Carli's Latest Blog Entry
I was visiting Roni’s Weigh and saw a cool post called When I Was a Kid. I pour my guts out to you guys a couple times a week, but you probably don’t know much about my childhood, so…here goes!
1. My parents told me… My Daddy told me, you can be anything you want to be, a doctor, a lawyer or an Indian Chief . He also said “nothing is free child.” My mom always said, “Be sweet” and as I got older, she would say “Be Sweet, and if you can’t be sweet, be careful!” LOL
2. I wanted to grow up to be a…Lawyer. ..I turned out to be a awesome Paralegal with no desire to be a lawyer. Although in Kindergarten I wanted to be a ballerina or a postal carrier.
3. I refused to eat… Spinach or Brussels Sprouts. Now, I think Spinach is great! I’m still scared of Brussels sprouts.
4. My favorite thing to do outside was… Play hide and go seek across the neighborhood. Back in the 80’s, kids could freely roam the neighborhood.
5. I broke my…Collar bone twice, once in preschool when a boy accidentally did a Michael Jackson kick in my direction and in 3rd Grade while trying to turn and hands-free flip on the monkey bars… My mom banned monkey bars, and I haven’t been on them since.
6. I liked to wear… whatever my Mom picked out, it made life easy.
7. My parents always… made sure we had all of the things we needed and most of what we wanted.
8. I thought that Santa was… super cool, and quite talented to make it around the whole world in one night .
9. My favorite cartoon was… Animaniacs
and TaleSpin
10. I was the… The tallest in every class until 5th grade, the doctors said I would grow to be 6 feet tall. I now stand the same as I did in 5th grade, a whopping 5’3 and a half.
11. I got in trouble when… I never really got in trouble, I liked being a good kid, but one time I did accidentally set the bathroom on fire. I sat a candle on the back of the toilet and a plastic plant caught fire. I was so scared that I closed the door and didn’t tell anyone….bad idea.
12. My bedroom was… messy with Michael Jackson Posters
on the wall…not much different today except the posters are in my home office.
13. My favorite food was…Cake. I even wrote a book in 4th grade called “The Cake”
14. My parents always made me…do my homework and wash the dishes. And do boy stuff like cut the grass because I didn’t have any brothers. $5 for cutting the backyard, and $3 for the front.
15. My first crush was… On a boy named Rickey Cravens in 5th grade, he had hazel eyes, and all the girls would stand by the fence to catch a glimpse of him getting off the school bus.
16. My favorite toy was… My cassette player with the clear plastic and you could see all the moving parts inside.
17. I thought school was… Easy.
18. My biggest fear was… Heights, it still is, but claustrophobia is a close runner up. If you want to see a crazy scene, get me stuck in a revolving door.
19. My favorite story was… I loved to read and still do! Actually, I was wrong earlier, I would get in trouble for sneaking and reading late at night when I was supposed to be in bed asleep. But, any way, my favorite stories were, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
(duh, I like food), and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and this book called The Rats of Nimh (Highly intelligent Rats conducted experiments to boost their knowledge to human level)…and this book called the Liver Cookies 
, when I first learned what an entrepreneur was, and knew I wanted to be one!
20. My favorite memories…I was blessed with a happy drama free two parent family home. I remember seeing my parents all dressed up for a night on the town. I remember my jazz, tap, ballet concert and getting to wear makeup. Playing Barbies with my sister and eating fresh strawberries out the neighbor’s backyard. Christmas mornings, and getting my 1st fish tank. Having a summer birthday which made for great pool parties. Babysitting to make money at age 10. Disney World’s Epcot center on a family vacation… I have too many to name.
Friday night, my best friend had a sleep over to celebrate her 31st birthday. We’re a little old for slumber parties aren’t we?… Well, I guess not, because we had a ton of fun! We played silly games, like each person picked a personal theme song that was sung by everyone each time she entered the room. My friend is a professional party planner and decorator deep on the inside. I’ll be glad when she lets it out. Everything was purple and black, down to the candles floating in the purple water and the purple M&M’s in the champagne glasses that she gave as parting gifts. I took my X Box Kinect , and we played, the Michael Jackson Experience
, The Black Eye Pea Experience 
and my favorite Dance Central 2
. Both of my sisters were there and my little sister was showing off, getting flawless high scores with her dance moves. I said she was cheating because she’s on the dance team at her high school and the praise dance team at church. She showed us all that big girls can move! … Anyway, we stayed up until the wee hours of the morning watching TV and having girl talk about relationships and overcoming the challenge being single and wanting a husband and kids, all while the biological clock is ticking. Some ladies were ready for children now and others (like me) will take it when it comes.
In the morning I took my Little Sister to her school dance competition (they won 1st place in the Beyoncé competition) and then I came back to my BFF’s house for brunch. That afternoon, I got my hair done and ran errands setting up new tenants. Everyone is happy for me, but me. I want that crappy building to disappear, but apparently there’s a greater plan that I’m unaware of. Anyway, enough whining about my real estate “investment.”
