I'm Back... For Now

been a while, huh? so cliché, but that's how all my entries start after a long ass hiatus. so i had to get the formalities out of the way.

so much has happened since 2006. i moved... thrice. i finished school. i reconnected with some old friends. i disconnected with some old friends. i got another tattoo. i've been to jamaica, the bahamas, and back to jamaica. my hair has grown. i lost 25 lbs. i gained 20 of it back. my car passed the 40k mile mark. i got a part-time job. google has become an intricate part of my life. lol... i guess that's it.

so i originally stopped blogging because i ran out of 'public-friendly' things to say. i think this still holds true. i have SOOO much to say because i am an over-thinking, nit-picking, analytical person. however, it would be inappropriate to air most of my current thoughts or concerns via the world wide web. therefore, i'm experiencing a conundrum. i must create cryptic entries to fill this 'online journal' of sorts. you missed me though, i can tell. so i'll see what i can come up with.

i have goals that need to be fulfilled. this has been on my mind as of late, because i'm running out of time. even though i am in my mid-twenties, and still considered a baby to most of the population, i am behind schedule. several things must happen by my 33rd birthday.

• i must purchase a home.
• i must have a child. preferably 2 children or more.
• i must own a business.
• i must earn my project management certification.
• i must make at least $15k more than i make now.
• i must have my plans finalized for going overseas when the cicadas come back.

the first 3 goals will aid in my annual tax deductions. uncle sam is currently screwing me and i must put an end to it.

i must have a child because i love children, and honestly i want to see what an extension of me would look like. and if it's a girl, i wanna play in her hair. i'm also looking forward to playing childhood games such as red light-green light, freeze tag, ring around the rosie, miss mary mac, slide, and jumping double-dutch.

by earning my project management cert, this should also aid in the 5th goal of earning more money. i'm actually thinking about going back to school for my phd as well. i just have to find someone/some organization to fund that journey. i refuse to pay to further my education at this point. i'm fully willing to go back to school, but it absolutely must be on someone else's dime.

i must avoid the cicadas. i believe it was summer 2004 (or 2003? i'll google it later) when i came face to face with thousands of cicadas. they were everywhere. i didn't see my mother for the whole summer because her house was surrounded by them and i refused to go over there. no, they don't bite. yes, some people play with them. yes, people eat them. (ew, by the way) i don't care. i'm not interested. i don't like things that fly and attach themselves to my person. therefore i will be out of town during the summer they make their next appearance. which is 17 years from whenever they were here last. who's with me? lol

2006

so one semester down, 3 to go. i haven't written in here in a minute. lately i find that a lot that goes on in my life is not meant for the public eye. so it kinda makes it hard for me to write in here, because there's much information that i'd rather just keep to myself. but just to keep you up to date...

work is going good. we went through a re-org so now i have a new boss, and he's cool. things are goin pretty good at work. there isn't much work to do actually, so a lot of my time is spent checking my email over and over. when school was in session, i did my homework at work, but now the semester's over, so i just read books at my desk. surfing the net gets tiring. i guess i'm actually quite bored at work now that i think about it. eh. moving on.

so i made a big purchase. i'm surprised at how i haven't really been "spreading the word" i'm on this whole motto of: if you see it you see it. if you don't you don't.

i live with c&t now too. i dont know if i mentioned that before. so i'm not on campus... i had to get away. i had been there for over 5 years, and i was getting seriously burnt out by the umbc life over all. so now i'm officially a commuter which is great. now class is like a job... when it's over, i take my ass home. and home isn't a few feet from where class just was. so i actually like it this way. i live in crofton and i love that too. its pretty convenient. and i'm quite enjoying the situation that we have created here. its like i have inherited brothers. that's how my mom put it, and i agree.

i'm gettin sleepy. more to come later.

