Busy Bee

Being busy does not always mean real work. ~ Thomas A. Edison

I've been writing so much this week that I think I'm developing carpal tunnel. It's been a constant state of writing page after page after page on a project for another website. My fingers are numb. Although I have come to realize that I can type an astounding 90wpm with no errors. Go Me!!

In other news, it looks like condo hotels are the new resting place of the rich & famous. My question is why would you pay for a hotel to live in when a house is cheaper? Is it because you are too lazy to clean up after yourself? Or perhaps you don't want to be responsible for other bills that normal people get like electricity and water? Someone clue me in on this 'cos living forever in a hotel makes absolutely no sense.

Dreamer

I had the most bizarre dream last night. For some reason I was in a boat trying to use a fishing tackle to get back to land. There was some urgency because a pink wave was threatening to overtake my boat and the Boyfriend was no where in sight. (Where is the knight in shining armor when you need him?) I tried several times but was unsuccessful until a coconut hit the tackle swinging it in the right direction and me to safety just in the nick of time. I"m not even going to try to get an explanation on that one, it's bizarre to say the least. What's with the pink wave, mon?

Towns

I have a really good friend in Branson Missouri. She just moved there recently for her job and cannot get over how fun it is. I for one never thought there was anything interesting in Missouri, after all, I lived in Michigan for years and it was boring as all getup. Perhaps the people in Branson found a secret that the folks in Berrien Springs, MI don't know about yet.

Care to share what that is?

Conferencing

You might be wondering why I'm at the computer mid-day. I know it isn't like me, it's just that I'm bored out of my mind attending this web conferencing thingey. The VP of the company is going on and on blah, blah, blah, blah, while I just put the phone on mute and type away. In addition I'm reading blogs and commenting, multi tasking like a pro.

I just have to pay attention cos one second he'll say, "What do you think Vixen," and I don't wanna have to reply, "Huh?"

Not good.

Bibles

Bibles are strong entrenchments. Where they abound, men cannot pursue wicked courses, and at the same time enjoy quiet conscience. ~James McHenry

A few boxes of Catholic Bibles accidentally got shipped to our church last week. The deacons didn't even realise it even though it plainly said CATHOLIC BIBLES on the box. I managed to snag one before they did and man..I've gotta say, Catholics have mad patience. I mean, Maccabees is kinda interesting and all but it is quite tediously boring to read through the original 66 books talk less of throwing a few more on top of it.

Okay...I'll shut up before I start getting stoned.

Business Cards

We don't have titles on our business cards. No one really gets any special treatment. No one gets a corner office to put pictures of their family and their dog in. ~ Jay Chiat

I'm thinking of ordering some business cards for the Boyfriend for his company. He goes through those cards like hot cakes. He's really good at the whole networking thing, and even awesome striking up interesting conversations with random strangers. Anyhoo, he's almost running out of the last stash I ordered so I'm tempted to pick something from here.

The problem with getting him cards is that he's very, very picky and so I probably should run it by him first before I blow money on something he'll not like. That's a good idea right?

Showy

Having DVR totally rocks. Not only can I watch anything when I want to, I can also record and watch it days later. Anyway, yesterday I was checking out the Bachelor...no I don't want that tripe, I have my own real life Bachelor to fawn over but the commercial right after Dancing with the Stars tripped me out.

The dude lives on a yacht. At first I thought it was his but then realised he was a Navy doctor. I know the Navy doesn't pay enough for him to buy a yacht. He must either be independently wealthy of that must be one of those gorgeous 100 foot yacht charters. That boat is sweet!

Cars

It's a never ending battle of making your cars better and also trying to be better yourself. ~Dale Earnhardt

Last night one of our cars broke down again. I love driving the Lexus, it has a great 8-cylinder engine, handles well and looks hella sexy. But for some reason it's the most expensive to maintain car that we have. Even the older car isn't giving us that much trouble, and it's practically held together by prayers and grease.

Apparently now it's the alternator that went out, even though we just replaced that last year. I guess one has to replace it after a certain amount of mileage. Sigh. It's times like this I wish I had forecasting software, so I would know ahead of time when shizz is about to happen.

Blogging

Blogging was another important way of solving the freedom of expression and flow of information. ~ Joichi Ito

There are so many things you can do with blogs. I think they are more fun than Myspace, Youtube & Google all together. Blogs are so versatile. You can design your page however you want to, put all kinds of gadgets, play games, read the news, meet cool people, get paid to blog, have readers participate in surveys, get published and see blog wars all in one day. It's like a virtual SIMS life almost..and with certain blogs, like a soap opera. I can see why bloggers where the Times People of the Year last year...cos we rock!

