Drop it on The One

Sunday, February 28, 2010

I truly haven't written for the blog in so long, it would take me several posts to catch up with all that has happened. so, I'll do a quick rundown of the top 5 changes or updates:

1. Bas and I bought a house, well a condo
2. I left the corporate world and became an elementary school teacher
3. We had a beautiful baby girl, finally
4. In May, Bas and I will celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary
5 We have half custody of my stepson

I would like to get back to posting and I will. But tonight it is late and I have to try to get our baby into her crib (that's a whole post in and of itself).

Friday, June 22, 2007

The Late (very) Update

Holy hell, it's been a long time since I have even looked at this blog. Last night I was thinking about how I should print out all the entries and put them in a book to look back on later. So, I am going to add a new one, just to keep things fresh. I can't really say I have anything specific to write about, but I can go down the list and talk about what's new.

First things first. Bas and I hit our two-year anniversary last month. (Clapping and cheering in the background, thanks!)Things between us are going well and we are still happy to be together. Me: if given the choice to get married again, would I still have married Bas? Absolutely. I fall in love with him more and more every day. I know that we were meant for each other even more now. I feel very strong that we will be together forever. Are things perfect? No! Don't be silly. But I can honestly say that I am very happy to be with him.

Next! Bas and I haven't managed to get pregnant yet, although we are giving it the old college try. Minus the beer. I have decided to buy an ovulation kit next month to up the chances a bit. Having sex to get pregnant sucks a royal egg. For real. It basically takes all the romance out of your sex life. It's so unspontaneous and boring. Since we have about five days in a row that we HAVE to do it, it just isn't fun. And it causes you to brush off sex for every other day of the month. Well, not EVERY other day, but we definitely have sex a lot less now. And when we do have to do it the sexy talk pretty much consists of: "Ok, let's do this already! Huuurrrrry up!" You know I think when anything becomes a "job" you can pretty much bet that you'll dislike it. But forward we must move. We want a baby and this is how we have to go about it. So, I'll keep you all informed of how it goes. But remember...from my last pregnancy...I won't be blogging about it UNTIL I SEE THE DOCTOR! (see entry: Blighted Ovum)

Next! My two beautiful nieces (in addition to the other two beautiful nieces) are turning one in August. They are growing up so fast, it makes me sick that I am not around to enjoy all of their stages in life. I mean, Milan is walking already (she has older sisters to emulate, unlike Olivia)and they both have teeth....Before I know it they'll be walking around with a head full of gray hair! Life is funny in the way that the older you get the faster it flies. And having kids around seem to make that phenomenon even worse.

Next! My job is going well. I am 100% happier here than I was at Orc. I do work hard, but the difference is that here they notice it, appreciate it and reward you for it. It's really refreshing.

Next! We are going to be taking a rad vacation in three weeks. We are flying into Vegas and taking a helicopter over to the Grand Canyon to do a sa-weet 4-day rafting adventure. We spend the first night at a ranch and the next few nights camping out in the Canyon. The company provides all the camping gear and meals. This is going to be a vacation like I have never taken before. Admittedly, I am a little nervous about it. I can't explain why, but I am definitely feeling the butterflies.

Next! I am sure I have spoken about my expanding waistline somewhere in this blog before. Well, I have decided to go on my very first certified diet. I am following the weight watchers point counters. Basically, you (well, them) assign a certain number of points to every food based on the calorie, fat and fiber content. You totally become obsessed with it. You look at food and all you can see are numbers. I even have Bas asking how many points everything is. Of course, he can still eat what he wants and I mean whatever. It's scary. I've even asked him to see a doctor and see if he has a parasite sharing his meals. And if so, please...pass it on to me. I take a parasite. Hey, that should be a diet product. Could you imagine?

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

D-list Celebrity Sighting and Halloween Nighting

I saw Melrose from America's Next Top Model running down to catch the subway while on her cell phone. At first, I just thought she just looked familiar, but within 10 seconds...it hit me.

So speaking of celebrities, Bas and I became two bad-ass celebrities for Halloween. I was the infamous Flava Flav and Bas was Brigitte Nielsen of Strange Love, Rocky IV (Drago's wife) and the real ex-wife of Sylvester Stallone. This was fitting because I am a short black girl and my huband is a tall, blond white boy.

