Christmas Carnage

Picture it:

We all know how it goes.  You buy "everything" you need for the Christmas Day dinner. You've prepped all the food. You've got the meat in the oven. The house is smelling nice & all is well.

Until you discover that you forgot that one all-important, must-have item. Or, not that you forgot it, but you thought you had it already and discovered you were wrong.

Well, that was my mommy yesterday. Everything was ready to go...until it was time to boil the macaroni for the mac-n-cheese that I am addicted to & that my belly gets excited for every holiday.  I refused to go without it, so off I went in search of macaroni.

I went to Walgreen's. No dice.  Family Dollar: Fresh out. CVS: Jackpot!!! They had three boxes left. Count them, 1-2-3. I bought two, leaving the 3rd, just in case someone like me ended up making a run for them as well.

On the way back to my mom's I decided to go the back way to avoid the traffic lights & the abundance of retarded drivers on the road.  And just what should I come upon in my journey? Four buzzards going to town on a dead deer!!!!

Let me say this, I have this morbid fascination with wild animals and wild elements of nature that happens in my area because, #1, where we live has been densely populated with housing for over 20 years, yet the deer, beavers, huge turtles and other animals have not managed to migrate to safer ground.  I'm pretty sure that they eventually said "screw it" because everywhere they tried to move has been mowed down & built up over the last few years. I mean, in the last 4yrs alone we've had a new school, shopping center and 2 town home complexes come up within a 7 or 8 mile radius, where there used to be tones of forest and trees...all that clean oxygen, gone, as well as living space for such deer, beavers, etc.  But because of that, I get to see them act like their wild animal selves in my area, which I do enjoy.  Its good for me, not so good for them.  Having said that, I have never before in my life seen a buzzard y'all!!!!! I don't even know what they are actually called. I guess I could google it, but I'm not going to do that right now. 

Back to the story, I see the buzzards feasting on their Christmas beast of deer. I'm in shock & awe (poor deer) of the sight, but I have macaroni & bags of ice in my car that have to get to my mom's house. So I run (drive quickly) to her house (did I mention that this was less than a mile from both of our houses????), throw the ice in the kitchen, plop the macaroni on the stove all while yelling out what I saw, grab my camera & run back out of the door to take some pics.

First of all, those damn buzzards are pretty doggone smart. I pulled up by them on the road & rolled down the window to take a pic and they totally stop eating...ruining my photo op. LOL. But I got some pics anyway.  Buzzards are some fugly, huge creatures! OMG! Their wingspan is, I dare say, almost as long as me! But they are UGLY!!!! 

 

OK, so this is how it started. I pulled up, they said they were done eating for a while and decided to mill around...

  



Then one got mad and disappeared from the frame...

Where did it go? It went to tree to watch me (they are predators after all)...

So I kept snapping pictures. They'd stopped eating but were, I guess, playing with each other...I don't know. But that's when I got the first shots of some of their wingspan...

Since they'd stopped eating, which was what wanted to catch on film, I said to myself "Self, maybe if you went across the street to the school, you could get some feasting pics." (You know, this sounds kind of morbid as I type it out, but that's what I said). So across the street I went and with the power of the ZOOM, I got these shots...

Mind you, they still weren't eating like they were when I initially drove by. But I was snapping away. Eventually, the buzzard in the tree must've said "I'm tired of this bitch," so he starting circling ME! Mind you, there wasn't much I could do, I can't outrun a flying bird of prey...so I took pics of that too. LOL.




Coming at me....



Circling out...
.



Eventually I began to feel a lil bit intimidated. I mean, this is a big ass bird! So I walked back to my car. Once I was in the car...he went back to the tree. Seriously...smart predators! And he flew around me with claws extended until I got in my car. As soon as my door closed, his feet/claws went flush against his body. I wish I had gotten a pic of that, but it happened so fast...

So I decided to head back to the house, but I made one more trip (via a U-turn in the street) back around to get a couple more pics and was able to get a good one of one of them that I could zoom in on...

Tell me that isn't once uuuuugly bird!

So, besides for the great gifts I got from my family on yesterday, this was my excitement for the day. I think I had a little too much fun with something that's really kind of morbid, but really, other than on TV westerns & cartoon movies, I've never seen a buzzard before.  Certainly not this close up & LIVE!

I hope you enjoyed your Christmas meal as much as they did theirs!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

LOL

Merry Christmas to Me!

OMG its finally here! Christmas vacay! Two weeks, no work, no passwords (maybe I should have written those down), nothing but time to relax & spend w/family & friends. I look forward to this time all year and Thank God its finally here.

You know what isn't here? Armageddon. Suck on that Mayan calendar.

I wonder how many folks skipped on Christmas gifts because they thought the world was going to end. I'd hate to have to share their Christmas tree with them!

I really don't have much to say. I'm just glad I'm done with work for 2012 & I have time to have some fun & bring in 2013 at home for the first time in a while...I have no idea what I'm going to do for New Years Eve. I guess I'll have to see what home has to offer.

I hope it doesn't suck, but time will tell.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FOLKS!

The Grinch

I did it. I went to see the musical How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Let me say that I have never been a fan of the cartoon & I only watched the movie once...on TV. And the voice of the man who sings the Grinch has always freaked me out because it just sounds so frigging weird. So, having said that, why did I go see it? For a few reasons. 1. I’ve been a lil slow on the holiday spirit/cheer this year & I figured it would help. 2. I like to support the arts when they come to my city because for so many years, my area was grossly lacking in musicals & operas so I was forced to travel 85 miles away to get my fix. Now that things are coming here again, I try to support at much as possible, even if its just a cheap seat. And 3, I was curious as to what kind of musical it was.

First and foremost, let me say that this was an uber kid-heavy event. As it should have been.  That actually added to my enjoyment because the kids were having a BALL. Some had their hair done like Cindy-Lou Who, some were dressed liked Whos. Some parents had the wrong story & dressed their kids like the kids from the Cat in the Hat..but its still Seuss so that’s ok. LOL.

I thoroughly enjoyed the musical. There were only 2 songs in the musical that have been used in the movie & original cartoon (as far as I could tell) and those were the Who’s song they sing around the Christmas tree &, or course, the Grinch song.  The musical called for audience participation which always brings about hilarious unscripted moments and the man who played the Grinch (who is in the cast of the PBS show Lazytown) was HILARIOUS! He played with the audience, greatly overacted some parts that were perfect for the kids. The show was just fun.  I wish it played for longer so more people got the chance to see it, but I’m glad I got to see it myself.

