home sweet home

a few things I learned/loved about Guyana

• Verizon doesn't work down there

• having an older brother

• having nephews
  

• if you haven't earned a false name, what've you been doing? highlights include born paper/documents, cat puppy, yankee bucktah, and a mad woman called michelle obama

• there's very little more satisfying than having fish for breakfast, lunch and dinner, 3 days in a row

• hundreds of cows roam the streets, yet not a burger in sight. actually, I hated that part

• the sun could be shining bright in your eyes, the house could be full of noise, reggae could be blasting from downstairs, and when you finally drag yourself out of bed, the clock hasn't even struck 8:30 yet. actually, I hated that part too

• 
  

goes hard

• 
  

goes harder

• no tree is too tall, no fruit too high, for someone to bring it down for you

• I can climb a mountain in my favorite dress

• chivalry is not dead
  

chris.

Saturday morning, he woke up, went to the bathroom.

being the mischievous person that I am, I ran into his room, into his bed, under his covers. to hide.

"boo!"

nothing like seeing a 6'5" man get startled and run away on his tippy toes from the sight of a woman in his bed.

or maybe it was me.

thank you...

...for making the burn on my calf sting a little less.

the best nights are those that end when the sun is rising...

new yorkers are winners

jen and i have a friendly rivalry that's been going since high school. she's got fam in san antonio and loves the spurs. and we already know where i'm from.

last night she took me to the game with her which was great because we haven't done this since high school. we wanted to be basketball player wives; she was gna marry ginobili and i was gna marry marbury. we were gna be stephon and stephanie marbury. the best part? i'd be able to keep my initials. yep, SAM. but then he became a super scrub and a waste of money, so i ended the engagement.

but more importantly...

Spurs 107 Knicks 112

we're making our way to the top, i can feel it. in the meantime, jen and i are stacking chips so we can see this match courtside one day, while i hold onto my dream of having my own seat next to the homie Spike.

shambles on 34th street

the weatherman predicted that on Friday, December 19, 2008, New York City would be hit with a "wintry mix". snow, hail, sleet. I don't even know wtf sleet is, but the shit was coming, they said, by 9am the latest (TWSS?). woke up, everything looked grey, but not out of the ordinary, as i guess it was almost winter, right? got to work. we all laughed and called bluff on the weatherman. some were disappointed. me? i was partially relieved, recalling many a high school day when the weatherman said the sky was falling, but the sky actually stayed right where it was.

this was the last day before people started taking off for their holiday (read: Christmas, but we're being "politically correct") break. Britney dance party? or do we watch a movie in the screening room? shit, we actually still have a bit of work to do. well, let's just sit and socialize for a minute anyway. and so we did, complete with the bright idea of going out for lunch, and if you know anything about the way that team toothbrush gets down, at 12:30 we run, grab lunch and run back to our desks just in time for the 1:00 conference call; there's no such thing as taking a lunch break. and yet we did. someone wanted Korean BBQ, so we walked the 3-4 blocks to K-Town. I actually should've stayed my ass right on the 9th floor eating my Healthy Choice chicken alfredo meal, because I took one look at what was going on outside and knew I wasn't ready. There was no bluff to call-- the wintry mix was in full effect.

I took one for the team. lunch was yummy. we had a great seat by the window to watch the snow/sleet/hail fall, and chatted about life. it was great, it was comfortable, and provided reason #187552 why I love my job and team toothbrush. but then we finished eating, paid the check and it was time to leave. some kind neighbors had started shoveling their sidewalks, but, overall, the shit was a fucking mess. i've been told that i walk too fast, what's the rush? where am i going? well, today i was going nowhere. i fell behind the group easily. one careful step after another, not a single look up from the ground. there's no way i'm falling in this shit.

slow and steady, no, i didn't win the race, i just made it to shelter, safely. i lived to tell of all the horrors i saw. slushy sidewalks. ambiguous black holes that could've been anything from dirty snow, to puddles, to ice, to pavement; i had no freaking clue. nyc tourist season in full effect as i had to maneuver through these people like this was my road test and they were my orange cones. someone please tell me why aren't these people in the warm states that they came from?!

my coat, if that's what you wanna call it, does the job, i guess, but my winter coat is in Georgia. i took it out of my closet when I was there for Thanksgiving, but decided that I could just wait until after the new year to bring it back to NY with me. I also decided that Dunks are snow shoes. not anything with a rugged sole, you know, grip and traction. nope, just smooth sailing Dunks. and those pores in the sneaker that allow your toes to breathe? they also let fluid in, just in case you needed your toes to take an ice cold bath in the middle of the 30° day. and hats don't do anything but mess up your already messed up hair.

in the past four years, i saw snow fall twice. a pathetic dusting of some white shit that could've very well been residue from a coke raid, fell across the East Campus lawn. class was cancelled. an hour later the snow melted. but yeh, i get it, we're not in the south anymore, which is just what I wanted/needed. but someone could've sent me a school supplies list, you know, something that would've helped me to prepare for returning to nyc. i mean, shit, i knew winter was coming, but did dec 21st have to be today? oh right. it's not. it's only the 19th. IT'S NOT EVEN FUCKING WINTER YET.