These festivities were at the beginning of October. I had house guests both weekends and things got really hectic, and I didn’t have much time to clean up after that because I went home for University of Michigan’s <Go Blue> Homecoming.
The first weekend was the Circle City Classic here in Indy. My line sister Ashley, and Corbin came in town for it. We all had a really good time. The saying is true where the event was all about the bands and not about the game. TSU won the game and NC A&T won the band competition. I think they only won because they played The Antoine Dodson song!! However, TSU was bomb the entire game with about half as many people.
The second weekend was my homegirl’s bday!! She moved down here recently and we hang out all the time. We started off at Maggiano’s before going clubbing downtown. The club was quite bland, but we were a good 15 deep so we had a good time. What we realized is that Downtown Indy is pretty whack on Fridays and bangs on Saturdays, so that may be the new plan of attack.
Saturday, we met up for breakfast at Denny’s <praise for my 1 day a week of eating meat>. Then, my soror came up to visit and get away from grad school drama at IU. She made it just in time for us to go the UofM Indy Alum watch party for the Michigan State vs. University of Michigan football game. Another sad day in history as you can tell from my picture.
Technically, this was my second homecoming since I graduated in August 2009, but I don’t even think I went to campus last year. This time, my best friend came into town from Cali! That Friday, I had a date night Saturday, I was with her all day… and night. I drove up to Ann Arbor for a tailgate that her sister and other Black Alums were having. All I can remember was talk of a deep-fried turkey lol. We then went to the football game, which is always a treat to see 47 year old cheerleaders on the top of the pyramid and 53 year old baton twirlers doing the splits while they catch it. That night, our friend hosted a party at a lounge. There weren’t a lot of people there, but there was a continuous flow of new people coming in to speak and then heading out. I also lost my purse, but an upstanding Umich person found it, googled me, found my blog, and emailed me. O_O I already know that was all God’s work!
Black Alums were having. All I can remember was talk of a deep-fried turkey lol. We then went to the football game, which is always a treat to see 47 year old cheerleaders on the top of the pyramid and 53 year old baton twirlers doing the splits while they catch it. That night, our friend hosted a party at a lounge. There weren’t a lot of people there, but there was a continuous flow of new people coming in to speak and then heading out. I also lost my purse, but an upstanding Umich person found it, googled me, found my blog, and emailed me. O_O I already know that was all God’s work!
Actually I’m going to coin this term “vegging” pronounced ve-jing.
This week was about as challenging as expected. I arrived back in Indy from my cruise on Monday and scooped up Cooli from my friend’s place. They were already making dinner so I just opened a bag of the salad in a bag and threw on some ranch. This was probably the worst food day because I just felt like the stereotypical veggie because I was really eating rabbit food! Tuesday, I grabbed a footlong Tuna sub (toasted) from subway. I always pile up the veggies <sans-tomato so I can eat it later without it being gross and soggy>. I ate 6-inches at work and another 5.5 before going steppin that night. It was a much needed stress reliever!
Wednesday, I had a lunch meeting at work where there were plenty of veggies on the menu. We had steamed carrots and flat beans, mashed potatoes with chicken gravy, mashed sweet potatoes, salad, and apple cobbler. I just left the pork in the tray, which wasn’t difficult. Right after work, I went to the grocery store. I had to be quick because I knew Cooli was waiting on me. I invested in a few more boxes of 100 Calorie packs where apparently I can “Diet like a Diva“. They have a lot of their cookies and chocolatey treats in portion sized packs, which are really great for after lunch or that 3:00 snack. For the morning edibles, I bought apples, bananas, a cantaloupe, and yogurt for my 10am growlfest. That night, I made Sloppy Joes [I was told that they can't have that name without real meat]. So, below is a pic of my Messy Susans.
I first got the idea from my line sister Monique who has been vegging for a little while now and makes the best homemade biscuits (fyi). It’s similar to her recipe, except I am much more lazy and not as intense about what I eat. I bought Yves Meatless Ground. It has the same main ingredient as her recipe, which is Textured Wheat and Soy Protein. It comes frozen and already seasoned. Instead of making the sauce from scratch… Manwich has never failed me!! It ended up being really good after I got over the mental aspect of it all. I also added some tortilla chips on the side with the salad. Thursday for lunch, I ate the leftovers with a slice of cheese and scooped it out with the chips, yum!