Grad School

i stay busy. i really do. and we all know how much i love to sleep, so this whole busy thing is really kicking my ass.

classes are going well. i have 3 classes, 1 of which is an independent study. i enjoy that because i'm not down with sitting in class all damn day, so i only have 2 instances when i have to do that. and so far in both my classes, i have an A average. gotta keep that up. i'm pretty sure i'll get an A in independent studies... i just gotta get to reading all those supplemental materials dr. komlodi gives me. goodness, its a lot. it's work man.

so now the question is do i complete grad school with a masters, and start living my life... or do i continue through for 3 more years to get my phd. i was so gung-ho before about getting it, but then when i talked to my advisor and she actually started outlining my classes, and projecting the timelines, i was like ehhhh. i dunno. i want to, but i feel burnt out. i want to just live and not have to worry about readings and tests and shit. i want to chill. i've been in school for most of my natural born life (as all of us have, i'm sure) and i'm kinda tired of being the "over achiever." 2009 man. that's when i'll be done. i'll be old. and just getting out of school. and what the hell am i gonna do with a phd in information systems anyway? i could teach... i kinda always wanted to teach anyway. again, i dunno.

the longer i stay in school, the longer my loans are deferred. hmm. thats some incentive. if i can get someone to fund my phd path, then maybe i'll go thru with it. i dunno.

oh and i'm locking my hair now. i'm gonna start another blog to show the progress. its quite interesting. its been 2 weeks and its already startin to lock up. lol... nappy ass hair i guess.

oh and TIVO... the greatest thing ever. i got one now. its wonderful. i got the one that has a dvd burner on it so holla... i can make you a dvd of your tv shows. for a dollar of course :)

i dont really have much else to say... a lot is going on, but not anything i really wish to broadcast on a blog. i just wanted to mildly update the world on the superficial things in my life. unless you're one of my homies... if thats the case, inquire within.

Transitions

goooooooood morning!!! it's good to be here :) i'm so loving and living life to the fullest right now. good things are happening and i couldn't be happier. it seems everything makes me happy and i'm on a high right now that i probably won't come down from for a good month. besides the bullshit that i'm goin thru at work with this chick that once held the title of supervisor, shit is gravy.

this will probably get a little lengthy now because i have to condense about 2 months into one post.

let's go back about 3 weeks. MY BIRTHDAY!! let me just say that i had a fantabulous time that day and the following week. my friends and family are the best. and when i say that, i ABSOLUTELY mean it. we chilled on friday (my birthday eve) and brought the day in quite proper. then i woke up with a headache so i slept in for as long as i could. my mom came by and gave me my birthday cake that she makes from scratch every year (german chocolate... mmmm). we went to a few stores and she bought me a new memory card for my camera. we came back to school and mr. tony came thru to say happy birthday before he whisked her away to some sort of concert. so i went back to sleep for a little while before chris and terrell came over to take me to the mall. chris got my phone covered at that phone stand outside of FYE. we walked around the mall and went to see rafeal at the tmobile store. he gave me a free car charger and pink bumpers for my sidekick to match the cover that i was getting. we then had drinks and appetizers at duclaw. then we went back to school. and when i got there.... SURPRISE!! myra, rea, ryan, ari, andrea, sean, angela and my mom and mr. tony were outside waiting with balloons and candles set up on the picnic tables outside of rea's apartment. i went inside and there was a large spread of all types of food and a cake with purple icing on the borders and winnie the pooh which also had a picture of me on it. maaaaaaaaan, that was the greatest. more people came thru later and i had the greatest time.

then i had to snap back to reality for a bit so i could pack. it was late as hell, but we were leavin on a plane at 8am the next morning to go to vegas so i had to get my shit together. i slept on that whole plane ride. i'm glad we didnt have any lay overs on the way there.

vegas was the bomb dot com. me and myra were livin it up for a week. the first day we got there (sunday) we slept the whole day away because we were so jet lagged. the next day, we stayed in the hotel room for a good part of the day with our robes on, watching movies and eating room service. haha... givin em drama. we hit the casinos, lost a bit, then won big. we took advantage of the free drinks while gambling and we learned to play 3 card poker to get a more money from big daddy vegas so we could do some shopping. we found tight ass sales on shoes and bought multiple pairs. we ate at the buffets and went to the different malls. we went to get tattoos on the inside of our wrists, but i chickened out. we met robert townsend and took a picture with him outside of the cafe in our hotel. we went clubbin at caeser's palace and partied on the roof overlooking the strip. man, i had the greatest time. it was so relaxing and fun. i was pooped by the time we got back so i had to take that monday off work to recoup.