So, you know I have a “Special Friend” that I dated for a while, but then we became “just friends” (his choice not mine). And, ironically, it worked. We still talk on the phone every day, but the conversation changed a little. Like some of my commenters said, the things I liked about him as a potential boyfriend, are the same things I like about him as a friend. I inspired him to train for the half marathon with me, and we keep each other updated with progress reports on mileage. Even though we talk nearly every day, I hadn’t seen him since October. However, Saturday, he wanted to train together. I told him I was still healing from my “rafting injury” but that I could manage a slow walk. I was super tired, from no sleep at the slumber party, and running errands all day, but I didn’t cancel our training session. It was already dark outside by the time he met at my house to head to the park. He’s a big tall guy, and as a former military man, he tucked a pocket knife in his camouflage vest, and we took Nyah, so I wasn’t really worried about safety. We had great conversation as usual, and things were really “friendly” until my back started hurting. My ginormous boobs really take a toll on my lower back. He saw I was struggling and stepped in close, holding me, helping me turn and stretch my back. He did stretch my back, but I can tell you, with this handsome strong man cracking my back, I wasn’t thinking “friendly thoughts.” I told him I was still transitioning from “dating” to “friend”, but rather unsuccessfully, at that particular time. He laughed thinking I was just joking. Luckily the stretching session only lasted a few minutes and I was able to get my focus back. LOL. Tired, limping, and hormonally flustered, I managed to finish up 2 full miles, and we ended the night with a friendly hug.
I had such a fun-filled weekend. Friday night was game 7 of the World Series in Major League Baseball. St. Louis was on fire! I was sitting at home alone watching the game before called my Big Little Sister and suggested that we go somewhere and watch it together. We went downtown to the Casino and watched the game on the giant projector screen. It was so much fun! After the Cardinals won, there were tons of hugs and high fives from whatever stranger was closest to you. It was crazy wild energy. We waited around for about an hour, thinking that traffic had died down. We were wrong! Traffic was still bumper to bumper and Cards fans were everywhere. They were drinking, celebrating and dancing in the street. My sister is a bit more adventurous than me and she drove right towards the stadium into the madness. We held our arms out the windows into the cool October night air and slapped high-fives to everyone that walked through the traffic. We had a blast.
The next morning, my Mom and I went to the Farmers market. She got 8 crates of strawberries for $5. Sometimes you pay almost $4 just for one at the grocery store. I bought some new spices like Lime Chipotle and re-stocked my favorite one “Soulard Grill” which tastes good in everything. My Special Friend was “Busy” and didn’t want to “commit then cancel” hmmmm…So, that evening I went to the movies with two of my good friends from high school. We saw Paranormal Activity 3. I love scary movies, and it definitely had some cringe worthy parts. But it wasn’t as good as the 1st one. I came home and fell asleep watching “Bad Teacher” with Cameron Diaz. I’m such a movie fanatic. I thought about writing a blog for movie reviews, since I usually watch at least 5 movies each week, but when would I find time to do that?
Sunday, I finally made time for the gym. Barely. My little Sister and I chatted it up for a half an hour on the elliptical machine, before heading to Wal-Mart. Silly me I decided to wait until the day before Halloween to get a costume. There was nothing left at Wal-Mart, so we headed to Target. The only thing left was a horrible bloody arm and a Monopoly board game costume. Then I saw it! One glittery white glove, sent down from the costume gods. It wasn’t even in the original packaging. I took it to the register and gave the checkout boy a “don’t mess with me look” as I handed him a pack of lace costume gloves to scan in exchange for my unwrapped MJ glove. He obliged, even though my sister said I was holding up the line. I ransacked my closet at home and pulled off a pretty Smooth Criminal look if you ask me. My “Brother from another Mother” joined me at my friend’s Halloween party about 2 hours later. We had a good time. I could have eaten a little better, drank a little less and worked out a little more, but I still had quite a fun weekend.
