If the meal I am preparing does not involve chicken or some form of a recipe, I cannot guarantee that it will turn out right. Last night I prepared some grilled Alaskan White fish fillets on my George Foreman grill. I do not have the gigantic Foreman grill yet, I still have the baby grill that my Mama bought me while I was in college. At the store while buying the fish, I asked JT how to prepare it… he simply stated, to grill it on the Foreman.

Mmmkay…easier said that done I thought to myself.

The fish was already thawed because I left it out in the sink when we came home earlier in the afternoon. About a quarter to eight I turned on mini-Foreman.

I glanced in my cabinet and pondered over which spices I was going to experiment with. I grabbed trusty ole Mrs. Dash (the yellow classic one), lemon pepper mix and the garlic and herb mix. At first I slapped some Country Crock butter on the grill, but that did not turn out to well since that shit slid on down the grill right on into the grease pan… so then the light bulb went off in my head and I grabbed the Pam cooking spray. Voila! Surprisingly, the fish cooked must faster than I thought it would but then again the fillets were not that thick. I sprinkled the spices on each side but the lemon pepper one did not seem to turn out so swell. I sampled a piece of it and the taste was overwhelming so I reached over for the garlic and herb mix and proceeded to get my shake on. Silly me forgot that the holes on the garlic and herb mix were MUCH bigger than the lemon pepper mix. I had garlic and herb all over the fish, grill and counter. OOPS… A little spice never hurt anybody…I just scraped the excess off and called it a day.

Today’s Friday Five:

1. What’s the last place you traveled to, outside your own home state/country?

The lst place I traveled to was New York City from July 10 – 13, 2003.

2. What’s the most bizarre/unusual thing that’s ever happened to you while traveling?

When I went to Washington D.C. in 1995 for the National Young Leaders Conference, my Daddy made me pay for the cab from the airport to my hotel at the conference. That shit was $40.00… I was only 17 and my Daddy lost major cool points from the books.

3. If you could take off to anywhere, money and time being no object, where would you go?

Without any hesitation I would choose Cairo, Egypt.

4. Do you prefer traveling by plane, train or car?

Despite my fear of heights, I will have to select planes because it is the quickest method of transportation.

5. What’s the next place on your list to visit?

Bahrain with JT next year, God willing…

http://www.fridayfive.org

I got my mane put up in a roller set today. I really did not want the flat iron curls (although I do love my hair swaying over my shoulders), because they often do not last in the St. Louis humidity. My beautician calls me the Black Shirley Temple… I love the sista curls because they fall nicely with my long hair and all..

My Thursday was more smooth than the past several days have gone. I did not let the customers, nor my coworkers get on my nerves at all today.. which is the essence of a decent day at work. One simple statement out of someone’s smart ass mouth at work can potentially ruin the whole day. When I have that I do not give a fuck attitude set in my mind and someone says something stupid or ignorant, I just look at them and smile, sometimes laugh as if I want to pat them on the head and move on. Now if they catch at the wrong time with that idiotic shit, I am quick to step up to the plate and retaliate. Two things that I absolutely do not tolerate at the workplace: someone that lies to me and someone that treats me like I do no know shit. Hell, I do not tolerate that bullshit anywhere.

I stopped at Deals and Sally Beauty on the way home. I am just so thankful to have a plaza with a grocery store, dollar store, the Shack, Gamestop, Cici’s Pizza, Dot’s and Sally Beauty right in front of my house. Granted they really need to add some more stores in those empty spaces, but this is a great start. Fashion Cents can get gone, because all that shit in their is pure garbage. All those trendy clothing rip offs irritate me to no end.

Oops, late again…

Monday Mission 3.31

1. When you take a vacation, do you ever suffer from Internet withdrawal? Or maybe the nagging urge to blog or read blogs? Or are you glad to be away?

At the beginning of the trip, I do suffer from internet withdrawl because I am used to having access 25-8. However, during the trip, I quickly get over this withdrawal because I am pleased to get away from all troubles and stress.

2. Have you ever been “furloughed” (told to take time off work without pay) or laid off? How did that impact your family dynamics? Your finances? If not to you, have you seen it happen to anyone you know? How did they handle it?

No, but I know people that have and I may face it soon. It is quite a difficult experience especially if you do not have the finances saved up to cover your expenses. JT is always supportive no matter what and this is what matters.

3. If you fell on hard times, what is are some non-essential reoccurring luxury expenses (cable TV, TiVo subscription, cigarettes, high-speed net connection, newspaper, daily Starbucks coffee, etc.) you would give up to save money?

I would get rid of my satellite, DSL (reluctantly, but I suppose I would bare the demeaning 56k), several extra features on my landline, newspaper and I would eliminate fast food expenses.

4. On the same thought, what is the one non-essential expense you would NOT give up?

Cell phone, but I suppose if there were no other alternative, I would cut my cell phone off.

Yesterday my course package came for my desktop publishing class through Thomson Education Direct. Yes, I am taking one of the at home courses. I am pretty excited because I have been away from anything related to school for three years and three months now. I am yearning for that official learning experience in my life. So although I will not be in the classroom setting, I have course material, a syllabus, teachers that I can contact if I need help, projects to turn in and exams. The only thing that is missing is the classroom and me being late to it everyday.