then things were back to normal for the most part.

oh and now we're back together. that's right. round 2.

chris and t are finally moving into their house soon. the house they live in now is damn near gutted. there's no longer a comfy black couch to fall asleep on as soon as you walk thru the door. we have to sit on the fold out chairs until the big move. i think we move in next friday (haha... i said "we") they'll be in crofton but i won't be far behind because my aunt says that we're gonna start lookin at houses in january. or maybe condos. we'll see.

i started moving out of my place in terrace seeing as how the summer is coming to a close. luckily i didn't have to move home after all... that would have been a pain. all the driving to and from work and to and from school. i don't think i would have been able to handle it. the way things are working out now is perfect because i still get to stay on campus, but its in a grown ass way... not in the res life way.

that's another thing. i'm so excited to be done with res life it's not even funny. the shit ends on friday and i'm soooo ready for it to be over. i just gotta man the desk friday 9am - 8pm, then i'm out this biotch.

now school starts in 2 weeks and i just found out that i have received a fellowship from the IS department! yessss. this is grand. so now i'll be getting my doctorate and i will be known around these parts as dr. j. :)

and you will address me as such...

Grab Bag

so let's talk about my recent addiction. shopping. it has got to stop. it can't be healthy mentally. it damn sure aint good financially - i know that much. so my problem started about 2 months ago. hi. i'm j, and i'm a shopaholic. and i believe jen is partly to blame.

it's all good though, because i've gotten some cute shit recently as a result of my little problem.

my birthday is coming up soon! aren't we excited? i know i am. i'm not going to send out the mass email this year though. i figure if you care... you'll remember. point blank period. i'm gonna be in vegas for the 8 days following my special day. so i'm excited about that as well. me and myra are gonna be doin it up at the venetian hotel livin it up like we must do. i'm thoroughly excited by the possibilities... just think of the all shopping that can occur! oh there we go with that problem again.

so i thought i had strep throat, but as it turns out, the problem has something to do with a virus or something. so evidently, penicillin is what fixes this. however the pharmacy didn't have all the pills that were prescribed to me, so they gave me 1/4 of my medication and told me to come back the next day after 12. lordy.

thats one reason why i have to leave early today.

also i'm so very tired. well, i'm not so much tired... more like, i just wanna lay down. i wanna lay and do nothing. my body is exhausted. however, these are not complaints; just facts. it's summer time. if not now, when? tru, tru.

my throat is hurting a little less now thanks to the penicillin. drugs. gotta love em.

i can't believe the july 4th weekend is already damn near here. damn the summer goes by so fast.

i have this knot on my head like somebody took a baseball bat to it while i was sleeping. wouldn't i remember such an event though?

so i'll probably get my next tattoo sometime next week... or just before my birthday. this one will be the last one for the next 5 years or so. i need to stop now while i'm ahead. i like tattoos, but i dont like the look of abundant tattoos. i'm not sure if that makes sense... right now i have a few, so this one will make a few +1, even though it will be more like a few +1, -1 cause its gonna cover up one that i already have. actually i think i'm gonna start researching that now.

i blinked and almost fell asleep just then.

again, i'm feelin good, feeling great. i'm sastified. i love it. and i need more of it.