Thursday night, I had pizza from Donatos. It’s usually super delish, but they only had a couple people working. And no one really watching the oven. It was a big hot mess. Although we ate there, it still took an hour from start to finish and it was NOT good. Similar to the crazy street pizza in Baltimore, I got food poisoning again #fail. I was nauseous all day at work Friday. It ramped back up before eating dinner, and climaxed at the club when I fainted for like 30 seconds <Scary I know!!> I’m going to get checked out this week. I think I may be intolerant to something that both places put in their pizza.
Yesterday, was the toughest test when I was with friends for the Circle City Classic and they all wanted to eat Chik-Fil-A. I kept going back and forth debating. I was so ashamed when I broke down and got a fabulous #1. Thinking back on it later, I remembered that I gave myself 1 day a week of freedom so I was still good!! Go me. After all, I realized the best way to stick with vegging is to make my food myself. If I depend on going out to lunch or the cafeteria at work, I’ll end up hungry!
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 new exciting show Detroit 187 is premiering tonight on ABC at 10pm. Of course, when it first came to Detroit, there was a lot of talk about how it would make the city seem even worse than it already does. However, please don’t talk bad about Detroit until you have been there and actually experienced it. A lot of things can have a bad appearance if you go based on statistics and numbers. Numbers have nothing to do with the culture or the people.
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.”
I brought my girl Jes home with me since she took me to Baltimore, her home, the week before. There wasn’t too much planned, but there was already a lot going on in Detroit that weekend. We left work a little early that Friday and met up with my twin Philip at Hooters, our classic spot, before spending the rest of the night at MGM Casino Downtown. Jes played her first slot machine just willy nilly. After missing the opportunity to get $20 on the $5 that she started with, I had to give her a little coaching on the slots. There is definitely a system <like playing all the line possibilities>, but ultimately it is still set up for you to lose. It’s just a matter of how much you lose.
Saturday, we went to the opening University of Michigan football game in the new and improved Big House. It was quite chilly in the stands, but we still cheered Denard and the team to victory! We then left there for a quick shopping spree at Northland. (Don’t judge, it was 8:45 and the mall closed at 9.) I bought a new dress and popped a Monster before going clubbing downtown at Kingdom. Boy has that place changed since it first opened. Luckily, we were in VIP or it would not have been the spot for us.
Sunday, we went to my church Kadesh Baptist Church to get our praise on. Following that, we had a shop FEST at Twelve Oaks with purchases from Sephora, Teavana, Forever 21, Lush and many more. We then met up with some of my other friends and dropped by a cookout before heading downtown. The International Jazz Festival was taking place. It was bigger than I thought it would be with vendors and stages everywhere. We all smashed on some elephant ears and walked a little bit on the Riverwalk. And of course, we had to go out again for a night on the town at Amnesia in Motor City Casino.
Monday was Labor Day and spent most of the day sleeping from the 6am bedtime the night before. We went to Arts, Beats & Eats to see one of my homegirls Blu dance for Jai Fears. It was a really good set. Then, it started raining so Jes and I were going to head for the hills. By the time they were finished, it turned out to be quite a lovely day. We spent a couple more hours walking around and looking at the art. Of course, most importantly, the food was so good! I had stuffed pizza, baby back ribs, and a tiramisu shot. Before the -itis hit, we scooped up Cooli and fellow Hoosier Aja and hit the road!
Last weekend, I went to Baltimore, Marylandwith my friends Jes, Bernard and Scoot. We drove the 10 hour trip from Indianapolis starting at 11pm. It wasn’t too bad because we all helped drive. We got there Friday morning and went straight to Chik-Fil-A for breakfast before meeting up with Jes’ family for a little while. We then went downtown to our hotel and just walked around the Inner Harbor before heading to Harborplace and the Gallery for some shopping. We met up with some of our local friends at Nacho Mama’s where they have delicious quesadillas and margaritas. More of Jes’ friends met us at the hotel before all 8 of us went out to Federal Hill. Since it was still quite early, we decided to go to Mad River, a place where we could all be comfortable and order drinks at our leisure. It resulted in a crazy night where we had to take 3 separate cabs to get back home. As Jeff stated “The problem with drinking with employed people is that everyone can afford a round of shots.” What happens in Baltimore…
Saturday, I woke up feeling alright until I took a sip of water. Then all H broke loose. My tummy was greatly angry at me! I eventually narrowed it down to Ultimate Pizza, the random street pizza that I had Friday night at like 2am. It already looked pretty old, but I thought I could still do it. WRONG! I should have known my sensitive stomach well enough to know that he is not please with bad ingredients. However, at the time I didn’t know it was food poisoning and we all still went to the famous Phillips Seafood Express to begin the day. That was right before this pic…
And let me tell you, you don’t even want to know what happened 5 minutes after this picture! Sparing the details, we headed over to Fells Pointwhere there were a lot of little cute shops. Since I was feeling superbad (and not in a good way), I went back to the hotel while the rest of the crew was out.
