CNN Heroes

I watched CNN Heroes and I must confess that watching some of those people's stories, did inspire a tear or two to spring to my eyes. My friend said that I am supposedly getting soft on her, and maybe she is right. I mean like...these people are nothing short of AMAZING.
There was a school bus driver in NYC who gets off work at 5pm every day, and then he and his family start their 2nd job which is full time cooking 365 days a week for about 140 homeless people in Queens, NY. He has 6 fridges in his house to store all the food stuff, and his retired mom who could be resting her feet and enjoying her days of no work and a hopefully nice pension chooses to stand on her feet instead and join in the cooking. One of the most touching things about his speech was when he pointed out that his sister (who didn't make the awards) stayed behind in Queens, NY so that the homeless men and women would not go hungry for even one night. That was my ultimate CNN hero of 2009.

There was a pilot who along with the support of his wife and 3 kids started an orphanage in Indonesia to provide shelter, comfort, education and food to abandoned babies/motherless babies/refugees.

There was a man who provides wheelchairs to disabled children in IraQ. You could just see the hope and gratefulness that these children and their families feel when they receive the wheelchairs.

There was a woman from Zimbabwe who was raped as a young child, and now provides hope and a helping hand to Zimbabwean victims of rape and abuse.

Among others...

I mean, I was watching and I was truly like WOW. These are regular and ordinary people like me and you, who are doing inspiring things. I know that I may not wake up tomorrow with a dream for a cause but I'm definitely filled with the urge to support, support, support.
I was happy to know that each of the nominated heroes will receive a 25k grant, and the Hero of the year received an additional 100k grant...all to support their causes.

More info on the heroes can be found here:CNN Heroes

And if you can, please do donate, support and make your own little (or big) mark in the world. :-)

Fudgemuffin

I don't like to curse. I cringe everytime I encounter someone with a potty mouth...and it's really not about being a goody 2 shoes or whatevs. It's just one of my things.

And so, for all your favorite curse words, I like to find nicer replacements. For instance:
Modachoker
The very common bish or beesh.
And my recent fave: Fudgemuffin which really should represent curse words of the 'F' variety.

Fudgemuffin!!!
That was exactly what sprung to mind when I landed at the Train station at 6:20am and realized that I had left my wallet at home. Modachoker!!! Who leaves their wallet at home? That precious wallet happens to contain my monthly pass for the train. What had happened was... I took it out of my bag to carry to the gym. I always take it out on my way to the gym cos my license and insurance card is in it, and you just never know...and I guess this time around, I totally missed the memo and forgot to stick it back in my bag.
So, I was faced with 2 options:
A. Go back home and retrieve it.
B. Wing it without the wallet, any form of cash and any means of paying for my commute back and forth.

I picked B. Hopped my pretty behind on the train, and when the ticket guy came around... I simply told him that I forgot my monthly pass and couldn't buy a regular one way pass cos I gots no wallet. He simply shook his head and walked away to which I called out a very sheepish 'thank youu' to his retreating back.
As for the 2nd leg of the trip, I just rustled up some change which should be enough to send me off on my merry one way commute.

I think that I might be able to find my bank somewhere in the vicinity so that should solve the problem of cash to make my way home.
Note to self: Never leave your wallet at home again. I can already spot the inconvenience from afar. No cash for my almost orgasmic morning coffee, no bankcard for any err...incidentals, no license + insurance just in case, I get pulled over for some odd reason or even worse, get into an accident (I reject am!) Etc etc.
I know, I know...who thinks that far ahead?

Aniwoos. I really was just looking for any excuse to update. I miss Blogsville + it seems that I currently appear to be having 'blogger's block'.
Currently typing from my phone and it really isn't bad at all, I can definitely get with the blogging from phone program.

Gotta run, but before I do I must say... HAPPY THANKSGIVING. There is a lot to be thankful for even though we do not realize it.

Ok gotta run for real, its time to catch the next train.

Peace and Love,
Mgbeks.

Confessions, Confessions, Confessions

It's Fridayyyy. Let me start the weekend right by confessing the following confessions.

I confess that:

1. The only reason why some people are still on my FaceBook friends list is JUST so that I can look at their interesting photo albums. Finito. Don't side eye me, you know you are guilty of that too.

2. I enjoy seeing people hooking up/meeting new new/talking to new dudes. It's a generally cute thing about the newness of relationships, flings and things.

3. I don't think that one is too old to make friends. Sometimes even at the age of 40, you may meet someone and it will be an instant connection.

4. I still don't know how to deal with what I think are the complexities in individuals and so my best strategy is usually to retreat and chill in my little corner. I think it works (for me at least).