The Riches

Okay...I must confess that I love, LOVE the new FX show The Riches. I didn't get the commercials at first but now it's seriously rocking my socks off. Last episode, I especially loved when Papa Rich took his golf clubs out of the car and asked the dumb son-in-law to 'check if someone could fit in there'. He effectively locked the irritating, annoying pimple in the trunk for several hours so the fam could sort out another family crises. FX has some pretty cool shows!

Gotta Get Goals Challenge

Life has no limitations, except the ones you make. Life takes on meaning when you become motivated, set goals and charge after them in an unstoppable manner. ~ Les Brown

Marjie recently tagged me on her blog for this great meme including goals. Being an avid list maker, I thought this would be no problem for me, but here I am pondering what goals to actually put down. It's a meme taking over the blogosphere, and the instructions are to hotlink the origin, so I present you the blog where it all began~ Gotta Get Goals.

The quest is to list 5-10 goals with equal explanations. That's the purpose. Okay, enough chitchat---let's go.

1. Become the best version of me. I want to grow into the best person that I can be. I want to share my gifts with the world, fulfill my purpose on this earth and leave something for future generations. I want my daughter to respect me and want to learn from me the way I look up to my mother. I want to make less mistakes, learn from the past, and grow into a wonderful person. I want to become the one and only, unique woman that God intended for me to be.
2. Vixen, Wife & Mother. I never thought I had a maternal or domestic bone in my body, but the last year has proven to me that I do have great stores of love that I am fully capable of sharing. I'm not as selfish as I used to be/thought I was, and actually more responsible. I want to maintain a lovely household with good energy and wonderful children. I want to be a fabulous wife, one that my hubby is proud of, one that epitomizes the virtues of character. I want to surpass the expectations of what 'love' is and further develop a full and deeper connection with my man. I want our relationship to be one that keeps on sizzling and growing day after day, year after year.
   
3. Vixen, Author. To be more specific, a New York Times Bestselling author. I want to get published and be one of the voices of our generation. I want the words to flow as fluidly as they do in my head unto paper and for someone to see my work and go...oh yeah, she's really helped me see this differently. I want to write something that brings about some sort of change in people's lives.
   
4. Vixen, World Traveller. I'm sure this is on most peoples list, but I'm actually going to do it. The world and all it's cultures is fascinating to me and my ideal life would be to travel all over the world and write my memoirs. I want to become an expert expat and live outside of my country of origin/naturalization. I want to settle for a few years here and there, exploring different parts of the world from Australia to Asia to the Fuji Isles...I want to see it all.
   
5. Vixen, Cunning Linguist. I want to be quinti-lingual or more. In each country I travel to, I want to be able to speak and understand the national language. Thankfully the Rosetta Stone thing will help out alot.
6. Vixen, Millionaire. I want to make enough money doing what I love, and what I do well that I can eventually invest and make my money start to work for me. That way I can have the money, energy and time to focus on more important things, like the different foundations that I plan to start/help run, raising money for sickle cell research and becoming a UN Ambassador.
   
7. Vixen, Octogenarian. I want to live. I want to live far longer than the average mortality rate of people with sickle cell . I want to celebrate my 50th birthday, and see my 60th as well. I want to watch my children/grand kids grow up. I want to be one of those super cool old ladies that life is still peachy sipping on margaritas at 85. I want to live.

Okay, those are the top 7 things. Now...here's the fun part, I get to tag five people to do this. I think I'll just tag the last few people that commented on my blog. Even if I don't tag you, please do it anyway if you have a moment, it's a great way to view your future success.

Kafo, Randomly Sane, Tutsy, Virginia, Lady Roslyn

TECHNORATI TAGS: gotta get goals

TGIF1

I went to the gym today and spent about 30 minutes on the treadmill, now I am not a runner, I try and stay away from the mill and usually spend time on the elliptical machine or is it ecliptical machine, I still have no idea how to spell it, anywayzzzz after that I decided to do free weights but was too lazy so instead I used weight benches to pass the time

Learning

If we spoke a different language, we would perceive a somewhat different world. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

The big announcement...I'm learning Hebrew!

I went to the library last week to search for a book to help me along this quest. The Boyfriend has been teaching me the alef-bet but I'm a visual person and can learn only visually. So I went book-hunting. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything.

The lady at the library was very helpful though and she showed me how to get to the Rosetta Stone Language Program from the library website. It's the BEST language immersion program out there, it costs $250/language but the library has it for FREE. And you can take as many languages as you want. The best part is I can do it at home...or from any computer.

So far I'm totally loving it. It's a slow tedious process but I actually feel like I'm learning. I know how to say dog in Hebrew...nanananabooboo! (So technically, that means I can cuss someone out right?)

Unfortunately they don't have Yoruba as one of the 36 languages so I have to get something else for the Boyfriend to learn Yoruba with. I'm still irritated that they have Pashto and not Yoruba. Ugh! I think after he does Yoruba he'll learn Arabic...they have that though.

