SHADOWS REALM

I just realized, Submachine 6 is finally out. I haven't checked in a while.








Off to go fry my brain.

3 weeks ago to this date I lost my wallet in the west village while spending a night out with my best friend. Last week Friday I got a surprise package in my mailbox, it being my wallet. Although it was sans money, all of my other personals were in tact and nothing else was missing. My bank cards had not been used (I faithfully did not cancel them and had been checking my accounts every few days) and my social security card and NY State Drivers ID were still in the slots I left them in. I had faith and prayed for 3 weeks for it to be returned because I knew that God did not want me to go through the headache of getting a new SS card and trying to replace the last copy of my ID that I had. I dreaded the thought.
According to the receipts still in my purse, I did not leave it in the last store I visited which suggest that I was pick pocketed. Which was the only conclusion I came up with that made sense when I realized it was gone in the 1st place, 3 days later. Being the highly responsible person I am (I always do the 3 check thing when I leave anywhere; wallet, phone, keys), leaving it in the restaurant we ate in or the sex shops we browsed through didn't settle well with me. It also makes sense that the only other time I have missed my wallet was when it was taken right out of my bag 3 years ago in Harlem. In any case I have my purse back and I am really glad that I passed my test of faith and that there are still good people in the world to return a kind deed. So to the person that found and mailed me my wallet; who left no return address or note in the parcel, a big THANK YOU to you, whoever you are.

Thinking about and relating this story really changed the mood of this post. I was feeling pretty depressed and was going to vent about how I really wish the tables would turn in my life and how I wish I could find someone who can care about me as much as I do others. I was starting to feel drained and used, like an involuntary sugar momma. Like people are just sucking me dry because I am too nice and go out of my way for my friends and family. But I must be perseverant because when you least expect it, a little act of kindness comes along your way and you'd be so blindsided by negativity that not only may you not notice it, but you'd be completely ungrateful of it. You may even get a sense of entitle ship that you DESERVE it. Whatever the case never take for granted little acts of kindness. If it wasn't for one, I would be wallet-less up to now.

I know. I have been extremely lazy to the point of utter rudeness. Couldn't even update the bloody blog to note that I am safely back in NY? Horrid. The truth is I am been very absorbed with stuff and thinking about blogging has been a PAIN. I just don't feel like doing it. It feels just like homework. You know you should do it but you really don't want to. Due to my ADD and laziness, I will try and summarize everything in bulletins in no precise order:

• My cousin who I was spending time with in FL arrived in NY a few days after my little brother and I did. He is here to make more money doing the same technical support job he was doing back in his home state, possible for the same company. The only bonus being the NYC higher pay rate. This will also be his first time he sees snow. So excited for him and want it to snow already.
  
• Daddie had her 1st mouse a few days ago. It was hilarious. You could tell she knew it was food, but she was completely intimated by it. She'd hold it by its neck and drown it, then let it go and run away from its floating body in the tank. Then a half an hour later, after she was sure its dead, she would swallow it whole.

LMAO!

• I've come to realize that no matter how bad of acrophobia I may have, there is no greater peace then being 60,000+ ft up in the air for a moment in time.

My flight buddy, Bear

• I know I need to update on my use of the 'Take A Whiff' deodorant. That is coming up next very soon.
• Can someone please tell me why I bought a $16 spoon at Williams Sonoma? Anybody?
• Oh I had and interesting this happen to me before I left to go to FL that is still evolving. Where it goes and how it ends (inevitably) should be interesting. I'll get my thoughts together and make a post. And yes it involves a gentleman.
• I got offered a job at Aveda last week. I'm really hoping I get it, just for the employee discount! Plus the holidays are coming up and I could totally use the extra cash.
  
• I know my excursions in FL for the month+ I was down there has yet to be shared. I will make a post with promised photos of the FUN that was had. These are just some teasers :-)

Happy Birthday Stinkies! My little snapping brat has turned 2 today (well its exactly two years since we've had her). I never thought she would be in our home for two years, and that I would grow so attached to her little bratty self. I'm missing her right now so bad, but Sis. Lynn has treated her to some birthday fish on behalf of her special day and she has been chowing them down.

Oh yeah, todays my cousins 21st birthday as well ha ha. He is off in the room passed out right now. Can you guess why? :-)

Yesterday was the best day ever, but I'll blog about that later.


Just wanted my stinkums to have her moment.

Mini timeline:







The Monsta today....




:-)

I was eating some gummy bears last night and noticed one had a tail. I thought it was cute.



Moving on to other things.

Currently blogging from a hotel room in Orlando. I am on some stretch of road called 'International Drive'. My cousin wanted a hotel here because apparently this strip is a big deal. But with all the drama going on with family and the reason why I slipped away to FL in the first place, I am not really in the mood for any kind of fun. I just want to lock up in the room with the AC on blast. Reminds me of NY.

