We had a nice and simple Thanksgiving. We spent most of the day at my mothers, and then later with more family as we celebrated and gave thanks for all we have been blessed with.

Here are a few pictures of our family today.

(Of course, a typical kids looking down during family pic moment- not sure why some pics are so grainy and weird, they aren’t like that until wordpress resizes them)

Thankful for Fall & Thanksgiving in the mountains.. I love the WNC mountains..

I’m honored to present to you the amazing, the incredible, the extremely-badass BEARDMAN! He was first conceived at the end of my Senior year of High School along with the catch phrase, “Me father was a werewolf!”, thus explaining his incredible powers. You see, BeardMan can grow out his incredible facial hair and dreadlocks in under 10 seconds. But that is not all, dear readers. He has PREHENSILE FACIAL HAIR and DREADLOCKS.

Recently in my Reading and Writing class, we were asked to come up with our ideal superhero. And so BEARDMAN! made his amazing return, and is now here to stay. With his hairy disguise, this man fights crime WITH HIS HAIR.

I’m exited.

…so (don’t) worry. You will be seeing more of him.

(And don’t worry, I’m not going to tag ‘boobs’ on this post)

I think my original thought was just to have some two-strand twist, but as I was parting so carefully and thinking to myself over 6 hours, I realized that this was the time when the twist were not coming out!

This is often how things get done with me. The first big chop for me happened when I was riding along in the car. I had been transitioning and I all of a sudden said: “this hair has gotta go!” So I stopped at walgreens got the goods, and 1hour later I had a twa. For my loose naps journey checkout my fotki at: www.fotki.com/Smilejoelle

So I started  my locks on either the first week of November or the last week of October, but I cant remember exactly. I’m quite forgetful.

Locks started with two strand twist  with ORS twist and loc gel which I have to say was probably a mistake, I am honestly not a fan of this gel, because of flaking issues. Also I happen to have dermatatis, so I have a very oily scalp, as a loose nap I washed every 1 to 3 days. So I ‘m wondering how it will go with the baby locs. 

But here it is:

I used to think that I would never interlock for two reasons: (1) I thought it took much time (2) I was native to only palm-rolling. It appeared interesting and tempting at the same time. Why? Because you didn’t have to worry about your locs unraveling at the root….or at all, for that matter. However, I did not want to worry about the texture of my locs changing or run the risk having little bumpy knots from inaccurately interlocking. So why the change of heart you ask? Well, I shall tell you why (very short story, actually). One afternoon, I was riding back from another county with a couple of coworkers. While they were yacking on their phones, the slightly irritable-from-hunger My4tress needed something to dwindle time away while she waited for the stoplight to change for the turning lane in 5 o’clock traffic (instead of twiddling my thumbs).  I subconsciously started playing with my locs of course. Next thing you know, I was weaving the root (interlocking) the back locs. They’re usually the ones to unravel at the root much quicker than the rest of my locs. As I felt for what I’ve done, I realized that I did it pretty well; no lumpy knots. I rolled the loc in one direction to see how it would’ve looked/felt if I palm-rolled the interlocked part later. No difference. Hmm! I was quite pleased. So I learned that if you do not interlock too tightly and not in the same direction, you have a nice result that will not change even if you palm roll later. You want to interlock as closely as possible to the already locked part of your locs. However, if you did it incorrectly, you will end of with:

(1) separated roots

(2) if palm-rolled, a twisted part

(3) a hole in the middle of your loc.  (I put a q-tip inside of the hole so you could identify it easier.)

FYI: Interlocking becomes addictive when your hands are idle or if you don’t have nothing to do (lol) and doesn’t take as long as you think.

Next thing you know, all of my locs have been interlocked. So, I washed my hair just last week expected to roll some roots, when I looked at the mirror and barely saw any puffiness (a sign of a root(s) needing retwisting). That saved me a lot of time.

(I’m going to try to do a vid on interlocking; however, letting you know now that I’m not an expert interlocker, lol.)

