Knuckle Rings/Multi Finger Rings

My latest fall obsession are these multi-ring/knuckle rings. They are giving me LIFE right now *said in my best drag queen voice*. Generally, when people hear things like knuckle rings, they think of



However, these rings are more like Radio Rahim's jewelry.

Big, stylish fashion pieces that... just so happen to help knock somebody out if need be... ^_^

A poem for you

Growing up, I was admittedly a tad bit melodramatic at times. Let's just call it 'teenage angst' and be grateful I grew out of it lol. I had always been drawn to poetry, so during my quasi-goth phase in 7th grade I was thrilled about the in-class discussion of  "The Raven". Dark, brooding and miserable; it introduced me to more of Edgar Allan Poe's writing and fed directly into what I (thought I) was feeling at the time. That school year, we continued to discuss American writers and I matured from my drama queen mentality to my black power phase (I also read Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" that year).

When I was about 15 years old, I rediscovered Edgar Allan Poe.

Gratitude

When I find myself in an emotional slump –being a b*tch to everyone, only focusing on the negative – I put myself in check. I’ve developed this habit and I’d like to shit it with you. Each night as I’m laying in bed, I think of things that I’m grateful for. When I first started doing it 2 years ago, I was feeling stuck. At the time, I was working at a Fortune 500 company, and was miserable. I knew that focusing on the negative feelings would just allow that depression to fester. So one day on the train, I resolved to man up. I’d pick myself up by the bootstrap; I mean it just couldn’t be THAT bad.  From that day forward, I began to name 3 things that I was grateful for. I usually tried to do it right before I went to sleep so that I could have positive dreams and wake up refreshed in the morning. In those first few weeks, it wasn’t easy to think of things. If I’d had a particularly bad day, my gratitude statements went something like “I’m grateful I had chicken for dinner. Grateful the trains were on time.” Just really random things until I got the hang of it. As the economy sank, it became “I’m grateful I have a job. I’m grateful I can pay my bills. Grateful I have this comfortable bed to sleep on and a roof over my head”. It was simple things, but things that for so long had been taken for granted, and was being snatched away from people everyday.

As I got more into the habit and my mindset changed for the better, I upped it to naming 5 things I was grateful for; then 7, then 10. As of right now, I’m usually able to name 15 off the top of my head (the habit is that ingrained). Whenever I catch myself backsliding, I stop and list those things until I’m able to fix myself.

My apologies...

Wow, it's been a long time since I've caught up you guys up. I've been out and about, running around the city to get my affairs in order. I know I make it look easy, but it's tough out here for a girl! Through it all, there's been a lot of soul searching probing; trying to figure out what exactly I'd like this blog to stand for. To that effect, there's a multi-part post about 'branding' in the works. I've also been doing some shopping, so you can look forward to a style post this week.

At the same time, my mind is a jumbled mess. So, here's another free form post to get some stuff off my chest:

Sometimes I get these really random urges to clean my house from top to bottom. It's some deeply unconscious thing, because in the midst of it I get sudden epiphanies and bouts of inspiration. That's exactly what occurred today (I was in the middle of reorganizing my closet when I stole away to write this).


I started the cleansing in my room, and the things I've found made me smile. The notes passed to and from Sasha that didn't 'self-destruct' as they were supposed to. My invitation to join Posse; which I thought was a scam at the time. And tons of teddy bears. Each bear was a story. The ones from Joseph, Jack, Ralph, Quincy... Well, aside from the fact that a lot of guys have bought me stuffed animals, there were the ones from friends and family members as birthday presents. For my 18th birthday in particular, I asked my friends to get me stuffed animals and boy did they ever come through. So here I am, years later, surrounded my them. They've been sitting in little decorative boxes at the top of my closets, bookshelves, etc, and I think they're ready for a new home. I'm looking for charities/children's hospitals to donate them to. My bears are in great condition: no stains, rips or weird smells. Still, I'm going to wash and dry them before I get them to the little kids. This little project has inspired me to ask for help. If any of you or your friends have teddy bears, stuffed animals, toys, etc; let me know. A toy drive is a great way to get into the holiday spirit and bring a smile to young kids. Email me, and I'll even meet up with you to pick them up so we can make some children happy [=

I'm off the grid for a while

A few weeks ago, I wrote a short article (tiny piece really) about my overabundance of social networking accounts. I have profiles on Facebook, twitter, foursquare, BBM, AIM, oovoo, tumblr and here obviously; coupled with texting, emails and of course phone calls. Depsite the fact that I'm so overly available, it feels like there's more of a disconnect than ever. So, on a whim on Sunday afternoon, I disabled most of those accounts. I'm not really sure why I did it, although I have been giving it a lot of thought. Within an hour of deleting them (I got rid of facebook, AIM, oovoo, twitter and foursquare), I was feeling the disconnect. Watching tv, I wanted to tweet a quote from Bridezillas. It wasn't until I realized that I had purged the application from my phone that I remembered.