I have extended my stay here in FL for another 2-3 weeks maybe. I will probably be in Tallahassee by the weekend. Another town, more longed to see faces, more adventures. I am looking forward to better food though. The unforeseen hotel expenses bit into our budget and we have been living on grease and cheese. There is no question of whether I will be doing a colonix or not as soon as I get back home. Maybe a master cleanse for good measure.


On a side note: My Canon has finally done me justice since I have been here. I have never taken such vivid and perfect photos in my life. Woot woot! More to come.

I have safely arrived in Orlando FL. What excursions and fun await I have no inclination of. Right now I am just content with after a good nights rest, the pressure from my head has alleviated. When we arrived in FL we started descending so fast that the 'dropping' sensation made me so queasy and my head light. I am talking like 10,000 ft every 30 seconds or less (from what I could have seen on my screen). It is not a good feeling at all, especially for someone like me with acrophobia.

When my cousin and aunt came to the airport I was in another dimension. Amidst my hunger and light-headedness, I smiled as I looked out the window on the drive home. Amidst the blackness I could see the change of scenery I needed some much. No tall buildings and bright lights, Just flat outstretched space. I felt relaxed.

Before I left NYC a great thing happened. I got my 'Take A Whiff' deoderant in the mail! Yay. I am already wearing it and so far so good. It goes on great; nice and smooth. Being in FL is a great way to test this baby out as it is brisk and chill in NYC right now. We'll see how it stacks up to the year round summer weather down here. But so far so good. And the orange creamsicle scent is bang on (surprised it is naturally fragranced) which makes me want to eat it.


It's nice to see palm trees up close again. Operation de-stress begin.....

That what a call this photograph:



Making the choice to use alternative products and nixing the tried and true favoirute conventional products can be as easy or difficult depending on what drove you to make the change in the first place. For me, it was neutral. As with all my 'journey to natural alternatives' posts note; it was a transition that I took one step at a time.

Now, over 2 years later, I would consider my new lifestyle to come naturally (pun intended). I enjoy finding and trying new products for my skin and hair and have become pretty ingredient savvy when scanning labels. I wouldn't consider my transition 100% (just last month I finnally got around to purchasing a natural eye liner from Whole Body), but it's at a comfortable level where whatever I use I am concious it and feel good using it.

Not so with deoderants.


Deoderants were one of the 1st products I completely switched over to natural when I became 'aware'. If I recall corrently; my discovery on the link between antiperspirants and cancer is what spawned my whole research of natural products in the 1st place.

Up till then, Dove was my ultimate fav and when I tossed my stick (I didn't even waste time usuing it up like I did with most of my other chemicle laden products), I was really sad but hopeful that I would find a natural deoderant that felt just as good as Dove if not better. I was young and stupid.

It has been an epic FAIL.

Of course I know that it is natural to sweat and to inhibit that sweat with chemicles is asking for problems. So I am not on a quest for a natural deoderant that is going to leave me bone dry like an antiperspirant would. But is a little bit of wetness and at least 85% odor protection too much to ask? I have since been on a quest to find the mother of all natural deoderants that actually WORK for me.

With wetness being my primary issue, and then funk, the 1st deoderant I went out and purchased was a regular stick of :

Toms of Maine. This was crap on me. It feels slick and slimy when I put it on which seems to make more of a wetness party under my arms within an hour on a really hot day. After about a month I got tierd of the gross feeling under my arms after applying it that I gave....

J/A/S/O/N a try. I LOVE Lavender, and it was very pleasent to put on, but once again did nothing for me as far as wetness and funk. The strong lavender scent would taper off after a while. this woudl work for about 3-4 hours on me max. In between the Toms of Maine and the J/A/S/O/N I discovered

Arm & Hammer. For a moment the heavens opened and I thought I finally found the one! Combined with a dust of talc free baby powder, I was fresh and funk free for a few hours. Once the wetness became out of control I could apply more powder (which was my routine with all of the deoderants I tried) but eventually the funkwould win. This deoderant would work about 4-5 hours TOPS on me (funk wise) which I thought was a sucess and settled into its use for about a yr. I just hated the way it would burn the crap out of me after a shave.

Earlier ths syear I discovered the Addidas cotton tech and after reviewing its specs, it sounded promising and I shelled out some good bucks for 3 sticks. I loved it for a while. Its the first natural deoderant that kept me somewhat dry (aka not as wet as usual) and seemed to keep funk away with occasional sniff tests. But the baby powder scent and my funk seem to be soul mates and mingle together making a putrid mixed scent. It also stained my clothes and burned when I applied it after a shave.


I have all but given up at this point. Since last month I have been using a MEN deoderant: Speed Stick. Yup. And I don't care. It's high maculine scent camaflogues mine and I am able to stay funk free mostly all day. Althought it is alluminum free, it isn't natural and I have had my eye on a deorderant I read some reviews on and decided to bookmark.


