Talk about something absolutely crazy!
If you read about the crazy incident at Pinetree last year, you are in luck. The Capital Gazette reached out to us and did an article, which was picked up on the NBC wire. Eddie and I was fortunate enough to tell our story and just finished a podcast with Sarah Fraser.
Check out the link below and give us your feedback :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du0BRXr8i48
Saturday, May 23, 2020
CoVid-19 Musings
Hey there!
Just wanted to give you and the universe some love and tell you about little ol' me.
The year is 2020, also known as the Twilight Zone. We have a reality star as president and most of the country is under a stay-at-home order.
My dream: Having a home to call my own, working on my coursework and my business, traveling to locations where my boyfriend and I can be nudists.
The Reality:
The only thing that went 'okay' is the fact that I completed the semester. Only one more semester to go for my Associates degree is Hospitality Management. MY son is slated to graduate in December as well, but that may change to May 2021. My boyfriend is right by my side, and I appreciate that.
All of my hustles have practically came to a standstill. My wonderful dream job came to a screeching halt in April. I tried to file for unemployment in my current state (MD) and that was a bust. Since I haven't worked for more than 18 months in the state of Maryland, I am unable to claim unemployment. So I go to Virginia, my last resident state. Although I worked in the state for more than 18 months, I am unable to draw unemployment there either. However, I was employed for all of the 2019 year with the exception of 6 weeks. I can't get anything from either state.
Yeah, you can't make this stuff up.
As a last resort, I tried to get a small SBA loan for my event management and photography business. Unfortunately, I didn't get far with that either. Because I did not have a legitimate business loan through a bank, I couldn't even qualify. I know of other business owners that fall into this situation as well. We are all shut out.
I believe in words have power, and what you put into the universe is what you will receive from the universe.
I pray that all of us survive and thrive once again.
Namaste.
Thursday, November 28, 2019
Giving Thanks
This is something I normally write in my personal journal than online. So please bear with me.
One year ago, I had made up my mind. I wanted to host my very first Friendsgiving in my forever home. Things did not work out as planned, but I am still thankful. I am thankful for the following things:
My family:
My son is taking big steps in his life. He is in Masters' Program and I couldn’t be any happier. My sisters, although they mean well, will annoy my soul every chance they get. I thank my aunties and my mom for teaching me about hard work. (Yeah, I was paying attention.)
My tribe:
I am thankful and grateful for my hunny bunny, Ambassador Eddie and the cast of characters that makes up my tribe. From all the people that I have met in my walk, I learn from each one of you and I hope that I have made a positive impact.
My business crew:
From the people that I've met through my 13 years at the PTO, My WOTR crew, to my event management crew, Miss Connie, and to all the others that have supported me and all of my business ventures all these years. You are the ones that keep me going.
My life has been blessed with knowledge and overcoming the fears of life. I am thankful for a new job, a new look on love, and the pursuit of happiness. I’ve had some failures along the way, but I am still here.
I am thankful, humble, and still on the grind.
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
Putting this into the universe
As I juggle school, work, and other business items, I reflect back on the first time I thought about my adult life as a businesswoman.
Ever since I was in junior high school, I always wanted to become an entrepreneur.
I remember being a part of the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), and running the school store at Hine Junior High School in Washington, DC.
I recall turning in a paper telling my teacher how I wanted to "run my business".
I wanted to live and work out of a warehouse. The place needed to have at least 3 floors. The first floor I wanted to have a club called Erotic City. At the time, my favorite movies were Purple Rain and The Last Dragon, and wanted to pattern the club after the clubs in those movies (First Avenue and 7th Heaven, respectively). I wanted to create a location for the youth in the DC area to have a safe space to showcase their musical talents. The second floor was for my "creative space". This would be my photography studio, my corporate offices, an open gallery area for anyone to rent, and a commercial kitchen for caterers to use or to rent. I wanted the kitchen specifically for my mom, who likes to bake and would help out others with catering. The top floor was my "fortress of solitude", my actual home where I reside.