5. I've been on this 'self destructive' diet plan where I have refused to drink H20 for the past 2 months or so. Like seriously, I can't remember the last time I drank water. I have also insisted on eating the fattiest and unhealthiest foods available. I drink like 2 cans of soda a day, I eat dunkin donuts croissants and muffins for breakfast and mega calorie steez for lunch/dinner and I have definitely gained a whopping 10lbs. *munches a pecan brownie as I type*
I was talking to my friend the other day, while I pulled up to the Wendy's drive through and she got on me about my so-called plan to bring sexy back (which sooo fell off effective Aug 2009) to which I responded that 'I will be back with a bang'. Trust me, I will. Hahahaha...I usually have my 'on the grind' and 'slacker' moments. Slacker mode is in full effect and I am enjoying it o jare.
a. It's winter time, aint no one seeing my frame underneath all these winter coats and scarves. Besides I need some extra fat to stay warm.
b. No boo to entice with a sexy 6 pack. *chortles*
c. I just feel like stuffing my face dammit.
Check back in a few months sha. :-D

6. Blood is NOT always thicker than water. Family is NOT always the set of people who have your best interests at heart. It is what it is...

7. I'm past the stage of expecting my friends to share a good % of the things that go on in their lives with me. In fact, I don't ask anymore. If you want to share, feel free. If not, no wahala. However, I do expect to be at least kept in the basic loop. How does one get engaged and you find out like 5 months later? Best believe that I would NOT be attending that wedding, if it was me.

8. I have not been to church in 2.5 months. Partly due to some out of town kind of commitments and partly due to a case of 'I just didn't feel like it'. I did mention something about an on and off relationship with the main G abi?
I will say though that I am in constant amazement of his infinite mercies and his grace. Even if I never enter church in a minute, I still try to speak to him as often as I can and I thank him because really, who I be??? I do not deserve anything, absolutely nada!

9. I have this friend who I have the most heelarious/interesting/random and off the wall Gchat conversations with. If anyone ever hacked into our accounts, they would be like WTH at some of our convos. Sometimes I re-read just for the heck of it and crack up, great blackmail material indeed. Ha!

10. I tend to let things roll off my back. I can't say that my life in general has been brilliant and oh so wonderful but I think that thanks to my outlook on life, I make it brilliant by force, LOL. I did a post on happiness a while back and commented on how in general, I'm like a happy kid (thanks to the simple things in life), but somewhere in my being I keep thinking that c'mon, it's not normal to feel this content and at peace, like the G-O-D is going to spring one nice one on me to test me. Hmmmm...
BUT till then, I will keep on trucking and loving my life as I see it, imperfections and all.

How una dey? I greet oooo.
I hope you lot have a very fantabulous weekend. I am supposed to be seeing Nneka in concert but why do I just wanna sleep all weekend through??? I actually went to bed at 9.30 last night. *blank stare*...na so e dey start!

Peace & Love.

Update!

Ha, the title fit am abi 'cos it is an update. :-D

Sweet Mother
My mother left me on Sunday after a 4 week stay and I miss her tons. I enjoyed having her around...it was always nice to come home to a nice warm meal (she always made sure of that), a hug and/or a smile and the latest gist (anything that I might have missed between the hours of 9-5...LOL). As I get older, my relationship with my ma keeps improving (cos we sure had our disagreements and things in the past) and we have gotten to a place where we now understand how each other operates well well. I was definitely very sad to see her go at the airport and I prayed that God would continue to keep her and bless her just as she has been a blessing to her entire family. Love you ma! BIGGG KISSS.
[/end sappy bit]


Life as a Commuter
I have now joined the league of individuals who commute to work and I love it. I do not miss driving, AT ALL.
There are some pros and cons. I will start with the cons first...
Cons:- I gotta wake up at 5:30am to keep up with the Train schedule. That's it.
Pros:- They outweigh the cons.
1. I've always enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the DC Metro System during rush hour...millions of people dashing to catch their Red, Orange, Green, Blue and Yellow lines (even though the next one is probably going to pull up in 5 mins but in this recession, I guess every 5 minutes counts), extra packed trains and the whole 9 yards...some people hate it, but I love it and it ain't any different this time. It's an excellent spot to people watch.
2. I just might cancel my gym membership. All that racing up and down escalators and through train stations + my job isn't that close to the metro so I gotta bang out a 10 minute walk to and from. This is the most exercise that I've gotten in a minute.
3. If you commuted in DC you wouldn't mind it. This isn't the Tin cans on wheels that exist in NYC. In DC, they boast carpeted trains filled with clean professionals and normal looking folk, bright and airy train stations and it is guaranteed that you will never see a rat dashing up and down the platforms, unlike the NYC subway system. (Just had to get my yab of the day in, I still love you New York).


Other things...
1. Na wa for this Fort Hood Massacre ooo. You know how you ask people if they will ever live in Nigeria and they say ish like 'Abeg o, I no fit. Too much armed robbers and lack of security'...but when you take a step back and think am, too much were (mad person in the Yoruba language) full this country ooo. Ah ah, you go tok say you wan go school...mad pesin go start shooting.
You go tok say you wan go work, mad person who dey vex say he got laid off will come and start shooting. Everywhere you turn, someone is shooting. There was even that mall shooting that occurred was it 2-3 years ago? Ah ah, all I wanna do is shop na. God save us all.
Meanwhile, isn't it always very interesting how fingerpointing starts to occur after ish like this? After 9-11, there was the fingerpointing and now this one. Hmm Hmmm.

2. So the ex-DC sniper; John Allen Muhammed is going to be executed at 9pm tonight. He claims that he is innocent. Very interesting. I will definitely be catching up on Larry King as he covers the topic. It's 2009 and I don't know how I feel about the death penalty.

