The Perfect Wedding Dress

When I fell in love with dresses as few months ago, i never envisaged the ultimate dress challenge was around the corner. Like a regular girl, I totally love shopping, but shopping for a wedding dress is definitely an experience.
I started early and learnt from the best, still I have only found a dress I really liked. You don't say.... it was way over my budget. Maybe I have tested a hundred dresses or a little more, I can't say for sure, I just know that I need to take a break. The first bridal place I visited was a joke; the stay does not come with the dress. So they made me wear the stay and attempt to step into the dresses. About fifteen dresses later and four bridal assistants, I was ready to give up on the search. I gave myself a few weeks break and bounced into Klienfeld on a rainy November morning. That was a bad one, my date was way too close to work with, there was somebody fitting for a November 2010 wedding. Thank God I went shopping before going for the appointment. Still happy, life is good.
The third bridal place was not any better either, am I really supposed to make up my mind in one hour? it will not happen. Unfortunately I am one of the few people in this world plagued by extreme indecision. It takes about forty five minutes to decide what's for dinner on a good day. It took me five years to finally make it to Business School.
Back to the dress gist, we moved on to the next place without missing a pulse. Lo and behold, four dresses made it onto my list, all I had to do was think and sleep over them before making my choice. Needless to say, my newly upgraded Fiance managed to throw out the bridal magazine where I noted the reference numbers for my dresses. Do I really need to start looking all over again? Not really, finally traced the dress, it was over our budget anyway.
The hunt for the perfect wedding dress continued.

New Phrases

Well, I definitely love living in Yankee, much more than living in Jand.
Although nothing beats my life in Lagos, it was packed full of excitements.

I have not made it to my blog in a few months. But in these past months I have picked up a few new words and phrases, a few pounds, a few friends, a few hairstyles, and a brand new attitude to life. I also started a list of names that I must not give my kids - only God knows what can happen 45 years down the road.
My favorite new word is Maverick-y, but I refuse to put lipstick on a pig. Although a cross- dressing Mayor can attempt to run, he can only have one state. I still love shopping spree like most girls, but I am yet to find an employer that will foot the bill.
I am still considering changing my name to match my brand new attitude, only one name comes to mind. So my friends, please call me 'Thomas the tank engine"

Good old days

The beauty of youth, the pleasure of confidence, the passage of time. O, how unfair!!!

Damsels become Naggers, how time has left its scars on the sweet heart of mine. Awake in the wee hours of the morning, reading the sweet mails of good old times. I wonder what happened, what has changed. Deep down in my heart, i know the only person or thing that has changed is me.

Although I wondered if I could ever bring sexy back, but I realised the damsel in me still lives on. Fargone are the days when 'Damsel in distress' was the theme of the day. The days of 'women liberation' has come and gone. I remember vividly the sudden realization of the fact that
'it's a man's world' and how sober I felt. It was a long lost battle.

About seven months after hitting the big 3 0, I finally made peace with growing up. Although I can never be 25 again; I can be sweet, I can be nice, I can be friendly, I can be fun, I can be forgiving, I can be beautiful; and far above all I can be carefree.

DC, ere we come

Labor day weekend seem to hold various memories as far as it goes. My first labor day weekend was a week after I arrived at JFK and kissed the floor of God's own country. We went shopping on Saturday and LB left for London later that night. MOG came to pick me for church service the next day, the rest of the long weekend seem to drift by really fast; I spent hours on Fordham website, trying to figure out how I could make my MBA a bit cheaper than the bill I had been dealt at school.
Everything was fine until the evening of Labor day, when I realized a bit of fresh air would not hurt and I decided to open the window. Did the AC just disappear? O yes!!! It fell out of the window and crashed to the ground like humpty-dumpty. How can I ever forget!!!

After one year, labor day weekend was not as daunting, although it was a bit different. I left for Philly the day before and LB left for DR. Did he travel without me? O yes he did!! I went for Lizzy's wedding and came back to NY on Sunday. This time around, I had plans for labor day, I could not risk staying at home and getting tempted to open the window and let the poor AC out again. I went for the Carribean Parade in Brooklyn.
So this is my very third Labor day weekend and off we went to DC, this time around it was LB and I. It was a weekend with DC monuments, museum and Hilton on Embassy Road. We even managed to see a movie, for the first time in my life I sat through a movie with no pop-corn or drinks.
As usual, I came back with observations and questions
- the trains are comfortable and fancy; but why would they trade comfortable seats for AC on the trains?
- most of the metro lines run really deep in the ground; how come the escalators going up never seem to work?
- Yes, it was labor day, how come nobody was shopping?

Anyway, it was fun trip.

Corporate Me

So it's been four weeks and two pay checks since I started work. I am loving it but I am still not sure what to expect.

