Dating 301

I'm about to impart on you the most sage relationship advice my dad gave me came a couple of days ago as I frantically called him about a boyfriend of a best friend situation. My dad is full of golden nuggets of wisdom about relationships and marriage. He's been married to my mom for 25 years and they've been through hell and back but they're still at it. So yeah..back to his advice..he was like "Christie, let me tell you something. In my fifty-four years (gotta assert the wisdom lol).. Ya marry a person with baggage thinkin' they goin to get better." Pause..I'm like okay. He resumes "NO, they ONLY GET WORSE with time and get MORE baggage as they get old on ya". ROFL..now by this time I was like *insert Mom here* We both love her but God help us when she decides to pull one of those mad black woman acts on our behinds. So yes, I took MUCH heed to his advice. I once read somewhere "Men marry women hoping they'll never change" and "Women marry men in the hope of the man they could be". Well, ain' gon be that fool! As they say back on my island--not even a donkey knocks its head twice on the same rock so I will take it to heart and put the foolishness of changing a man to rest, no actually throwing it in hell, burning it, and burying it 100 feet deep.

Toodles..*as I'm grabbing my shovel*

The powers that be

Well, well, well... After wrestling with a suspicious "cold" for the past weekend I have learned something very valuable! Do NOT underestimate the power of pollen and other allergens. It all started Wednesday when my throat was acting up and I was getting a bit more phlegm than usual.I was like...hmm..must be some reaction to the drastic weather change but no big deal. Ignore.
MISTAKE NUMBER 1: Ignoring signs of your body
I go along looking forward to a super JAMPACKED weekend full of fun, activism and adventures!Friday comes, I'm coughing a lot so I decide to take a Mucinex to break up my phlegm so I can get better.
MISTAKE NUMBER 2: Taking Mucinex and mixing it with an immune booster.
I take it maybe an hour to forty-five minutes before I'm about to go out well when I get to the Metro I'm high as a kite. Feeling woozy and a little to close to the tiles but hey..me canceling on fun with friends..HECK NO!! The fun must go on! So, we have a fun evening. I'm high of meds and my crazy friend is supertired so her restrictions on her actions are ... lacking to say the least. It all amounts to a hysterical night with video documentation of some of our craziness. BUT OO NOOO...One of my guyfriends who was out with us was kind enough to bring me home since I wasn't in the most coherent state lol. And then the evening takes a turn for the worst. I have an allergic reaction to the medication I took. I start spazzing out, all my senses start firing, hot, cold, feeling sick, digestion system feeling out of whack, feeling about to pass out..and the list goes on. Thank God, the guy was nice and he was very attentive and got me home safe while keeping a list of hospitals in the back of his head.

All this to say: DO NOT MIX stuff! It might seem harmless but by the reaction I had. I learned a good lesson. I rode the effects out the whole night. Second, I checked with my nurse friend and she cautioned to check expiration dates on even your OTC medications. And, lastly I discovered on Monday after spending two miserable days in bed missing my kayaking trip among other things which as you can sense I'm still a bit "bitter" about that this was all due to a bad case of allergies. As soon as I took Zyrtec I was back to my old self again! (At least for the most part)

So learn something from this "misadventure" down medication lane. If you're miserable (health-wise) right now, Check if you have allergies and don't ignore your body! It's what you live in and your most prized possession! Take care of it!

copyright picture Alex and Laila/ Getty Images

Learn10: Power up your language

Want an easy fun way to learn a new language? Try Learn10.com! It's an innovative little online app that gives you ten fresh words in whatever language you use to learn everyday. You can get the words via Twitter and Facebook or you can go to the site. There's a premium edition too that gives you a few extra bells and whistles but honestly the FREE edition is fantastic. It even has the ability to let you test yourself and share with your other social networkers. Fun stuff! I'm brushing up on my Spanish. Now, you really don't have any excuse not to try learning a new language :-).