Oh, another thing about it being a kid’s show…there was no intermission. The show was over & done with in about an hour and a half. It felt short to me, but I’m not a kid, and there were some little kids in there. I mean, parents made frequent trips to the bathroom, babies cried…definitely child packed. But that was good too because there are so many musicals that are not geared towards children and they don’t get to have that musical theater experience until they are older. Much older. For some of them, up to 13 years older. So it was nice to go to a musical and see the little kids there & see them stay for the whole show.

Case in point, when I went to see Beauty & the Beast, which was a full-length musical, there was a mother & daughter in the dress circle (not the cheap seats) a few seats over from me and they left at intermission because the daughter was sleepy. All I kept thinking was that after I spent $60+ on the “good seats,” my kid would have been taking a nap in that good seat until the show was over. So, musical without an intermission, over & done in about 90 minutes…perfect for a kid.  

When Worlds Collide

In today’s entertainment the majority of “new” movies are remakes. It’s sad to say, but the truth is the truth.  There are so many movies that come out & they seem new..until you google them and, surprise-surprise, they’ve been done before.  While I would love to look at it on the same level of the revival of Broadway musicals, I just can’t.  Partly because the Broadway musical can only be seen on Broadway. Not VHS, DVD or blu-ray.  In fact, the only thing that is logged for enjoying over & over again from Broadway is the musical soundtrack.  And, I can’t get over the fact that, with all the money that is put into a movie, Hollywood financiers are ready & willing to pour their duckies into a movie that already been done & can, sometimes, be seen for free OnDemand.  Ugh!  What has happened to the imagination in Hollywood? It’s so sad. 

And now, that’s even transferred over to TV where some shows are just retooled shows of yester year. Like the whole new Beauty & the Beast that just pales in comparison (in my opinion) to the one with Linda Hamilton & Ron Pearlman.  For someone who enjoys TV & movies, this whole recycle trend can be a major let down.

But thank God for books!

Now, books more and more books are being made into movies. Not just new books either. You have the Narnia series, the Hobbit & LOTR series too, that are books from many years ago that have been put into movie form. Thank goodness.

Because writers seem to have the bulk of the imagination these days, more & more books that are series, and some that are not, are being optioned for movies. Because of that, there’s more to read and more to watch.  Again…Thank God. I’d be missing out on tons of movie theater popcorn if it wasn’t for books.

And I needs my popcorn.

Black Friday

Normally, I go through the whole Black Friday ordeal as a spectator. I've only done the early morning rush a couple of times, but every year, I tend to buy very little. As far as I'm concerned, if I come back with 1 item purchased at a very good sale price, I'm good.

Well, that logic fell through in a major way this year. I would have done even better if a certain website was running properly. But thankfully, due to a 3-day long glitch on Coastal Scents' website that prevented me from checking out my shopping cart, not once, not twice but somewhere around nine times along with their "50% off Cyber Monday" advertised sale being a complete hoax when it came to the things I wanted to buy, I ended up saving about $75...even though. So even after spending too much, I saved. LOL. And even with what I spent I was able to save. I got a few Christmas gifts for people and some things for myself on a very good sale.

There's something to be said for a bad/recovering economy...if you wait long enough, everything is a deal. And that's exactly what I needed.

Yay Me!!!

TTFN

Haperry Thanksnmas

Seriously though, does Thanksgiving even exist anymore?

Yes, its a holiday. Yes, we get time off to spend with family and eat, but seriously, the world goes from Halloween to Christmas. There is no Thanksgiving anymore.

Where it used to be that you didn't hear Christmas music until the day after Thanksgiving, it started playing right after October 31st this year! Where networks used to begin their holiday programming and movies on the day after Thanksgiving, now you have: Countdown to the 25 days of Christmas and the like...that start on November 1.

I love Christmas. Its one of my favorite holidays, but seriously...November 1st is pretty damn early to begin celebrating.  One of the things that make holidays so special is that they don't last for months at a time. They have a specific time frame. When it comes, its there. When its over, you get to look forward to it later. But the way its been going this year, it would be sensory overload if I didn't restrict my own viewing and listening.

Now that Thanksgiving is over, I can enjoy the Christmas holiday season. In other words, now I can tune into Lite 98 on iHeart radio.

Review Time

OK, here we go. I've been using a few new products lately and I feel that I have used them enough to give them an honest review. I'm only going to review the few I have used repeatedly. There will still be more to come.

First, I need to change my review of the Beautiful Textures Tangle Taming Leave-In. I don't know if I posted about it here or on FB or just talked about it, but it is no longer magic for my mane. It isn't thick enough. I don't know if I should have shaken it up more in the beginning & I used all the good mojo the 1st couple of times or because its colder now it just isn't doing the job or what, but after the last few washes, I can sadly say that the search for a compatible, ready-made leave-in conditioner continues.

Second, I'm going to retract a tad bit (just a lil y'all) about my statement that I'm not going to buy any more products. Why? Because I finally tried the line Koils By Nature that one of my YT vloggers raves about.  The product that I purchased, which was the Nourishing Hair & Body Butter in the scent of Tropical Splendor was HEAVEN IN MY HAIR! From the way it had my hair feeling to the smell to the consistency...yep. I think I'll definitely be buying this product again.

On a sad note, the YT vlogger who pointed me in the direction of KBN, Dawnyele, tragically passed away in her 8th month of pregnancy due to a heart attack They were able to save her son, but needless to say, her passing has rocked many of us in the natural hair community who followed her videos & FB fan page. As someone who has been following her for about 10 months, I must say that I am so glad I found her & was able to experience her enjoyment, information & love of her life. I still can't believe she isn't here and that I won't be seeing anymore video updates from her, but I know her husband & 8yr old son & her friends & fellow vloggers & naturalists are mourning deeply the loss of a wonderful person.  R.I.P. Dawnyele.

Also, I tried the Organix line coconut shampoo & conditioner. I really liked the conditioner, but didn't care for the shampoo. The shampoo was really glob-like in consistency & felt snottish in my hands. That's not something I want to feel...it just isn't. As far as cleansing. I felt like I had to use a lot of it because of the consistency. It would glop out of my hands to the shower floor as I was trying to rub it between my hands. It was not sexy at all. And my hair felt really squeaky after using it. And that was over top of my hot oil pre-poo treatment.  The conditioner however was great. It too had a a thick consistency but it was creamy and felt nourishing, not overly stripping. I did have to use a lot of it because it didn't have the best slip for detangling with what would be the typical amount of conditioner I would use, but I did like it. Whether or not I'll buy it again remains to be seen. I could just stick to my Head & Shoulders in the end.