When my teacher asked me how I was going to fund this multiple streams of income, I told her that it would be from my job as an Artist and Repertoire (A&R) representative for either MCA, Epic, or Motown.
Of course, I didn't make it into the music industry, much less become an A&R rep. I stopped playing piano at the age of 20.
However, I still have the dream of being an entrepreneur, so I grind, and I hustle.
Ever since I was in junior high school, I always wanted to become an entrepreneur.
I remember being a part of the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), and running the school store at Hine Junior High School in Washington, DC.
I recall turning in a paper telling my teacher how I wanted to "run my business".
I wanted to live and work out of a warehouse. The place needed to have at least 3 floors. The first floor I wanted to have a club called Erotic City. At the time, my favorite movies were Purple Rain and The Last Dragon, and wanted to pattern the club after the clubs in those movies (First Avenue and 7th Heaven, respectively). I wanted to create a location for the youth in the DC area to have a safe space to showcase their musical talents. The second floor was for my "creative space". This would be my photography studio, my corporate offices, an open gallery area for anyone to rent, and a commercial kitchen for caterers to use or to rent. I wanted the kitchen specifically for my mom, who likes to bake and would help out others with catering. The top floor was my "fortress of solitude", my actual home where I reside.
When my teacher asked me how I was going to fund this multiple streams of income, I told her that it would be from my job as an Artist and Repertoire (A&R) representative for either MCA, Epic, or Motown.
Of course, I didn't make it into the music industry, much less become an A&R rep. I stopped playing piano at the age of 20.
However, I still have the dream of being an entrepreneur, so I grind, and I hustle.
Wednesday, November 6, 2019
My Adventure to PineTree
I know I haven't blogged in a while, and I truly thought this was posted to the general public and not on Facebook.
My boyfriend and I are nudists. So we are always looking for locations that we can do a day trip without busting the budget. In Maryland, there are 2 locations, Maryland Health Society (MaHeSo) and Pinetree. Just read about my experience at Pinetree below.
Here is my take on Pine Tree.
On their website, you have the option to either call or fill out an online form if you wanted to visit and take a tour. No one responded to the email request to visit. However, when we arrived at the gate, they immediately knew who we were.
We filled out their visitors form and gave the front desk personnel our driver’s license and AANR card. When I informed the front desk personnel that I was on my menstrual cycle, she told us that although she didn’t care, it would be at the discretion of the membership committee couple taking us on a tour. When the membership committee couple came in, I immediately informed them of my situation, and asked could I keep on my bottoms. The male half of the membership committee couple said it was either take off the bottoms or come back another day. The tone that he used was very abrasive. The female half of the membership committee couple never responded to me. I obliged by going back to the car and taking my bottoms off.
While on the tour, the membership committee couple gave us a history of the place. The male member of the membership committee couple made it a point to say that we can “work off” a portion of the yearly fee by “gardening” or cleaning up the property. When Eddie informed them that he didn’t know anything about gardening and were tech-savvy, the male member stated “once you join then we can find something for you to do.” *insert side eye glance*
The membership committee couple did not show us the entire resort. They only showed us the common areas and the campground. Their campground area is way smaller than Sunnyrest Resort’s Tent City area.
When the membership committee couple showed us the community board members, we noticed there was no black people, and all was well over the age of 65. There is absolutely NO DIVERSITY here! So, these people are looking at us as a tool to get more of “us” to come and join.
When we told the membership committee couple that we were AANR members, they looked at us like “fuck”. When we asked about AANR related discounts, they nicely informed us that our fee is reduced "even more" when:
o Another couple joins the resort or
The fees to join is $1,477.00 per year. PER. YEAR. This includes the amenities, a keycard to access the area, and some other lame shyt. This sounded like a sales pitch that they give for a timeshare.
Side Note: There is a discriminatory practice against single males. However, Pine Tree does welcome lesbian couples. Their rationale is that they want to keep the ratio of women to men level. So if I wanted to invite a gay male couple to the resort, I better have females with me to even it all out.