The first week was a blurr of general orientation, heavy laptops, grubs, uncomfortable shoes, loads of people and more grubs. Stepped into the second week knowing exactly when I will get the "gbemu" and on the train to CT. So it was another week of training with, nice hotel and extra - extra grubs; I gained the six pounds I have lost in the past two months within that week. I came back to NY with a few questions, some lessons and two more pages of my book done.

1. why do hotels serve crappy expensive dinner?

2. why do rich people live near water/rivers/beaches etc?

3. why do people have to keep eating to stay awake in a class? - lunch makes you sleepy, keeping the inflow of snacks and food just makes you sleepier.

End of the week, it is so good to be home. We finally got a furniture for the apartment and I am still on training/orientation. I even joined a gym - although I spent only about twenty minutes in the first group class I attended. I can't say why the instrcutor felt I am J-Lo cos I sure don't have those deadly hips; but she made us do all those funny weird dance moves. I gave up as quickly as possible.
The personal instructor was a different case, he probably thought saying my name a million times will give me some energy desperately needed - I ended up asking for something more interesting. Life got to be a bit easier on thirty year olds.

A book by its cover

Whoever said "don't judge a book by its cover" or "don't stare the gift horse in the mouth" . They are totally wrong. Although the bread comes as an extra in most restaurants, I realized you can fairly guess what to expect from a restaurant before seeing the food by tasting the bread.
In New York, I have come to realize that "the bread in a restaurant says a lot about its chef and the food you're about to order. Little wonder my favourite restaurant is French, they serve fantastic bread with butter or anything interesting you can think of.
Although in Naija, location is everything. A born and bread Nigerian, I still can't deal with eating bread with oil - olive oil, extra virgin oil, Johnson baby oil- which ever one is just not right with bread. Somebody needed to preach it.

I'm every woman -it's all in me...........

Whao, how time flies. We have been in the new crib for a whole week, and it is now officially home; cable and internet all running. All things unpacked except for the books. I feel like "I'm every woman. Been there done that.

God has been good to me. He is faithfully and wonderful.
I have my MBA - just like yesterday; my first journal entry in July of 2001 has come to pass. It has been fulfilled by God's grace. It reads - I want to have an MBA from an Ivy League school in the US. Although I ended up attending Fordham University, in Manhattan; it all turned out perfectly well. Since there were no blogs in 2001 or more like I did not know about it then, I opened a journal for myself. I used to write my thoughts, my goals, my fears, my worries and sometimes those things I could not talk to anybody about concerning my relationships. As a result, my journal was very private, I never gave anyone to read.
On a faithfully day in July of 2001, I entered my desire to have a "yankee MBA"; I took the first step by writing some ivy leaugue schools. Lo and behold, the prospectus started coming and guess who saw them first? my mum. O yes, something fresh to worry about, HBS sent their prospectus with financial estimates of about 120,000dollars. She waited until I visited for the weekend from my job in Lagos....... I could still see us on her bed and the worried look on her face. She has done the conversion on her little calculator and concluded that if I pawned her in a famous market in Abeokuta, I still would not be able to make the fees and living expenses.
Left for Lagos the next day, with no doubt in my mind I am still going to have a yankee MBA.
I gave myself a 5-yr target and went on with life. I scheduled GMAT for sometime the following year, but got distracted by men and money. In July of 2003, I met a guy that was preparing to visit the US embassy for his student visa, I went back to my journal and picked up my dreams. I did the GMAT and TOEFL the same year.
Once again , men and money came calling............left Naija for the UK instead of US. A year into my living in London, I realized it was a wrong move and a bad idea. So I picked up my two year old GMAT result, retried TOEFL and went for the World MBA tour in London. I met Frank Fletcher, the admission director at Fordham and we discussed my plans over coffee at a nearby starbucks. A few months later, I was on the flight to NY from London. My head ached all through the flight, yes.. I was scared, anxious, worried and excited at the same time. I was running on sixteen gallons of adrenalin. All in a blur, touched down, arrived at the old apartment, met one of the famous housemates, got some Jamaican food and I still could not relax enough to sleep.
Roll it forward two years later, a few scholarships, lorry loads of networking events, loads of mentors, two internships and some fantastic friends. I am ere, a new job, a new apartment and ofcourse LB still by my side. Thank God for the groom's party at Unilag in Dec 2001.

New Crib and Starbucks

My love for starbucks seem to take various dimensions from time to time. I used to be a once-a-week customer for Caramel Macchiato back in London, then advanced to a four-times-a-week grande-coffee-smoker when I started business school.
The new crib spelt another dimension to my relationship with Starbucks. With my starbucks card in hand, laptop in my knapsack, I proceed to the starbucks in the neighbourhood. The first time I had to do this, I just went to my former office in the city. A starbucks that attracted the tourists trying to shop in Century 21. After that, I just stayed close to home. Free Wi-Fi on the house, why not? Not a bad place to hang out all day, you see all sorts of people trying to get their daily starbucks fix.
I only have to do this for a week until the cableman comes on Saturday, but in a very weird way- I love it.