Two more to go...

The last two are both curling creams/puddings that I have had for a while & JUST started using. The first is the Roots of Nature Mango & Cupuacu Butter whip coil cream. I have not used this for wash & go's as the product states is is made for, but instead used it for mini twists. I really liked it the product. It has a butter/lotion consistency, not the best smell (I can't really describe it...it doesn't stink, though) and left my hair feeling very moisturized even with me working out each day. For me, its a good product that's available in many beauty supply stores or beauty aisles in mainstream stores, for keeping moisture in your hair.

Then you have the Beautiful Textures Curl Control Defining Pudding. Again, not a bad product & it certainly does what it says it would do. Its at a lower price point than the Roots of Nature but it also has a few undesirables on the ingredient list. Pretty much, both products do the same thing. Its just a matter of what you want to pay to get the job done & how you want your hair to feel in the long run.

When push comes to shove on the future of styling products, if I'm not making my own, I'll be buying Koils By Nature.

TTFN

Sassy Saturday

Oh Em Geeeee! I had one of the funnest Saturdays ever this past weekend!

My dear friend Kenyada had yet another Sassy Saturday event through her salon and wellness liaison (yeah, I added that last part) All Tressed Up (www.alltressedup.net).  this month's event was OMG big, informative and fun.

We started with an info session with Angela Elizabeth, owner of the Holistic Academy (www.theholisticacademy.org).  I will say this as an explanation of how this session went: Angela is a biologist who teaches & who also used to be pharmaceutical practitioner...she is all biology. I suck at biology. I took it three times (high school & 2 parts in college). I made a solid C every single time...but everything Angela shared, because of how she shared it, was clear & understandable for me. That's saying something y'all!!!!  She had so much information in that seemingly small head of hers that she shared about holistic remedies and alternatives for cleansing, detoxing and the aftermath, as well as the science behind why holistic remedies and the holistic lifestyle works.  She also shared her testimony as to how it changed her life.

So, while Sis Angela shared all of that information...we age. And we ate vegan. Yes, I said it, VEGAN. A delicious vegan meal (including bread, y'all) was prepared by Maat Free, owner of Vegi Luv (www.vegiluv.com).  The food was delicious.  Especially the cornbread...Loooord! For those of you who know me, you know bread is my Jell-o...there's always room for it!  That cornbread was oh so awesome.  We also had Goddess Black Beans & rice as well as a very tasty kale salad.  It was filling and delicious.  Maat offers wonderful services through her company so if you are looking to change your lifestyle, even for only a little while, please check out her site and hit her up.  She takes away all the guess work. Bump Jenny, give Maat a try.

Finally, we had a salsa lesson! A full on, one hour class given by the Latin Vintage Productions dance studio right upstairs from Kenyada's shop (www.latinvintage.com).  We had a great time dancing, laughing & working off that lunch.

Kenyada is making it a habit to have fun, informative sessions and each one gets better and batter!  The cost for this month's event was $20.00 and it was worth every penny.  If you are in or near RVA and have not had a chance to check out an All Tressed Up event, you are missing out.  But you can visit her site and sign up for email notifications so you can be in the loop. Because trust me when I say, Saturdays are better SASSY!

What to do, What to do...

OK, so I've been away for a while.  Almost a month. I was trying to think about where I wanted this blog to go since I'm no longer transitioning and I'm out of my 1st year of being natural.

Then, this weekend it hit me...this is my blog. I can take it where ever I wanna! LOL But, then I still have the question of what to do. I have to give myself credit for being as focused as I was with pretty much sticking to a main focus because the truth of the matter is, I can be all over the place from time to time and my mind is always going a mile a minute & there are many things that I like to do and some things that I don't get to finish.

I prefer to call it being an expert at multi-tasking.

If I were a kid, it would be called ADD.

So, what's this entry going to be about? One of my favorite past times...TV. The Fall season has started and there are a lot of new shows that have come out. Some of them good, some of them, not so much. Truth be told, for the new shows that I watched, that should appeal to me...none of them had any staying power for my TV viewing schedule. I'm pretty much sticking to the same schedule I had last season.

Beauty & the Beast: I miss the old version with Ron Pearlman and Linda Hamilton. The only thing the pilot episode did was make me want to go to my mom's house and "borrow" the DVD set I bought for her. Then I thought that I may just need to buy the seasons on DVD for myself.  Here's the issue with making over a story that nothing was wrong with in the first place: YOU MESS IT UP!!!! I was so turned off by it that I didn't even watch the 2nd episode. Because I watch a lot of paranormal/sci-fi movies & shows & read a lot of those books, I was comparing the story not only to the original Beauty & the Beast series, but to other movies as well. I kept referring to the army group that created the experiment Vincent participated in as The Umbrella Corporation...from Resident Evil...I couldn't tell you what the name of the group is, but it sounded like Muir-Muir (I'm sure I spelled that wrong)....you know...Thor's hammer.  By the time Vampire Diaries ended & it was time for episode 2, I watched about 30 seconds and turned the TV off and picked up a book.

Arrow: Sucked. That it all. Again, so many things pulled from other stories. The actor who plays the lead seems very stilted and I can't tell if that's bad acting or how the character is supposed to be & on the pilot episode, too much drama is put into play. His ex hates him, but doesn't really & has been dating his BFF who is doing something behind his back b/c he faked being knocked out when they were kidnapped.  His mother is behind him being kidnapped and he came home from 5 years on an island with all this kick-ass training....FROM WHO!?! Whose ass were you kicking on a deserted island? Did you learn that from the bears? I'm sure the goal was to get folks to ask questions and wonder who he's going to fight or take down next, but come on...I can watch Revenge for that.

Partners: Will & Grace retooled. I can't remember how I summed it up exactly when I posted about it on my Facebook page, but basically, its Will & Grace with being straight, Grace is Jack, and Karen & Rosario have been combined into an irreverent receptionists. I watched it because the guy from Ugly Betty is on there (he's Grace-Jack) and I liked him on UB and Sophia Bush from One Tree Hill is on there. But neither actor is enough to keep me watching another remake...when Will & Grace is playing in syndication on Lifetime every day.

I think that's it for the new shows I've tuned into this Fall season. The good news? My DVR won't be getting any fatter than usual this year. The bad news? They cancelled Ringer! I loved that show. But I knew it wasn't going to last because they were giving moving so fast in the plot. It felt like they were trying to finish the story, not develop it into something more. I guess I'll have to pull out the Buffy DVD set (seasons 1-7) to continue to see Sarah Michelle Gellar in action.

