Sin City

In my quest to explore and travel more I went to Las Vegas with my best friend Esosa and a couple of her friends from San Francisco. At first I felt I was dealt the short end of the stick because they only had to travel an hour and I had to travel four (did I mention I dislike flying?), but in the end this trip was exactly what I needed. It was my first time in Vegas and in the weeks leading up to my trip I thought it was going to be tacky (topless bars and casinos). I could not have been more wrong. Vegas is super sophisticated and has something for everyone (except little kids, I have no idea why kids are there). I definitely used this trip as a way to plan for my future visits. Anyway, I stayed at Ballys, went to Lavo at the Palazzo(saw J.Cole), Vanity at the Hard Rock, and Drais. It was relaxing, fun, and I already miss it. Hopefully I will have another opportunity to go within in the next year (Birthday or Bachelorette Party anyone?). My future plans are to go see Cirque de Soleil, Penn and Teller, eat at some of the better restaurants, go to the pool parties, stay at the Cosmopolitan (see last post), and play the slots a lot more (maybe the tables). What do you like to do in Vegas? Any suggestions?

(My best friend and me! Girls Night out at Lavo!)

(View of the strip from hotel window)

(Ocean's Eleven Fountain outside of our hotel window)

(The Eiffel Tower was right outside of our window!)

(J.Cole at Lavo. I snapped about 50 shots of him!)

If I were a Hotel : The Cosmopolitan

(Aren't these beautiful? My three favorite things: feathers, pink, sparkle)

This past weekend I went on a mini-vacation to Las Vegas with my best friend and a couple of her friends. I am going to post more about this trip, but I have to comment about this great hotel I saw called The Cosmopolitan. I just know that if I were a hotel, I would be this hotel. It captured my essence in so many ways. I plan on staying here whenever I go to Vegas in the future (well, if I can afford it).

(Bond Bar... inside the main lobby)

(Chandelier Lounge... yes, a bar within a Chandelier)

(Yes, that is me in a shoe)

Ahhh... it is so beautiful. There are also three pools and a view from almost every room. The club Marquee is awesome, and the food looks amazing... I will stay here.

My Tumblr

I just rediscovered my tumbler today as I was doing my daily browsing of the internet. It is interesting to read what was written in what you consider to be dark places or maybe what you find important or inspiration at a point. I am still trying to discern how I will use my tumblr right now: quotes, pictures, life updates...

Maybe it will be everything. Take a look if you think you can tell what direction I need to be going in.

http://tresbienmonami.tumblr.com/

PIZZA MI AMORE

A couple of weeks before Christmas my friend Hilary decided to make our own pizzas, drink champagne, and eat home made chocolate chip cookies. It was great! However, now I have become addicted to making my own pizzas. They are especially nice on cold snowy days were you do not want to make a soup and delivery is not a feasible option. Check out mine and my ingredients.

Boboli pizza crust-I used the whole wheat version

Instead of marina I used olive oil and basil

Ingredients: Spinach, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, and mozzarella

NEEDED: COCKTAIL AND CLUB ATTIRE

When I was in college I did my fair share of partying and clubbing. While I was not out there every weekend sharing my groove thing, I was out there quite a bit. Now that I am older I notice that my clothes to go out (which is once in a blue moon) is dated, old looking, and not flattering for someone my age. I was taking my mid day shopping break to check out

some items from Asos that I think I can enter my closet any day now. I plan on participating in some events in the upcoming months that require my wardrobe to step up its game! I partly believe that you should buy clothes for where you are planning to go in life not necessarily where you are right now. Luckily, Asos also has their Curve division for more voluptuous ladies like myself. Not to mention Eloquii by the Limited is also designing plus size clothes as well (not to mention they have a bomb sale happening right now). Let me know what you think!

My Vision Board

2011 was a year of growth. I finished my first year of working a full time job. I fell in love. I experienced my first horrible break up. I started to think about myself, my future, and what I really want. In other words, now I have a superfluous amount of questions in my head. And I realize that is okay and finding out the answer requires a journey. I am 23 years old and I have a whole lot of life to live and that is okay with me. I want this to be a year of self-discovery, self-renewal, self- love, and self-realization (pretty ambitious I know).