This is the third in a series of posts about some new releases from Blowpop that I’m really loving. In addition to the cute triangle bra & boyshort sets, and the three goddesses set, we’re treated to lots of colorful camis.  The Blue Roses cami made for a great casual top, and I cruised around the grid in this outfit for a couple of days. 

Clicking the images will take you to larger versions.

I’d say that 99.9% of the time, I’m not at all fond of wearing t-shirts in SL that feature a store logo and I know from previous discussions on Plurk that I’m not the only one who feels this way. I’m more than happy to make an exception for these tops from Blowpop, though! The Sailor Jerry styled artwork is beautiful and displays Blowpop’s (slightly naughty sounding!) catchphrase, “Lick, Don’t Bite”.

Also worn is LAQ’s Jewel skin, a fairly recent addition to the Glow Skins collection.  Jewel is quite stunning, and is available in darker skintones (you can see more of the tones and makeups below).  I seem to gravitate toward boots a lot in SL; maybe this is because I never get to wear them in RL?  I live in Hawaii and the only time you ever really need to wear boots here is when you’re doing yardwork or gardening, lol.  But anyway, I was long overdue for some updated cowboy boots and I finally recently splurged on J’s Western Boots.  Finishing off the look is my favorite new hair, a sculpted dreadlocks style from booN.  booN has a whole bunch of dreadlocks that look incredible and I’m hoping that the selection will grow in the future.

As with the three goddesses tops, the Blue Roses camis are available in both long and short lengths as well as on a variety of clothing layers to maximize your mix and match potential.  They’ve been made in a bunch of colors, and they go perfect with the lowrise boyshort undies.  I think it’s the perfect combination for chilling out in your skybox with your closest friends. 

Accompanying the release of the Blue Roses camis are the Rampant camis, which feature a gold lion rampant……. licking a lollipop!  Haha.  I’m curious to see the Blowpop coat of arms.    These, too, are available in a bunch of colors:

Credits…
Camisoles – Blowpop – Blue Roses (1st, 2nd, and 3rd images); Rampant (4th image)
Lowrise boyshorts – Blowpop – from the Cassie underwear set
Skin – LAQ – Jewel + Cleavage Enhancer 2
Hair – booN – LUV205
Shorts – League – Booty Shorts dirty
Boots – J’s – Wester boots

today, I have finally done it! I have dreadlocks!

I have been thinking about it for quiet a while, and was about to do them a couple of times but there wasn’t enough time or kept on putting it off for later. But this is something I just simply had to do! and finally it has happened. It took us just over five hours, given that there was a lot of hair to go through! they were really cool 5 hours, spent with music, snacks, alcohol, a tv show, and great conversation…. this is it, day 1 of my deradlocked existence!

Apparently there is a lot of taking-care I need to do for these babies to grow healthy and stronger! (well, not sure about the healthy bit since dreadlocks are famous not necessarily for their health), but the bottom-line is, if I want them to look great, I have to be patient and do my part. When I first ever heard of ‘locks’ I just thought you don’t wash your hair ever again and put everything you can find around on your hair to make it disgusting, while this another approach to have dreadlocks, is not the route I went for; yes there is still a little “dirtiness” in every dread but is not necessarily disgusting stuff! is mostly bee-wax, and loads of palm-rolling, and tightening, and more bee-waxing to do over the next few months.

That is my very first article regarding the development of my hair, I will keep on posting once a week on how the new hair-do is coming along!

here is my very first picture with them! let me know what you guys think!

I figured this was what Mario Andrette McNeill did with Shaniya Davis. He choked her to death and tried to hide the evidence of his crimes under bags of deer carcasses. No wonder he had that flicker of a smile on his face as he was being photographed and videoed. He was famous, even notorious now. No wonder he and her mother, Antoinette Davis, are separated from the jail population for their own protection. That there is honor even among thieves, so to speak, says a lot about how heinous a crime that has been committed.

I am going to say this: black people did not resist slavery in order to visit this kind of thing on our people. We saw so much and were probably reeling from so much even after slavery officially ended. And in some cases, it got worse for us. That’s exactly why our ancestors didn’t talk too much about their memories of slavery, of the days during and after Reconstruction, and of second-class wage slavery and American apartheid to their children and grandchildren; it was too painful on which to linger.