5 Songs I'm loving right now

1. Laura Izibor "From my heart to Yours"
If you haven't heard from her yet, she's this old school Billie Holiday voice mixed with funky sounds. The result "happy music" that makes the soul smile!

2. Kelly Clarkson "I don't hookup"
Amen! Needs no more explanations than the title itself!

3. Ne-Yo "Part of the List"
Emotional, raw, and tender. Ne-yo at his best! Please check out the video. It definitely magnifies the song even further. The acting is totally on point plus I love the fact that it's shot in London.

4. Chrissete Michele "Epiphany"
Wise-up anthem realizing that she ain't putting up with that mess anymore! Love her voice and the treatment of the lyrics. Of course, it was written and produced by Ne-yo and his production company Stargate.

5. Kid Cudi "Day and Night"
The lyrics are melancholic; a poetic simplistic expression of someone's pain in the pursuit of peace. It just touches a deep level within you. Though the stoner seeks it in his white smoke..(sad face) it reminds you that everyone is just looking for peace. I found mine in forgiveness in Jesus not religion, and everyone has their journey to the point of peace. You just have the option of the choice.

Good Week

Good week you all! Hope you had a great Easter weekend! I had a fantastic time with old and new friends. To start the week off, I thought I'd share some inspiring quotes.

"Whatever you think you can have, claim it, believe it, pray to God for it. It's His Kingdom and you're His child." -Canton Jones

"To seek validation from others is no better than letting someone else invalidate you. Remember that what someone else thinks of you is really more about them and their issues, not you and yours." -Seltzer

I put these quotes up to encourage you to go after whatever your passion/vision is this week, and not let anyone deter you however convincing their arguments may be.

Cheers to a Great Week,

Christie

got questions, comments, need advice? email me @ roomtobreathe07@gmail.com

Creative ways to land a job!

This is for all of you who are looking for jobs through the traditional methods by going on Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com and other job boards. There are BETTER ways to land a job! Think about it, unemployment has jumped for 850k people to 12.5 million in the US. Most, if not all of these people are trying to get a job. The most advertised job boards tend to be the places they resort to. So, lots of competition for a "small" number of jobs. Then how do you separate yourself from the pack? -->GO VIRAL!!

My friends, if you don't have a Twitter account, GET ONE!! If you don't have Facebook, sign up!! And keep up with viral news!! Yes, it may be too much for some of you but bear with me. I get my news through Newser.com; which updates in a visual rolodex way with pictures and headlines. When you click on the pic you get a summary of the article plus the link to the full article. I highly recommend keeping up with the current headlines because that's how I landed on an article about tweeting (Twitter post) for jobs! From there, I clicked on hotlinks that brought me to rich sources of undiscovered jobs. So, follow these steps and get creative!!

Step 1: bookmark or just keep up with Newser.com for current headlines
Step 2: Open a Twitter account. Here's a link Twitter for Dummies if you want a more detailed breakdown. Register with Facebook if you don't have one!
Step 3: Start following people by asking your facebook friends if they have Twitter. Post your twitter link in your status and watch followers come to YOU!! Post your twitterlink on your blog, on your social network profiles, email signoff, on your business card, put in on your forehead. Hahahaha, ok too far. The more people you start getting, the bigger pool of potentials. You can use Twittersearch to find people according to a topic but I've found these following services to be the most useful.

• Wefollow.com : find people to follow according to your interest. You can even find Ellen Degeneres twitter page this way.

• Twibs.com : Browse 8,823 twitter businesses and connect with professionals that will refer you in the right way. I got SOO much useful information by following people in my profession which is marketing. So if you're in marketing, hit me up on the twitter.

• Small Business Search Marketing blog compiled a very long list of industry execs with twitter accounts. Find your industry, follow some execs and make some interesting comments back. Don't tweet them with..I need a job...please give me one..or I'm the best thing since sliced cheese. Dialogue over what they're talking about and contribute useful ideas. You never know what might happen! DEVELOP RELATIONSHIPS!! This is the key to this new job market landscape.
  