After the tour, we were invited to stay for the happy hour and Independence Day cookout/pool party. There was 2 black people there outside of us. One appeared to be thankful that he was not alone, while the other acted like he was the guy with the hat on in Get Out. He was from Temple Hills. He had no problem talking to Eddie individually, but was too scared to talk to the both of us freely.
Most people held what I call social chatter (hi, how are you? Where are you from?, etc) with us. When Eddie mentioned that he was a retired Navy veteran, most people began chatting with him like they were old buddies catching up with each other.
A few ladies chatted me up and told me how nice the place was and they needed more ‘diversity’ there. They asked how long we been a couple.
One older gentleman very nicely told us “once you come inside the gates, you have stepped back in time 30 years". That is when he proceeded to tell us that they’re old-fashioned. The membership committee just approved body piercing a couple of years ago. Mind you, the pamphlets still state “No genital jewelry is to be worn on Pine Tree grounds”. Other people assumed that we were visiting from somewhere else. When we told them that we were local, they were like 'OK, hmmm'.
We ran into the couple that updates the social media page for Pine Tree. They immediately recognized Eddie from an earlier post about Pine Tree. Because of the inclement weather, the social media couple offered to allow us to stay in their cabin until the storm passed. We informed the social media couple that we were not shown this area of the property when we were on our tour. The social media lady told us that they are slowly using social media to promote the resort and asked us if we could help them out by telling folks about Pine Tree. Eddie told them that he was an elite Yelp reviewer and that he would write the review for them.
Would I go back? Only if Sunny Rest and Gunnison Beach was inaccessible and was too broke to go anywhere else.
Would I recommend BNA to hold an event there? Nah fam! I like y'all a little bit too much to subject you to the real life edition of Get Out.
My boyfriend and I are nudists. So we are always looking for locations that we can do a day trip without busting the budget. In Maryland, there are 2 locations, Maryland Health Society (MaHeSo) and Pinetree. Just read about my experience at Pinetree below.
Here is my take on Pine Tree.
On their website, you have the option to either call or fill out an online form if you wanted to visit and take a tour. No one responded to the email request to visit. However, when we arrived at the gate, they immediately knew who we were.
We filled out their visitors form and gave the front desk personnel our driver’s license and AANR card. When I informed the front desk personnel that I was on my menstrual cycle, she told us that although she didn’t care, it would be at the discretion of the membership committee couple taking us on a tour. When the membership committee couple came in, I immediately informed them of my situation, and asked could I keep on my bottoms. The male half of the membership committee couple said it was either take off the bottoms or come back another day. The tone that he used was very abrasive. The female half of the membership committee couple never responded to me. I obliged by going back to the car and taking my bottoms off.
While on the tour, the membership committee couple gave us a history of the place. The male member of the membership committee couple made it a point to say that we can “work off” a portion of the yearly fee by “gardening” or cleaning up the property. When Eddie informed them that he didn’t know anything about gardening and were tech-savvy, the male member stated “once you join then we can find something for you to do.” *insert side eye glance*
The membership committee couple did not show us the entire resort. They only showed us the common areas and the campground. Their campground area is way smaller than Sunnyrest Resort’s Tent City area.
When the membership committee couple showed us the community board members, we noticed there was no black people, and all was well over the age of 65. There is absolutely NO DIVERSITY here! So, these people are looking at us as a tool to get more of “us” to come and join.
When we told the membership committee couple that we were AANR members, they looked at us like “fuck”. When we asked about AANR related discounts, they nicely informed us that our fee is reduced "even more" when:
o Another couple joins the resort or
o ”Work off” some of the dues by beautifying the property. *insert side eye*
 |
| No, no, no, no, no……. |
The only “incentive” that was shown to us was that we were in-state. Even that did not bring down the fee.
