Its Been a Long Time

Wow! I cannot belive I have not been on here since November! Not only have I not written anything, but I haven't even logged in. I feel so horrible. Truth be told there were many times I contemplated closing down this blog. I was hardly ever on here an i just felt bad that my life was sitting out in cyberland without any real attention. I attempted to close the blog but they make it a bit confusing for you so I just hesitated.

So sorry to all those who check in with me only to find NOTHING. I really feel bad about that. I can lie and say that I've just been really busy and not able to get a line or two in, but that's all it would be....a lie. Actually, I've had some time but just didnt know what to write. Do I write in the present tense about whats been going on lately or tell more fun stories from before. So I just was stuck in a writers block so to speak.

I've been doing some other writings. A book actually and i am very excited about it. So thats taken ALOT of my focus lately. I am writing a fictional story and my characters are always in my head giving me more details of their lives. Sounds crazy, I know, but its how I work. The only way I can make them come alive on paper is if I think if them as real people.

Besides that, I've started a few websites out there. None of which are needed to state on here, cause they're not looking for much publicity yet.
Evan and I are still here. He's been going to school, and working and doing alot of manly construction jobs around the house. OUr goal is to not work for anyone. Currently I am not working for anyone, and I need to figure out how to stay that way and continue getting paid. So we have like 5000 different company ideas. Hoping that one of them will take.

Well. I cannot promise I will be on here too often to write. Unless you all give me some encouragment....(hint hint).

Until then, I'll write cha lata!

~M.

Beach Day

I wake up to a tap on the bedroom window. What is that? Seems the bougainvilleas that are over growing are tap tap tapping on the window. The wind Santa Ana winds must be picking up. I go to the back door to take in the sun. Its supposed to be about 90 degrees today....BEACH DAY!!!! HAHA!! That's right....mid November and I am getting ready to head to Santa Monica an chillax on the beach. Figured its a perfect day for Evan to actually experience the Pacific Ocean and a real California beach day. We've already been to the ocean near the house so he's seen the water...touched the water....which is FREEZING cold by the way. But this time we actually plan on getting in the water and laying out in the sand....just like in Jamaica....minus the freezing cold waters. The thing about the Pacific Ocean is its obviously not as nice as the Caribbean Ocean, and definitely not as warm.

When I step outside I am instantly hit with the smell of burning land. Another Southern Cali firestorm. I knew there was a fire going on the for the last day or 2 but since the winds kicked up the smell has now traveled out to the beach cities. That's when you know its bad. I don't live anywhere near where these yearly fires happen, so if I can smell them that's pretty bad.....and even worse when I can see the sky turn orange and gray and watch floating ash all over the place. This time was a REALLY BAD firestorm. There was literally a layer of ash all over my back deck. All over the table. All over the chairs, the dog house, the patio umbrella. ALL OVER!! In huge chunks no less. I began to freak out and look around me thinking that there was a storm going on in my neighborhood. To no avail. There happened to be about 3 large fires going on in the surrounding So Cal mountains, and the winds were so strong the fires were spreading and with little to no containment. These "storms" as they call them are getting worse and worse every year. I equate this to global warming no doubt. Tony Tone Toni was right, ....it sure doesn't rain in Southern California. So the hills get dry, and some fool lights a match...often times on purpose and the hills go a blazin'.

Well it seems the perfect day to get outta this town and head to the beach. Can't be to much smoke near the ocean right?

It was a really nice day. Not too crowded, but definitely lots of other people with the same idea of going to the beach mid November.

Evan was able to experience muscle beach.

And he even got a boogie board and got in the sub zero freezing water to board for a bit.