Step 4: Blog about what you're going through, write notes on facebook. People tend to read things that include interesting info with a sense of humor. So do that!

Step 5: LINKUP! One of the GEMS I found from Twibs.com for jobs is Linkup.com!! They are a fantastic online job board that keeps ONLY CURRENT job openings, no scam/fake jobs (yeah finance assistant my rear), and the great thing about them is that they collect jobs STRAIGHT from the source! Which means tons of unadvertised job openings!

Step 6: Apply, apply, apply! Keep your head up and know that you aren't alone. There's 12.5 million of us. For an encouraging read on being creative, read this Forbes article!

Godspeed yall!! Feel free to hit me up and let me know how things are going with you and the job market or with any other useful suggestions. http://twitter.com/ciqua

Turkey Penne

So I made some yummy Turkey Penne today and thought it a nice idea to share the recipe. I'm all about keeping things simple a.k.a recession-friendly so you won't need many ingredients or fancy spices to make this.

Turkey Penne Recipe

What you need for a pan-sized amount (feeds 3-4)

- 1/3 of packaged Ground Turkey
- 2 cups of Penne Pasta
- 1/4 minced garlic
- chopped onions
- 1 finely chopped celery stalk
- 1 cup of Sharp Cheddar Cheese (or whatever cheese you have)
- all-seasoning
- 1 tbsp of butter

optional

2 tablespoons of Teriyaki sauce
1 tbsp of Salsa con Queso (if you only have cheese dip you can substitute the cheese for cheese dip)

Preparations

Penne:
While you are preparing the ground turkey put a small pan of water with the penne to a boil for 3-5 minutes. Poke the penne and if you its moist then turn the burner off. Drain the pasta with cold water.

Turkey:
Heat up the pan at medium heat and melt the butter. Fry the chopped celery, garlic and onions light brown. Bring the heat down a bit and add the ground turkey. Brown the turkey. Add a couple of dashes (be careful not to make it too salty) of all-seasoning and the teriyaki sauce. Stir the turkey mix well and break the bigger pieces of the turkey up (it likes to clump up).
Now add the penne in and mix well. Add another dash or two of all-seasoning to give the penne some flavor. Finally garnish the dish with the cheese and add in the cheese salsa if you decided to use it in the recipe. Mix well and let the cheese melt and SERVE! Yummy!

Happy eating!

Products I'm enjoying right now

1. Suave Peabody Shower Gel
Cheap and delicious smelling; this shower gel gives you an invigorating shower without drying out your skin like most shower gels.
2. Supercook.com
Fantastic resource to get your recession cook on! I'm a firm believer now that the products in the back of your cabinet/fridge can yield some of the most yummiest dishes. Supercook allows you to search for recipes according to the ingredients you have. Fabulous!
3. Onima Natural Beauty Lip Balm
Derived from Aloe plants on the small eco-friendly island of Bonaire. This lip balm is fantastic for moisturizing and reviving dry, cracked, chapped lips.
4. Dream Curls ™ Curl Perfecting Spray
Like the package states; it transforms wilted dry curls into sexy swerves. What I love about the spray is that it doesn't contain alcohol, isn't greasy, and leaves my hair smelling fresh and pretty. My curls loved it!
5. Arm and Hammer Natural Essentials Unscented Deodorant
I LOVE IT! Why my strong proclamation of love to this product? I've been looking for an affordable (stress on the affordable) all-natural deodorant. When I saw this in my local grocery store I was delighted to read that the deodorant is aluminum-free, paraben-free and provides natural protection against odor by combining its namesake Arm & Hammer baking soda plus Coriander, Rosemary oil and other natural derivitaves. The deodorant glides on nicely, doesn't leave any marks, and has a nice natural smell.

Stay posted for more Fav products. Have any recommendations? Send me an email at roomtobreathe07@gmail.com