out whenever anybody would go by the cord, which is right next to the door.  And it also affected the internet.  Good thing I had some dvds on deck that I needed to watch.  I watched Following (by the writer of Inception), The Final Cut with Robin Williams, Adaptation with Nicolas Cage and School Daze A Spike Lee Joint that was spoofed by Alicia Keys.  Oh yeah, Friday I also went back to Morty’s and saw the comedian Mike Britt.  I really love it when comedians can freestyle based on the audience like he did.  All in all, it was a pretty bland weekend, but I made it sound somewhat fun, huh?

Random Link of the Day: Download my boy’s CD for free!

To be clear, it has been 1 year today August 18, 2009 that I officially graduated from the University of Michigan.  I walked across the stage December 14, 2008.  I knew that I was going to study abroad in Hong Kong for my final semester and knew that I would not being back for the Spring graduation.  Upon returning, I took one final math class that summer to complete my Aerospace Engineering degree and minor in Mathematics.  It also gave enough time for HKUST to transfer my credits back and put them on my transcript.

When I was first thinking about this blog I was a little nervous because it almost seemed like I haven’t done much in a year.  Most of it was composed of moving to Indianapolis, which is a big feat in itself since I didn’t know ANYONE here.  But I’ve done that before with living in Cincinnati OH, Greenville SC, San Diego CA, and Hong Kong, but it is definitely scary at first and I always have a taste of regret during the first week.

One huge thing that I am happy about is that my 2 best friends are STILL my 2 best friends!  We frequently communicate with each other although we all live in different locations.  I also must say that I have made 23 look graceful ::pats self on back::  I still love to change up my hairstyles.  This was shown by me doing my big chop right before my last final exam!  I never thought that I’d go natural, but moving away from your hairdresser is a good incentive.

Being in a relationship, I sacrificed a lot of myself and that has taught me the biggest lesson of the year: Do not lose sight of myself and my gifts.  I have found a church that I enjoy, and God aligned it so that I can tutor there.  The kids are all really great and range from about 4 years old to seniors in high school.  I think I was put on this earth to share my blessing of understanding math to anyone that finds it difficult and frustrating.  I plan to continue doing this, but possibly on a larger scale in the future.  I still dance and even made it to the semi-finals to be an Indianapolis Colts cheerleader.  Of course, I can’t forget about Cooli.  He gives me reason to enjoy going home everyday and it has been a great decision to be a mommy of a puppy.

I’ve also done two things that I’ve always wanted to do: Walk in the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Walk, and go to New York City!  I have wanted to do the breast cancer walk since I was in college in honor of my mother who test after test finds benign cists.  It scares us every time and I can imagine how many have gone through the same experience ending with a different result.  New York was even more than I have ever imagined.  I love it, but I could never live there.  Over this next year, I plan to continue my mental growth by learning Spanish and taking Yoga.  I am also become more conservative with my body in regards to nutrition.  My long term goal is to compete in a half-marathon! Wish me luck

Random Link of the Day: You aren’t a real model

1. I’m single again, doosh.

2. I love my friends.

I have a couple blog posts that I’m working on, but this one is specifically for those that I love for many-a reasons, but the main ones are:

They always share their feelings for me, but don’t share their opinions.  This is my favorite.  They let me know how much they love seeing me happy and want everything around me to encourage that.  However, they never put anyone down or talked me out of what I thought was right.

They are always standing with open arms even after I leave them stranded.  I can not talk to them for months, but as long as the number hasn’t changed I can always call when I’m ready.

I can do everything that I love doing with them.  Dancing, Sports, Laughing, Travelling, People-watching and Game Shows make me feel the happiest.

They don’t just support me, they encourage me.  It would be kind of awful for someone to agree with everything that I said.  Instead of only supporting me and my beliefs, they urge me to take my dreams to the next level.

We get down on the dance floor!  I’m so glad that all of my friends have rhythm and get jiggy with me.  It can be from ballrooming, to stepping, to 1-2 stepping, to the windows, to the wall.

I love you all and appreciate each day for all that you ladies have done to encourage me to get through this.