That even as a child of 10, 11 or 12, you could fall prey to a master, a master’s son or other relative, a white manager or worker. Or, to a master’s archaic ideas about multiplying his “herd” or “flock” by putting a ‘tween black girl with a fully-adult black male like horses or mules.

A girl’s feelings about who they are aren’t that well-developed, no matter how people may argue that the current culture has sexualized and desensitized children into thinking that they are mature. Now imagine a girl child of five being forcibly, wrenchingly introduced into that adult world of carnality. She’s not able to process mentally, much less physically, what in the world is happening to her. Shaniya could have sustained massive internal injuries during the rape. Had Shaniya had survived, she may not have been able to bear children. This isn’t anything new either. We have the testimonies of black women like Billie Holiday and Maya Angelou–Holiday and Angelou through autobiographies and memoirs–who were raped as baby girls. It’s just that simple–and horrifying to explain. Those stories were also meant as warnings, not just protest literature. It happened to us; it was not our fault.

Somehow, though, by not teaching and talking about this legacy–making it real beyond simply a school assignment–and by not repeating the poison of self-abnegation, we’ve got some generations who know no limits to dealing despair and cruelty to each other. So slavery too is back with a vengeance. Some 100,000 children of every color between 10-14 years old are sex slaves, some being pimped by their parents, the majority selling themselves on the street as runaways or being pimped by other adults. And there is indeed a market. We know there is, but it could be as distant from our minds like the modern slave trade in Africa. We need to agitate here so we can have some understanding of what is going on over there. A mother, who looks like a denizen from a bad dream, to sell her own daughter for some coke rocks? I thought that I had seen the last of this kind of thing in the Eighties and Nineties.

Even wearing McNeill and Davis wearing their hair in dreadlocks gives a bad name to the hair style. I don’t think Marley meant for his Rasta dreads to be imitative of dope fiends, but of released-from-mental-and-spiritual-bondage, proud-of-who-they are and lionized black people. But there they are on these two wastes of blood and semen. This too is how a legacy is obscured and misused. When I admired a brother’s dreads in New York at a subway station, he cautioned me about touching them because he considered them as nothing less than a sacrament. I had heard about people like this, but when confronted with it, I had to respect him. My curiosity could go no farther. I could not lay hands on him, or anything on his person, without his permission for whatever reason. There are limits about treating things and people that you don’t understand with disrespect, or robbing them of life.

But people like McNeill and Davis feel nothing. They look like they don’t give a flying you know what. All they feel is the rock talking through them. Antoinette in particular seems zombified. And so now, because of their own dreadful choices, they don’t even have their own lives any more because they have robbed this child of life. Did Antoinette feel nothing about the child while she was in her womb at all? What did she feel when she gave the girl to McNeill? Did she really think that she could have sanitized the girl’s absence with her father? All this because of Antoinette’s drug habit. Like I said, the bust in the summer could have been the reason why. Because the cops got his stash while McNeill was living with her sister, Antoinette must have owed him. Did he use a gun or just his physical strength against the mother in order to get “paid”?

Shaniya reminds me of my brother’s girls, my biracial nieces Tasha and her sister when they were little babies and toddlers. I can only look at their photographs as they were when they were five, and shake my head.

One reason why we wanna see New Moon... click for maximum abs-enjoyment

This is it, the day we all waited for. Finally it has arrived. We made it through. So today we will celebrate the New Moon premiere! In case you don’t already know it, Zelda and I won’t be able to watch the movie until november 25th. But hey, don’t worry about us. We’re gonna make it. We still got each other. And five days pass pretty quickly… at least that’s what I keep telling myself. So just go to the cinema with all of your friends and enjoy Chris Weitz’ masterpiece. Heard me Chris? I called it a masterpiece, so you better not disappoint me. I’m sure you did a great job though. In your face Cathy Hardwicke! Okay, I got carried away, sorry! Back to New Moon. As we have to wait five more days, we will present you a “how we distract ourselves by writing New Moon top ten lists every day” special edition until we finally go to watch the movie on wednesday (YAY!). So here we go with the first one called “ten things we hope to see (again) in New Moon” (Yep, another top ten list for our collection):

"Hey cactus, purple's cool, right?"

