Saturday funnies

I love this commercial...



That has something for every female.

I like those diamonds, because we can sell those, and buy a boat and buy a bunch of tickets to that thing I like...

LOL... almost got me about to go out and buy some Old Spice bodywash...

Friday Food for Thought: "Bitter vs. Better"

Oh my... TGIF.

Thank God it's Friday. Because I do need the weekend off.

I'm still struggling to get over a recent cold. Colds are tough for me. They are worse than the flu. They wear me out.

I've been a bit depressed and edgy over the last few days. No fault of my own. My meds are bumping into my hormones, and it's driving me nuts. Well, at least I hope that's what it is.

That could be just an excuse. I don't know.

One of my goals this year is working on verbalizing what's bothering me. This is VERY rare for me (probably raising an eyebrow with whoever I decide to pull to the side), and I must admit, I've managed to make some decisions concerning some things going on in my life because of it.

And I suppose that's a good thing.

Whatever's going on with me... it will pass.

I wanted to try to set aside my Fridays for "Food for thoughts". Not a regular feature, but it gives me a good avenue to look back over my week and post what's heavily on my mind.

So here's something I've been pondering...

Something for you to ponder over the week... well, over the past few weeks, really.

With that said, you all enjoy this thought, and have a good weekend... on purpose.


As I get older, there is one thing that I notice about myself:

I have developed a strange fascination with words.

I look them up. I think much about them.

Words mean a lot.

They can start wars. They can express love.

They can be the life or the death of us.

Everything starts with words. Words make the world go around.

Changing one letter in a word can even change the meaning of the word... drastically.

A most interesting example....

Bitter.

Change one letter and it becomes the word:

Better.

Simply changing one letter in the word changed it from something negative to something positive.

Little things like that fascinate me. It may be because I'm getting older.

It may be more than that. I feel myself changing. Certain things, the hard things that I don't care to face, are becoming more important to me.

With that said, I've been thinking about something I read in my last devotional book, a book by Joyce Meyer entitled Woman to Woman: Candid Conversations from Me to You.

I like Joyce Meyer. She has written over 50 books, and a couple of them really dig deep into some of her personal problems of the past, like sexual abuse. It amazes me that she can be so candid and forthright about things like that. But I suppose she does that because that is her gift and calling: to reach out to women that have issues in their past that are haunting them.

This book wasn't as heavy as those, but it was pretty candid. Serenity and I barreled through those 81 chapters. They weren't long- only 2 to 3 pages- but they gave me a lot to think about. I've even posted a few quotes as thoughts of the day here on the blog.

But I read something in chapter 60 that has REALLY stuck with me.

"Instead of getting bitter about the things we go through , we can recognize these times of testing as opportunities to become better. When someone does us wrong, we can take that experience and learn what not to do in our relationships with others. Sometimes God uses people in our lives- just like He uses us in the lives of others- to sand off our rough edges.

God doesn't want us to travel through life carrying the weight of the pains of our past. He wants us to be women who enjoy our journey, free of excess baggage. So I encourage you to be smart enough to stop hurting yourself after someone has hurt you. Make the decision to forgive them, and then immediately lean on God for the grace to do it.

Choose today to let every difficult person and situation you encounter make you a better woman instead of a bitter one." (Chapter 60, page 164).

That was profound to me.

I've been working on that for a few years... looking at what I'm bitter about and attempting to use it as a springboard to become better. My edges are so rough that they would amputate your limbs if you got too close... I really want my rough edges to be smooth.

So I spend time now critically thinking of using situations to honestly evaluate myself. It's difficultm and makes for some interestia journalling.

Why did this hurt me?
Why am I crying?
What am I afraid of?
Why has this made me angry?
What does it all mean?
How can I use it to become a better person?

Thought I was doing something unique to LadyLee, something someone has never thought of.... looking at my life situations and thinking of how I can become a better person behind it.

I succeed sometimes.

And sometimes I fail.

Over and over and over again.

There are things I am bitter about that haunt me like a ghost in the night.