A Mane Discovery

Sooo, last month I made the most interesting, and maybe the most exciting, discovery in my natural journey. What is that discovery you ask?

MY HAIR IS NOT FALLING OUT!!!!

Now, this may sound a little ridiculous, so let me give you some background.  I have stated in previous posts about my decision to go natural that I had a lot of breakage and shedding when I was processed. To the point where it seemed like my hair was being cut when, in fact, not a single shear had touched it.  This is something that was a part of my hair life for years.  So long that I thought it was something that everybody went through.

I remember talking to people while at work and, those who were friends with me & not just coworkers, would swipe the hair off my back for me that was just laying there. Mind you, I would shake and use a lint remover to get the hair off the back of my shirt before I left the house…and I didn’t do my hair after leaving home. Very rarely did I have a need to comb through my hair after initially curling it or unwrapping it in the morning.  I had gotten so used to my hair being swiped off by friends and family during conversations that I stopped thinking about it.  After all, it was a normal occurrence for me.

But it was not normal for my friends and family.

I didn’t realize that until this past weekend, when talking to a friend of mine & her husband and she was telling her husband about how bad my hair used to break off when I was processed. I had no idea that anyone else was paying attention to that!  I wasn’t the least bit offended by it, but it made me realize that, even though I was working to ignore the issue at that time, probably the majority of the people in my circle of friends and beyond knew what the deal was.

Now, cut to later in the day, after we went to the movies (saw ParaNorman…totally enjoyed it), I went to an event held by my friend at her salon All Tressed Up (alltressedup.net), called Sassy Saturday.  During that event most of the women there shared info and learned info from Kenyada and the two of the sisters (biological sisters) of Epic Curls Boutique (epiccurls.com) about how to care for your hair based on what your hair needs due to its texture, porosity, elasticity and so on. One of the exercises we did during the event was a porosity test. For this test, you needed a strand of hair.  Well, me being someone who doesn’t like scissors, Lord knows I didn’t want to pull out a piece of hair from my scalp, so I figured I’d run my fingers through my hair to get a shed strand or two to do the test. That way, I wouldn't have been losing anything other that what was due to come out anyway.

It took almost 3 min for me to get a shed hair that was thick enough (not baby hair) to use for the test.  And even in that 3 min time frame, the ONE baby hair that came out of the back was the only ONE that would separate from my scalp.  I was AMAZED! To go from having hair shed without anyone touching my hair, to running my hands through my mane, shaking my strands, massaging my scalp for, what seemed like, FOREVER to get a single strand of hair to appear on my hand is a major, phenomenal development from just over 2 years ago!

Just another experience to let me know that I did the right thing for my hair in going natural. I love when I make the RIGHT decision for me!

TTFN!!!

OMG! Its been a year!

Hey you there hair!!!!

   

This past year has been a blast! Not only have I learned a lot about hair care in general and how to care for my hair specifically, but I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.  The changes in mindset that have occurred from being processed to being natural are so shocking to me. Two and a half years ago, I never would have thought that I could literally spend an entire day talking about hair. Seriously! Sometimes I have to catch myself when talking to people or when people ask me questions because I realize that they were not intending to have an in depth conversation about hair…they just asked me how I did my twists, or how I got my twist out to look so big, or what I used to keep my ends from frizzing.  I have to make myself SHUT UP…because they are not looking for all the information that I, for some reason, can’t help but dole out.

I have graduated from not liking a fro at all to LOVING my curly fro and my puff…which is just a fro with ledge, let’s be real folks.

I dare say that 99% of my internet usage is focused on natural hair or hair care products that would work well with natural hair.  I look at my YouTube history and I see such a decline in my viewing diversity and my Facebook “likes” have gone totally hair-crazy. Even my Google searches are mostly related to hair.

It’s really sad…but, unfortunately, I can’t help myself.

All in all, it’s been a very good year. I’m not going to do a barrage of pictures because there are plenty of pictures in my previous posts, but I’m excited to continue my journey and continue to share it.

A Day of Rememberance

I remember exactly where I was. In my dorm room, fully dressed & making preparation to head out of the door for class.

I was watching Live! With Regis and Kelly and I stepped away from the TV for 2 seconds to get something out of my bathroom & when I returned to the TV, it was showing the 1^st tower, upper floors in smoke and they reporters were saying that a plane had crashed into one of the WTC buildings and that they thought it was an accident.

I remember being totally surprised that such a mistake could have been made…In New York. At the time I had no family in NY, but, as is usually the case when something big, good or bad, happens, I called my mom.  She wasn’t available so I did the next thing I would typically do…I call my aunt, her best friend.  We talked for a couple of minutes & basically shared what we each had heard about how the crash happened at that point, I stated that the possibilities of those circumstances is why I hated flying, & we hung up

Then the second plane hit and I sat on my bed and said something to the effect of “that ain’t no accident.”

When I got to my 1^st class I discovered that a few of my commuting classmates had been told by their parents not to come to campus for fear that an attack would happen at the naval base down the road from us. I hadn’t even thought about that as a possibility. I was still wrapping my head around “terrorist attack” and the fact that the WTC, that I had just seen the year before & had visited just about every time I went to NY, was no longer there. Then to hear about the Pentagon & the PA crash too…it was a lot for one day, and a big dose of the kind of reality I don’t even try to fake interest in.

Those who know me, are aware that I don’t like watching the news, I don’t like dealing with politics and I hate war. Period. I don’t want to hear war stories or anything of the like. I don’t mind listening to the “this funny thing happened while I was in service” stories, but other than that, I don’t care to hear or no.  It’s not that I don’t respect it, or understand it…I just don’t like it. Plain & simple. I don’t care who doesn’t like it, you don’t want to deal w/it, don’t talk to me. You want me out of your hair? Talk about politics & war…I go bye-bye.

So this whole attack situation was a major change in my lifestyle for that day & the many days that followed, because basically, TV was all news, all day long. For the time that I wasn’t in my dorm and able to close myself off from the discussions of 9/11, it was a major topic of discussion. For everyone. I found out that a friend of mine on campus had a father who worked in the Pentagon. It took all day for her to hear from him. For an entire day she didn’t know if her father was alive or dead. Then I had friends who had family in NY & couldn’t get in contact with them because of down/jammed cell towers. So as much as I didn’t want to talk about it, or think about it, and as much as I would have preferred that the victims remained name and faceless for me like the OKC bombing years before, that couldn’t be the case. I wasn’t a kid, I wasn’t in an unaffected area and I wasn’t around people who were not focused on the attacks and the events that occurred afterward.  Needless to say, a lot about me changed as a result of that day. And while I still hate war and don’t like politics, I’ll talk about them for a little while.  Only a little while.