One of my favorite blogs had a couple of ideas that I have decided to embark on. The first was a vision board. Basically, you find pictures of what you want to accomplish for the year together into a collage and then put it up so you have a visual representation of your goals. I finally put mine together!

My sections revolve around career and self.

In terms of myself I really want to battle my weight. I am comfortable 50% of the time in the body I am, but my weight is holding me back mentally and I do not want to live my life like this anymore. However, I am not trying to be a skinny minny. I just want to be comfortable with myself. I want to feel comfortable and confident in myself. I put up women of all sizes because I believe you can be beautiful at any size.

My career and life plan is very much up in the air right now. I am at a crossroads between the public and private sector. I currently work at a charter school in a depressed area of Chicago. I want to continue working in education on the national level... I think. I also want to start my own business or company or be a CEO of a Fortune 500. Which one to choose? My goal is to contact some of the women on my vision board/ women on the Essence Power List.

I am excited for 2012. It will be a great year!

Whirleyball!!!!

Last weekend, one of my really good friends celebrated her 31st birthday playing Whirleyball. Afterwards we went to a great bar where I was able to do a little karaoke (Bootylicious anyone?)

My Conflict with Red Tails

When I first saw the trailer for Red Tails I was more focused on the handsome black men in the movie than anything else. I was not concerned with the meaning behind the movie or what this movie was going to mean for the future of black entertainment in Hollywood . Even though I have grown up in the United States, the first time I heard about the Tuskegee airmen was during a conversation with a fellow Organization of Black Students member in college. My dad, who is Nigerian and my mom who is Mexican probably do not know who these men are and if they did, they would not see or feel the importance they had to the African American community.

However, my opinions about this movie began to change as I started reading article after article claiming seeing Red Tails is about supporting African Americans, especially African American men and black people in the movie industry. Then I ran across this article on Clutch.com, that that brought up numerous issues with black women supporting these issues. While some of them were a little out there, I felt the discussion that was taking place was a reversal of what we have seen in past generations of black women. One commentator stated that there is no reason why we as black women should support black men when they never support us. As someone who goes back and forth with their ideas of black men, this resonated with me. It also made me think of the black power movement where we saw numerous black women support black men in the name of black empowerment, sacrificing their own notoriety, safety, and pain for a greater cause.

While one movie should not equate to the entire black power movement, I think the fact that our current generation of women does not feel a necessary loyalty to black men even for the smallest causes, speaks volumes about who we are becoming as a race and as people. Another commentator said that none of the black men in the movie would even be caught dead with a black women, which was a sting for me, but something I thought about and contemplated in regards to me going to see other movies. While I will do another post on my feelings towards interracial relationships this is about everything Red Tails was supposed to embody and whether or not I should support it

The school I work at was able to have our entire network of schools go see the movie for free, so I was excited to go see if this would be a movie I would actually enjoy watching in the theatres. During the movie I felt that if this movie was supposed to empower the black movie industry, then I think it has failed to do so. My first issue with the movie is the poor acting and directing and lack of emotion. If this story is supposed to capture the racism, the problems, the issues, the pain the Tuskegee Airmen experienced while fighting in World War II, then they have failed miserably. If this movie was supposed to provide a basis for teaching younger and future generations about their history, then they have failed. I am 23 years old and I was bored by the movie. I was bored and put off by the minstrel acting and the Star Wars directing. After leaving the theatre I continued feeling like I was missing something. I was missing the backstory and the history as to why these men decided to come fight in World War II. How was the military different, how was it better or the same? I just continued questioning what was the point.

