Ferris Wheel in the ATL!

So... there's a big ferris wheel in downtown Atlanta now. Today was the grand opening.

That's one heck of a view. I have to drive in that general direction to go to work. I am too busy trying to be careful in our janky traffic to look over in that direction.

It looks odd against the Atlanta skyline. I guess it will take some getting use to.

Here's the strange thing to me:

They put this ferris wheel up in one to two weeks. Maybe closer to two weeks.

I don't know how long it took. But it's much too fast for me.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know it has been inspected and cleared. And there is nothing wrong with it. It doesn't look too complicated. Just lock everything in place and let it whirl...

But uh, I'm need that to spin for awhile before I get up on it. I need some snow to hit it. I need lightning to strike that sucker. I need it to bake in the summer sun. I need ice to freeze on it.

I need for it to go through the seasons of life before I jump on it.

That's just me.

This is a tourist attraction. I am a resident, not a tourist. Heck, I've never even been to Centennial Park. And I was here when the Olympics came through. I lived half a mile from the main festivities way back then.

I hope the wheel does well and boost our economy. The cost is $8.50 for kids, $13.00 for adults. That's reasonable for a 15 minute ride. Ferris wheels are nice attractions in other cities. Hopefully this one will do well, and be good for our city.

But I'll let ya'll get up on it and tell me how it is...

Maybe they'll bring a roller coaster downtown next... That'll be really cool.

Monday Night Fights,,, The Buttermilk Edition

Monday night.

You know, this was actually suppose to be a Friday freestyles. Didn't post it. I figured I will post it this morning. That didn't work out. So I thought I would post tonight. I need to post, nevertheless.

I am tired of work. I have been thrown into what I consider an unfortunate situation. I do need a week or two off. But that is not going to happen. Alas, I will go to work, without really wanting to be there.

Last week was a REALLY bad work week. Ugh. Those come every once in awhile, but goodness when they do, it is really disturbing. I ended up snapping at my boss, and that's not good. No telling how that's going to come back to bite me later. So my goal has just been to shut up and be quiet. Don't cause no further problems. Simple enough. I'm not in with the crowd or the cliques. I have no protection. So it's best to just hush up and be invisible.

And it throws me completely off. I don't feel like doing NOTHING, especially blogging. I don't even think I got my usual quota of crochet done. I don't wanna talk to nobody. Yes that makes me a jackass. And I am fine with that. It is better than sitting around complaining. I am around way too much of that as it is.

Complain, and remain the same.

I rather ask myself "What is the solution to the problem?"

And just spend my energy working on that instead of complaining. Hard. But can be done. I made much progress today.

And it doesn't help that I have been nauseous off and on for a week. It was especially bad today. Not sure what that is about. No. She is not pregnant. LoL

I wonder what would happen if I just threw up right in the middle of the cubicle area? That would be... hilarious. And gossip worthy indeed. Give chickens something real to cackle about. I don't think I would ever live that down.

And last week was actually a very good week outside of work. That surprises me. It started off really well. I think I was good overall.  Writing class was last Tuesday, and that's like a breath of fresh air. It is such a reprieve for me.  And I had a very productive finance group meeting on Saturday afternoon. (Even though I expressed a strong dislike of someone who is a friend with everyone there. Not sure if that will ever come back to bite me. But I don't run in those circles. I just have to make sure to stay FAR out of those circles... on purpose now. So that is okay).

I was writing in my journal the other day that in the midst of all the irritating things going on, I really have to stay alert, because in the midst of all that, fantastic and wonderful things are still happening. All the time. It is such a fascinating time of my life. And I must always be cognizant of that.

And that's what I've been thinking about all weekend. I can't let the bad rain on the good.It's like having a glass of buttermilk and a fly has fallen into it. I won't throw out all the buttermilk. I will take the fly out the buttermilk and enjoy my buttermilk.

Yes that is nasty. The fly is gone, but the memory of the fly is still there. But I can't let good buttermilk go to waste, can I?

No.

And I can't drink buttermilk. I think it will make me more nauseous than I already am. That's not good.

So we will just scratch the buttermilk talk. Or just drink it proverbially.

George Zimmerman. Man. I didn't even know a verdict was coming down. Someone texted me "Not guilty". So I quickly turned to CNN to see what was going on. And lo and behold, this man got off.