So, as today is a day of remembrance, I think about the lives lost, families destroyed, people wounded and those who sacrificed everything they had to try and save the lives of as many as they could, even at that cost of their own lives. I remember that, when the shit hits the fan, folks who don't care, do.

What were you doing on 9/11/2001?

Products All Over the Place!

Products here, products there
I've got products everywhere

Product, product, product galore
I don't think I need anymore

That pretty much says it all. After putting away my product haul from the Return of the Curls Hair Expo I came to the realization that I have a LOT of hair products. Especially considering I walked into the natural lifestyle determined not to succumb to the life of a product junkie. Who knows when I'm going to get to use them all?! I sure don't know HOW I'm going to use them all. Then, add to that the fact that I've started experimenting with making my own products. While I like experimenting with other brands from the truth is, they pretty much all work the same, or serve the same purpose, some with better results than others.

Since getting into the natural hair game, I have started making some of my own styling products, thanks to the gurus on YouTube.  And after examining the financial output to continue to purchase products for styling, I realize that it would be much cheaper for me to simple invest in making my own on a permanent basis.  That isn't to say that I won't use what I have purchased.  And, since I lost an entire container of my shea butter mix to the 100+ degree heat in July while packing for a brief journey, I don't think I'll be traveling with my homemade concoctions. Plus, when doing protective styles, I like to use the purchased products for the initial styling and use my mixes as moisturizers throughout.

So check it, here's the difference. With ordering the ivory/white shea butter online, using the oils I always have on hand at home & typically have to replenish once or twice a year, not to mention the essential oils & fragrance oils I have plenty of (even though I'm going to buy a stock of fruity scents very soon), it would really work better for me, cost wise, to make my own and have that be my primary source of styling products, at least at home. When I first started making my own shea butter mix, I didn't think it would really work for my hair as a styling agent and I didn't expect what seemed like so little, to last so long. I've bought 2 of the yellow shea butter bins that are available at my local BSS and I have still have just under 1.5 of it left..and that's after 1/2 of it melted in my car!! Truly, a little goes a long way.

Yep...I think I'm done buying styling products, and I am sure that, in the long run, my pocketbook will thank me and, possibly, in the short run, some of my natural friends might appreciate some free product....if I choose to give some of my stylers away.

TTFN!!!

The Hunger Games Book vs Movie vs Tee (that's me)

OK, I waited and waited to do a post about this book because I first wanted to see the movie and include my take on that as well.  Now that I have read the book & seen the movie, I’m ready. Let me say before you go any further that this post is full of spoilers. If you haven’t read the book &/or seen the movie yet, and you want to do so without any knowledge beforehand, STOP READING NOW!!!!!

I will do my best not to spoil the ending, but the beginning & middle are all up in here.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I debated about actually doing this post. I try not to do book reviews because, if I finish a book, I enjoyed it, and I hate to cloud people’s judgment about a book based on my own feelings.  I would hate to be the one who convinced someone not to read a book. But this book would not stop bugging me and folks have been raving about it so much that I had to post something. I’m hoping I’m not the only one who had some of these thoughts/feelings. I had many issues with this book.  Not to take anything from the work of the author because I do think this was a VERY good read, my issues are mine alone & related to my own ideas and experiences. First of all, I do not like war storylines. I don’t watch many movies that have to do with war, either before or after. I can appreciate the historical relevance and all, but war & post-apocalyptic stories always give me pause & little bit of the willies. I’ll read a war-era/war-based novel before I’ll see a movie of that nature. And even then, it may take me a while to open them after I buy them.

So on to the book. I believe it was marketed as a kid/teen book but, in my opinion it is not kid-friendly. While it does to touch on some ever-present issues, truth be told, those issues would be lost on many kid readers and they are completely skipped over in the movie.  For one, there’s the issue of classism, and that the districts are basically numbered by affluence. Considering that District 13 was obliterated in a war by The Capital that would make District 12, the district that the 2 main characters are from, the poorest district in the nation.  However, even inside that poor district, there were people who were rich, by district standards. This is explained very well in the book and glossed over greatly in the movie. In the movie, you don’t come to understand that Katniss was a great hunter because she had to learn how to support her family after her father’s death.  In the movie you don’t learn that Katniss and Gabe have over 30 entries in the lottery each because they basically had to barter their lives for food and supplies for their family.  Then there was the glossed over way the folks dressed in District one. I mean, in the movie it just looked like elaborate costumes, you don’t get that the folks there dressed like that every day because they were filthy rich.  Also, in the movie, the way Katniss gets the mocking jay pin is totally wrong. I was actually offended by how poorly that was done, but I’m trying not to spoil too much.

Then you have the runaway who gets picked up by the searching ship & gets her tongue cut out as punishment. She was totally omitted. And as small as she may have been in the book, she showed the wrath of The Capitol, and I do believe that is something that needed to be seen for the sake of the 2 sequels that are sure to come.

Another issue I had, but I understood to an extent, was the fascination that people had with the games, in spite of the fact that they were watching children massacre children. Brutally killing them for SPORT. Not survival, not in self defense…well, yes in self defense but only because they were in a game were murder was sport….FOR CHILDREN. Yet people watched the games every day. Everybody, not just parents with kids in the games. This was even lost on some of the folks in the theater. They were reasoning as adults would when the announcer for the games retracted a valuable ruling. Some of the adults in the theater responded with “well duh” & “you had to know that was coming.” Totally forgetting that the 2 main characters in the story were 16 years old.  No, they wouldn’t see deceit coming. They would see hope, and cling to it.

Haymitch’s inner conflict is totally ignored in the movie.  He’s portrayed as a horrible, crass drunk instead of someone who was cunning enough to win the games, the only person from District 12 to ever win the games, and the only person who was responsible for the training & preparation of every tribute, every year after his win…of which 0 came home. I mean, imagine training 12-18 year olds for 20 years to have to bury them all…I’d certainly be a drunk. And I’d be less & less invested with every passing year, too.

There were things that were added to and taken out of the movie, and while they were interesting and certainly had some relevance…they were not in the book.  There was no riot in District 11 after Rue’s death. Only a gift sent to Katniss from the district as a thank you to her for helping Rue. The beasts that appeared the last “night” in the book were created from the dead tributes…not in the movie. That is a detail that would have certainly shown the crassness and savagery of The Capital and the Game makers, because that created a conflict within Katniss of having to possibly kill Rue, after having grown so attached to her.  You also get side commentary & actions from people in the Capitol, while in the book, the only thing that exists once the games start, is the arena.  While I can understand why the writers of the screenplay felt they should add some more info to the movie, the detail in the book could have stood on its own, and maybe if they’d stuck to the book details, they could have gotten some other things right…like the damn mocking jay pin (I told you I was offended).