[*Note: I didn't delete text messaging, email, etc. because I still need them for my everyday life. And this blog is like my bootleg version of therapy/counseling]


Being in the dark about my friends' lives has given me time to reflect on what it is that I'm really missing. I think each of us has that "friend" that we knew way back when, but haven't seen in forever. Every time you see yet another asinine status update you want to unfriend them; but you don't because you'd feel guilty.

One confession (last day of tumblr challenge)

The past 10 days while doing this tumblr challenge have been... Well, they've been. I've been posting my progress both on here (where I do most of my blogging) along with my actual tumblr acct http://shaquanamonet.tumblr.com/. It got tedious at times. But alas, today is the final day of the challenge, and the assignment is One confession So, here goes.

A while back, I was dating this kid Joseph. He was of a different race, but that never mattered to me. He lived in the same building as this girl we went to school with. I had known this chick for 7 years by then. We weren't very close friends, but I was under the impression that we were cool. One day, the girl goes up to Joe's mother and says "Today at school, I saw Joseph kissing a COLORED GIRL!" And, that's always stuck with me.

My random Wednesday night // October 6th

I think I'm going to refer back to tonight as 'the dinner party that was should have been'. I wanted to have a nice dinner, right around midterms. Get everybody out, have a few drinks, good dinner and a good time at karaoke night. Alas, it all fell apart and only a handful of people were able to make it. So instead of going to the original venue, we opted to go somewhere different for some good drinks and OK food. Headed there,  I was sitting on the train minding my own business with my iPod in my ears; when this crazed guy gets on and sits RIGHT next to me. He's talking out loud to himself about me (apparently he thinks I'm pretty). Then he says 'that's my problem, the psychiatrist says I need to get out there more'. Homeboy then proceeds to practice asking me out... All of this is said aloud mind you, and he's facing me but not talking TO me O_O. He scared the hell out of me, and I don't get shook that easy. I get out of that train car and moved 3 cars down, just for good measure. Short time later, guess who comes into my car?!? Yupp, psycho guy.

5 people who mean a LOT to me (Tumblr challenge: day 6)

I've fallen WAY behind on my tumblr challenge. Here it is day eight, and I've just gotten around to positing day fours's challenge on http://shaquanamonet.tumblr.com/ For day Six I have to list Five people who mean a lot (in no order whatsoever). Because I'm so very far behind, I'll keep it short and sweet:


My cat.

My best friend in the whole wide world, Chaka-Anne

Family (generally, gave me quite the interesting backdrop for the story of my life)

My 5th grade teacher (She probably doesn't remember me at all. But, I remember each of the little nuances and sayings that she taught me. She treated me like an adult, never talked down to or 'at' me. The first time somebody didn't just brush off what I had to say, and I still appreciate it.)

My exes (again, in general. Through those failed relationships, I realized what I love, what I like, what I can put up with and what I CANNOT tolerate in the opposite sex. For the most part, I still have a good relationship to each one)

Six things I wish I'd never done... (Day 5 of the tumblr challenge)

Day Five of my abandoned tumblr challenge is to write about Six things you wish you’d never done. I'm one of those ppl that likes to see the silver lining in every experience. I've gone through a lot, and I appreciate the lessons in each; because as cliched as it sounds, I learned a lesson. Still and though, there are SOME things I would like to do over

In elementary school, I strongly disliked one of my classmates. And honestly, I can't even remember why. At the time I was so fueled by my dislike for her, that in 4th grade I started the 'We hate E**** O****' club. With yours truly as founder and President, I got 6 other girls together and we had club meetings every Thursday at lunch. It was a pretty advanced operation; we had a treasurer, secretary and someone took minutes. Had we applied those skills towards a charitable organization, who knows where we'd have gone.

7 Things that cross my mind a lot (tumblr challenge day 4)

One of my worst habits is that I over analyze things all the time. So, day four four of the tumblr challenge should have been pretty easy. The task was to list "7 things that cross your mind a lot". Yet, this entry is FIVE DAYS overdue, and incomplete at that. ! I'm sorry about that, apparently im just vacuous right now


How am I going to pay off my student loans? Credit card bills? All my other bills? These questions weigh heavily on my mind at all times. Mostly because, I don't quite have the answer right now. I don't "worry" about them per se, so much as I "ponder" on it. Strategically, what's the most financially sound method to go about getting it taken care of? I have a few theories though.

Why am I so fat? This is generally in the morning, when I'm getting dressed and it feels like nothing fits. I have this conversation with myself everyday. And wearing 'fat people clothes' (otherwise known as clothes that fit) still makes me question it. I've been losing some of the weight that I put on in the last year though, so I'm not fighting to fit my jeans anymore.


Food Yes, I'm sure this is the reason for my weight weighing on my mind (see what I did there with weight/weighing? lol). The thing is, I love to eat! Going out to eat, cooking and eating. Restaurants, bistros, corner stores, takeout, pizza... It's all so damn good; and I'm always ready to eat. I'm drooling just writing about it.

Parenting skills. I'm nowhere near being a parent. Yet, I'm always wondering how I would react to certain events if I was a parent and my child behaved a particular way. I know certain things, such as my kids are forbidden to watch TV until the age of 5. And even then, only for 10 hours a week.