Now you may ask, Rashaan, do you not major in Arabic… what would you want to do with desktop publishing? I have a great deal of hobbies and until I can go to graduate school and pursue studies in political science and international studies as I intend to, I want to further my expertise in photography, graphic design and desktop publishing. Out of the three, I choose desktop publishing because I can turn that around into a profit. Greeting cards, invitations, brochures, calendars, etc… I always thought it would be exciting to work with an advertising company. While visiting Nichole at the Shack last week, one of her coworkers showed me his portfolio from his advertising day. The work itself was not mind stimulating for me; however, as he reminisced about the process and photo shoots I could feel the little girl inside of me getting overly excited. I was now even more gung ho about signing up for my course.

Before I went to bed, I skimmed over my course material and read the student handbook. Tigger looked at me like I was crazy, since it had been over three years since I have had a bunch of books in bed like that. In college I studied in bed because I hate studying at my desk since my desk is covered with papers 99.99% of the time.

I did not even know that people on AIM still spam others in instant messages:

miamigrl7310 (7:24:39 PM): Whats up sexy? :-) I just started up my webcam and was wondering if you wanted to come watch, its completely free, I work for donations :-). click here to watch my LIVE webcam for FREE i’ll be waitin for ya with my pretty pink vibrator ;-)

AIM would not even let me warn her ass. What is the point of warning if you cannot use the shit?

As anxious I was to see some pretty pink vibrator action, I resisted clicking the link. Of course this was not as funny as when my friend asked me if I had any phish for AOL a couple of months ago. After laughing my ass off, I just had to ask him if they still have AO-servers, yanno the servers on AOL that have the mp3s, software, videos and such. I used to live in those servers 25-8 about four years ago. With a T-1 connection during my junior and senior years there was absolutely no stopping me. Back in the day when people were like Napster what? Aaah those were the days. I remember over the span of about three days once, I downloaded each and every one of my favorite 80s hits. Bangles, A-Ha, Duran Duran, Prince, Pointer Sisters, Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie… and I remember my buddy Jason schooled me to some other 80s music that I had never even heard. We had this friendly competition of who could have the most mp3s. At one point, I had about 1,500 songs on my little 7.4GB hard drive that is sitting about six from me now.

All this talk about downloading music makes me think about RIAA in the news now. I really can care less and I am going to keep doing my thang, soooo moving right along…

As of Sunday, August 03, 2003 the music playing on my site is Janet Jackson- Everytime, from the album Velvet Rope.

Lyrics:

Janet Jackson- Everytime

I’m afraid I’m starting to feel
What I said I would not do
The last time really hurt me

I’m scared to fall in love
Afraid to love so fast
Cuz everytime I fall in love
It seems to never last

Chrous:

But every time your love is near
And every time I’m filled with fear
Cuz every time I see your face
My heart does begin to race everytime

One half wants me to go
One half wants me to stay
I just get so all confused

I’m scared to fall in love
Afraid to love so fast
Cuz every time I fall in love
It seems to never last

I’m scared to fall in love
Afraid to love so fast
Cuz everytime I fall in love
It seems to never last

Chrous

I’m scared to fall in love
Afraid to love so fast
Cuz everytime I fall in love
It seems to never last

Chrous

It’s everytime
It’s everytime
Cuz. . .

Everytime your love is near
And every time I’m filled with fear
Cuz every time I see your face
Could it be that this will be the one that lasts?
The fear does start to erase every time
Oh could it be that this will be the one that lasts
For all my times
Ooh yeah
For all my times

Right now, I am contemplating changing the music about once every couple of weeks. Throw in a little Stevie, Jill, Lauryn, Erykah, Miles, Coltrane, Maxwell, Michael and others every now and then. We shall see.

New layout. Version one twentyseven eight. Enjoy. I am working out the kinks right now as I watching Making the Band 2 on MTV. This is my first time watching the show and it is quite hilarious. Just like a soap opera, but not quite as good as my Days of Our Lives or Young in the Restless. Nevertheless, I have been watching it for an hour straight now…
Check this out.. Chris got to level three. I only got to level two.
MJ predicted that the outcome of the premiere of Gigli would be horrific. During the Friday show, he had listeners call in with predictions. The person to come
the closest to a tenth of a million without going over will win $500.00. Poor Gigli pulled in a terrible $3.8 million in over two thousand theatres. According to MJ, any movie that the general public cannot pronounce is destined to fail. Was it really that bad? I will wait to rent this on Netflix because I am not going to waste $12.00 for JT and I (yes, we still use our student identification!). I heard that the bigger story will be in the National Enquirer this week, when they bust out that Ben Affleck reportedly cheated on his fiancee in Vancouver.

Friday Five

1. What time do you wake up on weekday mornings?

Any time between 5:45am to 8:30am. I should wake up at 7:30am every weekday morning. Lately, I have been getting up at 8am.

2. Do you sleep in on the weekends? How late?

Unless, I partied the night before, the latest that I sleep in on the weekends is 10am.

3. Aside from waking up, what is the first thing you do in the morning?

Say good morning to my love.

4. How long does it take to get ready for your day?

Actual preparation time runs on average between fifteen and twenty minutes.

5. When possible, what is your favorite place to go for breakfast?

Uncle Bill’s (first), International House of Pancakes

(second) and Waffle House (third).

http://www.fridayfive.org/