1. Another cactus. Or maybe even the same from the first movie, we won’t be picky. But oh god, please let there be a nice little cactus.
2. An equivalent to “Purple’s cool”. Maybe Bella could finally wear the long khaki skirt and Alice could try to be nice and say something like “No Bella, you look…um…great. No really, khaki’s cool”.
3. More “Hey Arizona. How you likin’ da rain, girl?” from Mike Newton. Cause honestly, he owns that line. Who else could deliver it like Mike Welch did in Twilight? I was so dazzled, awesome. No, honestly.
4. Another proof that Billy Black is so “down with the kids”. Because his house so is “the hood” for all the unnaturally buff teenage Indians running around shirtless. Aka the werewolves.
5. An equivalent to the ultimate Carlisle “Animal Attack” stare-down.

supersexy Rachelle, I so wanna be her BFF...

6. Laurent rocking his dreadlocks once more. Before he gets killed by the wolves aka shape-shifters. How sad, he was my favorite of the original evil trinity (James,Victoria and Laurent).
7. Rachelle Lefevre as Victoria dazzling us with her great appearance. And absolutely awesome hair. I didn’t buy the “scheduling conflicts” story for one second btw! Heard me Summit? Eclipse will not be the same without her. I already miss you, Rachelle!
8. An equivalent to the famous “hold on tight spider-monkey” line. Cause we so need something to laugh about in New Moon.
9. The wolfpack running around shirtless for at least 98.3% of the movie. For no reason. Just because they look so smoking hot with all their amazing abs and muscles. So damn athletic. Wolfpack pride! Team Jacob! Oh, and Team Paul! (Yes, I am…kind of…)
10. Edward looking freakingly dazzling beautiful in the Volterra scene. Cause we so need to see Rob rock his unusual washboard abs. Which he kind of doesn’t have in real life but well… Doesn’t make any difference though (Name that quote and you’ll get a totally fake prize!). We’ll swoon over him anyway. Like we always do.

a

Off to talk to my cactus about Rachelle… and awesome wolfpack-abs

Saveyoursoul

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What do you hope to see in New Moon? Any expectations? Do you already miss Rachelle as much as I do? Waiting to see the wolfpack-abs? I am! And I’m not even denying it… Or are you rather eager to see Rob’s amazing fake-abs instead? Whatever it is, leave us a comment or send us an e-mail! One of the lucky ones who are going to watch New Moon today? In case you are, I totally envy you… no offense intended, just sayin’…

(images: google)

Photo by Scott Kitson

Thanks Scott for Gingermania’s first hilarious Ginger sighting! Sorry the image is so blurry, guys; this was taken on a phone (and with some stealth from what I can tell!) I’m loving the combo of overalls + drinking at an Irish pub. This Ginger obviously missed the memo that dressing like a farmer went out of style around the 1900s (unless he actually is a farmer, in which case he should have considered changing before going out in public). You can’t tell in the picture, but according to Scott this man was also sporting dreadlocks. So basically we have a farmer-hippie-Irish Ginger. I’m loving it.

On a side note, if you or your friends see a commical Ginger in public, snap a pic and tell me about it! You can e-mail me at amandaleigh.peterson@gmail.com, tweet me at amandapanda8, or send me a Facebook message. I’d love to share in the delight of your rare Ginger spottings!!

Ah how FABulous!!! I found these over on Naturally Beautiful Hair blog! How chic and totally appropriate! I SO want one! ah! Check her blog for ordering information! These dolls would make a great addition to my collection of Barbies that I still have in their original boxes!

