The Year of The Dragon: 2012

Hmm…now where is that NASA worthy telescope when a girl needs one?

For surely, there is a comet hurtling towards earth right at this very second!

Last time I checked, Bruce Willis was busy with a new girl, Arnold Schwarzenegger (thank you Google, for aiding this catastrophic spell check disaster) may or may not be rekindling his love with his wife and well, hmm…who else saves the world again?

Hmmph…they are ALL busy, thank you very much!

As we all know by now…It’s the year the world should end* (*according to many sources, including but not limited to “They”---you know when “ they say so, we should listen to “them”), and apocalyptic stuff should happen, starting with the great obsession that plagues most people at midnight on December 31^st. ( I mean, when else do otherwise normally well adjusted individuals wonder about orchestrated lip locking and guzzling alcoholic---or at least “sparkling”--- beverages at the chime of midnight?)

 Many are fostering newly nibbled nails and wracking their brains, trying desperately to latch on to the best version of the most attainable New Year’s Resolution, and others yet (i.e.: me!) are still wondering just how we will ring in the New Year!

 To cap off the rampant neuroses, I haven’t checked the networks yet, nor TV Guide, but I am fully expecting the End of The World movie blockbusters to be playing in loop right now! (Hmm…does anyone actually view TV Guide network anymore? If you are, thumbs up for that! I admittedly don’t even know what channel that is on anymore).

But here we are again, hours away from a promising New Year.

The world is ripe with possibilities! And once again, we are ready to seize the day!
Now I have found that if we hold true to our convictions, the idea of “I Can,” will definitely last throughout the year and beyond.
I have also found that claiming and clinging to a higher power, is quite possibly THE greatest propellant of willpower, and folks? I intend to do just that!

 In the Chinese Zodiac, 2012 is the year of the Dragon, a symbol of success and happiness! It’s a great year to be born**!  

A great year to make and fulfill plans! So go ahead, start your new business! Plan that world trip! Hit SEND on that email to that guy that you know you really, really like! (But make sure he is single first…)
Do what is right for you!
Extract that toxic person from your life…right now!
Go ahead, get married! It’s going to be a bright and bounteous year!

Why?

Because I said so. And you should say it with me!

Because we live what we preach. We become our thoughts, and our thoughts become us.
Quite frankly, I see no reason why we can’t all have our 180 degree Success Stories, this very year ahead.  (God’s willing.)
Be sure to sing them out loud once you’ve achieved that goal.  Testify and shout the glory!

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Thanks for Reading!

* According to many sources, including but not limited to “They”---you know when “they” say so, we should listen to “them”, (rolls eyes)

**Some of you may not realize this yet, but if you are indeed shooting for a bundle of joy in 2012, you haven’t got much time! Seriously! You’ve got 3 months, tops…March is your cut off. No pressure or anything. But I have been eavesdropping (well actually…I have been listening intently to my friends as they speak…but eavesdropping sounds sooo much more dramatic and well, 2012 is going to be big, and in the spirit of excess…I shall practice a bit of hyperbole). So for those of you that want to invite the stork into your households…or for those that are definitely planning to wait, and wait some more, I think I should write a special note for this very set of folks…more on that…later.**

Showing The Love For: TLC's "Virgin Diaries" and "Geek Love".

Enter : the first of my (totally biased and purely-as-observed )TV Show Review: It's another opinion...and you know, everyone's got one....

So there are tumbleweeds practically blasting through Fall TV programming right now. The re-runs of the re-ran shows are choking the airwaves, becoming powerful enough to confuse my DVR (which recorded a re-run despite being programmed not to! **gasp! **). But amidst the hush and lassitude...there is.....tatadadaaaa! TLC to the rescue!

Home to such heartwarming perennial favorites like: A Baby Story, Bringing Home Baby, and evenCake Boss, TLC seems to have suffered a wildly fascinating bout of N.M.C: "Network Midlife Crisis"!