Twenty-Three Months; the time to leave!

Whao, it feels absolutely nice to be moving out of the old house. I have lived there since the very first day in the US. Not particularly sure I will miss living in Canarsie, the things I did not like about it outnumbered the ones I liked anyway.
I hated the commute to Lincoln centre when I was in Business school, it took at least 2 hours to get there sometimes. I hated the L train with a passion, it never used to come.
Winter was almost unbearable, I am not sure if it's me or the vent in my room. It kind of freezes up in December and starts to melt in April.
I will definitely miss the memories.......my old room-with index cards all over the walls; my reading table - where the tears of CFA level 1 was shed; the dunkin donuts around the corner, the very quiet neigbourhood and The Arch diner. After twenty three months, I am so ready to leave.
Goodbye Canarsie, - This is the last stop on this train. Everybody please leave the train. Thank you for riding with MTA New York City transit.
Oh yes! the very last stop on the L train.

A guest from Hell

After this visit, I am sure the devil is a woman. Does she wear Prada?? I am not sure, I know she definitely wears a DKNY- skinny jeans.
I love my friends. Once I pitch my tent with you as a friend, I am in for the long run. I make friends with their friends and try to make it a good experience for all. Friends with various characters and attitudes obviously come with the territory. With some you never have a fight, but others you fight and make up every now and then. So I ended up meeting the devil through a fantastic friend. Needless to say, I got a visit from hell.
Gosh, it was still a rude shock. But the beauty of it all, I realized how patient I have become, just like my Mum. I just know the devil will never be back to my new pad.

Yippie, we found one!!

Whao!!! After six weeks of phone-dating agents and running around Brooklyn, we finally found a pad. The first time we saw this pad was about three weeks ago and we loved it. We put in an application and bam............... let the game begin!!!! It took two full weeks to get an interview with the landlord and his wife. We finally met them, his wife is so hot and she came with one of her grandchildren. I almost could not believe my eyes, I could not help to stare. I still dont know how some people pull it off, they just freeze at twenty five and even when they are forty five, they still look twenty five. I wish I could do that; at twenty five, I was soo hot I could date me. Ok, enough of that.
The pad is a 2 bedroom, standard New York new development. It is really cute, a walk in closet in the master bedroom, a cute bathroom, kitchen and living room together, loads of closets all over the apartment. I am so excited, I can't wait to start decorating and putting things in place. So, I have about ten days to get everything in place and proceed to start my post-MBA job. I love being an MBA in the US. It is soo cool - like the best thing after sliced bread.
So, I came out of the house hunt experience with loads of lessons for the folks that will be looking.
1. Don't schedule two different agents with listings in the same neighbourhood half an hour apart. You really don't want to have a discussion about the apartment her competition just showed you.
I happened to shedule Beta to meet me at the same point I was meeting Pi about half an hour apart. Lo and behold, Beta pulled up in her car as Pi was approaching the crossroad and yelled my name. So I went to her and whispered, "you're so early". I ran across the road and walked away with Pi. Needless to say, I had to carry-on a conversation about the apartment when I finally made it back to the crossroad where she was waiting patiently.
2. Phone calls don't move brokers, you need to show up in the office a few times for them to know you're serious. Yes, even after putting in an application and putting down a deposit. Those people are different.
3. If the broker is impatient or rude on the phone, don't waste your time chasing that apartment. You won't get it.
4. Landlords are either from Pluto or Mercury: remember Pluto has been de-planeted. They either want you to heamorrhage the dough a few minutes after seeing the apartment or they take forever. It is simply ridiculous!!
5. Forget about your dream apartment; it is yet to be built.
6. Some people's only access to their bedroom is by a wooden ladder. Believe it. It only happens in NY near Fort Greene Park.

"Draw a blank"

OK, I must confess!! I am not exactly drawing a blank. I just couldn't get around to my notebook these days to put down the stuff. Can you believe it?
Well, I blame the house -hunt; it is still on; I thought we found the apartment and then bam!! bad news............ so I am back in the market. Like a real estate fling-y thing-y, kept calling and scheduling. So for convenience, I scheduled to meet two of my agents at the same cross road about thirty minutes apart. Ofcourse they met because one decided to show up at the meeting point about thirty minutes early, I am not sure if it will discourage them or just make them work harder at finding what I'll like. At this point, I really don't care which one.
So we decided to check out the coolest, newest, hang-out mall in Brooklyn last saturday after driving all the way to Red Hook terminal. It was totally impressive, it was just a window-shopping kinda thingy since we definitely can't be buying any other junk until we move.
After that we decided to go see my girl in her lastest movie "Wanted". Action packed, fun with all the Jolie naughtiness that comes with it. It was good, you definitely need to see it.
Monday night was for Sex and the City. Don't think about it, I did not go to the movies. Watched it in my living room. If you live in NY, you will definitely understand that it happens. Maybe not all of it, but the chinese take-out, the lonely nights you just need to talk, the lunches and the never-ending drinks; are all part of living in the city. I could not believe Mr. Big still chicken-ed out after ten years, and Miranda is definitely evil.
But I have to agree, Brooklyn is the new Manhattan. Ofcourse I live in Brooklyn.