If you happen to read this blog, then you know that I love Halloween. And one of my missions in life was to get my husband to love it as much as I do because he's never even dressed up once before me. It really helps when you have a great costume and you get lots of attention from it. And boy did we. Everyone loved our costume. As they should...it was a great idea and executed perfectly, if I may say so myself. Thanks for help with the idea Lisa.

We ended up purchasing tickets to this club called Plumm. This club is owned by a plethora of actors and musicians including Chris Noth (Mr. Big from Sex in the City) and Damon Dash, to name a couple. Supposedly this is where all the stars like to go, although besides Brig and Flav (woot-woot!)...we didn't see any real ones. Not that we care.
But mostly everyone was dressed except for the few people we referred to as "lame asses." I mean for real. Why go out on Halloween (pay $35 to get in) and NOT dress up? I mean...at least SOMETHING. A crazy wig. Funny glasses. A headband. Something dammit. My all-time favorite last minute-didn't buy a costume costume is to throw a pot on your head. A pot head! He. He.
Some of the other costumes there was Ali G (boo-yah), The Verizon guy (can u hear me now?) , E-coli spinach (remember the scare?), Wolverine, a golddigger, the game-Operation and a few others I can't recall right now. Of course there was the usual HO-loween costumes. That is, girls using halloween as an excuse to dress like a ho. Police officers, devils, french maids, nurses, bunnies etc, etc.
Snore.
But the music was cool and it was decently spacious enough to be comfortable. We had a great time. The only part that sucked is that it was soooo cold and windy that we couldn't walk around and check out costumes after leaving the bar.
But the best part of the night was this......after we left the club Bas says, "What are we going to be next year?"
I smiled with my Flava Flav gold-toothed grin and thought, Mission Accomplished!

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Celebrity Sighting

Lance Armstrong.

Saw him, well........rode with him in an elevator.

He was waiting for the elevator with some non-famous dude and I was with my co-worker, Lisette. I tapped her and did the head/chin motion to tell her to look.
There was a girl standing next to him staring and she said, "Aw, I'm just gonna do it....Hi Lance (shakes his hand) my dad is a huge cycling fan."
Then the elevator came and we all got in.

Lisette also shook his hand. He looked at me as if I wanted to shake his hand too, but I didn't. I just said hello.
I always feel weird about stuff like that with celebrities. I'm sure they must get sick of touching every germy hand from al the Toms, Dicks, Harrys and Sallys of the world. I mean really, they must have to shake sooooo many damn grimy hands. And how do they know where those hands have been? How do they know those hands haven't been scratching on some balls. Or picking a nose. Or that a hand just shook another hand of someone who handled poop from their dog???
Just gross. And I'm no germ freak, but thnk about it for one moment.
So, the girl ended up asking for an autograph. So did Lisette.
Again, I didn't ask. Another thing I feel weird about.

So, Lance gets out on the 24th floor and we continued up to the 30th.

I'm not really feeling Lance these days because he and Sheryl Crow broke up when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Of course, I don't know what happened between those two, but I get the feeling she didn't break up with him while she had cancer. Not really something that people like to face alone.

The only thing she said about it to the media (from what I saw) was that she can't stop Lance from being Lance.
Doesn't sound too good. And I love her so...........Go team Sheryl!

