Bootylicious Rule #3 Make Something Your Signature

We all have favorite things.  Products that we find ourselves buying over and over again, a style of jewelry, a certain type of fragrance, or items in a favorite color.  Divas love signature items. Certain things that alert those around us that, “yes, we are here, and look at us, we are absolutely amazing”.  

I have big issues with most fragrances on the market today.  Most are either too perfumey, flowery, or just plain overwhelming, so I tend to gravitate toward fragrances that smell like food.  It is a personal preference that gives me very distinct choices when choosing how I would like to smell while I am out facing the world. My signature fragrance is Pink Sugar by Aquolina.

                                               Photo Courtesy of Sephora

I think that it smells like Cotton Candy, but i have been told that I smell like everything from Chocodiles, to birthday cake. This fragrance and others like it are what I choose to wear exclusively and in some of my circles, the scent has become synonymous with me.  

It may seem like a small thing to some, but I like to think the idea of choosing certain items as an outward expression of who we are helps us define ourselves in the world.  It gives us focus in our lives and even assists us financially.  If we know what we like, we don’t waste a whole lot of time and money purchasing things that we will never use  just because they may be trendy or because everyone has them.  And a big bootylicious bonus, when we show those around us what our tastes really are, they have less trouble purchasing those gifts that we actually like so we don’t have to return or re-gift. 

Maybe you are partial to heart jewelry, or wearing pearls.  Or maybe you like to coordinate hair accessories with your outfit, or maybe you have to have fresh flowers in your home at all times.  Every diva, every woman should have little things, little touches in her life that express who she is, that define her desires and the direction that she would like to go in life and that provide a sense of confidence and comfort for her when she is putting her best foot forward. 

Take the time to find your signatures, your favorite jewelry, fragrances, colors, journal, makeup, designer, whatever and surround yourself with those things today.  Make a “Signature Things Excursion”, a date with yourself to actually seek out the things that seem to be made especially for you.  

Maybe you have no clue what kind of candy you can’t live without, or what kind of flowers make you smile. Take this time to find out.  You may be pleasantly surprised what things reach out to you, crying out to be made yours. And if you don’t have time to take these excursions or if you can’t afford to buy all of the things you love, cut pictures out of magazines and post them where you can see them. If you see them everyday and look at them long enough, I guarantee you will have them sooner than you may think.

You may not have the money to surround yourself with all of the things you love, but you can always dream until you do, after all, dreaming is free. 

Bootylicious Rule #4

Life Moments

So far in the last three days, I went to a concert on the beach, saw Snoop, Janet Jackson, NeYo, Jessica Simpson (who was having audible vocal issues), the Girls Next Door, and Pamela Anderson. That was really cool. What wasn’t cool is some dude who was drunk off his ass threw up on the parking shuttle bus. So nasty.

But then I saw Iron Man last night, which I have already stated in my review was awesome. Of course, when I went downstairs to check on my son at 2am, I realized that he decided to sneak out of his window and go to a party. Seventeen is turning into a really crappy year, and I don’t want to be that mother who is happy to see her son leave. He was already on restriction, and now he may not be able to see the light of day until he is 18 and out of high school next June.

Today has been slightly better. I hung out in Barnes and Noble playing around on the CPU. I then was engaged in a very interesting conversation about race with a gentleman who actually echoed a lot of my feelings that I wrote about in the Touchy Subject Post. He was a white gentleman, a Navy brat and he believes that America needs a healing too when it comes to race. It was refreshing.

So, now I am in the middle of the day and I pray and hope that everything is peaceful for the rest of the weekend and really for the rest of my life. I mean I can wish right?

On a much lighter note, it seems some civil servant stopped gossiping on the phone just long enough to push the button that has eased some of our financial woes. Now I can loosen up the purse strings a little bit, have a little fun, and begin to make sure that I am overly prepared for another rainy day. Of course once I am prepared, it probably won’t ever happen.

That’s Life!

Bootylicious Confessions in the Freakin Suburbs

Originally Written February 08

So here I sit with a negative balance in my checking account and $4.39 on my Capital One Card.  Oh! Correction! I spent that $4 on a Grande Extra-Caramel, Caramel Frapuccino.

