Every time is like the first time

Ahhhh back to school! The joy! I kid, I kid. Grad school makes me think of my laptop. I mean once the semester starts my time is split between work, school, writing and reading. I am a student all over again. With a whole semester under my belt you'd think I'd take a new semester like a grain of salt....WRONG! Every semester, each class, is like the first time all over again. Unlike undergrad I don't have the opportunity to say, "Oh, I had this teacher last semester." Each teacher is new and have their own set of expectations that sometimes remain slightly abstract until you get the grade for your first writing assignment. I HATE that feeling! I don't know if it's a good thing or not, but I live and die for a rubric. Please tell me what you expect of me cause I don't read minds and don't like doing things 16 times until I FINALLY get it right. This applies beyond the classroom and into my "real" life. I hate gray. Always have. Too bad life doesn't come with a rubric!

This leads to my angel dust: Be sure to state your expectations cause if you don't, you can't blame anyone else for their inability to live up to them.

Two birds, One stone

Ok so I cheated. I did NOT take this picture, but that's not the only way I'm "cheating". I'm  cheating on my Operation Get in that Dress mission too! But don't cry for me Argentina....It's all for a good cause! I just ordered some Girl Scout cookies from a good guy whose 3 oldest girls are selling the little boxes of wonderful! They have a goal of selling 1,000 boxes and I felt it was my duty as a hungry good samaritan to order some.... well quite a few, but how do you choose between Tag a longs, Thin Mints, and Trefoils?! The answer is you DON'T! LOL. And as much as I should feel guilty for my cookie order, I don't! I've always been a gal that would rather run an extra mile on the treadmill than give of my love for good food!

This leads me to my angel dust: Let's not get discouraged because we can't give a laptop to every student in a school like Oprah. Give what you can cause everything counts to those that have less than yourself!

"L" yes

Ahhhh there's nothing I love more than college basketball! When you live in a state with no pro teams, college ball becomes the end all be all! Hey, I'm not complaining. I love it. There's nothing better than seeing a group of young men playing til their heart's content because they're not only trying to win.....they're trying to "make it". Pro sports are cool, but often times the money exchanging hands in the game makes itself apparent. There's a lot more "whining" and "showboating". When it comes to the NBA there's a lot less defense! You all can take your NFL and NBA, I'll keep my college ball. Besides, without my boys there would be no league. Well, that's enough of that I've got a game to watch. "L" yes!

This leads me to my angel dust: Remember those with the greatest achievements often come from the most humble of beginnings!

My apologies

This has been my best friend today....well kinda cause it didn't completely kick my headache so I'm about to go in for another round. So my apologies for keeping this short, but I'm just not feeling it today :(

This leads me to my angel dust: We must learn to take care of ourselves before we take care of others.

Split ends

Hair. My, how it brings up issues so many other issues! So today I made an appointment cause I was way overdue for a trim. I go in and as I told the stylist what I wanted she said ok. Then she shows me about an inch worth of hair and says, "I'll be cutting this much off. Is that okay?". I of course say yes not thinking twice about it knowing my ends were at least partially split and my ends were uneven. I asked her why she asked was it ok and she said, "You'd be surprised how many keep their split ends because they don't want to lose the length". I thought to myself.....that makes ZERO sense! Why keep hair that clearly is damaged and that if kept will continue to damage more of the hair?! Oh, I know....to give the illusion that "my hair is long so everything is good!" Makes me think of some females I know and the "split end" relationships they've been involved in. You keep a man around that does more damage than good cause you lay claim that we look good together and we're happy. Hmmmm, is it that or do you not want to be alone?! Split ends like bad relationships start off as a minor problem. If you don't cut them out of your life or hair they reek so much havoc they still the glow you'd naturally have and damage more than the tips. "Things/products" may cover up the damage, but best believe those problems aren't gone!! P.S. the only person you're fooling is yourself. Who cares you have to give up a little, if you can get it all back later if you let go of it now?!

This leads me to my angel dust: I'd rather be bald headed and "splint end" free than keep them around and get upset everytime they show up and show out! 