Driving Test

How long is a driving test supposed to take?20 mins, 10mins, 5mins or 30secs. Mine took 30secs and u're right. I failed it. Even I could not believe it, after all these years of dangerous driving in Lagos. I failed a driving test.

The experience was weird, it felt like my US embassy apointment in Nigeria when I applied for my visa. Can you can imagine how unnerving it is to watch people goof for two straight hours? One chick could not even start her car, one guy showed up with a 1950 lincoln that was stuttering and making so nuch noise, it could barely start.When it was my turn, I drove right through the red light. That was the end.

On the Brooklyn Bridge

Yeah, that is where I was standing in that pix. I decided to walk the Brooklyn bridge the very first time I set my eyes on it. It is soo big and so beautiful. Anyway, it took me two years to finally get to it......I am a woman, what can I do?
Lo and behold, the day finally arrived . I jumped into my sneakers and hit the subway so I could start from the city end of the bridge and walk to Brooklyn. It was beautiful, loved it, loved walking it and decided I will probably do this again and again. All the way over to Brooklyn I walked; looking at the cars below, the Manhattan Bridge and the skyline I have seen too many times in the movies. I arrived at the other end feeling, that was not bad at all. It felt so good I had to take the Manhattan bridge right after.
Well, halfway through MB I realized it was a bad idea. I guess MB was not built for lazy pedestrians like me, I saw very few people. The trains passed noisely and the cars were too far on the other side to be seen. Got to the Manhattan end of the bridge in one piece and needed a fix really bad. I will leave you to wonder about that.......................

What a week!!

This week turned out to be very interesting.

I tried two new salad recipes: Couscous salad - very delicious and exciting, the word is "tangy".
Potato Salad - could barely pass the screening; it will probably turn out better the next time.
I also made teriyaki chicken for the first time.
Meanwhile, the house-hunt is still on at full speed, it's kind of fun but it is a lot of leg work.
I spoke with about 25 agents and saw at least 12 apartments. Foggerritt!!! I have seen all sorts: small closets, no closets, a room that cannot fit a twin bed, rooms with no windows and the worst of them all, railroad apartments. Yeah, that is what they call them. If you have never seen one, you've probably not looked for an apartment in NY. Very scary. It makes me wonder what is more difficult in the life of an adult; finding a spouse or finding a decent apartment in NY.
After a long week, I can begin to feel the light at the end of the tunnel although I can't see it yet.

One thing I love about summer in NY is street fairs, it's just so much fun going around and looking at all sorts of things you never see anywhere else or maybe you will see in Chinatown if you get lucky. Last week, I found a beautiful set of jewelry made of glass from Milan, simply priceless.
Did I mention the food you get to buy while you're looking? I call it "bad food", it just tastes better because it's a street fair.
Anyway, spent the better part of today waiting for Salvation Army since I could not get anything less than a six hour window. Needless to say, it is almost midnight and I am still waiting. Unbelievable.

A bad movie and a good movie

I realized seeing a bad movie and a good movie kinda leaves you with the same feeling. ..provided you did not go to the theatre and you have seen both before.
I decided to see two movies I have seen before, both of them had Brad Pitt. Snatch was soo bad it was funny; Brad acted Mickey, a pikey that never learns or more like never stays down. All the other casts had a common line "I hate Pikeys". At the end of the movie, I found myself repeating the line. Not sure if it was because it felt so good or I did not like the pikeys either.
Someone needs to teach Guy Ritchie how to do it right.
The other movie had my favorite girl; Miss Jolie.....It can only be Mr and Mrs Smith. Makes me wonder if a marriage could really be like that. My favorite part is still when he asked her how many people she has taken down and she answered 312, he was soo shocked...maybe the number made her more of a killer than him or it was just an ego thingy. I wonder if they can still do a movie together. That was way too cool.

First time blogger

I am attempting to blog for the first time, and it is not so bad. I never started because I thought I will draw a blank once I open the page. But guess it is different when it is your lovable computer that you never put down anyway.
So, the gist is we are trying to find an apartment in NYC that is nice, clean, affordable and close to the city but would not break our pockets. I found out this week that trying to get an apartment like that is rocket science. Or maybe it is just the time of the year, even the moving company goes 'it is soo competitive', you have to schedule it now. I wondered what I was supposed to with that detail, probably what I am doing now....blog it.