Look at him. He's happy! Cheesing down!

I am not surprised at the verdict. I expected it. This was a reasonable doubt trial. It is his word against a dead teenager. And the dead cannot defend themselves.

 And I don't expect much from a state that let Casey Anthony go free after dumping her own toddler in a ditch. So this was no surprise to me.

I couldn't even tell if there was a prosecution in this trial. Seems like there were two defense teams. Either that or the prosecutors were REALLY bad. Those speeches at the end of the trial, where the prosecutors got up and thanked everybody like they had just won the Oscars didn't curb my thoughts about the whole thing.

Alas, while this man gets lucrative book and movie deals, young black males will continue to be profiled.

(Sidenote: you should talk to some white folks who have lived in the northern states and have had to spend time in north and central Florida. I snickered at what they had to say. But after the third one I spoke with hollered (with that horrified look in their eyes) that it's just an extension of south Georgia, I started believing them. Alas, another reason why this verdict didn't surprise me).

But Zimmerman will never be free. A mental prison can be worse than a physical one. He will always be looking over his shoulder. He's in trouble if he walks down the road day or night. Folks looking for him. Sad. Unfortunate. But people want their own brand of justice.

He can't even go into a drugstore and buy some cold medicine if he is sick.

Heck, he can't even go in the store and buy...a pack of skittles and ice tea.

That type of thing has to play with the mind.

George, I do think whatever money you make, you should share with the parents of the kid you stalked and murdered.

And George is a bit slow. Juror B37 already has signed with a literary agent! Imagine that. Less than 48 hours after the verdict. I bet that was in the works before the verdict! You don't figure all that out in less than 48 hours. Nerp.

Juror B37 is on Anderson Cooper right now! (10:00 pm as of this writing)! Let the media tour begin!

I know the other jurors are going O_O right now. *jurors scrambling to make money off the tragedy*

Ya'll need to give some money to the parents of the kid off which you are making money.

That would be the right thing to do.

I am reading a book about the conscience right now. And how you have to accept that there are people out there who don't have a conscience.

I thought that was odd. But after all this, I am starting to understand.

That is all I have to say about that.

Song of the Week. Some Whitney. This is my favorite song by her. I like the R&B feel of it. I wish she would've released it.



Final Thoughts. Stay peaceful, black people. Don't go out here taring up stuff because of the verdict. There will be more verdicts like this one in the future. Sad but true.

One of my conversation pieces that I didn't post for conversations week was about veiled inferiority complexes.

If you weren't such a positive threat and had such great potential, white folk wouldn't be doing so much to make you feel bad about yourselves.

Don't get mad at me for saying that! I heard that from a couple of white mentors.

When someone not of my race cares enough about me to let me know such of thing, I listen. That is forever etched on a mental post-it note in my mind. Nothing like some good inside information.

That changed the way I thought about myself.

If you truly thought you were better than someone, you're not even thinking about them. But if you see the potential in them, and you can scheme to bring them down... hmm...

Just a mini- food for thought for your week.

I will try to post all week. This is my peace of mind.  And especially now, I need my peace of mind.

By design... and on purpose.

Good Monday Morning.... The Post Holiday Edition

Good Monday Morning!!

Holiday is OVER. Have a good strong cup of coffee, now! It will wake you up from all the swine and liquor you drank over the holiday weekend!

LOL

This has been far from a holiday weekend for me. I worked 10 strong hours on the job on Friday. I am STILL tired from that. Then I came home and I've been struggling to deep clean my house...

Why?

'Cuz I have a houseguest! One of my readers and fellow bloggers, Mzinspiredmind, aka Sam, aka the soft porn Chicken, Cinnamon Sugar is in town. And she is residing at the literal House of LadyLee for a couple of days.

OH JOY!

Yet this means I have had to clean the house completely up. Even Oscar-Tyrone has been a bit quizzical. He hasn't been his usual surly self. He's more puzzled about it all. I only clean up extra hard when I am going out of town. I like to come home to a clean house.

I rarely hang out upstairs so I had to wash up all the linens, vacuum, get the upstairs bathroom in order. Sigh. Wore me out. Then I had to take care of downstairs. Wow.