Nothin Much

ok so i've finally decided to do it. do what? update my blog. that's right. i know that i've been away for a while. so much has happened since i last wrote in here, that i just kept putting it off because i didn't know where to begin. since i didn't know where to begin, i kept putting it off, and more stuff continued to happen and it made it harder and harder to decide what to put in here.

i know... its not that serious. calm down.

so... first and foremost: I GRADUATED!!! yes that's right... i am now THE bachelorette of science :)

graduation was exciting. my mom and mr. tony got there really early and saved a whole row of seats in the front row near where i was sitting with the rest of the soon-to-be graduates. it was great because the row was filled with my family and friends. and they were so close to me, so when i looked over i saw them. they made me stand up several times during graduation so they could take pictures. hilarious. the actual ceremony was so f'in long tho. information systems was the second to last degree to be called on stage. i felt like years passed before my name was called, but it felt so good when it was finally my turn. afterwards, my family/friends took many many pictures (if you wanna to see them, email me and i'll send you the link to the album if i haven't already done so) and then we went to dinner at timbuktu. all of which was great. afterwards the older family members went home and my friends and i went back to reagan's to chill, play games and watch chappelle show season 2. all in all, graduation was a great day. good times, good times.

now, i'm the desk manager in terrace. my last hoorah (spell?) as a res life emloyee. i've given them 2 summers and 2 school years as an RA, 1.5 school years as a desk staffer and now a summer as a desk manager. i think i'm subconsciously in love with res life. actually, its just because they're the easiest people to work for. i worked at health services for a while too, but i had to quit that because it was getting in the way of my school work. they actually need you to work during your shift as opposed to just sitting at a desk watching people walk by. basically while in school, it's ideal to have jobs where free time is ample during work hours, so in the end, you're getting paid to study.

simultaneously, i'm back to the full time schedule at nasa. it's coming along. now i get my one day off a pay period, but my pay checks have increased dramatically because of my increase in hours, so i'm pleased. now i'm just waiting on my raise and everything will be all good.

what else is goin on... that i can share with the world...

um... oh. my baby is getting fatter. we love fat babies so that's always a plus. look at her now! she's 5 months old in this picture.

i'm so content right now, so i feel like i have nothing to say. i have nothing to contemplate because everything is peachy keen. i have nothing to complain about because i'm happy.

oh, i got a new tattoo.

Same Ol'

so it's been a while. haha... i feel like thats how i start off all my entries. once the summer comes, i feel as though i'll have more time to write in here. but now... it feels like i'm always on the run or somethin, and i just don't have time.

i don't even have time at work anymore. i'm being forced to work. it's all too much at one time.

7 days til the end of classes, and 25 days until the end of undergrad. i registered for my grad classes yesterday. that felt goooood.

so, at this point, i've stopped caring about grades. i'd have to say that i wouldn't be TERRIBLY upset if i got straight c's. hell, i still get a damn degree, so really it's whatever. i kinda want to beat a certain somebody in the cummulative gpa department, but it doesn't look like that's gonna happen. :( plus it's late in the game to be trying to raise gpa's and whatnot, so i'm kinda givin up on that one.

there's always grad school tho... so, it's on...

so i have a problem with talking on the phone. i been using my minutes well before the month ends. and i have 1000 minutes a month. in addition to the unlimited night and weekends. 1000 should be plenty right? well dammit it ain't. i called tmobile the other day, and the representative took pity on me and gave me 75 bonus minutes. i had exactly 1 minute left til my cycle ended. (i had a whole week left) so she gave me the 75 minutes this weekend. which means they didn't go into effect until monday (yesterday) and guess how many minutes i have left from that? 19. nineteen frickin minutes left. i really need to learn to stay off the damn phone.

but i love to talk... so maybe i should just make my plan higher... eh. more minutes = more money. what a damn dilemma.

so now i'm thinking instead of taking 2 weeks off after school, i'm gonna take a week and 1 day. this way i can go to vegas the week after my birthday. this time i'm going for much longer so i can do more and gamble more. i like baccarat now, so i'll see how i do with that one in vegas. i need to learn 3 card poker tho. that's where the real money is. who else wants to go to vegas? lemme know...

did i mention that i got the desk manager position for the summer? so i'll be spending my last summer here. i haven't been home since i started here: summer 2000. no, i lie. i went home for winter and spring break that school year. but after that, i always found a way to stay on campus. nothing against home, but there was always somethin. this will be my 3rd summer working for res life. ugh. how lame.

it's getting late. i'll have a more interesting entry as soon as more interesting things happen. i promise.