Have you had your Starbucks today?

Let me tell you about my day. I woke up this morning with a need. I needed a new pair of running shoes and was on a mission to get a pair. I showered and began getting dressed when I got a random text from a friend of mine. Me and said friend have been talking about needing to meet up and chat, but schedules and such always managed to get in the way. Not today though. We decided to meet at the mall and get some coffee, catch up and of course shop! I'm so glad the stars aligned  and our little outing happened. That wasn't the end though. She had to leave and I needed to meet some friends for some wedding planning. Talk about a "wake me up". I have NEVER laughed harder! Who knew wedding preparations could be so fun?! I felt sorry for everyone else in the bridal shop because they weren't having nearly as much fun as our crew. ( I also feel sorry for the bride who thought the "westward ho" dress was cute.) LOL. 
This leads me to my angel dust: Starbucks may wake up your insides, but great friends wake up your spirits!

Come out. Come out. Wherever you are......

Most people see a ceiling fan and think, "Ok. A ceiling fan." Not me. I see a ceiling fan and think, "Man, I can't wait to use a ceiling fan again!" I'm a spring baby but summer suits me just fine too! I hate wearing layers. I despise having to wear a coat. I could really do without snow, socks, and gloves. I want summer and I want it NOW! I think my yearning for summer because while I'm stuck in the blistering cold some of my closest friends are playing golf in florida, wearing bathing suits, and tanning and reading poolside. They'll come back with that summer glow while I could be described as "winter white" (gotta love being light skinned. LOL) Oh well, that's enough of my moping about the things I cannot change. But you bet your bottom dollar it doesn't change my eager anticipation of what's to come!

This leads me to my angel dust: Summer is the great equalizer. It's the season where we all turn the same color......sun kissed brown! So let's be sure to give summer some extra love this year :))

Bumps, bruises and band aids

I woke up this morning with sleep still in my eyes wanting nothing more than to hit the alarm to turn it off and go back to sleep......until I felt like getting up! That didn't happen. There's something called a job that totally got in the way of that. So being the dutiful employee I went about my morning routine. I walked upstairs and in my bedroom to get the belt I had intentions on wearing. Innocent right?! WRONG!! I seemingly forgot....no just didn't think to consider that my closet door opens towards my bedroom door and at the time they were both open. So guess who put her head down, reason unknown, to put her head back up only to be attacked by the door! (Okay so maybe it wasn't quite an attack). lol. I can't begin to describe the pain, the annoyance, the SHAME! Anywho I said a silent prayer that the knot above my eye wouldn't welp up and turn too many colors otherwise there was no way I was going to work. Lucky for me the welp didn't turn out too bad. Unfortunately, for me this didn't end  my bout with injuries/ailments. I suffered with minor things such as a bloody nose, a constant headache, and an oozing bloody finger.Lucky for me I made it through the day still breathing!

This leads me to my angel dust: Life is precious. Bubblewrap is cheap. Feel free to use one to protect the other!

Oh boy

It's been a long day! I'm tired and by golly I'm entitled to sit here in my flip flops and sweats and pretend I'm somewhere else......South Beach anyone?!

That leads me to my angel dust: You can go anywhere you want to.....You've just gotta believe!

Welcome to memory lane

Yesterday when they spoke of us possibly getting snow I instantly thought, "Ooh weee let us have a snow day!" I felt like a kid again. I was tempted to stay up all night watching tv, but thought to myself I better not just in case we really do have school tomorrow. (there's nothing worse than being tired and having to deal with somebody's less than well behaved children.) LOL. When I was younger I didn't base my life on "just in case". Who cared?!

