m.h.c.

15/365: I have turned into something like a creature of habit when I'm at work. Before the winter catalog opened at Dunkin Donuts, I would always get a sugar raised donut and an orange juice, but now that it's nippy enough for warm drinks to be necessary, I've been getting mint hot chocolate--HEAVENLY.

Anyway, aside from that, today was completely out of the ordinary for me. It was the first time I was working my new schedule from 4am to 12pm, a whole 15 minutes later than what I normally work but actually made a huge difference because it allots 15 extra minutes for sleep which is pretty much life changing.

Keeping in line with doing things differently, I did something completely out of the ordinary and called people today. I know, it's a simple thing, but it's not something I do very often and it felt so...weird, but in a great way. I had a funny conversation with an old girlfriend of mine and then later had a more necessary talk with an old guy friend who gave me some verses to look at and offered some encouragement after I had a quarter-life crisis which I'll probably address tomorrow because I feel like everyone can relate to the 20-something quarter-life crisis where we're forced to think about our middleness while our friends sometimes are getting way further ahead of us (you know, engagements, marriages, babies, that whole deal and let's not even talk about the whole...finding the job you actually want thing...but like I said, that's for tomorrow...not today.)

Back to this post though...I love my mint hot chocolates. They taste like happiness and I can't wait to have another one tomorrow morning while I muse over whatever is happening in the news at 5 am.

moment of silence

If there was one video that I wish I had made first, it would be this, Death of the Tragic, Scientifically Less Attractive, Unmarriable, Single Black Woman Narrative. 

Last year we were inundated with article upon article about black women and how we're never going to get married. Articles which begged the question, "is marriage for white people" among other things. To say that I was tired of it, quite the understatement, but I admit that it didn't stop me from reading the articles, rolling my eyes in exasperation. 

Now that we're in 2012, I can only hope that we will let this topic go and, as Ariana states in the video, focus on more pressing topics.

What else do you hope died with the end of 2011?

I can give you a couple things that I let die for myself personally. 

• LACK OF ORGANIZATION: If I had one thing that I really needed to kill for myself, it was that. Talk about an easy way to get things straight for myself in the new year--it's significantly easier when you have a clear list of what you need to do in front of you as well as a list of the resources available to you. 
• EXCESSIVE USE OF TWITTER: This one was hard for me to let go, but as I try to focus more on writing (at least more than 140 characters) and less on reality television and ratchetness, it's actually really easy to drop down on my Twitter usage…and I find that the things that I do choose to tweet are more pertinent to me.
• A FEW BAD HABITS: None of which necessarily need to be put into writing, but it suffices to say that what I've cut out of my life (people included) were all things that were poison to me, if not physically, emotionally and mentally.

the dunkin donut chronicles

One of the advantages to having an entry level job at a television station is that I get the o'so glamorous task of getting breakfast for the anchors--I mean, who wouldn't want to stand outside Dunkin Donuts at 5 am to get coffee, donuts, and sammiches, amirite? *looks around* No? Okay, cool--difference of opinion, obvi.

So, up until a couple months ago, things were perfectly fine, probably because Hak was the manager of the store. He ran that baby like a well-oiled machine, 5 am, the doors were open, the donuts were seemingly fresh, and I could hand him a list and he'd have everything cranked out in 5 mins with a complimentary box of donuts for the worker bees in the newsroom. Talk about service.

You can imagine everyone's surprise when Hak was...disposed of.

It was like our world came to a stop, service hit a brick wall with the doors remaining locked until past 5:15 and we were forced to work with James, a tall, burly black man with hazel-colored contacts that often got our drink sizes wrong, forgot cream and sugar, or forgot drinks...in general. I was always a bit confused as to how he managed to do that considering he had a handwritten list in front of him with everything we watned. Pretty much it was the ultimate downgrade...the complimentary donuts stopped and so did our discounts.

What made the whole situation even worse was how oblivious James was to the fact that I wanted nothing to do with him. I don't know, I guess saying you're the shift leader at the local Dunkin Donuts is a hot pickup line for some ladies, but not for this one. Honestly, I don't trust any grown man with colored contacts, so batting those big fake eyes at me isn't getting you anywhere. To my displeasure, it's not just him who tends to give me extra attention at DD, I've also had the pleasure of attracting the attention of security guards from our building who like to make casual conversation with me. Now, because I have manners I respond back to what they say, but after 3 months of being super considerate, it got old, and I'm not sure how many monosyllabic answers I can give before he gets the clue that this girl is uninterested.

I know, I know...I really shouldn't complain that I get attention from these guys, but at the same token, it's unwanted...so what's the best way of telling guys to leave me the hell alone? Hmm? Someone. Please assist me.