I did buy a new TV for upstairs. Man, flat screens are dirt CHEAP these days. I purchased a 15" with built-in DVD some 6 or 7 years ago, and it was 500 dollars. Now, a 32" flat screen can be purchased for as little as 200 dollars. WOW.

That is just wild!

(Sidenote: a couple of years ago I walked into the Best Buy and asked where the tube TVs were. I almost got laughed out the store. LOL)

So when she gets here, she decides to hang out on the sofa. I asked if she'd like to retire to her room upstairs... perhaps take a six hour nap? (This is the time I needed to clean up like I want to downstairs). She refuses, and instead she knocks out on my sofa. Sigh. I had to clean up around her, and be quiet.

Even Oscar-Tyrone was looking at her crazy, as if to say, in his best Squeak from The Color Purple voice...

"LadyLee... who this woman camped out on the couch? Who this woman?"

LOL

I cooked dinner - stirfry shrimp and sesame noodles and vegetables. She seemed please. I even raided the liquor cabinet (the laundry room cabinet) for a peach cooler. She seemed happy enough. Then I dropped her off at Atlantic Station so she can hang with her homegirl.

We woke up and I fixed her breakfast. She is all nervous, so she wanted a child size plate.

Check out that phat shoe!

Now that has to be the Picture of the Week. Shoe porn and breakfast in the same picture. How eclectic is your friendly neighborhood Oldgirl.

I'm just glad I cleaned my house up. I did some deep cleaning! Glory!

Nothing much planned for the week. I am OFF today. GLORY AGAIN!!

Song of the Week. So I was in one my favorite gourmet grocery stores in Candler Park the other day and I heard this song.



A House version of Portuguese Love?

I wanted to scream right there in the store.  NO ONE should do this song except Teena Marie. UGH!

So I will post her version, the version I absolutely LOVE.


I don't know if Teena remade that song from someone else's song. Man, I don't even know if I understand what the heck she is talking about. But I love that version. Yes ma'am!

Well, that's it for monday morning randoms.

You have a great week!

By design... and on purpose!

Holiday Treat: Fruit of the Week

Happy Fourth of July to you ALL!!!

I know many of you have a nice 4 day weekend planned. I don't. But I will enjoy my independence on this here 4th of July, honey! Sure will!!!

So...

I like trying new fruits and vegetables. I see this often at the farmers's market. I saw it again last Sunday.

Jack Fruit!!!

Yeah, uh... that's something you can put on the grill for your holiday, along with those ribs and chicken!

They are HUGE. Big as watermelons, so I guess that's alright. But still... I don't know.
I don't know if I'd eat something like that. But I do see it in this oriental store I frequent, cubed up in cans in heavy syrup.

I haven't tried it yet. I would have to let you order that in a restaurant, and then I can taste a little of it from your plate.

I suppose it is like chitlins... you have to had grown up eating it to like it.

Hmmm....

It reminds me of something similar, a cousin of the jack fruit: durian. Durian looks just like the fruit above, but only more dangerous.

Look at that thing. You get bust upside the head with that, you're in trouble. Somebody better call the ambulance!

Durian comes through the lab sometimes. They too are big as watermelons. It is thought to be poisonous if you eat it too soon. And it smells like vomit or rotten onions. (There is nothing like walking past our prep room and thinking, What the world??)I hear it tastes like strawberry cheesecake, though!

Uh, yeah.

I can't get past the whole poisonous aspect. And I'm not eating anything that smells like vomit.

And that looks like some straight alien spawn.

Who in the world was walking through the forest and saw these hanging from the trees and thought "Let's cut that down and bust it open and see what it is! Might be tasty!"

After smelling it, I wouldn't eat it.

Call me snooty.

Or just call me your Friendly Neighborhood Oldgirl Ladylee...

I'll let ya'll work all that out!

Throw a little on the grill! Let me know how it make ya FEEL!

LOL

Enjoy your holiday!

On Purpose!

Conversations Week.... The WINNERS!!

Alright ya'll...

The moment you've been waiting for!

The winners of The House of LadyLee Conversation week sweepstakes!

First of all, thank you for participating. I don't do that to drive up comments. No, your friendly neighborhood Oldgirl is not your friendly neighborhood comment whore. I wanted to draw out some of you who lurk endlessly. I also wanted to show some appreciation of you reading my blog.

You realize how much TIME it takes to read? That is time out of your life.