I remember like it was yesterday. I had to be in 5th or 6th grade when the news called for snow. We coudn't be happier! There was already snow on the ground so we just KNEW we weren't gonna have school the next day. (Our confidence came from the fact that we lived in a county that was partially rural and country roads were horrible whenever it snowed.) That being said my best friend, another next door neighbor, my little brother and myself decided to "carpe diem" or better yet....Seize the snow! We stayed out all night having snow ball fights, making snow angels, and then coming inside and hanging out. We had a BLAST! Being that we played to our hearts content we were tuckered out and finally went to bed. Now I can't remember if we actually woke up or not, but to our dismay we had school the next day. Uhm, needless to say we didn't make it to school. LMAO. My mom cut us a little slack and we didn't get in trouble because she knew we really thought we were gonna have a snow day. (plus she knew the nerd in me hated missing school, so she knew our late night play wasn't an intentional excuse to miss school). Well, looks like not a whole lot has changed cause there's nothing better than a good snow day!!

This leads to my angel dust: Snow brings out the inner kid in every one.......it's kinda like childhood....so go play in it before it slowly melts away and disappears.....

I wanna be a millionaire

Alright things have been kinda heavy lately so I thought I'd lighten the mood with my newest pasttime. Welcome to my bakery story! LOL. This game is addictive and I'm not sure why? Maybe it's the fact I can feed people.... lots of people.... make money and there's no clean up! I've been playing this game for about 3 weeks and check the score folks.....Your girl's almost a millionaire! Ah, so what it's pretend money that I can't touch, feel, or spend. I'm rich biatch! hahaha. I'll consider this practice for when it really happens. All i'm gonna say is...... don't say I didn't warn ya..... I'm gonna be a millionaire :))

So here's the angel dust: All the money in the world is nice but i'm rich because my friends and family deposit into my account daily!!

My horoscope made me do it!

So this was my horoscope from last week. When I read it I thought, "Hmph. Interesting" It especially touched me today because I realize the worst thing I did in my current position was be good. See the thing is when you're more naturally talented than your boss, that becomes a problem. It also doesn't help that in a year and a half I will have my masters and teaching certification (the only thing making her more qualified than me). I am a true threat. Never did I think being me would be the very thing that made me sought after. I realized today I'm tired of the bull. I cannot control other's insecurities in my presence. That's their problem NOT mine. I'm done

This leads to the angel dust: To quote @hissoapbox "I am not to blame for your lack of popularity. Your inner lameness has nothing to do with me. I do not cause people to dislike you!"

Respect the Sabbath!

Alright so because when I set out on this blog mission I promised to write and take a picture EVERY day. Well, I'm a woman of my word! Let me introduce you to my best friend today.....the remote control. We've spent hours today hanging out. It knows how to make me happy, taking me to my favorite reality shows, and putting a smile on my face and peace in my heart. Sunday is the day of rest and who am I to disagree! Hope your Sunday has been as restful as mine!

Today's angel dust: Be thankful for all things big and small. (Could you imagine how little rest I would have gotten today if my remote control didn't work?! That's all I'm saying.) Be thankful!

One day the princess disappeared

Today has been a FULL day of princess time. First, I went to a birthday party for two of my favorite little ladies. While the little ones were bouncing around I caught up with the adults about the going ons in our life. Next, I headed to David's Bridal with a group of my favorite adult ladies. Amongst the jokes were those about hideous bridesmaids dresses, women not dressing for their shape, and turning formal dresses into something for the club. Needless to say we had a blast. Finally, a group of us went to dinner and the catching up didn't stop. This leads me to my point.....

As little girls we are taught that we are princesses. The world around us is magical and anything we can dream up can become true! As we grow older we lose varying degrees of our "princessness". We kiss frogs, to find out they aren't the prince, but some still stay as if they wait long enough that frog will turn into a prince....WRONG! We allow other men (we date) to belittle us into a role of "baby momma". We settle for men with a gang of seeds floating around that they take care of some of the time. Ladies, please remember with every birthday, birthday cake, and birthday candle you blow out that the only reason to give up your "princessness" is for "queendom"

This leads me to my angel dust: If someone handed you a bar of soap, told you to eat it cause it taste like candy you would laugh so why allow a man to show up with a bag of trash, tell you it's gold amd you believe him?!

Where's my light at?!

How many times have you gotten in your car, turned the key and the lights on your dash give you a heads up on what's going on inside the "body" of the car? You've got check engine lights, fasten seatbelt noises, low fuel messages, and the sort. Although we curse them in our head (or out loud) if gives us a clue where we should focus our time, money and efforts.