Had A Wife, Couldn't Keep Her

I know, I know, my friends.....I've been gone for a long time. I been getting some fan mail complaining that I haven't updated my blog and boy were they nasty (Yo, Anthony). And rightfully so. But now I am back.
So, my reasons for being away for so long was that I got fired from my old job.
Well, maybe not really fired. Laid off, due to "corporate restructuring."
But the real story is this: I asked for more money because those bastards were trying to jip a sister by paying her at least 10K less than she should have been making.
How do I know you ask?
Well, I did a salary report on salary.com (and a few other salary sites) and it said, "Sista, you are being WAY underpaid. Step up to your boss and demand more money or get to steppin' You could be doing much better." So I did. And to make a long story short, Peter-the prick- said no. He said that the company underpays everyone!
Hmmm that's funny since he enjoys a 200K base salary plus bonuses that really equals up to about 300K. HE surely wasn't being underpaid.
So, I had every intention of finding another job and although I didn't say it to him, I KNOW he knew it. And Bas and I had discussed the possibility that if I asked for more money, he'd probably say no and then fire me.
But my plan was to be out of there within two months.
But that jerk beat me to the punch and found someone to replace me first. And I knew he was up to something. I even told my girl Trecia that I was going to be fired soon and she said I was being paranoid. Guess not.
So he said they wanted to get someone with an accounting degree in that position so they could get rid of the outside accountant.
But it really worked out completely to my advantage because I got to take the summer off, collect unemployment and be a housewife for two good months. Not only was my home immaculate; I made the best homemade dinners. Plus, the summers are slow for Bas, so he would be home at like 12:30. We had a really fun summer together.
His friends visited us from London. My friends came from Gainesville.
My niece, Cierra came for a week. And we also took several camping trips...including a week up in the Adirondack Mountains.
Good times. Good times. Good times.
So, now I am back working again. This is my third day and really, I don't have too much to do yet. So here I am. I love this company. And it happens to be a PR firm, which is what I have my degree in. I'm not working as a PR person, but it is nice to be in this environment.
And damn right bitches, I am making 11K more than my last job. So fuck you Peter! And thank you salary.com!
Oh, and I get five weeks vacation, right off the bat! So suck on it, Peter!
Plus, my benefits are completely paid for by the company. They pay for Bas too. I mention that because Peter tried to make me believe that my old company was the only one to practice that. Obviously........not the case!
So, in your face, Peter.

You damn pumpkin eater-

Friday, April 07, 2006

THE Lenny Kravitz Story!

I tried to share this blog with my husband the other day. We read one post and he was done with it. He's not even interested in stories about himself or his "boops" told from my very own perspective. If he's not even intersted, I can't imagine that anyone else out there in cyber-space would be. But I tell all of you that all the time, well I tell Anthony (my loyal and only blog reader)-luv ya dude!

I read another blog called New York Hack: http://newyorkhack.blogspot.com/
It is written by this this feamle cab driver. I heard about it because a few months back they highlighted her on the news. And being that I sometimes get very bored at work and I am always in search of pointless timewasting materials, I jumped at the chance to read what it is like to be a cab driver, much less a female one in NYC. Well, she (i don't even know her name, yet I know her so well) just announced that she was given a book deal because of her blogging ways. That's awesome. Damn, I wish I could have some luck like that. But her life is much more interresting than mine, you see. I don't think too many people want to know about a day (or 100) in the life of an administrative assistant. Or a married woman for that matter.

In my single and wild days, however I would have quite a few little nuggets of juicy stories for you folks. Unfortunately, in my younger years, computers were still only for the rich. And the internet was this peculiar, celestial, misunderstood "thing" that only technologically advanced, eggheaded, IBM dudes knew about. So, blogging was still about ten years off.

So, I at one point in this blog, promised I would share my "meeting Lenny Kravitz" story wit-cha.
And given that Ant has heard this a million times, I am hoping that some bored receptionist working at a software company will stumble upon my blog and think this entry is cool and start reading other posts. Loving those, she tells all her friends about it. They start reading and tell their friends. Finally, her boyfriend's friend's sister's baby momma...twice removed...reads it and she works for the New York Times and does this front page story on it. Next thing you know, my blog blows up huge and I get a book deal, just like New York Hack. Then I work my money (because the book goes worldwide, of course) quit my job and then blog about a millionaire's life! Then that becomes huge because everyone knows me from "Drop It On The One" and so the story goes...........Huh? Oh. Yes. I'm awake. Sorry.

So here, just for you (we'll call you Sara-the bored receptionist) my world famous (among my friends, at least) story about meeting Lenny Kravitz:

