many a wintry splendour...please don't ask

(i like big heads and i cannot lie...you other brothas can't deny)
so this weekend was supa cool...we went to cat's parents' house up in north carolina for some skiing galore. i, going without saying, did not ski, but had a blast anyway. me, pam, and andy were in the late car. seriously (sorry hanne and mike and tom): best road trip ever. i laughed and cried and wet myself on numerous occasions. good times.
we played taboo. we ate brownies. we slept. we got to meet the neighbor shannon. he wanted to know who the people rolling down his hill were. we built a big headed snowwoman with a baby. we got lazy and cold and decided she was sinking in quicksand rather than make her some legs. we had a snowball fight. we ate mamma norman's good cookin'. on sunday we went sledding down the BIG hill. we (meaning i) got whiplash or something and my butt still hurts. we decided to build an igloo. i think you know who the "we" are. we made a foundation. we got no farther.
we drove towards athens and tricked cat into thinking we were ahead of her. we stopped in boiling "springs", south carolina. the word springs was in quotation marks on the big green government sign. we laughed. we found a playground and played. we got back to ga around 11 pm. it was great.
i start my receptionist job on monday. i'm so stoked! all the spanish and the kids and the spanish speaking kids! *smiling happy shanka*
barbara and jon finally found me on myspace. yay! i would love to see them both so very much. and george and barbara and tate and jefta and phil and esther too. aww. so many cool people in the states that i never would have met if not for the SHELTER EXPERIENCE. it was good stuff.

(that stupid metric system's gonna ruin us all!!!...heeey, wait a minute!)

OR ("i'm 6 foot 5" whateva!...just like a guy to lie about his height.) so hard to choose!

my quest for the perfect 'fro

so i took by braids down, and am rockin' rough and stuff with my afro puffs (dude, yall remember that song?) it took about 18 hours to take them down. i actually missed church last sunday cause it turned into a weekend affair. lol i was so tired monday morning! and after sunday lunch and cat and pam's, pam and i went to walmart and bought hair products galore. before i go on, i must remind you that i decided to not put a chemical straightener in my hair back in feb. '05. so i'm still strong a year later. yay! when i was kickin' it with hanne and marise in spain, i almost gave in. lol i went into this one shop and asked if they did braids (and they didn't). then i asked if they gave relaxers. this cute little spanish lady came up to me and said (in spanish, of course), "please don't do that to your hair. promise me. it's so bad for your hair." i told hanne and marise what she said, and we just cracked up at this lady being so concerned about my hair.
anyhoo, back to the present. so pam and i bought all this conditioning, moisturizing goops and antifrizz gels so i can get cute natural curls. i washed my hair after i took out the braids. now, i have never, ever had this happen, but i ended up with these huge matted clumps of hair like dreads on the top of my head! freaked me out. pam spent the better part of 8 hours combing that mess out! i've never been one to be tenderheaded, but man oh man! i fell asleep so i wouldn't feel the pain (aww). i woke up at 2 am and she was finished. i looked at myself and cried. oh how i hated my kinky hair! i've had relaxers for as far as i can remember. i've never know my hair any other way than chemically straightened.
and i had to drag my butt to work in less than 6 hours!
i slapped it back into a very short ponytail, said bye to my hoarse roommate, stepped outside to walk to work, and promptly began crying. it was so sad..i'm glad no one saw me!
i read this book a few weeks back about body image. it talked about all women, and how asian women aren't small enough and latina women aren't big enough and white women aren't skinny enough. the black girl's plight is her hair isn't nice enough. a girl rocking naturally kinky hair is frowned upon. i can't complain too much...in all fairness, i have really nice hair. it's curly, to be sure, but it's very soft and "napless" (lol you know what i mean!), something i know not a lot of black girls are blessed with. but it's not beautiful and straight and shiny and light. lol. geez don't we need a paradigm shift??
but i think i've arrived. lol. a solid week later, with my hair still rockin' the puffs, i absentmindedly picked off strands of hair from my tigger sweatshirt. most were light brown wavy long leanne pieces. but one was a tightly curled, dark dark brown, shiny shanka piece. and i held it in my hand and said, "now, that's very good."




(okay, okay, okay, okay. actually, i said "that's very pretty." but i'm trying to play up the fact what God's been doing in me. ya know.)

my, how quickly the times are a-changing...

so a minute ago (but not really) i was hurting for a job, sad and depressed that no one thought i was good enough for their stupid places of employment. now i'm in the uncomfortable position of being offered two jobs and not knowing which to choose. ah, to be pursued is a grand feeling! lol but i hate making big decisions.
will it be...
bachelor #1...a full time teller position at a nationally recognized bank? where salary and benefits are much more than i've ever received, where i get on great with the manager, where i have the chance of tuition reimbursement if i ever decide to put myself through the torture of formal education ever again, where i've never thought i'd be something-enough to work (smart, classy, whateva). cons: where i may not like it so much cause i'd have to learn so much, where i can expect promotion in a year's time, where my coworkers may not be as cool, where some jerk may be bold enough to rob me, where somebody might shoot in my general vicinity.
or bachelor #2...a full time permanent receptionist position in the school district? where i'm actually considered "temporary" only in the sense that i'd be promoted almost immediately, where i'd work with little spanish speaking kids, where i've already had time to thoroughly enjoy my coworkers, where someone told me for the first time in my professional career that i in particular was wanted and would be hired immediately, where i'd have first shots at choice positions that would come up simply because my foot's already in the door. cons: possible pay cut in receptionist position (but would rise once i'm out of it, so this con balances out, but still for a little while..), where it would put me in a position to have to say "no" to the bank that i've already said "yes" to. that is all. you'd think it'd be an easy decision, but that last con is actually worth about 3 cons.
so that's 4 pros/5 cons to 5 pros/3 cons.
and the winner is (drumroll please...)...tune in this monday or tuesday for the exciting conclusion!