I thought he would die at first from all the patois coming outta his mouth. The waster was cold....i cannot express this anymore. There is NO water in Jamaica this cold. Not the cold showers, not the rivers, not the blue lagoon type pools...NOTHING! However, once you get in cold water, your body goes into what I call "Thermal". Now I really don't know if that is even the correct term to call it, but its what I say. I tend to make up words or definitions as I they come to me. So to me, saying your body goes into "thermal" when you adapt to the cold water is completely my meaning and my meaning alone. But....Evan believes the things I say when its something new to him that he's never heard before. (poor guy, I'm gonna have him speaking a hot mess)So, Evan kept talking bout he's going into thermal, or how he never went into thermal before, or how he cant believe he went into thermal.....HAHAHAHAHA.....I cannot laugh any harder!!
He was pretty cold for awhile there after getting out of the water....this is him experiencing "coming down from thermal":


But I think he had fun:


Either way, I was very impressed....even I did not submerge myself into that water. You do go numb from the cold to the point that it actually feels warm, but I was too punk to go under myself....so I just watched from the shallow end as he got his boogie board on.

He's Here!!

Ok yall, this is a sneak post, cause its late Saturday night and I just got done having a BBQ at the house.

Yes, Evan is here! Woo Hoo!! He's been here a little over a week and man....so much has gone on it seems he's been here forever.

Quick run:

He flew into Florida first...processed thru and connected to California. I was completely calm for the most part. Went to work earlier that day.....got NOTHING done, then went home to get ready. When waiting at the airport, it was like I had ants in my pants. I couldn't sit down, couldn't stand up, couldn't decide which part of the baggage claim area I wanted to wait at. Should I stay hidden and surprise him from behind, should I stand dead center out front so he sees me soon as he rounds the corner. Should I stand back, should I lean against the wall all non-chalant, should I run up and flip out and scream and tings! AUGH!! Its just all too much! Where is this man?!!! Finally he came out, and I just smiled and walked up...holding my little US flag. At that moment of the hug emotions became to much and tears came rolling. I held them back for the most part.....didn't want people thinking I was crazy out in the place. I don't even think Evan knew I was crying. It got a bit more intense when I watched him go to pick up his luggage from the turn belt.

Well fast forward a week and a half and here we are. Evan just had his first "Black-American" BBQ. Black-American....that's what he calls me, and everyone from here. I think its HILARIOUS!! Anyway, lots of family from the side of the fam that had all the crazy stuff to say about our relationship in the beginning. Now....they are chillin back, drinking beer, slamming dominoes together.


But we've come along way since that initial reaction from this side of the family so I knew it was gonna be all good. Everyone loved meeting him and LOVED his jerk chicken and special sauce, (oh yeah, and my potato salad ;-)).

Since he's been here, there has been lots going on....Evan's birthday, Halloween and Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights (great stories here), election day and Barack Obama president elect. It has been quite overwhelming for him, and quite a different daily life for me. Something we both will have to get used to.

OMG!!!

OMG!! That's right....Oh My Goodness!!! I'm back from Jamaica and yes...we got the visa!! WooHoo!! Not only did we get to the interview (which was so simple), Evan already has the visa in hand!!!I cannot believe it. I didn't even have enough time to come on here and write about the interview or my second time in Kingston. Its all so fast, and I am freaking out!! I checked the delivery company that had the visa yesterday. Their website has a tracking service and it said that the visa would arrive the next day. My heart started beating cause I assumed the delivery would take like a week or two at least. So I call Evan and tell him and he says that the company is very reputable so he's sure the visa will be ready tomorrow. He's so calm sounding and the whole time my eyes are buggin out of my head. He's just talking about the whole thing so 'matter-of-factly'. I ask if he actually gets the visa tomorrow (Friday) when would he like to come up? He said "Saturday"....!!! AH!!!! My heart felt like it would jump out my chest. OMG!! He is gonna be here waaaay quicker than I thought. Even before I can clean up and unpack. This is the real deal! We are really married! AH!!!