In comes Pristine Beauty Take A Whiff:

This deodorant makes a lot of promises of keeping you funk free and controlling wetness. Just like all the other natural deodorants *rolls eyes*. So what makes this one so special? Aside from the $22 price tag, the reviews are top notch. It's been rated a 9.5 out of 10 on a few sites. Impressive.


So this it! You know I must be really desperate to cough up $22 bucks on a deodorant. I can only hope with the $$ spent that I can have a positive review on it. I just placed an order from Bestinbeauty.com and will look out for it in the mail.


I will update when I recieve it *crosses fingers*

It's not so hot in the city anymore (thankfully). Actually it's been rather chilly. The quick and sudden shift in temperature is rather eerie, yet appreciated. I can finally relish in my favourite season: Fall.

Nothing spectacular has been going on around here lately. What started as a redecorating project for my own room has now spread out through out the entire home. I feel really nifty and butch walking around with my trowel and spakle; filling in holes and cracks in the walls to prepare for painting. I bought a small tin of paint to test out in a shade called 'heavenly blue'. It's a true blue colour,;very faint and light, with a slight tinge of gray that complements my new colour scheme for my bedroom. I just need to settle on the right shade of chocolate brown for the doors and baseboards. Too dark will look stark against the blue... too light a brown would defeat the whole purpose.

Sis Lynn (thats what I call my mother) and I went to Bed Bath & Beyond (one of my favoroutie spots) and purchased a new dining table. Since the way our pat is set up, having a reserved area in the living room for dining, we figured it would be best to downgrade to a 3 piece pub set. where it lacks for girth and length, it makes up for with an appealing height. We decided on the 3 piece set below and made a purchase in store on the 15th of this month.



It turned out to be an epic FAIL. Not the table itself, but the whole ring around we had to do to get it proper in the 1st place. The table came 7 days later, with only 3 legs. After calling and requesting the missing piece, it took another 8 days to receive the 4th leg. Upon FINALLY setting up the 3 legged table that has been sitting in the house for a week, we realize the replacement leg set was off my an inch. Completely frustrated we disassembled it, packed the car and dropped it off to the store the same evening. But Bed Bath & Beyond customer service is superb from my experience with them and I knew everything was going to work out. Not only did they refund us all our money, but they gave us an extra $30 on to of that (I guess for our trouble). Along with the table, we had brought in the Shark steam mop that we purchased from them in May that stopped producing steam, and we were able to brand new replacement for it, and it was the deluxe model. Sis Lynn was impressed and happily went about shopping after we were done with our returns. We intend to go back this evening for some other misc items needed in the house.


Aside from our simple efforts in home 're-monstrating' (betcah don't know where I got that word from :-D), I need to get away from this place for a while and go see my family in FL. So I have booked a flight to be out in about a week and am taking my lil brother with me to Miami and Orlando because being homeschooled, I'm sure he can use some change of scenery too.


I guess my next post may be from FL.

And yet so on point with how I'm feeling right now.





I remember loving this clip from old school Sesame Street, and going out and playing in open hydrants and sprinklers in the neighborhood as a kid. Good times. Unfortunately you don't see this much at all because it's a safety hazard now.

I woke up this morning to find this 'little' critter right next to me on my bed.



Apparently, last night, in my drunken stupor of exhaustion, we got married and enjoyed a honeymoon. Seemed everything went successful according to spiders way of things as he was dead when I found him. :-)


I'm not going to lie, a volt of electricity shocked me somewhere inside when I laid eyes on him. But I calmly zoomed in to scrutinize if what I was seeing was real. I was bewildered on how he got here in the 1st place; not my bed but NYC period. Seeing such type of spider, in all my life being in the city, is a rarity at least from my perspective. Roaches, yes. Mice/Rats, Pigeons and other vermin in the New York? Yup. So I chalked it up to one of two things. Either A: I purchased some clothes from Old Navy yesterday and placed them right on my pillow next to me when I got in. Maybe he was lounging around in the rack I pulled it from because when I moved the clothes and my bath towel, that's when I found him. Or B: Our house guests from Trinidad who arrived last night brought him along. I took him on a piece of tape to them as a joke and they said they do have spiders like that on the island. If option B is probable, I just dont know how he got on my bed.


In either case I am just so grateful and proud that I am not 'citified' to the extent that I couldn't tell wether he was poisionos or not. His body was not guitar shaped so he seemed to be harmless and not the dreaded recluse spider. But his claws around his mouth were VERY visible and I figured he would have packed a nasty bite; hot enough to wake me if he did.



In any case, I hoped my friend enjoyed his one night of passion. too bad he couldnt live to tell it, but thats the way it is with spiders. After you mate, you croak.


RIP :-)