I was going to mention some inconsistencies in the ending of the book and the movie but now, I don’t think I’m going to. For one, this post is umber long and that was not my intent.  I’m going to, of course, finish the trilogy, but I don’t think this series is kid-appropriate. Unless said kid is very mature. I know of some 10 & 11 year olds who read the whole series and after reading book one, I was like…oh hell no!

Lastly…the superstar cast…wonderful! Some of my favorite actors were in the movie. That helped with my disappointment over the screenplay…for a little while.

My Transition Lessons: Patience Is Key

This is the final installment of my transition lesson series, and I cannot tell you how important it was for me to learn this while I was transitioning.  

This was the key: I could not make my hair grow any faster than it was going to grow. 

This was/is the problem: I am not the most patient person.  I have a reputation for being extremely impatient. I’m REALLY good at being impatient. 

So what I had to do was find ways to entertain myself so that I wasn’t always thinking about my hair because the fact of the matter is, as I have stated before, you hair isn’t going to grow faster just because you want it to and there is no product that can make your hair grow any faster than its going to grow. So no matter what you do, your growth is going to pretty much be the same from month to month. So you have to do things to take your focus off your hair length.  Experiment with styles. I went through a period where I was doing a different style every week or two depending on when I washed my hair. My go-to style was a roller set but I played around a lot & that is what helped the 15 months of transitioning fly by.  Before I knew it, my hair was saying “I need to be chopped woman!”

Also, keep in mind that, while you're using the resources available to you, that a lot of the videos you will find that have a lot of views or sites you will find that have a lot of feedback, show people who have been natural for a long time. So their hair may be longer than yours.  Even if you look at someones video or blog post that was done when they were pretty much at the same point that you are, how their hair grows would be different than yours. I don't know about other people, but I had to keep reminding myself that the folks I was watching had been natural for over a year, or had been transitioning for many months when they recorded the video I may have been watching at the time. Add to that the fact that their hair is not mine, how they treat their hair would be different from how I treated mine & a plethora or other variables were in place that would affect how their hair grew in relationship to mine. So I had to make myself focus more on the information than the length of their hair. It took some time to get there, but once I got there, I was good to go.

So be patient. And remember that the only way to quickly get through the transitioning process is to big chop. So if you're not ready for that, pump your breaks, slow your roll, chill out...you get the picture.

Happy transitioning!!!

TTFN!!!

Literary Love

One of the things I love to do is read books that are written in or based in other time periods. I enjoy period writing because it puts you in eras that you didn’t get to experience on your own.  But one thing that's really interesting is to read a book set within your own time and come to realize of how much things have changed just in however long you’ve been living.

I tend to forget that, when I was younger, folks didn’t have computers in their houses and many companies who had computers started out with only having a few, depending on the size of the company.  My mom used to work for a major insurance company and even she remembers when a computer & all that was needed for it to work properly basically took up a whole office.  Even though I can recall not having a computer at home, not typing papers out but writing them all by hand, it’s hard to recall that there was a time with fax machines, computers and even cell phones were not a part of our daily lives…and I didn’t get my 1^st cell phone until 11 or 12 years ago!

Then also, I read books that are set in the future…and the future is 5-20 years from NOW.  It’s so funny to me when I sit a think about it. I just finished reading The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, which begins set in 2025 with a collapsed government & dying resources. Hmmm. Not even 12 years down the road.  And I’ve also been reading a trilogy by Frank Peretti and the 1^st two books in the trilogy are set in the 80s and early 90s.  No cell phones, one fax machine in a town, newspapers still put together with printing presses. I mean, who even thinks about that when today, damn near everybody has some level of tech savvy…no matter how old you are. Toddlers know how to work a phone & so do 60, 70 & 80 year olds. And newborns & toddlers today will never really experience writing a paper by hand. I mean, I remember writing out paper after paper, and I having to wait until I got to school to ask for a pass to the computer lab so I could go type my paper up. Oh, and typing a paper on typewriter! Who still uses those? Other than Danielle Steele? Even when I got to college I would write my papers out before I went to type them in the computer lab.  Now, if I sit to write anything longer than a grocery list, my wrist starts hurting, my handwriting gets sloppy & looks kind of stroke-ish and my fingers start to hurt from holding the writing utensil.  How crazy is that! I mean, seriously, all we really write out now is our name…if we can’t use an electronic signature. LOL. So to read a book & go into a time where those seemingly simple conventions that we have today don’t exist, that staged during my lifetime, I have to sit back and say “oh yeah…those didn’t always exist.”

That’s what I love, love, love about reading. Aside from getting read about different cultures, different eras & different ideals (albeit from a sometimes biased point of view), you get different viewpoints & ideals from many different backgrounds, because different people experience the same thing in different ways. I’ve retained more history from reading fiction & looking up historical info on a little bit of fact than I did from the entire time I was in school! I still suck at dates & some names, but the information… like Ragu, it’s in there!

That’s what I love about the library. As much I love to buy books and as much as I love my Kindle, some books that are 20 & 30 years old have the same list price as books that are written today, and I’m not looking to spend that much on EVERY book I buy.  Then you have books by authors that you don’t know, that are recommended to you by friends or your bookseller sites & you want to try them out, so you go to the library, grab 1 or 2…or 10, and read away.  It’s awesome! If you get a book that is a dud for you, finish it or not, you can always return it.  For years I had stopped going to the library because I was on a book-buying-frenzy. Then I bought a few duds…Hola la Biblioteca! Now I’m so swamped with books I can’t finish them in time.  But that’s okay with me. LOL

TTFN!!

Jazz Fest 2012 part 3...Day 2- The Finale'

On to  Day 2!

Sunday was another day on my feet and it was HOT y’all!!! I mean…hot! And the sun was bright with hardly any cloud cover. A huge change from the day before.

But hot or not, I was still on my feet & still partying!  John Pizzarelli came out and gave a wonderful show.  Then came Najee, who started his set on the ground with us and making his way through the crowd.  Two whole songs…Najee and the people! It was wundebar!!!  Then, I got a pic of Najee and me!!!

Soooo Dave Koz & George Benson didn’t have M&G’s, but that didn’t surprise me as they were the major headliners.  I got plenty of pics of them in performance and that works for me!!!



