baby afro Tuesday

So I did the big reveal of my new hair at work yesterday. What I thought would be a day filled with mockery and questions like "Why did you do that to yourself?", turned out to be a day filled with new confidence and more compliments on my hair than I have ever gotten in my life.

How weird! Maybe this isn't very strange to any of the many women (black,white,etc.) who roam this Earth with a mini afro, but it is to me. I can't remember the last time my hair was above my ear. I'm rocking half an inch right of hair right now! I'm going to do one more big chop before I start letting it grow out completely to make sure that the relaxed hair is completely gone. Right now, I'm using African Royale Hot Six Oil as my main source of daily moisture. I'm not very educated on the best products for natural black hair yet, so I'm going with natural products until I figure it all out.

Last night I went into an attempt to cook a Chicken Jambalaya recipe I found on the Weight Watchers site. Normally, the recipes on the site are fairly easy, but my problem is that I always seem to cook for a family of 6 instead of a couple of 2. I made it halfway through the recipe before I realized that the recipe called for cooked rice and not uncooked rice(as most recipes do).Well needless to say I f'ed that one up and we ended up having a preprepped frozen meal, as I watched my jambalaya attempt go out in the trash. I'm thinking I'll make another attempt at it on Thursday, but this time I'll be sure to follow the directions.

2 tsp olive oil
1 medium onion(s), sweet, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 medium green pepper(s), chopped (about 1 cup)
8 oz uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces
29 oz canned stewed tomatoes, undrained
12 oz shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 tsp Italian seasoning, dried
1 tsp hot pepper sauce
4 cup(s) cooked brown rice

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and pepper; cook, stirring, until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes.
Stir in chicken; cook, stirring, until chicken is no longer pink, about 5 minutes.
Stir in remaining ingredients, except rice; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, stirring occasionally, until shrimp are cooked through, about 5 minutes.
Stir in rice; continue cooking until liquid is almost absorbed and rice is thoroughly heated, about 2 minutes. Yields about 2 cups per serving.9 weight watchers points!

This weekend, Eric and I will be heading off to Austin where he will be Kermit the Frog and I will be Miss Piggy( If our costumes arrive on time ).This will be the first halloween I've spent in Austin since 2006. This will also be the first year I've ever done a couples costume. I know it's cheesy but I don't care. Being mushy everynow and then is just one of the things that comes along with being in a couple right? Hope everyone is having a great week :)

big chop

So I decided to go natural. Eric helped me out and cut it all off for me with his clippers.I can't say that I was a little freaked out to part with the hair,but it feels good!I don't think the relaxer is completely out yet so I will need to do another big chop within the next 2-3 weeks.

Here's the 1st photo with no makeup or very much hair...all natural!

Did you know that if you have a full-time job, (8-5,5-5,9-5, whatever) you spend more time at work than you do with your own family?

I spend most of my time , at work, prepping for work, or hanging out with coworkers. I have friends outside of the workplace(great ones!),but it seems like the Friday night “What are you doing tonight, wanna hang out?”pressure always seems to get to me. Even though I have every week I go into the weekend with the intention of turning off the crackberry and wasting the day in bed with my boyfriend it never seems to turn out that way.

Now let me be clear about a few things before any of my whining gets confused with being ungrateful.

• Number one, I love my job. I work with great people, and my boss is amazing.
• Number two, we are a very spoiled office. There are about 400-500 of us and there is free breakfast+lunch provided most days.
• Number three, I work downtown. While Houston is not New York, LA, or Chicago, it is my town and I LOVE this town. Downtown is filled with tons of beautiful buildings, interesting people and I feel like there is always something to see. Not to mention, the surrounding restaurants/artists in the Montrose,Midtown,and Heights areas have started bringing their business here. I’m not a food snob or anything, but until 2 years ago, the food selection in the tunnels was nothing above mediocre.
• Number 4, I get paid well.I’m not making hoverboard money or anything, but I’m living comfortable.

The only thing that really bugs me is the excess of coworkers. I like them and all,but like the saying goes, “too much of anything is a bad thing”.

So, with all of that said,I have decided that this weekend will be free of the people I work with**. While my plans may not be all that spectacular yet, I can absolutely guarantee that it will be better than not spending time with people I love.

Weekend possibilities include:

• A visit to the renaissance festival
• Boozing/people-watching with the boyfriend
• A long overdue bike ride through the city
• Cleaning
• Studying for my upcoming history exam(this should probably be mandatory)
• Continuing my quest to become a culinary goddess(shout out to me for not burning/undercooking last nights Chipoltle Turkey Burgers)
• Cleaning my boyfriend’s house(that I made dirty)
• Relaxing

**Ceremonies will commence on Friday night starting with a pat on my own back if I am able to ignore the party pressure of my coworkers tomorrow afternoon.

So...I bought a new car. White 2010 Acura TSX. I've never had a new car and was excited to finally own one plus or minus 10,000 miles.






















So what happened to my old car? Well, my brother was sharing my dad+ stepmom's car for a while and got into an accident a few months back. Being that they only had liability insurance, they were then down to only one car(since the accident was ruled my brother's fault). The past few months have been really hard for them and I just wanted to do something nice since I was finally in a good place, financially, to do so. So, my Ford Focus is now with my brother and parents and I'm enjoying my new car.The past few weeks have been nothing short of a blessing to me, and I cannot express how grateful I am right now. I have a lot of friends who are going through some really tough times and all I can do is say thank you lord over and over for taking all of the weight off my shoulders.To all my friends out there in the struggle, I'm sending prayers, good vibes, and whatever else your way so that things get a little easier for all of us.

I forgot to mention that I participated in the Susan B. Komen 5k almost two weeks ago in Houston. It was a blast,and itwas really inspirational seeing all the survivors and supporters out there.I have never seen so much PINK in my life! I ran most of the race...had to walk for about 5-10 minutes but I'm proud of myself for making it through!

23 and debt free

This past year has been a blessing. This time last year I was heavy in debt, walking funny from my ankle surgery last year( I still do :p),and looking for a job.

Now,I've been blessed with a great job, an awesome boyfriend, and the ability to pay my student loans off!I can truly say for the first time that I am DEBT FREE.
I've been meeting with a few advisors to see what the next step is. An emergency fund? A wedding fund? A personal trainer fund?

I dunno.All I know is that right now...everything is going good and I'm just enjoying my life.