The Kid is learning it as well...he has an account at the library too. He's a fast learner...I have to buckle down just so he won't pass me, it's almost scary how quickly he's picking it up. We are going to be a house of linguistic geniuses. After I conquer Hebrew, I plan to tackle Italian, finish French, of course whip up Spanish and from there...I guess the sky is the limit. The best part is that the Boyfriend already speaks all of these...so I have a ready point of reference if I need pronounciation help.

Check me out...I'm going to be quinti-lingual by the time I'm 28. Oh yeah, oh yeah!!

Shalom!

Vacations

I think my boss has finally settled on a Kissimmee vacation. It's maddening how much research I had to do just for a trip that is only going to last a week. You would think they were heading somewhere international, it really has been that time-consuming.

Speaking of international, don't think I forgot. I'll be working on my international vacation quite soon. Quite.

Florida

I've done so much research for this Florida trip that I'm almost like a friggin' walking tourist pamphlet. Did you know that a Disney vacation home is actually cheaper in some areas than a regular hotel? Who would have thunk? Of course you have to factor in the cost of a car rental and finding your whereabouts in the city, but that's the best part of a vacation...getting lost.

LOL!

Phone

My phone has been ringing off the hook. I have like 17 cell phones and pagers. ~Steven Cojocaru

I need to get a cordless phone battery for my phone. I think that is what is messed up with it, but I won't know until the battery gets here. It's ridiculous how fast those things go. Of course I won't mention that I'm normally on the phone 24/7...I won't mention that at all.

Light

Your hands, your eyes, your voice, your thoughts are your servants. ~Loretta Young

One of my other foibles of being a creature of habit is the inability to go back to sleep after light enters my eyes. In other words, I can roll back into bed as long as I have a conversation with my eyes closed. Fortunately in my room I have really dark blinds that I keep shut tightly when I go to bed, so it isn't that huge of a problem until the sun reaches it's zenith.

Gluttony

In love, as in gluttony, pleasure is a matter of the utmost precision. ~Italo Calvino

I had way too much food to eat today. The source of my gluttony sadly, isn't a celebratory sort or an excuse of a party. The source of my gluttony is the Nigerian food store. I was craving some Naija foods and came across this Nigerian store in my neighbourhood that actually delivers!! You head online to their website at Afrimartonline.com, order whatever you want and then they ship it to you using the type of shipment you want. Add to this...you pay using Paypal, so it's fab all the way.

So after my new discovery, I kinda went overboard. Not only did I order Naija staples like fufu, eru and egusi, I also ordered snacks like Milo, chin-chin and plantain chips. So this morning I had akamu with akara, some fufu and egusi soup for lunch and jollof rice with plantain for dinner. In addition, I ate all the snacks. All of them! Talk about some serious peptide overload.

The Boyfriend totally loves Naija food. You would have sworn he was a Naija man through and through. Except for this penchant on putting sour cream on almost everything...even jollof rice. Now that, I don't know where it comes from!

Spring Cleaning

The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring- cleaning his little home. ~Kenneth Grahame

I was really in the spring cleaning mood today. Check this out, I re-organized all my closets, did all the laundry and put it away (one of my most loathed tasks), cleaned the bathrooms (another loathed task), mopped the floors (another loathed task) and vacuumed the whole apartment in a fit of cleaning that even had me tired but surprised. I'm the kind of cleaner that does bits here and there, a room today, another room tomorrow. But today I actually did the whole house in one clean sweep. Go me!

Now if only our landlord would let us paint, I would have the field day. I found some great house painting ideas here that had me almost...almost want to pick up the brush.

Mornings

Children enhance you. ~Melanie Griffith

Ever since the little one came to live with us, our home has been a place of cutesy phrases and hilarity. He's so precocious, intelligent and views the world with such wide-eyed curiosity that you can't help but to love him. I remember when I was that innocent, it truly is such a beautiful thing to behold.

The one drawback is that the Boyfriend and I don't have as much alone time as before. (Of course!) The Son is such a morning person, coming to jump on my bed at 7 in the morning ready to start the day. It's definitely changed the routine in the house...early mornings and early nights.

I have 1000TC Egyptian cotton sheets on my bed, so it's very hard to be coerced from it in the mornings. Maybe if I got him a miniature version of that, like some kids bedding, I might be able to convince him to stay in bed at least until an hour later!

Cravings...

The perfect joys of heaven do not satisfy the cravings of nature. ~William Hazlitt

Oh my word, I'm craving some Naija food like crazy. I want suya! I want eru! I want eba and garri and lots of kulikuli. I've never had a Naija food craving hit me this hard, it's so ridiculous. I don't think it's possible that even Tenuate could fix something like this. I've got to do something about it...ASAP!