Exclusive, Clips on wordpress! Two Previews of  Terminus Coming soon from Innerface Films Directed by Sean Parsons, Starring Katherine DuBois. Visit: www.terminusfilm.co.cc www.innerfacefilms.com Written by Sean Parsons losely based on an A.M. Esmonde Breathing Dead Novel.

Hello WP…time for another hair story…YAY!!!

Meet Essence…she has a great hair story and a wonderful spirit…when I first approached her, out of the blue,  about doing “hair story” she was more than obliging and gracious.   She has been natural for a while and has  great words of wisdom for transitioners, newly naturals and veterans.  Also, check out her blog “live. laugh. do.” it is filled with awesome things to do and wonderful places to eat.  Rock that do Essence!

1.  How long have you been natural?
Hmmm… let’s see. I’ve been natural since 2001, so almost ten years. That’s a long time. I’ve tried it all, except the Jerri Curl, as I had no desire to let my soul glow (Coming to America reference).

2.  What prompted you to make the change?
My hair has always been very soft. My Mom never wanted me to perm my hair but when you’re in the pool and the only one with an afro, not having wet slicked back hair became all the more obvious. I wanted to be cute too – not on the bus looking like a hot mess. I begged her for the perm. I got the perm. I was 14. It looked good for the first week. After that -my hair just started breaking. My hair was shoulder length before the perm and I found myself going to the hair dresser every two weeks – my hair getting shorter. I was not amused. I decided after about 3 months, to grow my hair out. It didn’t take long – I was *the* braid princess. I had a brand spankin’ new head of natural hair. A friend of my mother’s, who was a hair dresser, got me into a conversation about perms and hair and convinced me that I was simply using the wrong relaxer. Initially, I used Revlon but she convinced me that for my hair type… it was way too strong. So, what did I do? I gave it another chance. SMH @ myself. (Side bar: Don’t believe that crap – sodium hydroxide or  calcium hydroxide/ guanidine carbonate – same chemicals and still bad for your hair).
What happened? The same thing. It looked good for the first week – then my hair started to break. I decided that enough was enough. I wanted my healthy hair back. I transitioned with braids again and grew out my hair.

I loc’d my hair in July 2007. It was the best natural move I ever made. Lack of proper care for my overall well-being caused my hair to break. When I stress – my hair is the first place it manifests itself. I lost a patch of hair in the crown of my head. By the middle/end of January, it started to grow back as I started to take better care of my overall well-being and cleaning up my life. I could have been content to continue to let the patch fill in, but there were other changes (for the better) going on in my life at that time. I decided to seal the deal by starting over – quite literally. I’m a spontaneous person – known to do things and accept/manage the repercussions after. One night after work, I was home looking at the patch that was finally growing back. It had become unacceptable to me now. I called my barber (to find out what time he closed) and literally ran to the barber shop. At first he didn’t believe what I was asking him to do; in fact, he refused me. I grabbed the scissors and cut off a large portion of my locs and handed him the scissors to finish the job. Viola – bald head emerged!

3.  How long did you transition? or did you BC?  Did that affect your confidence?
When I was younger, the idea of no hair was frightening to me. I transitioned with braids. I needed it. I wasn’t confident as a child – so I was definitely not about to give the popular kids ammo. LOL!
With my locs – I just went for it. I didn’t even know if I would have the “right shaped head” to pull it off. I was at the point of: “Get this crap off of my head and let’s just start over.” It did wonders for my confidence. People loved and accepted the look immediately – though they cried that I no longer had my locs – they loved the look.

4.  What was the reaction of family, friends, significant other to you wearing your hair natural?
Initially, shock then admiration and lots of love for the new look.  My mother screamed when I revealed the new look to her. She didn’t think I would do it – but she knows I’ve always been gutsy. My siblings loved it. They offered to brush my hair all the time. I became the new comfort item when watching movies – they’d rub my head (LOL!). My friends were a trip. The dialogue went something like: “OMG! What did you do?” to “WOW, You really did it” to “I love it”. I’m thankful that there was no significant other in the picture to complain

5.  5 products your hair can’t live without
I used to be a big product junkie but since I had locs – I cut down on all of that. Our hair doesn’t need much to grow. We just have to stop giving it crap.