Dave Playing...this man, like I said, moves constantly! I got more pics w/my dad's camera...those will be for ME!



George playing



George singing



Overall, the jazz fest was amazing! There was only one major down point…the local press. You would have thought they were in CA or NY taken pics of celebs to sell to rags.  They were abundantly rude and ridiculous! One chick bogarted her way into the crowd while George was playing without muttering a single “excuse me” or asking folks to move out of her way, then planted herself in front of someone who was much shorter than her! When the lady advised the overzealous giraffe of a photog that she couldn’t see, the bitch said “I’m press” and totally dismissed the girl!!!! After I informed her, very loudly (George was playing after all), that her press pass was not a BITCH BADGE…and she could only get pics of the monitor from where she was standing, she moved out of the girls way, but I’m like…seriously though?!  And the majority of the press folk were like that. So, needless to say…I have no respect for them anymore.  I mean, my step-dad was a photographer and he was never that ugly.  Other than those jerk wads, the other people who were there were really nice and personable.  And everyone really worked with and around each other in a respectful manner…except for the press.

So, that’s all I have to say for this year’s jazz fest.  I absolutely can’t wait until next year! I had the best time.  I danced for hours, spent time with family and friends & had 2 days where absolutely nothing could bring me down! And nothing did…not even the bitch from the press. LOL.

Now, as for my hair, as you can see I had it twisted in mini twists. The goal was to keep them in for 3 weeks...I barely made it a week and a half. All that sweating and rain & humidity had my scalp growling! The lesson: I may never have mini twists in for 2 weeks. LOL

TTFN!!



Richmond Jazz Fest part 2...Day 1

On to the international supa-stars!

I originally planned to go the festival both days, with the exception being that if one day held artists whom I’d already seen, I would possibly not go on that day, and save some money.  That reasoning flew out of the window the DAY the lineup was released. Here’s the list of artists I have loved listening to for years, but had not seen live:

Kim Waters

Dave Koz

Bebe Winans

Brian Simpson

John Pizzarelli

Najee

George Benson

Now, let me make this perfectly clear: I HAD TO SEE GEORGE BENSON AND DAVE KOZ! Point blank, period. There was no question about it. Had to, had to, had to! Did you get that?  I have been listening to both of them for longer than I can remember and have wanted to see them live since I was old enough to go to a concert without parental permission.  For the others, I have followed them for years as well, but I pretty much know and can pinpoint when I first heard them.  So, here’s a quick list of who & when…

Najee: First heard in 93 while in NC. NC has always had good jazz stations while RVA…not so much.

Brian Simpson:  I don’t remember the year exactly, but it was Christmas 96 or 97.  Heard him singing the Charlie Brown Christmas song…it was the 1^st time that song didn’t annoy me & I’ve listened to it with different ears ever since.

Kim Waters: 2001, coming home from Wal-mart, listening to a local broadcast of the Dave Koz Radio Show that was, unfortunately, short-lived in RVA.

Bebe Winans: Whatever year “Addictive Love” hit the airways. A while later I learned it was supposed to be a gospel song…and that he & Cece were siblings…

Needless to say, the lineup had me super hype, and it totally lived up to the excitement. Starting with Kim

Waters, whose performance it rained for in the beginning…but the sun came out & the party continued.

Then there was Dave featuring Brian and Bebe. And Dave Koz & his band move the ENTIRE time they

are on the stage! So much energy and no down time.  And to top it all off, I was the last person to run in

& see Kim Waters at the meet and greet and I got a pic with him!!!

I mean, autographs are nice but the last thing I need is another piece of paper to hold on to…unless its

money or a check. Pictures are so much better!

Oh! I almost forgot, there was this dude from WA that came through named Allen Stone.  Seeing him

was a complete accident but, I tell you, it was an accident worth making! I got my timing mixed up for

Kim Waters and by the time someone who was sitting behind us at stage one let me know my error, my

family & I were already packed up…so we kept it moving.  He was well worth the error. I was

expecting a little country/rock-esque performance after seeing him standing on stage but that man with a

60s/70s Woodstock era look was full of pure soul! I thoroughly enjoyed his performance.

Richmond Jazz Festival 2012...Part 1

OMG I just had the best weekend ever!

This past weekend was the jazz fest in RVA.  This was the 3^rd year for the event & my 2^nd year going.  I went first year but was unable to make it last year due to finances.  So this year, I put money aside to be able to go, and after learning about the line-up, I was so glad I did.

The jazz fest for RVA lasts 3 days. Friday through Sunday, with the Saturday and Sunday performances being held outside at Maymont Park.  During the fest there is a showing of local talent as well as world renowned jazz artists.  I was super excited for the event this year because 11 of the slated artists were people I have listened to for years, of whom 7 I had never seen perform live.  And they were oh so worth the wait.

My hope is that this would be a short post, but I’m not holding my breath.  If I can’t keep it short, there will be multiple posts.

First, the local talent:

One thing that kind of irked me about the local talent slots has nothing to do with the actual talent, but with the fact that the presence of the local talent was referred to as “sudden.”  Like “all of a sudden” there’s this “surge” in local talent.  Now, I don’t know if the announcer for stage 2 made the same references, but that statement couldn’t be further from the truth.   VA has always had an abundance of talented musical artists.  Some of them have just not been highlighted/showcased in RVA in the way that the jazz fest allows…because the jazz fest didn’t exist in RVA until 2010!  Just because the folks who dealt with the jazz fest have become “suddenly” aware does not mean that VA’s talent suddenly appeared. Those folks work their asses off on a regular bases to get noticed in RVA, NVA & HVA, and you don't suddenly appear when you work that hard.

I could go on but I think that pretty much shows how much that statement stuck in my craw. And it was said REPEATEDLY!!!! I wanted to scream…in a bad way. But as I step off my soapbox, I will say that the local talent presented at the festival this year were great. I can only speak to the groups I saw, but Joye B. Moore, Doors Wide Open, Sharon Rae North , K.G. Experience & Anhayla…whose CD I quickly purchased because I loved the message of her title track…and her voice was beautiful and I like supporting young artists…or artists who are younger than me (I think I’m still young….LOL).

Ok…that’s long enough for this post.

TTFN

My Transition Lessons: Use the Resources Available to You

I cannot stress this enough.  In today’s world of technology, there is absolutely no reason for someone to do anything without having some additional information to help them in their journey.  Yes you can talk to friends and professionals, but good grief! With Google & YouTube…there is so much information at your fingertips!  All you have to do is search for it, and take the time to look through it. To make your journey your own, you really should research by getting multiple opinions and ideas so you can filter what you want to take, and what you don't think will work for you.  And depending on where you are on your journey will determine what/who does & doesn't work for you.

