k.unwrapped

According to Young Jeezy.

Sometimes I truly feel like an outsider looking in when it comes to pop-culture. When will some shit just go out of style? Why the f&$! do people even like Young Jeezy? How many ways can you rap about being a hustler/thug/killa before people start to say "gtfoh, you’re from Wisconsin!" When I step away from BET and the like for a while, I mistakenly start to believe that common sense is the new pink. So when I hear someone say "the only opportunities for Black men out here is ball, clothing, or rapping" (I swear some dude just said that on this BET J commercial) it makes my head spin.

In 2007 I’d like to see the following go out of style:

- Young Jeezy

- Comparisons b/t the civil rights movement and gay rights (sorry but it’s just not the same!)

- Carmen Bryan, Karrin Stephens, Melissa Ford, Buffy the Body (I don’t ever want to see or hear about those hoes ever again)

- People not knowing how to navigate the internet. (I actually met someone who didn’t know what Google was)

- Women seeking advice on how to get upgraded to ‘wifey’ from 3-year f&ck-buddy status (sorry but upgrades are rare; once you’ve easily given up the goods it’s too late to negotiate your status in the relationship)

- Cliché advice. Play hard to get…don’t return his calls. What a crock of BS.

In other news, submitting my resignation letter was harder than I it would be.  I can’t give a rational reason for that, but all I know is that I was nervous til I bit the bullet and got it over with. Only one week left here, then some much needed time off before I start the new gig.

I spent all of Friday evening getting my hair braided but other than that my weekend was great. I took my little sis to the African-American Museum (which we’d never heard of until last year when they’ve apparently been here for 30 years smh) and to dinner on Saturday. At any rate, we had fun…I’m happy my sis didn’t think it was corny…you know how teenagers can be. For any of you who’ve been reading since I was at Blogspot, you may remember me mentioning that my mom was on the verge of being sent to Iraq but was able to get out of it a couple of years ago. Well we’re here again but this time it doesn’t seem as though she’ll be able to wiggle her way out of this one. At first I was kind of angry, firstly because she waited until its damn near time for her to deploy before telling me, secondly because she had the opportunity to get out of the reserves during Bush’s regime but chose to stay in. Being as though she’s just a part-timer in the army, there’s really no real benefit for her to stay in and risk being sent to Bombanigga…er I mean Baghdad. Regardless, we have to face it…she doesn’t seem particularly concerned but damn that, my ass is worried. My sister and brother will be staying with their father full-time. However, since I’ve personally witnessed the fact that his wife is a grade A BITCH, I’m sure that my sister will spend lots of time at my place which will take a little getting used to. That child can EAT.

*Sigh* We’ll get through it.

My boss required everyone on my team to submit a bulleted list of goals for 2007 last week. As I sat down and thought about my goals for this year, it only reinforced my desire to move in another direction with my career. I really couldn’t think of much else that I could (or even wanted) do to advance within this company. I’ve known this for quite some time, and have been putting my resume out there, and blabbing to anyone who would listen that I’m searching.

As I sat in my bedroom on Wednesday feeling anxious about my current situation…not knowing where I’m going to live or work, and lamenting my super tight budget, I thought if just ONE thing could go right this week…or even this MONTH, that’ll be enough for me. On Thursday I received a call from the company that I’d interviewed with the week prior and they made an offer. It was so surreal because I’ve been looking for a good while. *makes mental note to send thank-you cards to everyone I bugged to death w/ reading and re-reading my resume/cover letters* It’s an opportunity that I’m very excited about and it came right on time. I haven’t put in my two weeks’ notice yet (not til I get something in writing psssshhhhht!) but I expect that to fall into place by Wednesday.

As far as apartments go, I was torn between staying on the outskirts of the city or moving back to the city altogether. It would be cheaper (so long as I don’t move downtown) and everything would be closer, including work (the new job is 2 blocks from the old job). However, if I move back to the city, whatever I’d save in rent, I’d lose in car insurance. It didn’t help that as I was thinking about all of this, the local news was playing in the background and the story was about yet ANOTHER mofo that got shot. Um…people don’t tend to get shot around here so I’m gonna stay put. Furthermore, when I sat down, crunched numbers and compared what’s out there to what I have (and viewed some very blah apartments), clearly I have a good deal, even when I take the AC fee into account (utilities are included with rent so they charge a yearly fee to use an AC). Plus my apartment is as cute as ever!