Later he called back and said that he would rather come up on Monday cause he wants to go to church and say goodbye to everyone. That makes more sense and actually helps calm my nerves. At least I have the weekend to get ready. I know, I know. How ridiculous that we have been married over a year, and I am still not "ready" for him to fly here. Its not really like that, its just the fact that I didn't have a ticket, or requested time off from work, or a clean kitchen or bedroom, or living room, cause I was working like a slave for the past couple weeks. I mean, I didn't even have groceries! Lots of condiments, but no real groceries.

So I have been back and forth calling family and letting them know we got thru the interview AND that Evan will be here Monday. They are shocked! But actually not as excited as I would have thought. The thing is, I think I am so overly excited that their excitement looks mundane. They are truly excited though. My dad does not know he will be here yet but knows about the interview. We talked to him right after. Of course he had lots to say about the loud noise in the background,(Gotta love that Jamaican roadside noise).

So anyway, the day before the interview we realize we don't have passport photos. What in the world?!! So I am heartbroken cause I don't think we are gonna be able to get any in time to make the interview. Or we will go to the interview and they will deny us til he comes back with photos and then the interview is rescheduled. I suggest we wake early and head over to the Embassy cause there has to be a photo place near there. Evan doesn't think so and then says that nothing will open til 9am. Our appointment is 9am. How does nothing open til 9am here?! How do people with a day job get anything done if businesses don't open til 9am? Well, its apparent that I am annoyed. We wake and head out to Half Way Tree. Instantly we find a photo lab. I am skeptical. They are open...opened at 7:30a. We get in there and the woman is very non-chalant (this seems to be the attitude of most Jamaicans in customer service, but that's a blog post for another day. Soon come.) She proceeds to do the pics, but lo and behold....the machine that prints the photos doesn't work. Of course it doesn't! Nothing is simple in Jamaica, so I was not even surprised when she said this. I kid you not, I did not even bat an eyelash when she said it. Soooo, she suggests using the other printer which HAS to print out 12 photos instead of the 6 we were ordering before, and of COURSE this machine costs twice as much money. (can you see me rolling my eyes right now?)((kissteet)). I am already in a bad mood and I can feel the American attitude rising up inside me. You know what I mean. That American attitude when it comes to poor customer service or just plan annoyance or arrogance...whatever you wanna call it, it was about to explode on this lady. I tell her to just keep the 6 other photos we don't want and charge us for 6 not 12. She says "Di machine nuh work like dat." And that the paper is too expensive and such. (I am annoyed.) She suggests waiting for someone else to come and to split the print paper and cost with them. I had to leave the place and go walk outside for a bit to calm my nerves, cause I felt a few bad words brewing, and that would not be appropriate. But regardless, my nerves are jumping. I cannot believe we have come this far to get stopped by not having some stupid pictures. People eventually come to the shop and we indeed do split the cost with another patron. As the printer is printing, I notice that its a basic style printer like every other photo printer on the market, and the paper is NOT expensive....at least not here. Its a basic glossy 8x10 sheet. Why does this one piece of paper and print cost like $17US? We get our photos an hightail it outta there. Its only about 8:15 or 8:20, so we have more than enough time. We head to HWT bus/taxi lane. Lots of people all about. Getting their work day started. The bus we are looking to catch is apparently very popular at this hour. Poppy, I think is what they called it. Most of the busses get filled up faster than we can get to them. Here comes another bus, and this time Evan dang near runs to it, as does everyone else. I am a bit behind. He starts to get on and everyone is pushing to get in. He grabs my hand. There are a couple of people between us. They move a bit to let me squeeze in. Evans pulling me in. People are pushing me in. I am about to trip on the stairs, and someone is stepping on my dress. My arm somehow gets hooked up in the strap of another girls handbag. So I am sort of locked in place. She's about 2 people behind me and Evan is about 2 people in front of me pulling the other arm. I am trying to figure out why I am not able to move and why my arm feels locked up. I turn behind me an realize the poor woman was trying to hold on to her purse for dear life cause it was about to get ripped out her hands as I am wrapped in it and being forced into the bus. I start laughing an finally undue my arm. Pure craziness in the busparks as always.