But reading those few paragraphs in that book cemented it with me:

Keep working on flushing out the bitterness... and become a better woman in the process. Of course it may feel like I'm getting nowhere, like I'm digging the proverbial ditch with a toothpick, but for me to be cognizant and to thinking about it and praying about it, well, that is progress in its own right.

Reading those paragraphs show me that there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. They are confirmation that I'm on the right track.

Becoming a better person is a choice. And it's a hard choice to make.

But it is one that I, LadyLee, have mustered the courage to make.

And make it, I will.

So Sweet... So Scandalous

One thing I don't worry about for my birthday:

Gifts.

Why? I don't know. I haven't worried about gifts since I was a child.

My birthday is my birthday.

It is my own personal day.

One of the best things I ever did on my birthday was on a birthday in my mid-twenties. I had the audacity to spend the entire birthday by myself... I even went to the movies. One of the movies I saw was Stargate. Can't remember the other movie I saw.

But that started... something. An enjoyment of myself.

And no one has ever heard me wail "No one got me anything."

Why?

Because it simply doesn't cross my mind.

And I'd probably lose my natural mind if it DID cross my mind.

My day. Belongs to me. It has been hijacked by others over the last 10 years. This is okay.

Still my day. I make sure to have a day around that time to myself as a gift to myself,

But when I get gifts, or even a card, it simply shocks me.

Someone thought of me?

TOTALLY unexpected.

So, with that said...

I was driving home in the pouring rain one night on the week leading up to my birthday and I got a text message. I was close to home so I didn't look at it.

Got in the house and looked at it...

It was from the LBigga, aka the LBoogie, aka the LBeezy.

"Are you at home, old girl?"

I texted back that I was.

She told me to go look on my front porch.

I reluctantly opened the front door. (I come in through the back of the house from the garage. I RARELY step outside the front door).

Wind whipped around my face. It was cold.

I looked to the left. To the right. Didn't see anything. Not even one of the locals walking the streets. (Yep. It was THAT cold.)

I came back in the house, and saw a box sitting on the black stool next to the kitchen island.

I opened the box... and it was packed with stuff...

An underwater camera...

Some candles...

The coolest card!

That is so sweet!

Leezie... that's her pet name for me... that and Leeazurus. I can see her painstakingly drawing that, biting her lip, penning that cursive "Leezie" on that envelope.

Man, it would've been a beast to get "Leeazurus" on a card. LOL!!

I really liked the birthday card.

It also contained a really nice traveling journal. A thought of the day was printed across the top of each left page. The top of each right hand page contained a space for a "Highlight of the day".

And at the bottom of that page was a scripture... always something about life's path... And you know how I feel about paths, man!

So Sweet.

And then things turned a bit scandalous.

A huge bright red feather boa was in the box.

Actually that was the first thing I saw when I opened the box (How could you miss such a thang?). I thought "Maybe she didn't have any tissue paper to cushion things with, so she snatched a boa from somewhere."

I hung it on the staircase so I could get a picture of it.


As you can see, Oscar-Tyrone was a bit interested in it. Dude got up and walked over to me REAL quick when I pulled it out the box. Looked at me half crazy when I put it on.

I caught him smacking his paw at it. He got yelled at real bad. We haven't had that problem since then.

That was scandalous. A feather boa. I've never had one of those.

If that was scandalous enough, the next item made me clutch the pearls.

There was a bottle of... gel in there.

I don't know much about this. Never used it in any of my escapades.

*LadyLee scanning the memories locked away in the back rooms of her mind*

No, I don't remember special lotions.

LadyLee has always been the spontaneous type.

More of a whip cream, Boone's farm, Sue Bee Honey type of girl...

(Wait... this is a PG-13 blog. We won't get over into that).

Nope, no emotion lotion. Something strange about flavored gels that get hot when you blow on them. I don't know who came up with that concept.

So SCANDALOUS.

I saw all this stuff... Thought there may be some type of riddle here.

I stared for awhile at the bottle of lotion... something looked very familiar....

Look at the name of it.

Sweet Heat.

I jumped up, almost knocking the table over. Oscar-Tyrone scurried out of the way.

Sweet Heat!!!!

That's the name of my first manuscript. The first one I ever completed.

Sweet Heat. 1080 pages long. The love story of Samuel "Sweet Heat" Heath and Vaughn James.

