Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to those who are mothers. I'm not a mother, so
don't even think about wishing me a Happy Mother's Day.

I had a lousy day at work. Everyday is usually lousy but today was
especially lousy. I don't want to get too deep into it, but let's just
say customer service is a pretty sucky career field. My civillian job
is customer-service based, but my customers don't make me want to
blast their heads off with a semi-automatic weapon, ya know what I
mean? Geez.

I've been trying to call my mom but haven't had any luck. I wish she
would learn to use Skype. We would talk more often if she did. The
telephone thing is really starting to annoy me. I hate calling only
to get voice mail. It's really hard to tell when she's home.

Well, I'm done bitching. Have a good day.

--
Shavonne

Friday

Today was my day off. I didn't do much. I watched a movie called Big
Night starring Stanley Tucci and then by mistake I took a nap.

I hate naps and generally take them when I'm sick, but sit me on my
bed and give me a reason to close my eyes (I hate the lights in my
room) and I'm out for the count.

I went looking through my pictures on flickr and changed my viewing
permissions because my cousin complained that I haven't posted in
pictures in months. It's not that I didn't have any pictures, she
just couldn't see them. I wanted to go through the pictures to get
rid of the one's I didn't like before I allowed anyone to view them.

I missed my 6 p.m. meeting. It dawned on me that I had someplace to
be at around 7:15 p.m. and by that time after almost putting on my
uniform, I decided I didn't have anything to add to help alleviate the
situation at work. The temporary workers have expired passes and
there really isn't anything to do about it. There was a better system
already in place to deal with the issue, but a LtCol decided it was no
good so now we're stuck with a shitty system. Did they ask me what I
thought then? No. So why is my opinion so important now?

It doesn't matter anyway. I don't think I was going to go even if I
had remembered to go. When I take off my uniform, it's off until I
have to put it on the next morning.

--
Shavonne

Short men and their tall tempers

I have this policy-never date short men. Seriously. I dated a short
guy I worked in the same building with last year and he had a temper.
He acted like just because he bought me a meal, I should be happy to
choke on his tongue.

I was supposed to watch a movie with this other short guy a couple of
days ago but had to cancel. I came down with another cold and I didn't
feel like coughing and sneezing snot rockets across the room while we
watched a movie. So I thought the sensible thing to do would be to
cancel and schedule for another day. Well, it seems shorty took
offense to me getting sick. He probably thinks I blew him off
purposefully. But I didn't. I was really sick. Oh well, tis better to
end it now that to wait until later. I don't want to have a
psychopathic, vertically-challenged stalker on my hands. That would
suck.

I really need to spend my time trying to figure out how I'm going to
raise the money to buy this condo I want. I want this condo so bad, I
have trouble sleeping at night.

--
Shavonne

The Chase at Bethesda

When I was in Maryland back in October, my cousin and I went walking
through a neighborhood in Bethesda. I have to tell you, it was
everything I wanted in my future residence. There were many
restaurants, shops, and a descent night life. I also discovered they
were building condos there. The perfect place for me to live - <a
href= "http://thechaseatbethesda.com/default.asp">The Chase at
Bethesda</a>.

The only thing keeping me from my dream is my lack of money. This is
what bothers me the most, if the average salary is $40,000, how are
people able to afford to buy house? The houseing market has slowed a
bit, but not to the point where I could afford to by anything. I have
options and I'm seriously considering them. I can't act on them until
I leave Afghanistan though. Four more months (hopefully).

--
Shavonne

Never can say goodbye and powdered goat's milk

I'm terrible at saying goodbye. I will do just about anything to
avoid saying it. The last time I said goodbye to someone, I almost
cried. I considered this person a good friend. We had lots of great
conversations about everything under the sun. Our discussions would
get so heated, we'd sometimes leave each other pissed off. But we
would make up and everything would be normal. Now he's gone because
of some bullshit. I hope he's okay. He has a chain of command to
answer to so getting in trouble in Afghanistan has it's repercussions.

I said bye to someone in an email. I could just as easily go to his
room and say bye but I won't. I don't want to feel like a stalker.
Plus, time probably won't permit me to give a proper goodbye anyway.

My cousin sent me some powered goat's milk. It has a funny taste to
it when it goes down initially but afterwards it takes like regular
milk. So basically the after taste is much better. It's much easier
to drink by itself than soy milk. Soy milk is only tolerable after
some cereal has soaked in it. Gosh, I hate being lactose intolerant.
I think I might try the powered skim milk next just to see how my body
reacts to it.

I tried my web camera for the first time! It's amazing. I wish I
could get my mom up to speed with cyber chatting. I need to find
someone with iChat. Skype is kinda slow and there's a terrible delay
but I can't complain because it's free.

--
Shavonne

Stormy Weather

It's thundering and lightning right now.  I really, really think days like this are romantic. This is the first day in a long time I wish I had a boyfriend to snuggle with. 

I got a text message from someone today.  It was sweet that he was thinking about me.  I tried to send him a text but I'm completely useless when it comes to mobile phones.  I hate them with a passion. I'm much better with computers.

My day went by pretty quick. I just wish the next year goes by even faster. 