While I know I am not the only one who may have noticed the ear piercing screech of the left field gear shift, I also know I am not the only one who may have needed a hand to hold after watching the first offering's of the Network's two latest gems, "The Virgin Diaries and, Sunday’s (December 18) debut of: "Geek Love".

 The Virgin Diaries:

http://tlc.discovery.com/videos/virgin-diaries-virgin-diaries-sneak-peek.html

I know, I know.....everyone thinks that the people featured on this show are like, totally mal-adjusted social reject outcasts who really should seek therapy instead of reality TV show notoriety and fame (which I am quite certain they haven't quite achieved...yet....really!).

But honestly?

I thought it (the concept of the show, AND the cast themselves) were rather....refreshing!

I mean, if I truly need to hit the re-set button in my mind, I am more than glad to pick up a book and read (do that a lot really!), but this Docu-drama was a wonderful change of pace from the "norm". After my uncomfortable squirming (um...they were rather odd people, sorry: see "The Kiss", after the couple weds, "their first kiss EVER, as a couple and clearly, ever...I mean, like, ever. Never on their hands...never with a friend....never with a toy...never with a boy...man, obviously never... but I digress) I was left with a feel-good buzz!

I was happy for them! Seriously!

Not really a spoiler here, as the debut show has already aired, but much of the cast remains virgins... (And duly so!), and the newly married couple....well? They...."did the deed!"

It was a TLC Special, but the network is presently holding castings, and despite a probable shortage of age 18+, virginal candidates who may be willing to go on TV and publicly document their sojourn's beyond their "maidenhead voyages", I do foresee a growing interest in TLC's newest way of celebrating: "firsts".

 Geek Love:

http://tlc.discovery.com/videos/geek-love-get-some-geek-love.html

It’s like every Jeni's Ice cream flavor.

Like...beer perhaps.

Like frog legs, fried frog legs.

Or for those of you that haven't, it’s possibly akin to driving in Europe (or everywhere else in the world for that matter), in a European model car.

You sort of have to just do it once, try it to decide whether or not you LIKE it! And then, you may find you do so love love love it....and you may feel weird if you don't. Or not....

It’s just like that! Exactly like that! Watching this show, that is!

This has got to be the quirkiest (read: weirder than your weirdest high school friend if you weren't actually super weird yourself, sorta weird), most perplexing (read: how? did? these? people? GET? this way?) grouping of characters....ever.

The TLC Premiere of Geek Love focused on a set of young people who are self-proclaimed (and....by MOST other standards) "nerds", and their valiant pursuit of happiness in the dating world, through a speed dating event, offered at New York's, Comic Con.

It’s all a matter of perception here, and I am not yet sure if this one will be a ratings winner with TLC viewers, (but who am I...really?)

But seriously? If they are fickle, easily entertained, Cheerers-on of general humanity as I am? Well....there may be an audience just yet!

**Disclaimer: I have personally NEVER been to a Comic Con event, anywhere, and thus my written opinion may most likely be due to my un-travelled ignorance, as Comic-Con may very well be Mecca for numerous individuals who aren't actually nerds at all. And personally, the word nerd is in no way shape or form, derogatory in MY mind, as intelligent individuals, eccentric individuals, odd-balls and the like, are all simply----people.

PS: TV's lead actor from "Chuck", Zachary Levi was prominently AT Comic-Con, and I do so luuuuuurve him (sorry loving, beautiful husband of mine, but really...I do!)**

Mmmmm...all that being said, I guess I will waive my nerd flag high, and wait with baited breath for the new season of MY guilty pleasure programs like, ABC's" The Bachelor", MTV's: "Teen Wolf" and ....ok, who am I kidding? The list is long, and the DVR, will be busy!

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Thanks For Reading!

Making Room: Re-Writing the Concept of "Us".

So there it was the mountain of "Stuff".
His and mine, just staring at the both of us.
Coupled with the sea of brown boxes, the black garbage bags full of my belongings, made tiny self assured mountains in the living room.


