Mindy is my best friend in my head...and kindle

Today was Day 3 of my modified modified Daniel Fast. That's a lot of modification but I'm committed to the modifications I made. I should be spending this time praying more and devoting more time to studying my bible but I feel like most of my idle time is spent imagining all of the awesome things I'm missing out on without social media in my life. That is a terrible thing to admit but sorry, I'm not sorry, it's the truth! (Hold on, let me pray)

[insert personal prayer I cannot share on public personal anonymous but not anonymous blog]

Although Sunday was a bit difficult due to my belief that in order to be a good friend, I occasionally must participate in things I have no interest in, I believe this year's fast is going well. I spent Sunday surrounded by so much light skin my eyes hurt. Apparently, Kappas had their founders day event in a small venue and every member who ever pledged showed up. Wait, it sounds like I'm complaining. I am not complaining at all. Because with Kappas, come beautiful polished clear (yes I said clear) well dressed men. Not really my type but they are nice to look at. Also, the game was on and so you know, I was entertained. All I had to do was throw on my obnoxious outdoor shades* indoors and watch my Chargers win! Let me revel in our win for a moment because we normally lose after this round.

Another California team who's name does deserve to be mentioned on my blog also won their game so, go Cali.

Aside from returning to my regular life known as my 9 to not really 5, usually much after 6, I have spent my evenings engulfed in Mindy Kaling's Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns). While I wait on my old school hard copy of Americanah to arrive, I needed something to hold me over in the interim and this book is perfect. Well, I'm reading it on my kindle so I am not sure I can call this a book still, can I? I am going to say that I can. After reading halfway through this book I would like to announce that Mindy is my best friend in my head. Not to be confused with my real life best friends who would be shocked to hear me say such a thing. She is hilarious, witty and sarcastic as hell...ahhh I love Mindy. Her streaming random thoughts were nicely packaged and sent to my brand new Kindle HD for consumption.

There really is no point to this post other than to a. point out that I have a new Kindle Fire HD. b. I needed some type of connection to the outside world even though no one ever comments. c. I have something to remind myself why I pray, so that I don't end up writing a 200+ word compilation of would be tweets and Facebook updates.

Alright, back to praying and reading I go.

Namaste**

*I didn't actually wear my shades inside. I hate when people do that. 
*Namaste is a common spoken valediction originating in the Indian subcontinent. See what I did there. Mindy is Indian.

Back to my roots, Thanks Beyonce

Throughout each year I add the names of books suggested by friends or people I admire to a running reading list. Lately, this list has become rather long because my thirst for reading has grown while my ability to plan out reading time to read has not. I blame this dilemma on my recent social media addiction. Instead of reading a book before going to sleep, I flip back and forth between Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

When I went home for Christmas, I was reminded that my church was once again participating in the modified Daniel Fast. For 21 days, members of the congregation pledge to give up sweets, alcohol and meat. The point of this fast is to feed your soul, strengthen your spirit and renew your body. I always believe this is a great way to begin the year so here I am participating again in 2014. In addition, I have decided to voluntarily add social media into the mix. By doing this, I know I will be adding more time to my hands seeing as I no longer have cable and rarely go out during the week, especially when temperatures reach below 30 degrees.

While listening to Beyonce's self-titled album (I've had this album on repeat for the last few weeks and you know there's a post about the sexual female empowerment she openly discusses coming), I kept repeating the interlude by Nigerian-born writer and feminist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie from the song 'Flawless.' The song excerpts the author’s TED Talk on feminism:

"We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller

We say to girls: “You can have ambition, but not too much

You should aim to be successful, but not too successful

Otherwise, you will threaten the man.”

Because I am female, I am expected to aspire to marriage

I am expected to make my life choices always keeping in mind that marriage is most important

Now, marriage can be a source of joy and low and mutual support

But why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage and we don’t teach boys the same?

We raise girls to see each other as competitors

Not for jobs or for accomplishments, which I think can be a good thing

But for the attention of men

We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings in the way boys are

Feminist: a person who believes in the social,

Political, and economic equality of the sexes"

I've been meaning to read 'Americanah' written by this author for a while now but Beyonce's latest self-titled album has pushed it to the top of my reading list. 

I just ordered the book and thanks to Amazon it will be here by Friday. 

Thanks Beyonce.

Goal Setting Taking Over for the 99 and 2000...14

Since I missed out on my end of the year review, I may as well begin the year with speaking some goals into existence. I don't do New Years resolutions but I do constantly reflect on my past actions and future aspirations and set goals accordingly. This list that follows will include goals that have already been making strides towards but have yet to successfully accomplish. As is normal, the will likely change throughout the year as time passes, which is why I don't call them resolutions.

Savings. I'm pretty hard on my little sister to save her money mainly because it's something I've always wanted to be good at but never have. Unless I'm saving for a trip or an item I really want, I don't normally save money for rainy days.

Traveling. Now I know I said I need to save just for the sake of saving but I love traveling. I've currently got a few stamps on my passport but 2014 will be the year I begin to add more. My fabulous closet will remain stagnant for a while just so I can do international traveling and then international shopping.

Running. Last year I successfully ran the NYC marathon but I was disappointed in my finish time. I know I can do better and I like to challenge myself physically. Running the marathon was truly a mind over matter experience I am ready to repeat. I could possibly combine my traveling with running. International marathon anyone? But it's cold outside so I need...

Another hobby. I love running but I still need a winter hobby because running in snow just isn't happening. Trust me I've tried to mentally push myself out into the 30 degree snow to run and I haven't made it out. I've been saying I would like to improve my cooking skills since I tend to stay indoors when cold white things fall from the sky. 

Church. Going home for the holidays renewed my strong desire to continue my relationship building with Him. In total I have attended 7 churches in NYC that were not places I wanted to return and call my spiritual home. However, I need my beginning of the week refresher back in my life. It's been missing and can no longer be ignored.

Love. 2013 was about opening myself up to rejection and being more vocal about my feelings. I realize that because I'm not use to verbally expressing myself, I tend to have word vomit sessions all at once. It will get better over time right? I also know when I care, I care hard. When I love, I love hard. So it's exciting. 

Happiness. With all of these things my goals is to make myself and those I care about as happy as possible. More mistakes may be made but I always find life's lessons in each of them.

"In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you."

Hello 2014. 

Besos!

*Please excuse the title of this post, I've been listening to some 90s rap pretty frequently these last couple of weeks. Plus you can tell a lot about a person by how they react when the beat to "Back That A** Up" drops.