Getting Myself Together

No...I'm not merging my blog with Norris's infamous blog with the same title. I'm just a bit slow with getting myself back into the swing of things. I traveled to Detroit this past weekend to hang with family. Sally tagged along with me and I finally got around to opening my lock to her.

But I just wanted to let everyone know (in case you're wondering) that I'm still alive. Hopefully I'll get it together soon and catch everyone up with more details of my last few days. Until then...PEACE!

New Bag Tag

Post #301 (yeah my last entry on the fight for my time between my man and my friend was my 300th entry...woo hoo!) is none other than a tag by Mr Sean Stone. It's been a while since I've been tagged by anyone so I welcome the challenge.

So Hemingway...

The rules of this game:

• Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.


• Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself.


• Tag 7 random people at the end of your post.


• Let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

First rule....done. Free advertising done. I'm willing to support the cause...*LOL*.

Second rule....hmm. Okay here we go.

1) I got excited once when I met Ariel Growth Fund manager (at the time) Eric McKissack at O'hare years back near baggage claim. I knew of him reading articles featuring him at Black Enterprise. He seemed surprised that anyone would recognize him. He's a sexy guy as well but of course I didn't tell him that.

2) I also met an economist occasionally featured in Black Enterprise sometime in 2004 while stuck in a four hour layover on a trip to Denver, Colorado. Her name was Dr. Margaret Simms who's part of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies group. I was overly excited to meet her as well and like Mr. Mckissack, she was surprised to be recognized.

3) My trip to Denver involved meeting a guy from Atlanta for a weekend booty call. The significance being that neither of us ever visited Denver before.

4) If I wasn't working in IT, I wouldn't mind being a school teacher. My range of kids that I'd want to teach would be from pre-school to 4th grade.

5) I once did the #2 on the carpet of a major retail store. Of course I was a kid then. I also hid behind a store mirror and wall.

6) My first near death experience happened when a church chandelier almost came crashing down my head. It happened while I helped out cleaning it.

7) I lucked out once on not getting a $375 speeding ticket. The cop about to give me one received a call about another pressing emergency. I was still grateful and shook his hand.

The third and fourth rules I'm going to bypass. If anyone reading this wants to do their own 7 random or weird facts, go right ahead and do so.

Tug Of E

Over the year that Rock and I have been together, I've had to try and find the balance between Rock and my bff Eugene. Before Rock came into my life, Eugene was the only guy in the picture. I've mentioned how Eugene and I chat practically every night and have always been an ear for each other. Even when he's been busy, he would take a few minutes break and shoot the breeze with me.

I've found myself quite a few times on the receiving end of a verbal tiff by both Eugene and Rock. There have been times when I'm talking to Eugene on the phone and Rock would call and I wouldn't switch over. Rock would get pissy at me when I told him that I was talking to Eugene at the time. He told me that I should switch over and tell him that I'm busy with Eugene just to let him know.

Logically I suppose if I don't answer the phone, nine times out of ten, I'm busy, right? It seemed a mute point but I decided to go along with this.

I oblige Rock's wishes to switch over and let him know I'm busy and then Eugene gives me a hard time. Sometimes if I know Rock may not have a chance to call soon, I tell Eugene I have to go take the call. Eugene then says that Rock would never switch over if I call and he's in the middle of a conversation.

Rock at times says I put Eugene before him. Eugene sometimes thinks I put Rock before him. I feel like both of them tolerate the other guy's presence in my life. Rock's told me several times, 'I know he's your boy but...' and I feel like every other sentence Eugene says is about cutting it off with Rock. Crazy.

So now I think Eugene's mad at me, which prompted this entry. Actually I haven't really blogged much about Eugene lately. There have been times I've felt like Eugene and I are drifting apart a bit. We were supposed to spend Halloween weekend watching the opening of Saw IV together. I even bought my ticket the month before to fly out to Boston to watch it there. The day before the trip, he said a last minute work related project (something about putting together a grant proposal that was needed that Monday) was thrown on his lap by his boss and he absolutely couldn't hang out as planned. He left a voice text message telling me this because he knew I would be pissed.