Daydreaming

Work has been a drag the last few days. I'm still planning my bosses' family Orlando vacation, and it just serves to wistfully remind me that I haven't taken a vacation in a hot minute, and probably won't for a few more months. Hopefully we'll be able to splurge on a lovely couple vacation sometime in the near future. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that.

Traveller at Heart

My friend works for this telecom consulting firm and she's been there for several years. It's one of those jobs that is satisfying and yet not too demanding. She even has been lucky enough to make good money and rise faster on the corporate ladder than alot of her mates. In addition to that, she has bought her own house a few years ago and is really good at investing. Why do I tell you this? Because as of today, she is liquidating all her assets, quitting her job and travelling the world until her money runs out. And wherever she ends up when that happens is where she is going to stay.

Talk about a thirst for adventure. Here's wishing Anita all the success and joy in her travels that is possible. Good luck mia bella!

Nigeria's Next Top Model

Say it ain't so. I can hardly believe it.

Has anyone else heard about this? Is it going to be aired in Naija?? Details please.

PS: On This Website dem ignorant Ame's are totally dissing the girls & Nigeria. Represent y'all!

Moving On

We all make mistakes but one has to move on. ~Jeffrey Archer
Moving on, is a simple thing, what it leaves behind is hard. ~Dave Mustaine

When I was younger, I never thought that being a grown up would be so difficult. It's a constant ordeal of all the decisions that have to be made, the consequences for each choice and the egg shells you walk on when people get hurt. Instead of just being responsible for your own actions alone, as a grown up you are also responsible for the action, reaction, well being and emotions of the people around you...the people that seem near and dear to your heart.

One of the hardest things in life is letting go. Letting go of the burdens and baggage that we toll around all through our lives. The most happy people are those that are truly content, the ones that have been able to release all this baggage and claim their happiness, devoid of external influences. They are happy within and this radiates outwardly to shine on everyone.

Some claim that religion helped them get rid of this baggage. Others claim spirituality, while others cast the ability on external forces like rehab, therapy and doctors. The truth of the matter is that the only person that can help with this is yourself.

Just as without the willpower to become well, all the medicines in the world can't save an individual---without your own wish to let go of baggage, all the help in the world isn't going to help you attain this. I remember saying earlier this year that one of my New Year resolutions was to cast out all the negative influences in my life. It's hard to let people go, especially when you are attached to them---especially when you love them. Especially when they are family.

But sometimes, for the sake of your own sanity, your own weakness, your own survival---you have to let each and everyone of them go. I have to let each of you go. I wish you all the happiness in the world and then some.

I'm sorry.

Bored

When you're bored with yourself, marry and be bored with someone else. ~ King Edward VIII

It's seems like everyone is blogging alot and fiercely nowadays. But for some reason, my blogs have been stuck in a limbo. It's not because I have nothing to say...well, actually it is, but at the same time, I'm kinda moody and don't want to take it out on here.

I think I'm actually PMS-ing, even though it's not supposed to be for another week. I've spent 25 bucks this week alone on snacks that aren't even part of my organic, healthy diet. Like Lay's potato chips. And Reese's peanut butter cups. It was a sheer force of will that I didn't actually grab the Double Stuf Peanut butter Oreos at the same time.

Does anyone know what the circle behind the Celtic cross represents? I saw one recently and it's been boggling my mind ever since.

Don't Matter

I can't believe that I never heard this song before until today. It's so apt.

Sore Throat

I have a perfect cure for a sore throat: cut it. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

My sentiments exactly.

Stuff

I got to spend yesterday sequestered in a dusty empty house paying bills and managing mortgage payments using electronic check processing. Even though it's over the phone and internet, when you are paying close to 30 mortgages for varied clients, it does get extra tedious.

I can't wait to get back into nursing!

Last week, I formally renewed my Basic Life Support card so I'm certified to perform life-saving measures on you should you pass out, choke or have a lethal heart rhythm. If anyone wants to be a guinea pig to let me practice, I would appreciate...lol, just kidding!

I'm thinking of making this image my new icon instead of the white chick in the pink chair that it is right now. She looks hella cute and ready to grab the world, which is more a representation of where I am right now. What do you think?

Dreaming

Dreams seem to have a will of their own. ~Henry Reed

Man, I had such a weird dream last night. The Boyfriend and I were at this delicious Bed & Breakfast which just happened to be a hella close to our house. For some reason there was a murder at the inn and they thought it was me...even though I had spent the whole night having wild, red & black sex. (It's a dream remember---it doesn't make sense~)

Anyway, in my lurid imaginings the Boyfriend helped me escape from the claws of the village people by distracting them when he dropped his pants. They were all over him and started worshipping him and I took that opportunity to run. He was right beside me..even though they were now worshipping ...a clone? of him or something.

Like I said, hella weird. I'm surprised I even remembered it. LOL!

So what does it mean? Any suggestions?