We get to the Embassy stop and exit the bus. Cross the street and instantly the hustlers run up offering their services. A woman and man get into an argument cause the woman hustler offers me the option of holding our cell phone at about the same time as the man offers Evan to hold the same phone. We go with the woman...I liked her hair. I turn to another guy asking me if I need pictures. I stand there in a daze looking at him holding a digital camera offering to take passport photos for a really good deal.......RAHTID((kisstteet)).

Interview Here We Come!!!......

Ok Yall, I am getting ready to get outta here and head to Jamaica for Evans interview next week. I havent had a lick of time to post a thing since I been working major overtime so that I dont have to use vacation time to take this trip. But I am gonna prepare to have lots of fun stories and pics on my return. I stopped by the blog today to print a view posts. Got to reading some old posts and I had myself craking up, haha!

So wish us luck, speak to God and say a prayer and hopefully we'll be back soon.

~M.

Happy Birthday to ME!!!.....again.

I feel like it was just last week that I wrote a post like this one about my birthday. I cannot believe it has been a year already. But it has, and I am blessed to be one year older....one year wiser. Once again, I spend it without Evan, but its all good. I'm no where near as sad as I was last year, so this year I won't cry.

This year I have the anticipation that this waiting game will soon be coming to an end. So with that feeling....I remain all good.

Mr. Sneaky struck again! I come home to find a card in the mail from no one other than the sneak Mister himself. How is it that he can send mail and it actually arrives to me in a decent amount of time, so decent that he can actually plan out when it will arrive. But if I send him mail, you have to hope and pray that it will actually get there! Thanks for my gifts Sweetness!!














Showing yo skills!!!

Moving Out of Purgatory

Wow! I can't believe that its been over a month since I last posted. My computer kinda died on me so I wasn't able to get online when I wanted to. Well interestingly enough one month after the anniversary we found out....WE GOT A DATE!!!!! Finally! Our visa interview date has risen!! I found out last Tuesday. I really hadn't been checking on the interviews cause it just seemed we got stuck in some sort of visa purgatory hell! Waiting, waiting, and more waiting! It will be 5 months from the date of our completed case until our interview. Geesh!! I don't know why it took this long. Most people wait no more than 3 months. Oh well, its finally coming to an end!! And all of a sudden I'm like....AHHHHH!!!!! I have so much to do and get ready for! This is really happening!! Oh my God I am married and about to live with my husband, whats that all about?! I quickly told Evan when I called and heard about the date. Actually I think I may have hung up on the customer service agent when they finally told me. The guy had a heavy Asian accent and I could barely understand him. "Aka due youa haar eaq date ainn on Ocuw to ber 21, this 2 oa008".....

what the?!

That's how bad he sounded. I had no idea what he was saying!! But I distinctively heard the date of October 21st 2008. The date was actually assigned a few days before I called.

Evan happened to be devoid of all capability to answer his phone or respond to my urgent text message to call me back. UGH!!! I was starting to get mad cause I had to tell him first about the date before I could tell anyone else. Finally he called back an the first thing out of his mouth "Tell me we got a date." Haha, all I could do was laugh. Yes sir we got a date. Instantly his whole lifes expression changed cause he finally had something to look forward to and to move towards. We were finally moving out of purgatory. My family was just as excited. I sent out a mass text to them all and they called back before I could close the Razr. My dad even said "Big ups to that!"

hahahahahaha...big ups?

This man is a trip.

Well now its all about finding cheap airline tickets and places to stay when there. I have 1 month to get it all together. Finding flights out of this city for a decent price is a miracle in an of itself. This time I think I'll just fly straight into Kingston and try the city out for a second go round. All you Kingstonians out there, we're looking for a place to stay.....link yuh girl with any info. If you know of a cheap place, or someone willing to rent out a room for about 4-5 days let me know.