Saturday night, I was back in the game! While waiting on them to return from dinner, I started crying while watching Trouble The Water, a black documentary about Hurricane Katrina. <Check it out if you can> We all got dressed and walked over to Power Plant and hung out in Mosaic. After a little dancing to “Baltimore style” music, we continued to Watch out for the big girls on our way back to the hotel. Sunday, we spent a little more time with friends at Bahama Breeze, and Jes’ family before hitting the road again. I got back home around midnight and went straight to sleep before having to go to work Monday morning. Baltimore was a lot of fun and gave me a chance to get out of Indy since I had been here for three straight weekends. It was nothing like I had imagined and next time I’ll try to go to the National Aquarium and do more tourist stuff and NOT get sick!
The weekend was extra bland this time #fooledme. The highlights of the weekend were going to church, doing my hair, and getting my cable wire fixed. Yay O_o womp.
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?
Before I have another exciting weekend, I need to catch up on the past two! Two weeks ago, my brother was still here visiting. We went downtown and a lot of different places so I could show him how we get down in Indy. We spent most of the weekend downtown. Friday night, my twin made a surpise visit to see me!!! He’s the male version of me and he’s super great. A small group of us went to Adobo for First Fridays. Saturday, during the day my brother, twin, homegirl and I took a walk around Broad Ripple (a bar district near me). That night, we thought we were high class and went to a lovely dinner at St. Elmo’s Steakhouse. It was actually affordable due to Devour Downtown where many of the expensive restaurants have set menus for $30 for 3 courses and some relatively inexpensive restaurants have 2 people for $30. Following that, we went to Jillian’s and played a couple of games before heading to the club.
Last weekend seemed like it was going to be a very lonely one. Although I did stay at home a lot, I also finally got out and did Zumba TWICE. The second instructor was much better than the first and I may eventually make it my regular gym because I love taking classes. That night I met a few friends out at a club, but it was a pretty bland evening. Sunday, I went to a cookout and another Indianapolis Indians baseball game with tickets that I won at work.
Monday, I went to the Indiana State Fair. It made me think back to the times where everyone far and wide would go to the State Fair in Detroit. Then, it was by far the highlight of the summer. The rides, elephant ears, caramel apples and most of all the pirate ship and surrounding macking and foolishness. With my dance school, I would dance at the fair every summer too! {RIP Michigan State Fair} At this one I ate a polish sausage, deep-fried mac and cheese, a liter of fresh squeezed lemonade, and deep-fried Pepsi <delish>. We saw a couple chickens and cows and watched cowboys at a rodeo. It was really crazy when a rider had to pop his shoulder back into place after falling off a bucking bronco!
Basically, my weekends are great, but I’m still doing fun stuff through the week. I work 9 hours per day not including lunch nor driving, so I need something to keep me going. I’m constantly striving to make new moves and get to the place wher I can enjoy every hour of everyday.
Quote of the Day: Should’s can turn into should have’s in less than a day. Carpe diem! Feel free to list your should-should’ves below
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
Saturday, I was with her all day… and night. I drove up to Ann Arbor for a tailgate that her sister and other Black Alums were having. All I can remember was talk of a deep-fried turkey lol. We then went to the football game, which is always a treat to see 47 year old cheerleaders on the top of the pyramid and 53 year old baton twirlers doing the splits while they catch it. That night, our friend hosted a party at a lounge. There weren’t a lot of people there, but there was a continuous flow of new people coming in to speak and then heading out. I also lost my purse, but an upstanding Umich person found it, googled me, found my blog, and emailed me. O_O I already know that was all God’s work!