Neither of us could see much of the floor, and at this point, we were oh so blinded by the work ahead of us, organizing it all. It wasn't sudden, but like two feral cats in a prime alley corner, we took our stances. Hands akimbo. My husband defending his space, and I, scratching away at the boundaries to define my own.

Cohabitating.

It’s something many of us learn to do rather early on in our lives. Perhaps having had to share a space with a sibling. Grappling away at a bunk bed or pulling ranks for the better level on a trundle. Better yet, there's the collegiate experience, normally devoid of sibling rivalry yet no less competitively annoying, at the best of times. And in my instance, it was the freshly melded newlywed den.

Cue: The Dream...

Like a flash, every fuzzy, rose tinted movie, and fairy tale story line comes crashing in!

The glossy red and gold Christmas spread we'd share.

The glitzy gloss of a New Year's Eve spent together kissing with the pop and boom of the firework blasts and the bubbly chuckles of all the friends we'd invited over!

Dinner on the table! Every day! At 6 pm...Glade candles glowing over the shiny basted bird! Yup...every dinner is prettier and prettier than the last and best Thanksgiving affair!

I'm even wearing an apron in my fantasy! An apron!

And my husband's face is glowing each day as he bursts through the front door with a, "Honey, I'm Home!" on his lips...and we'd tumble to the floor together, in bliss...and er hem, **cough** you know what...

But it’s so funny how reality can be sooo much sweeter than our corny old saccharin dreams, and the things I have come to love and learn about "Us", are what we all come to realize sooner or later on our journeys through life long partnerships.

It is new still, and I am pretty sure that getting to know another person takes a lifetime, and thus, will always be a new and exhilarating experience, once we commit to doing so.

And we MUST commit to doing so: daily.

Every day we make the choice to say Yes to our partners.

To put another's feelings first when we can.

And when we can't, you say? We push through it, and we hope that we have chosen a partner that understands Grace.

We will be called upon to exercise Grace throughout our lives!

First, as we discover our own strengths and weaknesses. And incrementally, when we must toss a bit to our friends and family! Then when we mesh our lives to a partner. Then when we extend the love that God has blessed us with, to our children. And the web goes on and on...

So forgive yourselves when the rice gets burned (am not saying mine ever does! **wink**). He probably won't have noticed it much anyway, (and the term "smoked" does come in rather handy for such culinary snafus! Be prepared to handle more than your fair share of laughs and joy, because boy do they come! Reach out your thankful heart to God in gratitude and let Him know how happy you are for all you have been given. And if you are ever sad? Reach out to the Lord as well, since what do you know? Jesus wept (KJV John 11:35)...right?

And trust me guys, she DOES come around...you know she does!

Remind yourself daily, of exactly why you chose her! Why you love him! Rejoice in the things you have yet to learn about each other, the things you have come to learn and probably wish you never even knew!

I am embracing it all!

The millions (35 really) of times I have been asked: How IS married life? (Great!)
The thousands (20 or so) of times we've been asked " When are you gonna
have kids? (Soon enough!)

The times when you are asked: So when's baby #2, or baby #3 or baby #4?

Private School or Chartered?

Meat or Vegan...

Spanking or Time outs...

Suburbs or City...

And the list goes on...

We were made for this! Give yourselves a little slack...loosen the reigns and gird your loins all at the same time...

ABOUT ME

I lay there beneath the stars, back against the warmth of the concrete paved driveway, feet bare and propped up on the white-washed metal gate surrounding my yard, as we had them in Jamaica. With my head cradled in my clasped hands, I recall looking up at the stars, and you know how it is when you stare long enough into a star-crowded night sky? I started “seeing things”.

Believing it to be a tiny comet, I made a wish as one of the shiny twinkly dots caught my eye. I whispered into the sultry Caribbean night air, asking for a sibling, a brother. And then I recall this even more vividly: I wanted to go to “Foreign” (that’s what we called the United States of America). And though I was a smart child, wise beyond my years even, I still looked up; fancifully imagining that foreign was up--- “up there” somewhere (against all I’d learned in school about the round earth and the debunked myths of the fated flat edge that it most certainly didn’t have, off which we’d all plummet …leaping off Aristotle’s back maybe.)