On the flip side, Rock was none too pleased that I planned that weekend trip. That weekend was his birthday weekend. In my defense (cause I can hear the hell no's...*LOL*), Rock and I said we should have a combo celebration. Our birthdays are two weeks apart. Sally's birthday fell between Rock and mine's and she suggested the three of us do something together. Things never quite worked out to do the combination thing. The weekend we went to Madison (which was the weekend before my "birthday weekend"), he made the weekend "all about me" even though I was hoping the trip was for "both of us". He cooked a nice meal and called it my birthday dinner. My actual birthday weekend, he spent most of his time at his Mom's fixing her windows from the storm Chicago had that week. He came by that Sunday for about two hours and we just had a quick lunch and lounged around. The weekend after that I drove to Detroit to drop my old baby off. The next weekend was my planned trip to Boston. Rock himself had birthday plans with his friends and another celebration with an ex-boyfriend he's been friends with for years that's relocating to another state. And no I wasn't jealous. *LOL*.

So Hemingway Eugene cancelled and I was pretty pissy. Eugene's decision to leave the voice text was smart on his part because it gave me the chance to cool off and when we finally talked, I wasn't as upset . Knowing Rock's displeasure about the trip, I was reluctant to tell Rock about the cancellation. But I did tell him.

Since I didn't have any plans anymore, I was hoping maybe Rock would invite me to hang out with his friends (especially considering I've hung with his friends before). But Rock didn't offer and I wasn't going to ask. Guess Rock felt since I would've had plans prior had Eugene not canceled, he wasn't about to be my backup plan. I wound up spending that weekend alone, deciding to check out Saw IV myself since Eugene and I never rescheduled the trip. Sidebar: If you've seen Saw IV, then you know Lyriq Bent is a serious hottie, especially when he's in his undies. But that's a digression.

The last conversation Eugene and I had was this past Wednesday morning. I wound up cutting it short when Rock called. I knew Rock would only have a couple minutes before he arrived at work to talk and we didn't chat earlier since I worked out that morning. Actually I think we spoke for a few minutes that evening but I was in the middle of a Netflix rental (yeah I became a Netflix member this past week after the Hollywood Video by me closed shop) and didn't speak too long. We haven't spoken since despite my numerous attempts to call him these past couple days.

He very well could be busy but that hasn't stopped him in the past from checking in. Looks like I may need to go back to the drawing board of finding a perfect balance between Rock and Eugene.

A Year In The Rock

In a couple days Rock and I will officially be celebrating our one year anniversary. I'm really happy that we're reaching this milestone. For me it's a personal one since he's my first serious relationship and my longest relationship.

It's so much work trying to maintain it between us. But he's definitely worth his weight in gold.

For our anniversary weekend, we're actually thinking about checking out the new Muvico theatre that opened in Rosemont. I remember Rock mentioning that Ned and his guy went to that theatre around the time it first opened last September. We were driving along I-294 on our way to pick up my "brand new baby" and I remember how excited Rock got when he saw the theatre from the expressway. From what I hear, you can even have dinner while watching your movie.

I actually went to a similar type establishment a couple years back called Hollywood Boulevard. Interestingly I was on a date with a woman. It was actually the date I briefly alluded to in my now infamous "Catering To MF(s)" entry (hey it's still on my profound rambles list I really need to update that...*LOL*.).

At some point in the weekend, we also wanted to make a trip out to the outlet mall to get some new answers to the question 'what am I going to wear today?'. A hour or two chilling at Starbuck's and general chilling out time is also in our future.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend. Rock joked that he really wanted us to make it to a year and once the anniversary is over, we could break up at 12:01 AM the next day. But seriously, we both agree that we definitely want to "keep each other" for as long as possible. Through both the good times and bad times in our relationship, I couldn't imagine my life without him.

Here's to my continued journey with Rock. Who knows where the next chapter may lead?