Sweet Heat.

I like all things Sweet Heat... even found a potato chip brand called "Sweet Heat" a few years ago:



Ya'll know how much I love some Sweet Heat. That there is my first baby there

LOL... Beezy, you thought of everything.

But looking at the plethora of items in the box, I thought, there had to be a riddle to be solved.

I know that emotion lotion was some ol' Stella craziness... i.e., I was supposed to go down to the DR and get with the sanky pankies (male sex workers) and handles some bizness.

(Uh, no. You needed to catch me in my dark days for that one.)

But the other stuff?

Beezy wrote in the card a reason for each item, in the fashion of "something old, something new, something borrowed, something new" style.

And yeah, the lotion was for some gettin' my groove back action.

This did not happen. Wasn't gonna happen.

First of all, LadyLee never lost her groove.

An Oldgirl stays groooovvvvyy. LOL

Although, when I sent a bellhop back to our old room to look for my camera (we'd just switched rooms, and I thought I left it there)... well, when I offered him a couple of bucks he said "Uh, there's other ways to pay for that."

Yeah right. My name is Oldgirl, NOT Stella!

Sweet scandalous gifts...

Enough to make an oldgirl smile and blush at the same time, lol...

My sista Kentucky peeked in my room one morning and said "Someone gave you a boa!?"

"Yep," I yelled. "The LBoogie hooked that up!"

LOL!

Thanks much for thinking of me LB... in your own very special, creative way:)

Wordless Wednesdays: "Dominican Artwork"

Vacation Pictures, Part III: "Trees, man! TREES!"

I meant to post yesterday, but had to be in at work early, and oh well...

You know how that goes. Didn't get it done!

It is very rare for me to blog at work. This here is my early morning activity!

I could do 10 posts this week... but there's no time. HARD SIGH.

So I will do what I can do...

Starting with MORE vacation pictures from the Dominican Republic.

This time I want to focus on the TREES.

Oh the trees were simply amazing!

I was even snapping pictures of trees at the airport. Look at this one.

I've never seen anything like that. I wanted to touch it, but thought I'd get in trouble.


We saw one at one of the hotels. I asked a worker what type of tree it was. He said it was a garden tree.

Uh, okay.

The Palm trees were fabulous!

They even grew up out of the sand!

Peeps exercising on the beach amongst the trees..

As you can tell, I really like the TREES!

There were so MANY of them. I've never seen that many palm trees crowded together like that.

Is it like that all over the carribean??

Another interesting plant. I guess this would be called a garden plant also.

Another tree... This looks like something I would see in the ATL, lol.

As you can tell, I REALLY like this funny little bush tree.

The beach at dusk. Still trippin' on all those trees. And the sand... the sand didn't even stick to your feet. Not sure what that's about, but it was really cool.

That's all I have for now. More pictures to come...

Feeling Better. Vacation Pictures, Part II

I am feeling much better. I think I will go to work today, even if for half a day.

I have the feeling of "I GOTTA GET UP OUT OF THIS HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I look at Oscar-Tyrone. He is a house cat, and dude is in the house ALL the time. I need to take him for a walk or a ride in the car.

No one, animal or human, should be stuck in the house like this!!

Late yesterday afternoon, I couldn't take it no more... I decided that I just HAD to leave. I was looking at the news, and saw that it wasn't biting cold outside, i.e., around 50-60 degrees, so I decided to get out of the house.

I got winded putting on my clothes. Took me 10 minutes. Not a good look. But I wanted to get out of here and get some fresh air.

So I went and got my taxes done. That took longer than I would like, as my accountant wants to discuss the who, the what, the why, the where... I was NOT in the mood. I was looking at the numbers and after awhile, I was like "whatever, girl... looks good to me."

I must be feeling better, because I didn't fall into a coughing hacking fit or blow snot all over the room... not one time. (Although I reached fast for the tisshas once I got back in the car, lol).

But the Oldgirl got a pretty good clip of bread refunded. I was happy about that.

That little outing had me all tuckered out.

I came home and got right back in the bed.

I'm going to work today. If only for half a day. If I get tired, I'm coming back home.