Also, this is the half year mark, and I was thinking of many of the conversations I have had already this year that have really made me think or answered some internal questions. So I decided to group those all together, and post them. And cut them with some funny posts to break up the seriousness of it all.

Blogger, Mrs. A., aka Bliss,  thought that it was Conversations Month!

Say WHAT???

Oh my!

And you know, I could've dragged it out to a month. There are 3 or 4 more conversations I wanted to post.  But I didn't get around to them. Sigh.

And a whole month of conversations? You already see how intense my convos are. We ALL would have been emotionally drained after a months worth of my conversations. All of us!

I got the idea for Conversations Week from my gratitude journal. I try to write a "one liner" everyday. There were a ton of entries that read "I am thankful for the conversation today with...".  Whether the conversations were comfortable or unsettling, I am really thankful for those conversations. They all came at the right place at the right time for the right reasons. I may have posted only 25% of those conversations, some of which I obtained permission to post. (All said "Of course! Maybe they will help someone else!")

Well they helped you all. And most of all, they helped me.

I am not one who has an opinion and tries to force my opinion on people. Nor do I get mad when people have an opinion that differs from my own. I personally don't deal with such people. And I am sorry, but that is a sign of someone with some personal issues (in need of validation, possible self esteem issues, inferiority complex and the like...)

I am a little different:

I am one who has thoughts and opinions on various things about life, yet at the same time I am always looking to re-examine, strengthen, and sharpen my thoughts and opinions. I am also always looking for clarity. So I am happy that through some of your comments and thoughts, I myself have found clarity. I am also able to focus my prayer life a little better concerning certain matters. And that's a good thing.

So on to the drawing!

There were 149 comments!

Wow!

That's a lot!

Also a lot to count. I had to keep up with emails, comments and text messages. Goodness. Some folks don't like to comment in the comment section or they have problems from blogger. So that is why text and emails are allowed. Next time, I have to do some type of spreadsheet!

It is not my fault you don't have my cell number. You better ask for it if you want it! The best convos occur over text message these days!

So I counted all the comments, and the ones who had the highest comments.

The winner for most number of comments is SHAI with 17 comments.

Congratulations Shai! $25 gift card to YOU!

Glory!!

Shai had an interesting strategy: start a convo with me in the comment section. And comment on other people's comments.

Runner up to her was the Green-Eyed Bandit. And that was only because she was hipping me up to some church notes she was typing up for me. (Good looking out, Bandit!)

So now for the drawing.

My coworker Lt. Comm. By draws all my winners. This almost got out of control today when Mel, who REALLY begged me hard about changing Lucy Jr.'s windshield witpers, walked by. She started whining and begging to be the person who draws the winners next time.

So some of the pictures are blurry. This is becasue I was yelling at her and couldn't concentrate. Humph.

Lt. Comm. By takes his part time job seriously. His hands are lotioned and his nails are clean.

Thank you Mrs. By for looking after that. Us sisters don't like no ashy man. No ma'am.
He's certifying that the name strips are in the cup (he does this by expertly pointing at the cup). He has a stapler, tape and bottled water sitting nearby, just in case there's a... problem.

He spent a couple of minutes shaking the cup up while me and Mel walked to my desk. 

*angrily walking to my desk with Mel to get Mel's doggone paperwork*

Sigh. That doggone Mel.
For some odd reason, cubicle mate Cowgirl Cre tried to throw her name in the cup.

Lt. Commander By deemed her ineligible, as she is a government employee.

He knows I ain't trying to lose my job over no foolishness (although she could've entered and won $10. Cre (and Mel) didn't care for that.

And the winner is.....

Hmmmm... can you read your name!!?

You won a $75 gift card!!!

If you couldn't read your name, here you go!

Mzinspiredmind

Congratulations to Mzinspiredmind!! That is the winning comment... The first comment she left, on 6/17/13, on a post entitled "Conversations Week".

Gal, you had 9 comments. If you would've doubled your comments, you would've beat out Shai! You would've won $200.

(Ya'll should've seen me watching By pull names with baited breath.)

So congrats to the winners!

Thanks again for participating in Conversations Week. I tell you, I have the BEST readers in the world. Your comments and opinions have increased me so much over the past 2 weeks. No amount of prize money can compare to that...

I am the biggest winner of all!