When I was 21, I loved me some Lenny Kravitz. "Are you Gonna Go My Way?" Yes, yes I am! My girlfriend Trecia and I flew to NY that same year to visit our girl Lisa. We saw Lenny at Radio City Music Hall. FABULOUS! Just FABULOUS!
So, a few months later, his tour landed in Fort Lauderdale. As poor as our hippie asses were we saved up enough money to purchase tickets. We rocked out during the concert. After it was over, we thought it would be fun to try to get backstage passes from one of the roadies.
Never believing it was actually going to happen, I said to one of the men mulling around on the stage in true groopie fashion, "I know you can get backstage passes. I know you can. And I would like you to please give me one for me and my friend." And low and behold he handed them right over, no arguements at all.
Long boring part made short......forward to about two hours after hanging......we actually came into contact with him.
My friend Trecia was awesome. She was all, "Hey Lenny come over here. Blah, blah, blah, blah blah. Do you want to smoke it up with us?" And he's all, "Sure!"
And we were like, "Okay we'll be right back then."
You see, we let our friend Pete (who rode with us) hold our stash. And of course after two hours of not being able to find us, he bolted. So Lenny was waiting and we had no stuff! Wah! Don't worry, not over yet.
We went back to him, explained the situation and said we could come back tomorrow with some real-ass chronic shit (he had a second concert the next night, same place). Although back then, it wasn't called chronic yet. I think that was another 3 or 4 years in the future. But you get me, right Sara?
So we made sure that Lenny communicated his wish for us to come back the next day to all the security guards. And so we did.
===Something I'll never let my friend Trecia live down: I said let's stop by my parents and pick up their camera. She says, "No, we're going to be late!" After we arrived we ended up waiting like 45 minutes before we could get in anyway! Damn bitch! Don't worry she knows I say that. She kicks herself in the ass over it too!======

Again, long boring part short. We watched the concert from side stage. Cool, huh?
And when Len was done signing autographs, Trecia said to him, "You ready?" And he said, "Awww girls, I have to do this interview with Latin MTV and then we have to leave for New Orleans right away. But....................CAN I HAVE THE JOINT ANYWAY???????????" And of course we couldn't say no. So we handed it over.
Of course we were extremely disappointed (ok, crushed) because you know we were all day taking about what we were going to talk to him about, how he would become our lifelong friend and bragging hard to our friends and family about how we would be hangin' with LK later on that day.
But I can't complain because you must admit that is a blog-worthy story. And it never gets freakin' old to anyone. I bet Ant was even okay with reading it-yet again.

One more nugget: I also went backstage to meet Ziggy Marley once. It wasn't quite as exciting as this one. I wouldn't even devote an entire post to it. Really it amounted to him signing an autograpgh for me and my friend Alex. No joints and no invitations to the next day's concert.

Oh, one last nugget: When I was ten I shook Al Jarreau's hand at his concert. Don't know who he is? Google him. A singer from back in the day.
Okay, not really a nugget.........more like a crumb.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Mickey Ain't MY Friend

It’s been quite some time since my last post, I know. But sometimes life just isn’t that interesting and writing about household chores, the daily grind at work or washing my car just doesn’t make for very interesting reading.

But alas, I have an interesting topic to bring forth. Interesting to you, absolutely appalling to me.

We have mice. Not mouse, mice. See, last Wednesday Bas called me at work and told me that he saw two mice in the house. One in the kitchen, one in the living room. That absolutely creeps me out. I got goose bumps listening to him describe this unfortunate situation. I’m pretty much just like an elephant when it comes to rodents, I don’t want them anywhere near me. My mom hates them even more. She can’t stand squirrels, hamsters, guinea pigs or pretty much anything that is smaller than a cat and furry. Shoot, she hates cats too.
So, by the time I had gotten home from work, Bas told me he was at least able to catch one of the disease-ridden sons–of-bitches. But then there was still one on the loose. One more to catch…..bad, but not the worst.
Hold up. Let me just go ahead and break this shit down rather than trying to create a build up here ……in the last week, Bas and I caught six mice in our house. Six. Four more than we originally thought was there.
I know. Disgusting.
And to this day, there is definitely still at least one left because I saw it in the kitchen last night.
It’s funny because we kept saying (after catching each one, “Yeah…that’s the last one!” (High-Five)
Then we would see another. And another. And another…….
Slowly, we came to the horrible realization that there is a female mouse that had babies and now these little pricks seem to be grown enough to explore the vast new world, being OUR home.