So on with the Vacation thoughts and pictures...

In this post, I'll be kicking out hotel pictures.

FOOD: We were not blown away by the food. I figured out after a couple of days that the food is more European fare. I don't care for that. There was also some Dominican cuisine. Didn't care for that either. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give the food a 4.

I did see a couple of dishes involving chayote (mirlitons) and bok choy that I will be trying at home. I've been trying to figure out how to cook chayote, and I actually bought some when I got back home. So I may hook that up this weekend.

They had a great fresh juice bar. The melon juice was insane! (They could've given me a whole pitcher of that!!) The desert bar was so-so.

I had some steak and chicken once, but left that alone. (I see as time goes by, that I just don't like it at all). I ate a ton of grouper. Nope, not my favorite, but it was good. They had few other seafood dishes, which didn't make me happy... but that's alright.

Maybe by next vacation, my taste for meat will be totally gone!

HOTEL ROOM: We stayed at the Riu Palace.

Hated it!!

It was like some old 1960s earthtone madness. I thought Fidel Castro was gonna jump out of the closet or something. Looked like something he designed, lol...

That was alright, I suppose, but there was a problem with the air: it was stale, and wasn't well circulated.



Very odd... especially since this hotel is only 3 years old. (Maybe they meant to say it was 30 years old.)

Let's just say that I had to REALLY wash up everything in my suitcase and I am still airing out my suitcase...

I refused to take pictures of the room. But I did find one picture. I think I was just testing my camera or something...

That is Kimmie-Kim's purple neck pillow. Never seen one of those before. (This means it's some ol' Diva type of thing.)

Let's just say, they didn't spend money on the rooms...

But they went all out on the hotel grounds.

The hotel exterior and landscape simply blew us away... check out the pictures:

Those were nice weren't they? Makes it worth going again. (Only if I can find a different hotel, though!)

If you thought those were nice, wait til you see the beaches!

(To be continued...)

Still Sick. Vacation pics, part I

Hello Party People...

It's me. LadyLee. Still laying on my back. Still sick.

You know, I NEVER thought there would be a time where I would be like "Gee, I really want to go to work!"

LOL!

That don't even sound right. In the past, I've worked with colds. One time, I worked while I had the flu. This thing here has just knocked an Oldgirl down...

I lay here yesterday, and watched the Olympic Curling events.

That's just how BORED I am. And I still couldn't figure that sport out!

I scared my poor sista Kentucky when she came in from work. She's usually asleep by the time I get home.

"Is everything alright, Lisa?"

"Nooooo!" I wanted to yell. But I told her that the cold was getting the best of me, and I needed to chill out for a minute.

But I am feeling better. We're not sure if it's the cold or the flu. Most likely a cold, busting out some lupus flares.

Doc says stay home and recuperate.

So that is what this Oldgirl will do.

I have 17.5 weeks of sick leave.

I can afford a couple of sick days, don't you think?

The goal today: Get out of bed and go sit on the sofa. Yeah. I think I can do that. Yeah. I'll do that later on. Much later.

With that said, thank goodness for the laptop. I can just sit here in bed and do the darn thing.

May as well cycle through some of my vacay pictures... Starting with the airport.

We arrived at the Punta Cana airport around 2 in the afternoon...

A most lovely place indeed.

Gettting off the airplane out on the tarmac and walking through a tube. Hilarious!

I laughed the whole time! I thought they only did that type of thing when you have private jets.

I had the feeling of "You're not in the United States anymore!!!"

LOL

Then we had to do all this walking.

Uh, they could've parked the plane closer to where the gate entrance. I was sweating like a dog walking in that hot sun!




What a gorgeous airport. I loved the open-airness (is that a word?) of the place. I really liked the straw thatched roofs.


This place was nothing like the busy Hartsfield Atlanta airport!!

A picture of some of the locals.


(What's up with the gang signs, fellas? Cut that out.)
A bootleg band played as we entered.
They kicked a straw basket at me after I took the picture, so I gave them a dollar.

I was more interested in getting to the baggage claim...

Belt 1! Come on, luggage!!!


Then it was off to the hotel...

To be continued...