I have learned in life that often times our greatest strength can also be a debilitating weakness. In my life being stubborn and strong headed has gotten me to great places that defy statistics. However, on the other hand being too stubborn has caused a lot of trouble. For example, I’m repeatedly too stubborn to face the music and accept the fact that I need help and I can’t do everything alone. It seems silly to me that I need a meal plan or a fitness routine to maintain a healthy life. But, fortunately I’m learning to get out of my own way and accept the things I cannot change. I did not work out all week. I felt so tired and honestly couldn’t figure out why. Duh! *smack on the forehead* My body is not used to being so sedentary. So, I’m accepting the fact that I need some sort of program to stay on track with my workout regimen. I thought after countless races, and regularly working out for years, that I could motivate myself to work out on my own. But, I can’t, so I signed up for the Halloween 10k (6.2 Mile) race in October. Training officially starts this week. I will do my best to keep my training schedule updated and posted for you to see. I did a little laundry this morning and got my best work out buddy ready to go to the Park. It was a beautiful day, low 80s and not too much humidity. I picked a really scenic area of the park to walk. Nyah and I walked circles around the water basin with couples in love sharing paddle boats and families on picnics. It made me think of having my own family one day. I’m not in a real rush, but since I turned 30 I guess I realized that the clock is starting to tick. I’m not in a big hurry to have children, but I don’t really want to be 50 with the 10-year-old either. In between laps around the water basin we walked up the giant Hill and jogged back down while listening to my Michael Jackson mix on my iPod. It was a very leisure walk, and I took time to enjoy myself. It felt so good to be moving again. I felt refreshed instead of tired. Even though it had only been a week I realized how much fitness really is a part of my life. And, I realized how much it is actually a part of my lifestyle, and that made me smile. After about 50 minutes of walking around and up and down the hill we were finished. I went to the nail shop after I got home and showered. My Nail Tech Lee, that helped me catch the purse thief is still at home in Vietnam, so a new lady helped me. She did pretty good, so I can’t complain too much. Afterwards I had an awesome dinner with two of my friends, and then we went to see the movie “The Help
.” It was so good, it took us on journey through Jim Crow Mississippi from the black maid’s untold perspective. I think it did an amazing job of depicting America during the civil rights era and provided a stark contrast to the world we live in today where I can causually sit in a movie theater next to a White couple with a Black president running the country. We’ve come a long way baby!
I slept through the first alarm on my night stand, I don’t even remember hitting the snooze button. It was my backup alarm on my cell phone that actually woke me up. Now I only had five minutes to get dressed and out of the door to LLS group training out at Creve Coeur Lake. My brain simply does not function at 6:30 in the morning. I picked up last night’s Zumba pants and Febreze air freshened them, and grabbed a Michael Jackson T-shirt out of the drawer. I stumbled around mostly still asleep while I put on my shoes and tried to find my iPod. By the time I had let Nyah out and was actually on my way out of the door I would’ve been almost 30 minutes late for group training. When I opened the door a burst of chilly wind hit my bad knee and the cool misty rain slapped me on my face. I immediately shut the door and headed back to my bedroom. I was just a few seconds from taking my shoes off before I realized how ridiculous it would be for me to be up and ready and not training. I really don’t have time to get sick from walking outside in the cold and rain for hours around a lake, so I decided to call the gym, secretly wishing they weren’t open yet. “It’s a great day at the family YMCA, this is Rose, how may I assist you?!” I reluctantly said to Rose, I guess you are open, I will head that way, and she replied cheerfully “we will be waiting for you!”
I called my little sister for backup, I wasn’t even sure if I would get an answer. Much to my surprise she did answer with her cheerful voice…. I’m never pleasant when people call me in the morning on a Saturday. Maybe that’s something I should work on…. Anyway, she agreed to go with me, but she specifically said “I’m not walking 10 miles with you.” I think she caught on from the last time she was tricked into the long training session. I told her “you can leave me after a few miles and come back and get me.” She agreed. In the gym we decided to do five miles on the track together and then I did five miles on the treadmill. By the time I sweated my way through mile six, I was regretting my decision to wear last night’s funky pants. My mother would be so disappointed that I was too lazy to do laundry and actually Febrezed some sweat pants…. By the time I got to mile 8, I was pouring sweat. I think the little Michael Jackson figure on my shirt was even sweating! I stopped and stretched and convinced myself that I could make it just two more miles. This old guy was checking me out, and left his machine and came and got on the treadmill next to me. He was only there for a few minutes before he left. I might have looked cute, but my sweaty funk was anything but cute. I kept reading my Joel Osteen book and finally finally finished 10 miles. I was so happy I would’ve done a cute Zumba dance but I hurt too much. My little sister brought my car back in one piece and I came home and took a nap to recover before tonight’s fundraiser.
My Big Little Sister’s job had a Mardi Gras themed silent and live auction fundraiser. We got all dressed up and went to a fancy hotel in Clayton. We were surprised to see these kids carrying around a little dog. We later found out that his name was “Mardi Paws” and he was part of the auction. How cute my sister said, we should bid on him. I told her I already have a fur baby and you have a two-year-old. She said I will bid on him first, just for fun just to get things going because he’s so cute! We overheard other people talking about how the dog went for the thousands last year and how many people wanted him this year. Certainly her low bid would get things going. When the auctioneer started off, my sister raised her bid number. He called for the next highest bid, but not one of the 300 other attendees raised their hand, he called another number, no one else raise their hand. He went through this for about two or three minutes. I laughed harder and harder as each second passed, and my Big Little Sister started to twitch nervously. SOLD, to the lady in the back!
At this point I began to laugh almost uncontrollably, I was laughing so hard that there were tears in my eyes. They brought my sister her new baby in a laundry basket with a bag full of goodies. I continued to laugh at her. I said give me my nephew, I will hold him and while you go check out. It was for charity so, there’s no turning back. I babysat last night and most of the day today while she got a crate, a leash and everything else you need for an unexpected surprise like my nephew Mardi. (I’m still laughing even as I type this post!) We just hope my niece isn’t allergic to him. He’s an adorable 4 month old pure bred Lhasa Apso.