As I lay there, every fanciful dream I’d ever had came rushing in, swirling through my mind, making me smile. Because I believed back then, that perhaps one day I would indeed become a doctor, an Obstetric Gynecologist to be precise. But this would happen sometime after I’d seen the world. And published my novel, and designed all the most fabulous fashions that there ever were! And because true focus had never been my strong point, I recall some random wish about llamas. Must’ve been reading some book in first form English then, with llamas amidst the chapters, but most likely yet another musing from an only child…drowning in ennui as I was.

Fast forward to 2011: I am 30 years old, married---for the second time, grateful,  that I have found the right man for me. And all around me, life is happening FAST. Speeding by it seems! I have four grey hairs.  Every so often I find myself wondering just what I shall DO with the massive 401k funds that I shall have in 2046 (a dreamer still I am). And now? Teenagers seem misguided to me…most of them anyway. And unreasonably, I still have acne.

Though the pervasive rot of divorce abounds, everyone is tying the knot! Those who aren’t, are blissfully planning their “Big Day”. And others yet, are shunning the bonds of matrimony as if it were the Black Plague reborn. Many of my friends have children now! And against all odds, I still have one special friend that is still a virgin. I have a renewed interest in riding my bicycle, but plan to learn to drive properly---soon! (Bike rides through the snow will get old real soon) I never had a MySpace page. And though I did get a brother, he came AFTER my parents divorced. So I’ve never really learned to share my space with another.

I never did drugs or alcohol. To the horror of most, I have never even owned a Blackberry. 

I went on to draw many, many sketches of many fabulous gowns, and I scattered the drawings within the pages of my many journals---they no longer call out to me, as they are vampires and shun the light of day, as they should. By God’s grace, the novel WILL happen though, I really hope so…

As for my career in Obstetrics? Well, that never took off. It never truly even got legs! But I have found that there is a special place inside each person, where dreams live on, waiting to take flight. And so, I read a lot. And I know a little more than most about a few things…Pregnancy fascinates me still! But so does politics, and fashion---and cooking and even reality TV. And one day I will be a mommy…but for now, here in my corner….I will share what I do know, and learn from those that know more than I do…And hope you all take my candor with a large(ish) teaspoon of salt. Welcome to my space…

An "Opened" Book

We are but specs on this vast planet.
We are a network of cells, existing until we no longer exist.
At our incepetion, we survive and thrive through interdependence, drawing others in to the coveted real estate within our minds, our bodies even! Then the webs we form are beautiful...

In the rush and bustle of daily life,  smooshed between the noiseless moments, we realize...or at least I have realized, that at the best of times, we are all of us, just Ordinary People...(Cue: that Legend song)
And somewhere in between, the luckiest of us find love.
Love, in her many forms. That schizophrenic,  cross dressing shape shifter of an emotion...that same love that we all embrace.

Before time on earth began, one, religiously oriented, may wonder whether or not a true "blank canvas" has ever been in existence. It is that time...long long ago I am sure that the essence of me, of you...of everyone that ever was and will be was created.

I am a piece of my mother, and a portion of my father. I am what I have chosen to be, and I bear the imprint of my time on mother earth, proudly.
My skin can still tell you that this woman wears the warm sunkissed balm of her Jamaican island home, best. And my heart can tell you that, depsite  every steel cold hurdle that I have ever faced here, in this mercurial land, the United States of America is still the best place on earth for dreamers, like myself.
Now, for those that groom their wings each day for flight, prepared to soar or fight what drifting gales they find? Ain't no better place than the lofty perch one can attain here, where the broad stripes and bright stars sing 300 million different tunes and counting...for each and every soul.

And at day's end...there is just a little bit more to me than there was yesterday, with a little bit more of me left elsewhere with someone else.
Thats how it should be, really...as we welcome the world in, one person at a time.
And I am left thinking....who else can I impact today?