It's My Birthday!

Today is my birthday. (Actually, it’s not, since I’m writing this post in the future). To celebrate, I’m off to the Midwest to visit Dee and her now husband, The Canadian. I also have all of next week off to relax, run errands and contemplate the meaning of life. Can’t wait!

One highlight of next week is that I’ll be getting a facial and a manicure. A friend bought me a gift certificate for these services for my bday last year, but I hadn’t gotten around to using them until now. Can’t wait to go to The Spa where I predict (keep in mind, I’m writing this in the future) that the facial (my first) will be an AMAZING experience, excluding the extraction. Everyone warned me about that part of the procedure. I don’t think it will be that bad, something I ‘imagine’ will be akin to having a hot knife stabbed into my face repeatedly until every single blackhead is wiped clean. Then I’ll get a manicure where the woman next to me will make a rude comment that makes me want to pummel her, wet nails and all. But this is just what I’m predicting …

I’ll plan to spend my week off relaxing, but that may not happen. I'll probably run alot of errands, get some exercise in and get the last few repairs on my car taken care of. But, that's just what I predict. Happy birthday to me!

Stank & Sexy

It annoys me when someone coins a phrase that I didn’t think of first. But since I love Anika Noni Rose, I can’t be too mad. She did an interview recently where she used a term that I’m going to take and use to my own devices. In talking about Terrence Howard in ‘The Best Man:’ “You know he had something dirty," she said. "He had the stank and the sexy at the same time.’ I couldn't have said it better myself.

Here’s my translation:

Sexynstank: (adj). A person bringing a certain virile swagger, while displaying other vile attributes. Can also be used as a noun, i.e. Terrence Howard bought the sexynstank or sexynstank Terrence Howard. Can also be abbreviated, like the S-n-S.

Here are a few folks that I think rock the S-n-S, in no particular order:

·50 Cent: Whenever I hear this man’s name, I get annoyed because it is tied into him hating on somebody. I’ll think he’s stupid and immature … until he takes his shirt off. My goodness gracious. It’s so hard to stay mad at a man with a bulletproof body. Whew! Sexynstank, indeed.

·Nicholas Cage: Dude just does it for me. Castor Troy in Face Off was the truth.

·Kiefer Sutherland: I’ve seen practically every movie of his and I never found him attractive. I thought he was a decent actor who got some so so parts, but I wasn’t a crazy fan. But then I started watching 24. It is amazing to watch his alter ego Jack Bauer fight the good fight for CTU. One minute, he is the devoted Dad who teaches his daughter how to shoot her first victim and the next minute, he tortures a suspect by shooting out the kneecaps of the man’s wife. He does all this with a smooth, velvety voice to match. Nice! (Too bad I stopped watching the show back when they killed off two of my favorite characters).

·Eddie Cibrian: He caught my attention when he played a bad boy on the soaps and then he played a womanizer on ‘Third Watch.’ His ex wife on Third Watch went nutso when he did her wrong and looking at those dimples, I understand.

·Tyrese: I thought he was corny until I saw ‘Baby Boy.’ Talk about the S-n-S effect. Once I saw that he had some thug in him, it upped him a notch in my book.


These are just a few that crossed my mind. I'd like to put Don Cheadle up there, but I can't think of any examples of him being stank. Hmmmm. Got anybody on your Sexynstank list?

What's Going On

This post will be scatterbrained, cuz that's how I'm feeling at the moment.

My guitar teacher has informed me that I have to perform in a concert this spring. No ifs, ands or buts about it. So I have to perfect this song in time for the May event. I like the song, which has no name, other than 'Study in A Minor.' It gives me a chance to do a little fingerpicking, which I love. But I'm nervous!!! I'll have to practice like a bandit so I don't make a fool of myself.

It is a Tuesday, which means I jumped through hoops to leave work early, battle traffic and get to my grad school class this evening. I go through all that for us to spend a whopping twenty minutes in class. Apparently, the professor sent an email earlier saying she wasn't feeling well and wasn't sure she could 'galvanize the energy' to make it to class today, so she left one of my classmates in charge. That's interesting, especially since I galvanize the energy to get to class twice a week, but whatever. Why couldn't she just cancel the blipping class??? Instead, we just sat around and talked about our projects briefly and rolled out. What a waste of time.

A close friend is running away and getting married. Not really running away, but going to the justice of the peace with no one but her and his parents and calling it a day. But I have the pleasure of keeping the phone by me at only times so I can be alerted once she they settle on a date. I've promised to go out there a few weeks beforehand and help her get ready. But the problem is this friend lives four hours away and my car is slowly turning into a hooptie. Hopefully, she won't get the urge for broom hopping until after I get all the necessary repairs to my car.

Got the new Erykah Badu and I'm LOVIN' 'Honey', 'Me' and 'That Hump.' Those are my favorites, but I like the whole CD. Of course, I still have Mary J Blige and Keyshia Cole on constant rotation. Can't wait for the new Mariah to drop.

Just finished "A Piece of Cake" by Cupcake Brown. This is a true story of an abused foster child turned prostitute turned Bloods member turned crackhead turned lawyer. Yeah, it's deep and VERY detailed. A good read, but heavy. It made me grateful for all the opportunites I've had, but it also made me sad for people who grow up in similar situations. It's a loooong book too. Nearly 500 pages. If you've got the time and you're willing to go through the roller coaster ride that is her life, check it out.

And that's it for me tonight. Thanks for tuning in!

(Photo from http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00007FOMP.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg)

Rest, My Child

Lately, I've been having a serious love affair with sleep and I'm wondering if it's hereditary.

There was a time when I was a little girl, that all my Mom wanted to do was come home from work and sleep. It was summertime and we lived in this apartment complex that was still under construction. We barely had any neighbors and I was the only child living there at the time, so the summer months were unbearable. We had a death in the family recently, so we were both pretty miserable half the time. I'd sit around and watch TV all day; she'd come home and sleep. It got to the point where I would have a pillow waiting for her on the couch with a short note that said, 'Rest, my child.' Eventually, we broke out of it.

But all of a sudden, I think I've caught the family sickness. All I want to do is curl up in bed and sleep. If I have a bad day at work, I rip my clothes off and hop into bed. If I'm feeling bored or restless, I rip my clothes off and go to bed. The other night, I was pissed because one of the networks stopped showing repeats of 'Half & Half'. You know what I did as revenge? Yeah -- I ripped my clothes off and went to bed. That'll teach 'em!

I didn't think there was anything unusual about this phase until I thought back to Mom's Sleeping Summer. Coincidentally, she was around the same age as I am now when she was enduring her slumber. Maybe this is just something the women in my family go through from time to time. I don't think I'm depresed. I'd be lying if I said there weren't things going on that get me down, but that's true of anyone. All of this sleep has had its benefits. I'm able to wake up earlier, which allows me to do some a.m. writing, and then I can actually get to work on time. So maybe this sleep overload isn't such a bad thing.

(Photo from http://images.jupiterimages.com/common/detail/33/67/23376733.jpg)