* I’m big on oils. Lavender oil is not only aromatic but very good for scalp stimulation.

* A good shampoo: Khoret Ahmen from Carol’s Daughter.

* Kinky Curly Custard is the best stuff on earth as far as I’m concerned. I didn’t want to rock a fro – I think it looks too rough (lol) – Kinky Curly helps soften the hair and gives  it a curl like a texturizer.

* Water & Overall Healthy Diet: We are what we eat. What you put into your body is what comes out of it.

* Healthy Lifestyle: I know first hand that stress affects me physically. I’ve found a variety of de-stressors that work for me. I make sure I laugh a lot, cry when I need to, walk for good measure, and give love

6.  Advice you would give to someone going natural?
* Make sure it’s something that you really want to do. It seems to be a trend now. For me – moving to be natural is/was deeply personal. I was doing some serious heart/life cleaning … and was also tired of putting crap in my hair. I don’t see myself EVER going back to a perm. I’ve been there, done that and got the t-shirt… twice.

* Be confident – rock your teeny weeny afro, medium fro, large fro with confidence. The only limit is your imagination. I firmly believe that with natural hair, there are no rules. You can rock it any way you want to – there is no right or wrong unless it’s unhealthy. Find what works for you – and try some things that you don’t think will. You never know. Trial and error is necessary to find the do’s that work for you.

Love. Peace and No bottles of hair grease (it’s not healthy) LOL!

=========================

Thanks for sharing Essence!!!

Hello to all (2 of) our readers!  (You KNOW who you are!!!)

Has anyone out there seen Chris Rock’s movie, “Good Hair”?

When I first saw the previews for this movie I thought, “Jay (the white stripe in the relationship) has got to see this!”  I thought maybe it would help explain the many BLACK WOMEN’S HAIR questions he’s had throughout our nine years of ZebraBliss:  Why do you wash your hair so rarely?  Why all the trips to the salon?  How and why do you sit for nine hours getting braids sewn and glued in?  Why are you constantly changing your hair style?  Is that your real hair?  What about hers– is that hair real?  It’s a seemingly never-ending list of curiosities he has about my (our) hair.  Worst of all, he says my natural hair is GREASY, and he mostly avoids touching it when I come to bed with it tied up.  (White people wash their hair most every day to get that greasy feeling out.  He doesn’t get it that that is natural and healthy for our hair.)

I’m really hoping that this movie gives him more insight into the issues and complexities of African-American women’s hair.  If anyone’s seen this movie, please drop us a line.  We’d like to know your thoughts on the movie, hair in general, and how other IR couples tangle on this subject.  I’m happy Rock made this movie.  Just seeing the previews made me realize how much time and money I was wasting in the chair, and on fake hair.

So I’ve decided to go natural and get locks– Thanks to Chris Rock…. and my husband!

Any of you ladies going natural too?

If I said these things, I’d be a liar:

1. It hurts when I eat. So I don’t.

2. My inability to cook brings all the boys to the yard. And they’re like, it’s better than yours. I can teach you, but i’d have to charge.

3. My cat and I; we have the best conversations.

4. After 7 years and you  still don’t know what you want?  That’s totally cool. Take your time. I’ll just be waiting here listening to my ovaries cry.

5. Vegans are good people.

6. My skinny jeans just aren’t skinny enough.

7. I wish everyone would stop being so jealous of my tan.

8. Thank you Mr. David Sedaris. It is a pleasure to be your favorite writer.

9. No, my co-worker’s breath does NOT smell like regurgitated Easy Mac.

10. I love duck hunting. There is nothing better.

11. Your dreadlocks smell delicious Mr. white hippie man.

12. Why yes, I would love to sit here and listen as you explain to me why the WNBA sucks and why women just shouldn’t play sports or show their faces in public.

13. NO, I have never told a woman that she has a face like she was born in a bar.

MIDWEST SIDE! Can’t get enough of this gangsta sh$#.