I have found folks on YouTube and at the beginning of my journey, they were either TMI, or just not what I was looking for. Now, I subscribe to just about all of the ones that I once thought were TMI. As I have continued on my journey I have found more bloggers & vloggers who seem to have hair textures closer to mine, whereas, when I was transitioning, I didn't what the heck my texture was going to look like, so I couldn't figure out who or what to look for, so I looked for those who had good information presented in a concise manner & that's what I went with. But now, almost a year after my BC, I have found blogs, vlogs, books, websites and communities full of natural hair insight and information simply by searching Google and YouTube. You can get all the information you could ever want through a computer, smart phone or tablet.

Don’t be unaware when you don’t have to be. And that's with anything. Not just your hair journey.

Return of the Curls Hair Expo & Fashion Show

OK folks, this is more than likely a one-time deal. I'm not into the whole YouTube video scene for myself. While I love watching other folks do their videos...because they like doing what they do, I did this vid because it was the easier alternative to the usual posting pics and writing out descriptions, & then trying to detail what I thought, if I enjoyed it. blahblahblah.

I don't know if I'll ever do another video. So for now, enjoy this one....if you can. LOL

TTFN!!

My Transition Lessons: Heat Isn’t Necessary

This was and is a major lesson for me.  When I was relaxed I was a heat MANIAC!  Flat irons, curlers, bumpers, different sizes, different heat abilities, auto shut off for the days I had to run out in a hurry, 60-second heat ups for the days when I needed a quick fix…you name it, I had it.  Two blow dryers, one ceramic, one…not (that one broke) and a hooded dryer.  All for lil ole me!    I used to use enough heat on my hair to cook breakfast and dinner on Easter Sunday!

Needless to say, the first thing I thought I was going to do when I stopped getting my hair braided during my transition was flat iron my hair so that my roots and my processed ends matched.  That’s the easiest thing to do, after all, right?

Well, here’s the reality of what happened.  My last perm was June 15, 2010. I had my hair braided/twisted repeatedly from July 2010 until March 2011. I flat ironed my hair in March 2011 so that my mom could do a trim for me, and again in May 2011 so I could have a nice length check and straight hair for my birthday. Then I did Protecting Your Crown & Glory's Take Back Your Hair Challenge & as a result of actually learning to deal with my transitioning hair textures, then doing my BC, I have refrained from doing any heat styling since May 13, 2011. That’s over a year! I have only applied heat to my hair by way of the hooded dryer about every week for my DC.  There were a couple of months when I was working with All Tressed Up and I would have to sit under the dryer for the setting of some of the styles, but that was still only once every 2-3 weeks.

Who would’ve thunk that I could do that?! I surely didn’t. But what I did for the remainder of my transition were roller sets, twist-outs and up-dos that required no heat at all. Truth be told, while I would like to see how much my hair has grown by pulling out the flat iron, I really don’t have the desire to put heat on my hair for styling purposes, so I'll have to continue doing the hair pull down with my fingers.

Now I have all these styling tools sitting latent in my closet.

Now, if you can't tell, that's 8 curlers, 2 flat irons, an electric straitening comb and a set of heated rollers. Then there are the heat protectants I bought of which I've only used 1 of the twice. I'm not getting rid of them because, who knows, in another year, I may follow through on a desire to straighten my hair again, but for now...say hello to the dust collectors everybody!

I’m not saying that you can’t or shouldn’t use heat styling while transitioning.  Correction, you really shouldn't. For the health of your hair, but, if you are properly protecting your hair and not burning or melting it, I don’t think its that much of a bad thing depending on how often you use them.  I would suggest going heat free for a while just to see how you handle your hair and how your hair responds. For me, once I discovered that heat-free styling worked and worked well, I ran with it and I am in no hurry to to go back! I have even made plans to straighten my hair over the past year and every time I go to even blow dry my hair and say..Naaaahhhh! I don't need it.

*Gasp* A Book Post!

I used to have 2 blogs. I decided to consolidate them and just use one because I had a hard enough time keeping one blog updated & posting to it regularly...Lord knows I was totally unsuccessful with trying to maintain two.  My second blog was totally devoted to books and the musicals I went to see. Although I haven't been to a lot of musicals lately, I'm an avid reader, therefore books are still being read.

So I figured I'd dedicate a few posts to my reading and try to include a book/arts post at least once a month. We'll see how that goes, but here's one for July. LOL.

This post: Favorite books by my most read authors.  I can't really say favorite authors because that's like trying to pick your favorite aunt or uncle.  Each is great and caters to a subject matter that I enjoy reading about. 

Oh wait! Before I get to that, I have to say that I'm totally about to become a sheep.  There are people who are posting the books they have read by authors on FB and tagging the authors in the pics.  I must admit that when the trend first began, I didn't like it. But...I've become a sheep and shall totally be posting pics of the print books that I own that are written by my FB authors-friends.  I can't take a pic of the listings on my Kindle, and even if I could, that would be over the top.

So, back to the list. In no particular order:..except for #1. It truly is one of my favorite stories...I've bought it 3x and it is why I don't let folks borrow my books anymore.

1.) Kindred by Octavia Butler
2.) The Dollhouse Murders by Betty Ren Wright (read in 3rd grade..still remember it)
3.) Joy by Victoria Christopher Murray
4.) The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis
5.) Trouble Don't Last Always by Francis Ray
6.) Here and Now by Kimberla Lawson Roby
7.) Joplin's Ghost by Tananarive Due
8.) God Don't Like Ugly by Mary Monroe
9.) A Mighty Love by Anita Doreen Diggs
10.) Shades of Jade by Gloria Mallette
11.)Bliss by Gabrielle Pina
12.) The Warmest December by Bernice McFadden
13.) The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
14.) The Warded Man by Peter Brett
15.) The Ties That Bind by Brenda Jackson
16.) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K Rowling
17.) Petals on the Wind by V.C. Andrews
18.) Acheron by Sherrilyn Kenyon
19.) Afterburn by Zane
20.) Loose Lips by Teresa McClain-Watson
21.) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
22.) A Long Way From Home by Connie Briscoe
23.)  And Then You Die by Iris Johnansen

I'm going to stop here  because I'm trying to go off the top of my head and am running out of titles. I only want to include what I can immediately remember without referring to my bookshelf or library archive account. Now, while this is a listing of some favorites, if any of these novels are parts of a series...I've read the whole series...You should too.

Go read a book! :)

TTFN!!