Obligatory End of Year Blog

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Wow…2013 was an interesting year. A lot has happened. I wish I could give a month by month blow…but my memory ain’t so good anymore. lol I’ll just do my best to think of the things that stuck out the most.

I turned 40!!! I had a sweet close-knit gathering with my best girls (some were missing and MISSED). In the thick of it, my BFF Joy and I met the newest addition to our circle, Ms. Tina. We had a great time…even though I feel the weekend was MIGHTY short. I could’ve been the belle of the ball for at LEAST a week more 😀

It was also the month I suffered a meniscus injury…so, I was hobbling at the birthday event. Nonetheless…I had a wonderful time.

I spent a lot of time honing my graphics design company, FFK (Fancy Face Kreations) and building a customer base. I’m STILL doing that. It ain’t easy…but, I love it.

A family member who’d been fighting cancer, got a clean bill of health after a VERY close call. God is GOOD.

…and even though later this year, I lost a different family member to cancer…God is STILL good. He was a wonderful person and his legacy is a worthy one.

I went to my first outdoor concert with Joy. Lianne La Havas! I swear, I’ve never had so much fun while standing for 6 hours!! There couldn’t have been a more fit person to share that experience with. Joy and I both share a wonderful love of music…and Lianne brought a cool memory we’ll both remember. I spent the weekend in Harlem for once (Joy normally camps here on select weekends) and it was nice to be her guest! 🙂

I also got to watch one of my kiddies get married. I sat Catrina as a baby and to see this young woman walk the aisle into her love’s arms was a beautiful gift. Born 3 months early, my preemie baby girl has flourished into a sweet young woman whose life is touched with golden things. I was so giddy over that. I also felt OLD. I had to remind myself that I was given her as a responsibility at the age of 13…so, yea. lol

Even though, between enduring some tense moments with a couple of house guests and some unexpected and mind-blowing drama from someone I thought to be a friend…I managed to remain in the presence of mind I’m in. Blessed. Loved. Purposed for something all mine and happy to be a part of God’s plan.

With life and death, ends and beginnings…friends coming and going…life continues to tick forward. Every second is another second past the old. Every day is a new chance to see life differently than the day before.

I spent this Christmas alone…and it wasn’t all that bad (If you don’t count the burn in the palm of my hand from grabbing a searing hot pan from the oven, sans mitt O_O). I made myself a Christmas dinner of lamb chops, apple cider-ginger glazed carrots and spinach-artichoke in puff pastry. I drank Moscato and enjoyed holiday-themed movies…as I fawned over the many friends and family who DID get to spend that day with someone.

I’ll be alone for New Year’s Eve and I’m okay with that, too. I try not to put TOO much stock in the need to celebrate specific days for life. Every day is a New Year for us who can say we saw that day the year before. Every day is Christmas if you’re glorifying the Savior’s life. Every day is Valentine’s Day if you appreciate your mate…and so forth.

I can reflect with the rest of you, but every day I open my eyes is a new day…a year to the date of awakening. I pray that I get some things right. I pray that my purpose continues to evolve and grow into something that can create MY legacy. I pray that AMAZING things come my way as old and stale things go away.

I wish that for you all, too.

Again…HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Do You Take This Woman? …Literally?

Everyday at work, in between bustling phone calls, being the copy whore and chuckling with my o-buds…I research. Something different daily to keep my mind spry on the down swings. I guess it’s the nerd/geek in me, but to me it’s a constructive way to keep me occupied and OFF Facebook as much as possible.


Recently, I’ve researched everything from French, Spanish & Greek alphabets, to constellations, to Greek/Roman mythology, to the origin of surnames. Today, I researched the bizarre origin of wedding traditions that many women utilize in their ceremonies in today’s age.


This one article on CNN Living was especially educational and interesting. I shared my findings with a couple of people. We all were like wow…okay. O_O


Some of my favorite ones were this one for instance…

“The Garter Belt and Bouquet Toss“


“This pair of rituals has long been the scourge of the modern wedding guest. What could possibly be more humiliating than being forced out to the center of a parquet dance floor and being expected to demonstrate your desperation by diving for flying flowers?

How about grasping in the air for a lacy piece of undergarment that until moments ago resided uncomfortably close to the crotch of your buddy’s wife? At any other point in time, that would make you seem wildly creepy. So why is it acceptable at a wedding?

It used to be that after the bride and groom said, “I do,” they were to go immediately into a nearby room and consummate the marriage. Obviously, to really make it official, there would need to be witnesses, which basically led to hordes of wedding guests crowding around the bed, pushing and shoving to get a good view and hopefully to get their hands on a lucky piece of the bride’s dress as it was ripped from her body.

Sometimes the greedy guests helped get the process going by grabbing at the bride’s dress as she walked by, hoping for a few threads of good fortune. In time, it seems, people realized that this was all a bit, well… creepy, and it was decided that for modesty’s sake the bride could toss her bouquet as a diversion as she made her getaway and the groom could simply remove an item of the bride’s undergarments and then toss it back outside to the waiting throngs to prove that he was about to, uh, seal the deal.“

WOW…really son? That’s some freaky shit. Gathering all around the newlyweds bed to see him hit it? The crowd ripping off chica’s gown to get a piece of her “good fortune”? (Because CLEARLY being almost forced to screw hubby in front of a gang of pervs is the absolute BEST fortune!)

Yea, that’s some kinda crazy. I even got a kick out of the fact that the bridal party was originally meant to aid in distracting naysayers, ill-willed bastards and crazy exes. I guess in a way, that’s a good damn idea…except of course the ex is some crazed gun-toting, knife-wielding maniac refusing to let anyone have you…since they can’t. Can you imagine that? One of the bridesmaids getting snatched up and then tortured once Ex O’Nutso realizes he’s grabbed the wrong broad to kidnap.

It’s interesting that the tradition that women go ga-ga for is steeped in shotgun wedding techniques and forced unions for the sake of debts, status or sacrifice. How a family used their daughters as currency and bargaining chips. How brutal is that? It’s unbelievable how the meaning has evolved into something glamorous and almost coveted. Women will beg, borrow and steal…often putting the future of said marriage in jeopardy…all for the sake of the most beautiful wedding they CANT afford. I guess we should just be lucky that we’re doing it by choice, now…

Just kidnap me and call me Mrs., why don’tcha…