   

 

 

The elixir of the goddesses                  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 You have to order it like that or else it throws the whole thing off.  It’s cool, I like speaking in code.  It is kind of spy-like, Jane Bondish if you will.  So yeah, pretty much I’m broke, with my business bank cards and personal credit cards tucked away in my cute little Prada bag (one of those wonderful Korea finds). Could be a knock off.  Okay, who am I kiddin?  But it is very cute, matches my IPhone, you know, chic like that (the IPhone is one bill that is always paid early cuz a Diva Muse has to have her cell phone. I know it’s shallow, that’s my alter ego talking).

 

                                  Terracotta and graphite drawing of the cutest little Prada Bag ever.

Oh and did I mention that the hot water heater is busted in this big ass ostentatious house that we are renting?  Add that to the four times we had to call the heater guy out this past winter and I would have to say quite sarcastically that the obscene amount of money we pay each month must surely be worth it.

 

Sidebar: Why did the Barista taking my order ask for my first name while holding my credit card in his hand?  He never even looked at it.  It could have been your credit card, but I am sure you have more than $4.39 on yours.  He pretty much spelled my name wrong too. I don’t know who the person was that he put on my cup. But I am thinking that maybe I should be her for awhile. 

 

Back to the original thought. I am not bummed out by the lack of funds. How could I be when there are so many other things to be bummed out by like feeling invisible in my pseudo diverse suburban neighborhood or feeling like a failure because my kids think that I should have a better career besides Mom and Artist. Or figuring out that dogs actually whine like kids which is really annoying.  If nothing else is going my way, I do have to say, I’m still pretty hot for 37.  With looks and style like mine, who really cares if there is no hot water?

Ok, so a sistah can dream right?  LOL

It Is What It Is

I am just gonna have to put it out there, Korea was a dream time for me. I had a really good job and all my earnings were mine to do with what I wanted.  Husband dear paid all of the bills (of which there weren’t many), and I played.  An ideal situation if you ask me. I bought what I wanted and did what I wanted.  We ate out a lot at wonderful restaurants, and frequented really cool clubs.  There was always a banquet, ball, party or dinner event to go to and we were on the A list in our circle.  It was a grand time and I felt the most diva-like while I was there.  It was like another world.  During this time, we paid for everything with cash, and aside from some really old bills from years and years before, we had no credit type bills, and a pretty decent credit report.  For two years, it was primarily a cash only existence and since I thought we would be there forever, aside from our retirement, I didn’t really save a whole lot.  

And then, we get orders to move back to the states. Six weeks notice. What!!! And boy was that a wake up call that hit me in the head like a flying brick during an earthquake.  Our two year cash existence meant no established credit when we got back which equals, “crappy credit score!”  It was like we never ever established credit in our entire lives. So no new car (at least not the one I wanted), and no new credit cards which could have helped during the transition because they screwed up our pay like they do every time the military has ever moved us. In fact there was a whole slew of no’s.  NO available quarters, NO real COLA (cost of living allowance), NO job that I could just walk right into.  I saw all of the wonderful shopping trips that I had planned disappear before my eyes and it took everything in me to not get on the first thing smoking back to Korea and take one of those hazardous duty jobs that pay six figures for a year. I could just see me now in one of those Hazmat suits (trust me, not a good look)  At least I could buy some of those BARPs (see previous post) I was seeing everywhere. But at this rate, I was going to have to limit my Frappucinno intake to only 3 times a week. Blasphemy!!!

Although it is not as dramatic as it sounds, and I take full responsibility for being irresponsible and not saving more, it still sucks.  I know that others are going through far worse, and they are in my prayers.

Still, we have literally had to start all over.  No shopping, no A list, and definitely no just eating out because we don’t feel like cooking. Basically now, I have to be bootylicious on a budget…a really, really, REALLY tight budget.  And you know what? It’s all gonna be just fine because if I have not learned anything in my life, I have learned that you can’t truly appreciate the sunshine until you’ve gone through the rain.  I didn’t make it up, but I know it is the truth. And so for now, it is what it is.