I heard 2013 was the year of the selfie; if that’s true it appears I fed into it just a little…
In all honesty this year has gone by in a blur. In fact it’s gone by so fast I can barely recall all that I did. What’s cool about having a blog is that I can skim through my archives and get a sense of what went down.
New Years Eve 2012– Family drama, not mine personally, but we Jefferson kids are so close that if something goes down with one of us, we all feel the pain. Things are good now, but 2013 started off choppy!
January– Jury Duty. Ick! Dirty windows and filthy carpets in holding pen=disenchantment with my civic duties. I got through it and mercifully didn’t get picked to serve.
February-The Ravens won the Super Bowl! Oh yeah, this was the lights out for almost an hour piece in New Orleans. Living on a main thoroughfare in Baltimore made the win even more fun to witness. I was happy to be in Mt.Vernon and not Federal Hill though; the drunkies are always out in full effect in Fed Hill. No worries about that this year though, as I type this the Ravens are packing it up cuz their season is ovah! They’re still the champs for another month though;-)
March-Mom-Mom died. My mother’s mom died in her late eighties. She was all good and in a matter of weeks went from seeming perfectly healthy to gone. We had a graveside service in a swirl of snow.
April-quiet, more grad school
May– 20 year high school reunion. Wow! 20 years should not blow my mind but it does. It was a surreal experience spent trying to remember names although we all FB friend each other. There was talk of children, marriages, and work. There were a few sprinkles of us who still have not married or had kids. I really wish I’d had the ability to kick it with more folks to see who I might have more in common with now. I did enjoy checking in with those I used to run with in high school but I know that was my first and last time attending.
June-quiet, just late night classes for my pre-req, intro to graphic design class needed for a fall course.
July– The opposite of quiet.
- My man, his sixteen-year-old son and I moved in. HUGE life step for me. After nine years of living in my Mt. Vernon honey comb hideout single apartment on Cathedral, I moved 4 minutes west. So maybe not all that jarring but still. There were a few ‘snafus’ with the move namely with Comcast: obnoxious, irritating, monopolizing! I had intermittent internet access that almost cost me the ability to complete my summer project, a book layout in InDesign. Thankfully one of the reps felt my pain and helped a sistuh out and got me set up.
- Artscape! Fun in the beating high noon heat of the sun. I bought the flyest tee (pictured above in one of my selfie-indulgent moments). Who made this? There’s no tag sewn in, nor was their a business card in my bag but I want to buy more. HELP!
- LA! Got to see my homegirls.
August– Legends of Summer tour. Jay Z and JT in the Ravens stadium. Thank you Tish!
September– Year two of grad school:)
October-This Libra turned 38. I still get the quizzical looks when I get ID’ed which means I’m doing something right!
November-Thanksgiving of course and my Mobbie (Maryland’s Outstanding Blog awards) nomination. My blog ended up ranking 5 out of 31 in the Best Personal Blog category. I am still so proud of that achievement and happy to know I have so many supporters! The month ended on a sad note with the death of Paul Walker. I didn’t even know the man but his death was like a gut punch. Those who die young and suddenly always stay with me; it didn’t help that I’d just seen Fast & Furious 6 the week before.
December– The death of Nelson Mandela ushered in this month. So strange to see a man die whom you’ve grown accustomed to being around. I took his life for granted even with reports of his ongoing illness. Like Tupac I thought he’d be with us forever. Mandela’s death opened up the archives spilling images from his youth which I was fascinated to see. I grew up knowing he was a political prisoner, that he was released from prison after more years than the time it took for me to attend a high school reunion. The fact that he got out and still ended up becoming the first black president of S. Africa is remarkable. Watching coverage of this man’s life reminded me of how small of an impact I’ve made but also highlighted the fact that it is a rare man or woman who will give up their life for their beliefs. Mandela’s willingness to do just that and his belief in forgiveness seems to be what propelled him into our collective conscience or that “rare air” as Toure says in his book The Portable Promised Land. This quote sums up what I feel inarticulate to say about the importance of Mandela. To me he was one of “… those spiritual pilots who rest atop the Black [our]* imagination like nighttime stars— brilliant patches of light with a sort of everlasting life that we can look up to for direction any time we lose our way.” (pg 14)
*I added the word ‘our’ to replace ‘Black’ because Mandela touched everyone, plus my quote is from a short fiction story so I took some liberties.
2014-It’s New Years Eve; I have a blossoming plan for the upcoming year-it’s a work-in-progress. I wish for good health and new lucrative opportunities. I wish the same for my friends and family. I wish to publish again as 2013 was the year of ‘I’ve been so busy adjusting to grad school life I haven’t published a thing nor have I posted regularly on my blog!’ I’d also like to stop smoking. I’m a covert smoker, never taking a smoke break while at work but coming home and routinely after 8pm lighting up with my glass of vino. Some would say that I’m not a real smoker, but I know better, even if I shove all my cigarettes into the second half of my day, I still know I look forward to them and in turn hate them when I overdo it.
Thank you to all my readers, your comments, likes, and reblogs have helped grow my readership. I appreciate you:-)
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