I’ve been listening to a lot of music recently. For awhile there, I’d hardly listened to anything outside of my car.

Lately, I’ve been digging Tegan & Sara pretty hard, but I’ve also put Tim Fite and Dustin Kensrue back into my heart. And then a lesser known band called Passenger.

It doesn’t really matter what I’m listening to. Just the fact that I make time to appreciate some music in the forefront of my consciousness makes my day. I can do background music, but intentional listening fills me up so much.

Erica and I were watching Elf tonight and Zooey Deschanel’s character tells Will Farrel’s character that she doesn’t sing in public. Only in private. And then he starts singing loudly and terribly in public to show her that it’s the same.

I then explained to Erica, as is our habit whenever any random thought comes to mind, that I hate that: when people can sing well, but won’t anywhere near where an ant passing by might hear. I, on the other hand, love to sing, and people hope I don’t. Or, when you sing out loud, other people will sing along, but softer. They don’t belt it, or they try and sound really good, even though you are obviously just on this side of yelling the words.

The point is, I love music so much because it always makes me want to sing. Or dance. Or, like with Tegan & Sara recently, play it- be a part of it. And when I say music, I mean the music I love. I will not claim to like everything, though I believe I have a certain ecelecticism to my taste. But, the music I like, I love.

So, I guess dancing in my room getting dressed, letting my wet hair freeze because the dark lingers longer these mornings, singing to my iPod makes my day.

FringeLovers

I know that some of you have seen these already, but today I’m reflecting on where I’ve been and what I’ve become.

FringeGirl 2007

Once I was full of good ideas and creativity.  One electrified look from FringeMan would make my hair stand on end and turn green.

To clarify, I wouldn’t turn green, just my hair.

But now I’m left with only frizz and gray.

FringeMan 2007

There are no electrified looks from FringeMan, because he can’t see me through those long locks, dreadlocks.

FringeKid 2007

At one time I could convince my child that she was a cat.

FringeBoy 2007

I nearly talked FringeBoy into coming back from the dark side.

But….

FringeGirl 2008

something happened to me.

My hair grew in.

I became a hardened, almost plastic woman.

FringeKid 2008

I fear for my sweet babies.

I’ve seen the same plastic look on my darling little angel.

FringeBoy 2008

This year I’m left with nothing.

FringePup 2008

I cannot even think up a costume that my dog will wear.

I think I lost all my zeal when I promised not to steal candy from children’s goody bags.

Chocolate is why I dressed up.

Chocolate is why I went door to door in a plastic mask that cut my oxygen supply so much that I became terribly dizzy.

I’d be willing to pass out in the middle of the street for a Reece’s Peanut Butter Cup.

I’d be willing to humiliate myself in costumes that no self-respecting woman would wear for a 3 Musketeer.

This year there is no costume.

There is nothing but a vow NOT to eat chocolate.

Excuse me while I go mourn my candy.

Enjoy the weekend and eat a Snickers for me, will ya?

Of course we’ve all heard by now that Lil Wanye is going to be serving a year in prison. Since he was charged in NY, he will serve his term at Rikers Island State Prison. This is  where many rappers have served time at, such as Tony Yayo, Foxy Brown Cool G Rap, and where Shyne just came from. Wayne is due for sentencing in February of 2010. At that time he is expected to be sentenced to a year in prison, and will probably serve eight to 10 months, assuming good behavior.

The incident took place in July 2007, when police pulled over Wayne’s tour bus at around 11:30 p.m. on the night of his show at New York’s Beacon Theatre. They arrested the rapper for criminal possession of a weapon and another man on the bus for criminal possession of marijuana. Even before his show that night, Wayne made repeated comments from the stage about being hassled by police and threatened not to perform in New York again.

Many concerns are arising and are at stake. For instance, who will step up for Cash Money Records will Drake rumored to be releasing another mixtape, Birdman w/ another album coming out, and Bow Wow as well. Also things like; did Curren$y make the right decision by leaving Young Money, what will his baby mamas/children do, will his “GANG AFFILIATION” affect his prison experience. and will he still current after he is release.