I went to a barbeque last night.  There was great food as usual.  The Italians really know how to cook animal flesh.  I don't think my body can digest alcohol, though.  As soon as I took a sip of some white wine I felt the need to throw up.  There's another party next week. I can't wait to go. Last night's BBQ and the one before were the best meals I've had since I've been in Afghanistan.

I'm totally depressed about my friend's reenlistment in the Army. I was hoping she would get out but I know it was the money that tempted her to stay in. I wanted to ask her if she did it for the money or if she was aware that she wouldn't get called back in if the got out since she reenlisted back in 2005.  Her first reenlistment should have nulled her original contract with a 4 year IRR obligation. 

That's it for now.  I think I'm going to spend the next couple of days reading over that JANOWRIMO book I started writing at the beginning of last year.  Maybe I can salvage some of it or continue with it.  I don't know. I just need to get cracking on some creative writing. 

--
Shavonne

My future hairdo

I've been seriously considering cutting my hair. I went searching the
net last night for short haircuts I thought would be flattering and I
came across a picture of Halle Berry.

I think I have the right facial structure to pull off this hairdo. Or
maybe not. I'm just tired of wearing my hair pulled back when I don't
have time to do it. Actually I'm tired of refraining from doing
things simply because I don't want to sweat out my hair or mess up my
hair. You know there are lots of black women who don't know how to
swim simply because they didn't want to mess up their hair? It's one
of the reasons why I live in a dry climate and not a humid one. When I
get my hair done, I don't want to mess up my hair.

A male (and black) co-worker said having my hair that short would make
me look older. He thinks Halle Berry looks younger now with long hair
than she did all those years she wore her hair short. I think he just
likes long hair. Any man who likes long hair, well, he should just
get himself a white girl, or Asian, or Latina. I just can't deal with
long hair anymore. I want a man that wants me to feel comfortable
with myself.

I sent an email to my cousin Vic and of course she thinks the cut will
look great on me. I knew she would though. She's all about breaking
those black woman mantras going around. My cousin Vic cut her hair
not too long ago and has no regrets. I don't think I will have any
regrets because right now, I wear my hair in bun everyday and it takes
two hours to comb it out when I wash it. Cutting my hair short would
give more time to do other things.
--
Shavonne

Worst trip to the beauty salon ever

I knew I would have a bad hair day when I was told the Russian girl
wasn't coming back, but I decided to give the new girl a try anyway.

Now, I only use Kera Care products in my hair because I have a
sensitive scalp and other products, especially grease, will cause my a
breakout along my hair line and a flaky scalp. I always bring my own
shampoo/conditioner when I go to a salon that doesn't carry products I
normally use in my hair. The beautician washed my hair adequately,
considering she had long acrylic nails and she put a ton of leave
conditioner in my hair (which is fine because the climate is really
dry) but when it came to blow drying, she hasn't got a clue. She
started spraying a ton of oil sheen in my hair. I was a little
bothered by that but I let it slide. Then she started blow drying my
hair and the heat from the blow dryer combined with the oil sheen
created a smoky atmosphere, which set off the fire alarm. TWICE. The
first time it went off people were walking past the shop and looking
in and workers from the other shops were mouthing at us to stop
whatever we were doing because the alarm was loud. Then the fire
department came running in the building looking for a fire that didn't
exist. (By the way, the firemen were HOT!)

When the alarm went off the second time, the Firemen decided to shut
off the alarm system. They told manager of the salon to call
whenever she was done with my hair. You have no idea how embarrassing
it was. Everybody knows who I am because they have to come through
where I work. I will now be known as the American chick who's hair
set off the fire alarms in the Milano. TWICE!

--
Shavonne

Skype and thoughts on being a Wino

I've been using Skype since I lived in Korea and I think it's great.
The only problem is I can't stand the perverts that skype me all the
time. I think I should change my photo on skype.

I went to a party last night and the night before last. I drank a
little bit. Apparently wine is supposed to be sipped. According to a
few people there, someone who drinks their wine really fast is a
drunk. Well, let me set the record straight, I only drink my wine so
fast because I don't like having anything in my hand. My hands should
be free at all times. That makes sense right?

Does anyone know the fastest way to kill a cat in heat besides
shooting it with an M-16? The darn things have been f^cking outside my
window for the last two nights and I'm sick of it.

--
Shavonne

Relationships

I've been thinking a lot lately about being single and how it's really
the only status I'm comfortable with. The guys I dated in the past
really didn't add to my personal happiness and they weren't fun to be
with at all.

Then I got to thinking about the men I've met whose company I really
enjoyed. We never really dated. We were just friends and I felt so
comfortable with them. Unfortunately, we would always be in some kind
of transition like a departure or a career change that sent us in
entirely different directions. Those were always the guys that made me
think, could he have been the one?

I don't know. I get so tired of wondering about the what ifs, ya know?
Sometimes I wish I were male. They seem to have all the time in the
world to just BE while women get stuck with biological clocks ticking
away at our youth.

I told one of my male friends that if I don't get married or have
children, it would be okay. It isn't meant to be. It almost feels like
that's the way it's supposed to be.

--
Shavonne