3. A United Airlines pilot got arrested at Heathrow Airport for attempting to fly a plane with 124 passengers from London to Chicago while he was under the influence. This is just breaking news as I type, WTH is up with these pilots o. Abeg no be my life wey dem go carry play.

4. Happy Vets day in advance. I'm OFF and looking forward to a relaxing day.

Ciaooooo.

Secondary School: The different categories of Individuals.

I went to a very reputable FGGC. By reputation, our girls are known to be very fine, accomplished and generally very correct. (Hi Haters) :-D
A bunch of us also migrated to this end and so I've been hanging with them a lot these days. Every time we get together, we reminisce about how things used to back in the day, the punishments that we served… ‘Kneel down and fly your hands’ or those cries for ‘A junior girlllllll’. LOL. Fun times…

Either way, I had to sit and think about the categories of characters that we had in secondary school and so I present to you...

The Popular Jingos aka bubblers: These were the ones who were popular chicks in school. If we had a Press club or Senior Lit event, na these popular jingos wey go climb on top stage to mime to songs. They were known for being hot steppers and usually had official roles in all the happening social clubs on campus. People in this category usually ended up getting the role of Social Prefect and they knew all the who is who that there was to be known in school.

The Spiros aka SU: These ones were always in church or some kind of fellowship. You would NEVER find a spiro climbing on top stage to mime to songs. Ah ah, that one would be breaking news o. It would make headlines. Most of these spiros ended up being the Catholic prefect, the Protestant prefect or having roles in the fellowship scene. We usually kept an ear glued to their conduct off campus in order to determine if they were living the spiro lives off campus as well or if they were bubbling.

The Defaulters: Ah ah, if dem tok say write down names of noise makers, these ones would always make the list. Their ‘brush’ was on some defaulting status and they never obeyed the school rules. These were the girls who would scale campus gate or leave school without prior approval and permission. They hardly ever got roles as prefects because they had already earned a reputation as main defaulters.

The Daystudents: These ones were pretty much on the dry side. We didn’t know much about them, as they came and went after school was over. We did have a couple of bubbling day students sha but it was pretty rare. They were dry by default and only came in useful during Valentines day events when we needed them to help us buy gifts that we could send to our ‘vals’.

The Ajebotas: These ones were known for ‘janding’ every summer and coming back with some nice ajebo looking stuff. They had groupies and followers because of their ajebo status. If you looked inside their lockers, you were bound to see a bunch of rice kripsies and other ajebo looking provisions. These group of people usually ended up also falling into the popular jingo category.

The Americanas: This one na new one because one semester we got to school and discovered that a whole bunch of ‘Americanas’ i.e Girls who were born and raised in Yankee got sent back to Naija to go learn their culture or whatever. It was like an American explosion on the school grounds... Na so so we go dey waka pass and hear ‘schwi schwi’ phonetics…most of these girls by default fell into the ajebota category and these ones na the tried and true ajebotas for never in their lives had they ever had a reason to fetch water in a bucket and carry it for one mile to their dormitories, never did they have to take baths in such bootleg bathrooms or hold their faeces in for 1 week because the toilet situations was just not cutting it…amongst other things. He He

The Wannabes aka Swagger Jackers: In all sense of the world, these girls were naturally WACK and DRY but they were really sweating the Popular jingos, Ajebotas and what have you and tried their very best to be recognized as such. Unfortunately for them, we saw right through their BS and they ended up being the virtual punching bags of the people that they tried so hard to be like (although everyone else knew it, but they didn’t).

The Efficos aka Bookatees: My school had this habit of announcing the top 3 and bottom 3 in their classes on assembly grounds and the efficos never failed to make the list of the first 3. They were known for their studious and serious ways and a bunch of them usually ended up being appointed as prefects because they were considered to be a good representative of the school. Most efficos hardly ever climbed stage to mime.

The Bad girls: Some of them fell into the popular jingo category as well. These ones were known for being badoski babes. In fact rumor dey fly say some of these girls had done abortions (some of them dey use hanger for the abortions sef), while the rest of them were known for sleeping with their boyfriends. Abeg o, at 16 what did we know about sex? In my mind these babes were BAD girls. Na these same babes wey dey scale school gate to conduct rendezvous with men from the neighboring Government college. Most of these girls fell into the defaulter category as well.

The Razz babes: Just like we had our popular jingos, we also had our razz babes. Very razz babes who no send anybody’s side and so they got their own form of respect for staying so true to themselves.

The Outcasts: Those babes wey dey wet their bed even up till SS1-3, those babes that were known for stealing and/or being kleptomaniacs. Those generally DRY chicks who no one gave 2 chits about, na the outcasts be that.

The all rounders: They didn’t fall into any specific category and could relate with most people in the different categories. They were generally liked by all and were a good asset because of their versality.

Did I forget anyone?Ha! School was too much fun sha o. I sha observed that most of the efficos kept up the trend and turned out to be those super achievers even here in Yanks, the Popular jingos also kept the trend and some of the so-called outcasts actually metamorphed into some really correct chicks.