I just wish life had a "dashboard"! I think if this was the case my dashboard lights would have burned out in my 20's! My life dashboard would've flashed things like check heart. Whoo buddy would that have saved me from those delightfully fun guys that were charming, but far from Prince Charming! How about that check brain light. That would have saved me from the spur of the moment decisions like moving in with a coworker who turned out to be a jealous, mean, thundercat! (LOL) Really guys, it's true. She was bitter cause before we met she hit on my then love interest and he wasn't interested. As if that wasn't enough she liked my best guy friend and he was NOT having it. Guess her check brain light should have been going off too cause that's some dumb moves. With all that being said, my check attitude light would have gone off less frequently but caused the most alarm when it did. Boy did some folks get a piece of my mind......Uh, and they still do! lol. This makes me think back to my retail days. "No ma'am, I will not return your worn outfit" and of course they'd say, "Well can I speak to the manager?" I'd then say, "Sure. I'm the manager and I'm not taking back this outfit. It has body glitter on it" Yeah, so what sheisty people didn't like me. (hmmmm I think that still remains true!) Bottom line life doesn't have a dashboard so we have to make that much more effort to listen to our "insides" and do what's right for our soul.

This leads to my angel dust: As life adds mileage to our mind, body and spirit we must remember to always replenish (add fuel), protect ourselves (seatbelt light), and do what's best for us (check engine light)

How you gonna rap when you can't read?!

I love to read. I guess that's a blessing in disguise. I think it was a bit genetic because my mother loved a good book! I can recall the summers I went to spend with her in Ohio and her very special "office". The books.....ALL the books. They grew with me from Dr. Seuss to Ramona the Pest to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. As if her book collection wasn't enough to indulge my spirit my favorite uncle in Ohio lived right across the street from the public library. SCORE!!! My love for reading didn't die once I grew up. I still love to read. I read EVERYTHING but my favorite thing to do is to read children's books to my nieces and nephews. I think I may get more out of it than they do. Every child should learn to read. (I know some folks out there are thinking......"Uh, doesn't every child know how to read?!") I used to think that too until I began working with emotionally and behaviorally disturbed children. One of my favorite boys was an 11 year old street wise little boy. He could tell me everything about how to steal a car, but could not read the word "C-A-T" I was baffled. By no means do I fault this young man. I fault his parents, our schools, our society. So many of the young men I work with don't appreciate a good book, but you better believe they know the lyrics to ALL the songs on the radio. Nobody glamourizes reading.....Well, besides Oprah... but what teenage boy looks up to Oprah?! They don't wanna read. These young men want to be rappers, ball players, street hustlers. You don't need to know how to read to do all those things if you're good enough. If you're star quality folks will give you a "pass". But guess what, very few make it to the top and most that do don't stay there. Then when the money's gone and these young men can't figure out why they're broke (in my mind) I'd say to them, "How you gonna rap when you can't read?!"

This leads to me to the angel dust: My four year old nephew said to me the other day "You bought me that letter game at my daddy's house didn't you?" I said, "Yeah" He then said, "I HATE letters" I replied, "You wanna learn how to read don't you?" He said "Yeah" I said "Well, then you need to learn to like letters" (let me also add part of his upset was the fact I enforced his bedtime and he wanted to stay up with the big kids) Anywho, the point is this... read to the kids in your life. They may not understand the benefits at the time, but once they grow up they'll appreciate your effort :)

Toot Toot

After weeks of waiting for my grades.....I'd say patiently, but that would be a COMPLETE lie! They were FINALLY posted. Oh yeah, and the kid (aka me) got an A and a B+. At first I was a little bummed about the B+, but then I thought......that final assignment I turned it was just ok cause I was tired of working on it so........ I guess a B+ was fitting. Any who, a year ago I couldn't fathom being back in school let alone doing so well after being out of the school loop for YEARS! I wanted to share this tidbit to not only toot my own horn a little, but to remind you all that most things are possible through hard work. Looking back turning my weekends over to long hours spent reading and writing papers was worth it. Now, that's my feeling now. Ask me how I feel about writing papers once the second semester starts and I might tell you to go to a dark place and stay there! LOL. (that's the wayyyyyy edited version).