What ironic is, that in Drake’s Ignorant Shit feat. Lil Wayne. Weezy made line that went.. “And I take probation/I don’t want that t.I. and vick (Michael Vick) vacation”…….and now he does..

One more question is….Will Wanye have to cut his dreads?

“Male prisoners are only allowed to wear their hair in cornrows, going straight back. And they can’t exceed the ‘natural hairline’ in length.” Now of course our question is: what does ‘natural hairline’ mean?

“It means it can’t extend the neck.” But there is one loop-hole in the issue – though I’m not sure it’s going to help Wayne. “Prisoners who claim Rastafarri as their religion are allowed in most cases to keep their locks. But even then there’s a process to determine if it’s genuine.”

Chris Rock has a new documentary that just came out entitled Good Hair. It’s about the black hair industry, how black hair (in its natural state) is perceived, self-image…and so on. It looks really interesting and, because it is Chris Rock, really funny.

My hair is not a huge part of my self-image, I must admit. I have been known to hack off a foot of hair without blinking an eye. But there are things I’ve always wanted to try with my hair, and Good Hair reminded me of that, because they are traditionally black hairstyles.

When I was in high school, a teen style magazine–either Sassy or Jane–ran a feature on African braids. There were thin ones and thick ones, ones that required additional (synthetic) hair and ones that could be done with what nature gave you. I fell in love with some gorgeous fat spirals. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the name of the braid style. Even more unfortunately, my thick-ish white-girl hair is not enough to sustain these braids.

In college, I tried to acquire dreadlocks  following the steps Alice Walker gives in Anything We Love Can Be Saved. I didn’t brush my hair. I washed it regularly. I twisted handsful of it to help the hair knit together. But at the end of six or seven months, all I had was unbrushed hair. Of course, I may be missing the key ingredient she mentioned: at least one drop of African blood.

I don’t want these hairstyles because I’m trying to become black. That would be silly and pointless besides. I just think they look beautiful on women and men I have seen, and I want to see if they would be beautiful on me, too.

Mi-ati cerut poze va dau poze.  Dreaduri noi, vechi, reparate, nereparate, lungi, scurte, cu extensii sau fara.

Skin: Den Dou — Vampire skin -Light- /Hidden fang
Eyes: Den Dou — *DEN-DOU* Vampire Eyes /Red
Hair: BOON — booN EDI998 hair platinum

Outfit:(D) by XIII Navarathna — Outlawed
Scarf:[LeeZu!] — Miss Mara Scarf /ethno mauve
Shoes:DragansVarg — Peasant Boot
Weapon::: Chrysallis Labs :: — Bastet’s Claw
Gloves/Bracers: Torvalds Forge — Ottar Kilt (dark)

   Today has been long, but definitely good. I finally got my speech from Nora this morning (not so great…) and presented it just a few hours later (also not so good). I turned in my Crockett paper (yet again, not so good), then headed to work (good).  For the first time I had DPS drive me there because I had a big bag of craft supplies to donate from Mommy. At DPS, the first guy complimented my hair, then noticed that my hair was “normal” on my ID card and made a nice comment about that. As I waited for him to finish, a girl came by and said “I love those leggings!!!” (the new Free Peoples) and said she liked my hair a lot. Then a second DPS guy asked me to go over to him so he could put my info into the computer, and he complimented my dreadlocks, then noticed my name and said “What a cool name!”…then, apparently having witnessed the intensity of the number of compliments I had recieved in the preceeding minute and a half, he commented..”We’re just handing out compliments today…” I liked it. Some days I need that

    At work today we played outside because it was nice out. Luul came late, but instantly ran over to hug me. The other girls were pretty fun today too. We made bookmarks from 4:30 to 5, then I played Scrabble with the other “adults” because Kali had never played before. Good times. It’s fun to see what words they come up with having a more limited vocabulary.

   Tonight is all about religion research. I have to get a lot done, but I also have all tomorrow morning which is a really great feeling. Supposed to hang out with Sarah tonight too, it’s been too long. Ta-da!