On the surface, I am happy I did not personally pay to go see Red Tails for the sheer fact that the movie is not my kind of movie and I thought the script sucked. The actors lacked depth and emotion and the directing was semi-questionable. Some storylines were not essential to advancing the plot and I question some of the decision-making. However, I am sad that I am forced to feel like a traitor for not supporting black cinema when in reality I do not think everything black needs to have my dollar going towards it, especially considering the movie was made by a white man who will be receiving most of my money anyway. There is also something to say for the fact that just because it is black does not mean that it can be second rate. African Americans deserve depth and character development, not to mention a real story line. In some ways, settling for Red Tails to make a point about the future of black cinema is really settling as a people, don’t you think?

The Art of Being Alone

I am an only child. Growing up both of my parents worked full time jobs and I was left to fend for myself as young as eight. I would spend my afternoons after school reading, sleeping, playing with my imaginary friends, and watching television. My parents were extremely overprotective so I was not allowed to spend time outside playing with the neighborhood kids. I spent most of my time… alone. While at times I felt bored (mainly timeslots with no television shows I liked), being alone was fine for me. I loved being by myself. I enjoyed thinking and fantasizing and dreaming about my future. I enjoyed the quiet. I enjoyed being around me.

However, as I became older, being alone began to seem sad. Being alone meant not having someone to cuddle with. Being alone meant not having a friend to talk to. My senior year of college I felt alone after going through a horrible fight with one of my best friends. Since then I have done my best to always fill my time with someone or something. Coffee on Thursday night? Festival on Sunday? Movie Tuesday after work? I refused to be by myself. This was especially true when my boyfriend broke up with me and I felt that every time I was alone I was thinking about him. I was worried that I would sit by myself in my apartment and just think about him and about me being…alone.

Recently, I have discovered that being alone does not mean you are lonely. Loneliness means you do not have anyone to turn to or you feel abandoned. Now I think about being alone as a time to recharge. I get tired of being around people all the time. Sometimes I become annoyed when I am trying to have my “me time”, lost in my thoughts or ideas and someone is trying to having a conversation with me. I need time to just meditate, unwind, bond with Chuck and Blaine. Sometimes I just like the calm of quiet. I like being lost in my own thoughts and imagination. Furthermore, being alone is a time to think about yourself and who you are and what you like. But I am not here to fool anyone; I am only truly alone when I am in my apartment and on my way to work in the morning (and even then it’s unusual). Usually, whenever I want to do something or go anywhere I invite a friend or two to join me. I have never eaten at a restaurant alone. I have only seen a movie by myself once. I go shopping alone, but that is more because I do not shop at the same stores as my friends and I am self-conscious.

Even though the month of February is looking fairly booked, my goal is to push myself to go eat at a restaurant I have wanted to try and sit by myself and eat there… alone. I will bring one of my all time favorite companions (a book), but that is it. Maybe afterwards I will go see a movie. My goal is to travel somewhere by myself. I do not mean fly to a city where my friends live and stay with them. I mean really travel like on a cruise or one of those LivingSocial vacation packages that always look so tempting. I want to go Europe again and it has been difficult for me to find people who also want to travel.

I think traveling by myself would be the ultimate test for me. When I was in Paris I would venture off for a day and find myself a tad bored or feeling awkward. However, now that I am older and more confident in myself, I wonder if I would just take everything as it comes. I also wonder if I would feel lonely seeing other people with their friends or in a couple. One of my girl crushes, Rebecca Jackson-Artis, once told me that being lonely is a state of mind. If you think you are lonely and alone, then that is how you will feel and that is all you will see. If you think you are surrounded by people who love and care about you, then even if you are physically alone, you will never be lonely. I have found this idea of positive thinking to be key to my development as a young woman. Even when I am by myself in my apartment, I feel loved. I feel surrounded by all the people who I know are only a phone call, text or facebook message away.

I am excited to embrace being alone. Do not worry, I am not going to become a hermit, but I might take one night out of the week to just concentrate on what I need to do for myself. Maybe that night out will turn into a weekend out of town, which will turn into a trip abroad. The possibilities of what I can do by myself are endless. Eventually I will not have the freedom to do these things and I need to take advantage the opportunity I have now to do what I want to do for me, and me alone.