I called my mom and she suggested we go get some traps from the store, put peanut butter on then and catch those bastards that way. So, we high-tailed (get it, tailed...like a mouse has a tail? He he) it to Lowe’s and got some glue traps and a few of those old-fashioned traps the SNAP the backs of those jokers in half.
Hey, I don’t give a damn about any rodent. I wouldn’t kill them if they were outside but if they come in my house, “Your Ass Is Done!” I have no sympathy whatsoever. If that makes me an evil animal killer, so be it. Let PETA picket outside my door or splash me with paint. I DON’T CARE!
So, on Thursday Bas had caught another while I was at work.
Then we had Ean this weekend and we took him to the children’s museum on Saturday but we wanted to try to catch the little assholes while we were out. So, we began our strategy for this full-on “battle” with the glue traps. We slapped some peanut butter on them like mom suggested and put a few down in our bedroom and a couple in the kitchen. Then we left the house for a few hours.
As soon as we came home, one of them was stuck to the glue trap whining like a bitch (high-five).
Stupidly, we thought that was “the last one” but decided to put down another trap…”just in case.” We settled down for the evening after dinner to watch some TV and set Ean up in the bedroom with his DVD he picked out at Hollywood Video. Finding Nemo.
About two hours later, our little boy comes running out of the room huffing and puffing. He said, (while hyper-ventilating) “Daddy, Daddy, Danielle there’s a mouse! He came out, he’s there. He’s there! Come look. Daddy come see!” He was so cute. And sure enough…..another one. Sticking to the glue trap (high five).
Now that MUST be it, right? There can’t possibly be anymore. Nah.
Bas and I were in the kitchen on Sunday doing the dishes and along come another. We jumped……and it jumped……behind the oven. So, we calmly put another trap in the kitchen and continued the dishes. By this time, it was getting to be routine. And while the dishwasher was open I guess that’s when that little monster thought he should make his move to get out of the kitchen and we saw his ass run down the hall and out into the living room. Bas and I tore the living room apart. Blocking the doors, pulling up the rug, moving the couch and the chairs. Trying to corner him. Cute little Ean was sitting up on the chair the whole time with his feet off the ground and just enjoying the excitement. Cheering us on, but careful to stay out of the way. Finally after about ten minutes of running back and forth and screaming like two fools, Bas caught that sucker under a pot top and threw him out the window (high five).
I’m not even gonna say it this time because we didn’t think it. We knew there were probably more. And there were.

That night I was awoken by mouse-like noises and I turned on the light next to my bed. And what do I see? Another one. Chewing on the bedroom door with a pile of paint chips in front of him. I jumped up and it ran into the closet. I closed the closet door and went back to sleep, eventually. The next morning I dropped a glue trap in the closet and left for work. When we came home that afternoon, it was stuck to the trap. (no high five, we’re getting sick of this crap already)

Then that brings us to last night. The one in the kitchen. I was getting a soda and there it was. And this one also jumped behind the oven. We put down the old-fashioned traps because that’s all we have left and hopes it would be SNAPPED! last night, this morning, or while we were at work.
I just talked to Bas who is home from work and there is no mouse on the trap. Those traps suck! Give me those glue ones any day.
I called the landlord last night and she said the building manager will come and hopefully solve this problem. My dad said if there is a nest in or near the house, the problem will happen again because mice give birth every 21 days. Arrrrrggggghhhhhh! I can’t live like this.
The cleaning ladies came yesterday and our house is completely spotless with a filthy mouse running around in it. It just doesn’t seem right.
The building manager better get this under control. No, not under control, erradicated is more like it! The entire building probably has to be fumigated, or whatever it is they do to get rid of mice. We live on the first floor, so I think they are coming up from the basement. Or maybe they are living in the walls. I just don’t know the habits of these creatures, so I need a professional to take care of it.
Oh, where are good old days when we lived in Harlem and there were rats on the streets? As gross as those thick-tailed mothers were, at least they never came into the house.
In Florida, not many people deal with rodents in their homes. My mom said in the 26 years of living in their house they only had one mouse. They killed his ass on the old-fashioned trap (with some peanut butter) and that was the end of it. Instead ants are the big problem there. But those ain't no thang compared to mice.
These living conditions I’m dealing with here "up north" is for the birds……..or should I say...........the mice?

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Celebrity Sighting

I saw Diane Carroll at an Italian restaurant on Saturday night. Remember, she was the light-skinned black woman who used to play on Dynasty back in the 80’s? She was eating with who I believe was her mother. She was dressed exactly as her character on Dynasty. When she left she put on a floor-length fur coat.
And believe it or not, Bas saw Jerry Seinfeld….again. Standing outside of Eli’s (THE best gourmet grocery store in New York City) talking to some guy.