So the angel dust is this: Many may tell you that you're too old, too young, too whatever to bring your dreams to life and to that you say you're too dumb to know any better :))

Feed your soul

I wish I could say this post was gonna be deep, but.......it's NOT! I had a long day at work where I literally came home and zonked out. There's nothing better than a long nap..... well other than a good meal. I appreciate food like I appreciate life. I'm southern and food serves many purposes. Today, was all about comfort! There's something that's sacred about a good hearty meal. It's even better when you have someone to share it with :))  Now, I'm gonna grab me a chocolate chip cookie, put on my pj's, crawl in the bed, and watch House Hunters.

So here's my angel dust: Food is meant to be an experience, share it with someone you love.

Who do you lunch break with?

So in the spirit of the new year I decided to do some things differently. First things first there was an immediate need to bring sanity to my work day. Enter God! I decided to pack my Bible to work and listen to Woodford County's own hometown hero Shaun King's series "100 Life Goals". Talk about heaven sent. I love this series! The last time I was in Atlanta he did the series for the first time and I wrote a few goals one of them being going back to school to get my Masters. At the time it was far fetched and seemed like a distant dream. A year and a half later guess who has a semester of grad school under her belt?! ME!! Needless to say I can't wait to do it all over again. Oh yeah, and I finished my day with a smile on my face. (That's usually a rare occurrence) I don't know what you all are doing for lunch tomorrow, but I'll be spending mine with God :))

It would only be proper to leave you with this angel dust: Listening to Shaun's sermon he asked, "What is it that you actually hope for?" So I pose the same question to you. I can only hope this sparks something in you like it did me!

http://vimeo.com/17141867

Tis ISN'T the season

I pulled up to my house to park and  couldn't help but notice this discarded Christmas Tree. As if I didn't already know the holiday season was over, it was real now! This morning when I woke up things felt different. Oh yeah, this was my last day as a "free" woman. Work starts tomorrow. (long sigh) Almost suddenly I felt sick to my stomach. I brushed it off thinking the granola and cranberry juice I had for breakfast was just too healthy for my system. So I took a nap. During my nap I had a dream....a nightmare actually. It was about work. It was at this very moment that it became so real to me..... I NEED a new job. Like the Christmas holiday season, my time at my current job needs to end! It's a process though. It is for this reason that I ask for extra prayers in my future endeavors. This year I'm committed to keeping me happy! 

And that brings me to my angel dust: God grant me the courage not to give up what I think is right even though I think it is hopeless.  ~Chester W. Nimitz

Look at me now

It is thought that natural pearls form under a set of accidental conditions when a parasite enters a mollusk and settles inside the shell. The mollusk, being irritated by the intruder, forms a pearl sac of external mantle tissue cells and secretes chemicals to cover the irritant. This secretion process is repeated many times, thus producing a pearl. The fragile rim of the shell is exposed and is prone to damage and injury. Crabs, other predators and parasites may produce traumatic attacks and cause injuries in which some external mantle tissue cells are disconnected from their layer.

That's enough with the science lesson. The point is this: most of us arrived here due to some kind of accident. (Do people really "plan" pregnancies now a days?!) We've all had that one "thing" happen in childhood that swiped a little of our innocence that always stayed with us. Whether daily or sporadically that "thing" has the starring role in our flashbacks when a similar situation arises. As if that isn't enough new "predators", whether it be mean girls, cheating lovers, lying friends, etc, attempt to do damage to your spirit. This isn't a fairy tale so although you put up a good fight you don't always win. More scars occur to your mind, body, or spirit but you're ok. I'm here to tell you to hold on and hold tight. What they know that you might not realize is there's something beautiful inside you. That something is rare and priceless. You are a pearl!

So let me leave you with this bit of angel dust: "Errors like straws upon the surface flow: Who would search for pearls must dive below"