Random Link of the Day: Get ready to cry

Of course it was another great weekend with my boyfriend except this one was extra special because his birthday is next week, but I won’t be able to be with him… So, we celebrated this weekend (when his boyz wouldn’t be able to take him away).  Friday night when I arrived, I gave him a golf-inspired greeting card and a golf glove (and popcorn, he just loves popcorn).  We then went to Hooters (delishis wings) and the movies to see Inception.  The movie was fantastic.  I’m really into learning about the human mind and how people put mind over matter, especially in ways that are perceived as negative or giving them a disorder.  Other movies that do this is are Shutter Island (also staring Leo) and Identity.

Saturday morning, I gave him a baseball-inspired card where the punchline was “chalk up another one” as the guy on the front of the card was chalking the baseball diamond.  Attached to the card were 2 baseball tickets to see the Detroit Tigers that night.  He had been talking about going to a game all season (and even made it his facebook status, lol).  The Tigers ended up losing the game, but it was really worth staying through the end.  That was my first time in Comerica Park.  It was quite different from the Indianapolis Indians’.  It was huge and a lot more people.  Earlier in the day we made a random stop at Pizza Kitchen while on our way to Hood-Mart (the rat-tastic WalMart).  He later made me a Salmon feast before the game! 

Sunday, we were going to go golfing at 8am, but it was still raining/wet, so we just went to breakfast.  Before church, I gave him a third card with fortune cookies on it.  It’s an inside joke and I wanted to throw him off the scent for the big gift.  I got him a watch to replace his that got “mysteriously lost” in the mail.  [After he left it in Indy, I mailed it to him and our thought is that it was stolen along the route, O_o.]  He loved it!  We then trotted happily to church.  We visited Second Ebenezer Church at the 10am service.  We didn’t get there until 10:45ish, just in time for the A&B selections.  The sermon was really good by Bishop Vann (although more drawn out than it should have been) and he was finished by noon!  Oh, until… he did the call to worship and wouldn’t stop calling, nor singing until 25 people (and counted them) came to the alter to give their lives to Christ.  I’m not sure if he ever made 25, but it was 17 when I stopped listening.  He then had 3 people in particular tell their stories, at about 10 minutes each.  We were ready to leave as the clock neared 1pm.  He kind of guilt-tripped people into staying saying that this was a test of “spiritual endurance”.  False!!  Right before offering, I left my donation and we dipped!  As the dip was occurring, he also felt the need to shout out “Where yall goin?” in front of a church of at least 1,000 and many more at home or online.  LMAO!!  If we ever go back, it will be for a conference like I had been to previously, but I would recommend to stream that faith so you can leave as you please.

Random Link of the day: http://www.thedirtyartist.com/dirtywomen.html

This past weekend, I enjoyed Corbin’s family reunion.  I had already met his parents, brothers,  neices and nephews, and some cousins, but this time I got to meet even more of his cousins.  Everybody was really nice and it was kind of refreshing to see them all enjoying each others’ company.

Friday, we went bowling and back to his parents’ house for convo, fish and shrimp (fantastic), and bones (dominoes).  Saturday morning, I had breakfast and went shopping with his aunt and cousin in Frankenmuth while the boys went golfing.  Then, we went to the cookout where all of the little kids LOVED Cooli and kept picking him up, but he never nipped at anyone.  He just gave me the sad face like “mom, help”.  Then, we drove back to Detroit and rode on the Detroit Princess with his cousins and brother.  There are 3 levels of seating and dance floors.  It was nice, but the music was just not doing it for me.  I had more fun just out on the deck talking with Corbin.  Then, all of us flocked to MGM Grand Casino to “make some money back”.  We had some success and just went home.

Sunday, we didn’t wake up until about 2pm, smh.  We ran to Corbin’s Favorite restaurant, The Clique before his review session.  I caught up a little with my brother and he told me about his sky diving experience, and the movie Jesus Camp and recommended a few others.  I then drove back home and stopped by Steak ‘n Shake where I was so into the fantasticity of the Banana Split Milkshake and all of its 435 Calories that I missed my exit on the freeway!!  That was a great way to finish off the great weekend I had with the new fam?.