The fees to join is $1,477.00 per year. PER. YEAR. This includes the amenities, a keycard to access the area, and some other lame shyt. This sounded like a sales pitch that they give for a timeshare.
Side Note: There is a discriminatory practice against single males. However, Pine Tree does welcome lesbian couples. Their rationale is that they want to keep the ratio of women to men level. So if I wanted to invite a gay male couple to the resort, I better have females with me to even it all out.
After the tour, we were invited to stay for the happy hour and Independence Day cookout/pool party. There was 2 black people there outside of us. One appeared to be thankful that he was not alone, while the other acted like he was the guy with the hat on in Get Out. He was from Temple Hills. He had no problem talking to Eddie individually, but was too scared to talk to the both of us freely.
Most people held what I call social chatter (hi, how are you? Where are you from?, etc) with us. When Eddie mentioned that he was a retired Navy veteran, most people began chatting with him like they were old buddies catching up with each other.
A few ladies chatted me up and told me how nice the place was and they needed more ‘diversity’ there. They asked how long we been a couple.
One older gentleman very nicely told us “once you come inside the gates, you have stepped back in time 30 years". That is when he proceeded to tell us that they’re old-fashioned. The membership committee just approved body piercing a couple of years ago. Mind you, the pamphlets still state “No genital jewelry is to be worn on Pine Tree grounds”. Other people assumed that we were visiting from somewhere else. When we told them that we were local, they were like 'OK, hmmm'.
We ran into the couple that updates the social media page for Pine Tree. They immediately recognized Eddie from an earlier post about Pine Tree. Because of the inclement weather, the social media couple offered to allow us to stay in their cabin until the storm passed. We informed the social media couple that we were not shown this area of the property when we were on our tour. The social media lady told us that they are slowly using social media to promote the resort and asked us if we could help them out by telling folks about Pine Tree. Eddie told them that he was an elite Yelp reviewer and that he would write the review for them.
Would I go back? Only if Sunny Rest and Gunnison Beach was inaccessible and was too broke to go anywhere else.
Would I recommend BNA to hold an event there? Nah fam! I like y'all a little bit too much to subject you to the real life edition of Get Out.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Stars Girl
You know I am listening to the song by Tank called "Stars Girl". He talks about how he ran into a chick that chose to live the life of being a groupie. Here is an excerpt of the lyrics...
Don't act like you ain't seen the videos
Don't act like you ain’t heard the songs
Don't act like you change, you ain't different hoe
Motives still all wrong
Don't act like you ain’t heard the songs
Don't act like you change, you ain't different hoe
Motives still all wrong
Always felt attracted to the paper
Attracted to the goons....the hustlers and the shakers
Rappers couple singers....some Dodgers and some Lakers
Yeah, everybody knows you by name
You're a stars girl
You go with a few but you're good at what you do
You’re a stars girl
Always on the scene different camera every week
You’re a stars girl, yeah
And I can't front on how you look
The way you work it got me shook as a stars girl...stars girl
You fine girl...not a wife girl...but a stars girl
I had to rewind it a couple of times just to make sure. The last line got me..not a wife girl but a stars girl.
There are women out there that made their name in that manner (eg. Karrine Steffans..lying ho). They began running with the crowd that allowed them to become popular and famous because they are on the arm of a baller. At the same time, they are comfortable with being someone's ho for a few minutes until they find someone better. But in the end, she will not be someone's wife, but just a ho to the stars.
I'm sorry. I would rather be a wife girl any day than a stars girl.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
How many do you have left?
In the song “The 12 days of Christmas”, take the number of lords a-leaping minus the geese a-laying. How many do you have left?
a. 5 golden rings, but gave one away
b. 4 calling birds
c. 3 French hens and a partridge in a pear tree
d. 4 lords that didn’t get geese for dinner
Answer:
Now how many of you actually sung the song to figure out the numbers?
There are 10 lords a-leaping and 6 geese a-laying, so 10-6=4
Ok, I made this into a trick question. Ladies and Gentlemen, all answers are correct!
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