I’m already thinking of ways to save my pay increase woo hoo.

Last Friday I left for ATL and my apartment was looking CRAZY. I’m the worst packer ever…everything was all over the place. Not to mention the place was slightly junky before I even started. When I got back on Tues I was too tired to deal with it which carried into Weds, Thurs, AND Fri. Plus I hadn’t been to the gym in over a week when I was just starting to get back into the groove AGAIN. I had a really shitty week overall. On Saturday I got up and cleaned my apt from top to bottom, then hit the gym…whew, I feel like ME again.

Atlanta was great though. I learned a few things while I was there:

- Nobody in ATL is actually FROM there. The only real ATLiens that I met worked at "Hal’s Package Store" (interesting name for a liquor store innit? lol) and the Waffle House (imagine that scene in Jason’s Lyric when Jason runs into Lyric at her job…yeah it was just like that LOL). It was fabulous.

- I prefer ringing in the new year at a house party to the club, ESPECIALLY in Atlanta. The DJs go crunk and NEVER come back, sheesh.

- You can get a brand new 3 br/2.5 bath condo for less than 200k! My friend K and I stayed at her cousin’s place…his neighborhood is so new that it isn’t even on Mapquest.

- Need your nails and hair did? Well, you can do those AND go grocery shopping all at the same place! LOL

- There are men EVERYWHERE. Fine ones too! I heard that there’s a serious man shortage down there but I didn’t see it AT ALL. I dunno if it was due to the holiday weekend (people tend to come out more) or what. I don’t have any bad stories about the men either…except that one guy who tried to holla at my friend but his LIP GLOSS killed his chances. He was persistent too!

 - [totally unrelated] There are just some things that you can’t be cheap with…like pots. I bought a set of "starter" pots when I moved here last year and no matter how much non-stick spray I use when cooking, everything still gets jacked up. So my stepdad bought me a new set for Christmas…omg they are like heaven. My eggs were so perfect this morning and I didn’t have to soak the pan for 2 weeks to get it clean!

*Sigh* back to reality. I made some financial blunders last year that I don’t intend to repeat. The car that I bought is sensible (a Chevy) however, I should’ve waited until I got my credit score higher before I bought it because my payment eats up a higher percentage of my pay than it should and I’ve had to make some tough sacrifices because of it. I did shop around and I went for the best interest rate, and I also got the car for a good price but if only I knew then what I know now! However, the purchase forced me to think about my money differently, and to seek out personal finance resources to ensure that I keep myself afloat.

I blew my budget straight to hell in December (and going to ATL!), and am now staring at a credit card balance that’s going to take about 2 months to pay off. Spending money before you get it is never a good idea! My problem is that I don’t plan well for miscellaneous expenses such as gifts, new glasses, etc. So, I’m updating my budget (which consists of a simple Excel spreadsheet broken down by pay period) for 07 which includes those things and I’m sticking to it. More specifically, I’ve written a list of all the (major) misc expenses that I can think of that tend to come up throughout the year, estimated the cost (or what I’m willing to spend lol), divided it by 12, and that’s the amount I’ll set aside monthly. It’s still a work in progress though.

To top it all off, I’m moving out of my apt at the end of February and am still job hunting. I’ve been saving for the move which definitely helps. I have an interview next week and if I land it I’ll be staying in Philly (I’d submitted my resume to them before I ‘adjusted’ my name so so far my experiment hasn’t worked lol)…this company has offices in Atlanta too . Otherwise, I’m still applying for jobs in the DC metro area as well, so I’m not sure where I’ll end up. I DO know that I’m getting the hell out of this apt complex.

I’m the worst kind of fan. You know, the one who all but gives up on the team when the star QB goes down for the season. Then when the team ends the season at the top of the division and wins the wildcard game, they’re the fan suddenly cheering the loudest. Well I’m not going to jump back on the bandwagon now. [E-A-G-L-E-S!!!!] Nope, not gonna do it. [E-A-G-L-E-S!!!]

As far as dating goes, the roster is rather empty. I met a few guys in ATL but they don’t live any where near me soooo yeah, my ‘lovelife’ is rather dry.