July, 2 for 1 Movies, & Flossing

I'm so excited! July's almost here and with July comes fun travel destinations, anticipated movie premieres, friend's birthdays, and fireworks.
I'll be taking off to SoCal at the end of this week to spend the 4th of July weekend with my dear friend, Felicia. In preparation for the weekend I have a hair and pedicure appointment. 'Cause ya girl has to look good! I don't know who I might meet out there. Felicia has fun stuff planned so I'm sure I'll come back on Monday with plenty of pictures and fresh anecdotes to regale y'all with. You know what I've learned? That leaving a clean house before a trip is nice because you get to come home to a clean house! So I'll be cleaning today and tomorrow.

Last Friday I went and saw My Sister's Keeper and Transformers 2. Talk about the puffy-eyed mess I was after My Sister's Keeper! I think I cried during most of the movie. Scratch that, I know I cried during most of the movie. It was good though. So if you plan to see it bring plenty of tissue. I timed my two movies perfectly because as soon as My Sister's Keeper was done Transformers 2 was starting. And what a long movie that was! Two and a half hours long, to be exact. The action and fighting sequences were exciting, it just took way too Long for Sam to get to Optimus Prime. That movie could've easily been 2 hours.

I'm flossing now. I absolutely hate it, it grosses me out, but I understand it's a necessary evil. Like pap smears.

Of Test Drives, Movies, & Gym Memberships

Last week while visiting my friend Heather in Redwood City I got the great idea to go test driving! I've been contemplating recently on what kind of car will be my Accord's successor. And while I'm not planning to buy in the very near future, I'd still like to have an idea of what kind of car will suit me for the next stage of my life. I'd narrowed down the category to small SUV/crossover. I'd been telling Heather about the which cars I'd had my eye on when she told me she was looking at the same ones! And so we went test driving. First we stopped by the Honda dealership to checkout the '09 CR-V's. Nice enough, OK cargo space, and drives nice to be a 4-cyl. Second stop was the Nissan dealership to checkout the Rogue and the Murano and to gauge their differences. Murano is slightly bigger and is a 6-cyl. It rides like a dream! Only drawback was that it was too big for what I need. The Rogue would suit me perfectly-if it rode half as smooth as the Murano, which it doesn't. On to the Toyota dealership. I'd seen the Toyota Venza in the movie theater parking lot last week when I went to go see My Life in Ruins and thought I'd like to see it up close. It is so nice! Ladies & gentlemen, I've found my next car! it has a ton of cargo and passenger room. It has push to start ignition and it effectively utilizes the center console space. I loves it! Since 2009 is it's debut model year, I have to wait until they unveil the 2010's to see the changes and be able to accurately compare it against my other options. And I still have yet to test drive the Mazda CX-7 which is also on my list. but as of right now, here's how they're ranking:

1. Toyota Venza
2. Nissan Murano
   
3. Honda CR-V
   
4. Mazda Cx-7

Before our test driving adventure Heather and I went to see Away We Go with John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph. It was a cute movie that was quirky and off-beat. Just the type of indie flick that's right up my alley. This Wednesday Transformers 2 comes out! I'll be catching a matinee to see that one-and a couple others ;)

Last week I received a 30-day free membership pass for the local gym, In Shape Fitness, and decided to go check it out. Of course the guy, Steve I think his name was, was trying to sell me a membership right there. I'd told him that I'd had 2 gym memberships previously and that I canceled my most recent one because I was paying, but I wasn't going. And I am not in the business of donating money to gyms! He launches in about how it's a mental thing, really committing yourself to going regularly and yadda, yadda, yadda. I wanted to say "look, I'm just here to redeem my free 30 days, man. Skip the spiel," but of course I didn't. I should've. So after some back and forth and some numbers crunching on his part, I finally shut him down and tell him that I want to use the 30 days membership to see how truly committed I am to coming regularly because I don't want to be making $54 donations to In Shape Fitness! With that, he told me how to check-in as a guest and sent me on my way. I think I'll go tonight.

Camping Trips & Epiphanies

This past weekend I experienced my first camping trip! Anyone who knows me knows that camping and Jasmine don't end up in the same sentence. Ever. But since I'm funemployed and had nothing better to do, I decided to give it a try. And it truly wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. My dad had rented a 30 foot RV and the campsite at Lake Don Pedro had showers and bathrooms. Not bad for my first camping trip. But the best part, by far, were the smores. Believe the hype about smores. Yummy, gooey, chocolatey smores! I've never been a marshmallow person, but there's something to be said about them when they're staked and black from a campfire. It's heaven in my mouth. Smores made camping so worth it. I can see the appeal the great outdoors have on some people. It is quite relaxing to laze about the campsite or go for a boat ride. I particularly enjoyed taking pictures. Still, though, next time I'd like to rent a cabin near Lake Tahoe. That's more my type of camping.

Yesterday I had an epiphany. The Twilight Series is my "Jacob," while the Harry Potter Series is my "Edward." I had been suffering from the inner turmoil of secretly loving the Twilight series while feigning mild interest on the outside. I didn't want to. I blame Marcela for it, actually. But, as I was driving to go pick up some books from the library, I realized that while I am completely in love with all things Harry Potter, I love Twilight too. To a lesser extent, of course. Say what you like. We all have our quirks ;)

Spiders, Movies, and Concerts...Ahh, Summer

One of Summer's drawbacks: spiders. I'm already on my second can of Raid and it's not even July yet! The daily patrol consists of the living room perimeter, my room (of course,) and now the garage. So my dad calls this morning wanting me to head into the garage to see about the turkey fryer he needs a part for. I head on out there poking around, but ever cautious for the menacing spider. Lo and behold! An enormous spider web with no spider in sight. My years of arachnophobia tell me this isn't just your run of the mill daddy long legs; this is something scarier. I leave it alone for inspection at another time.

Enter another time.

I was off to finally go grocery shopping and I see it. The black widow that occupied that gigantic web. I say "okay spider, you stay right there. I got something for you" and edge along the car and run in to get the Raid. I get back and the blasted thing has escaped into hiding! "No matter", I thought, "he couldn't have gone far." I spray down the spider web and I see it falling and crumpling to the ground. Victory! I leave the spider carcass there to send a message to his friends: Don't come around here! I pondered whether his friends would try to avenge his death anyway. If they try to, I'll be ready.

Last Friday my friend Andrea and I went to see The Hangover. Hilarity at it's finest! I'm actually looking forward to the Unrated DVD version. Next on the movie list is Up. I think I'll go see it tomorrow, actually. It's my goal to see at least one movie a week. So far I'm doing pretty good.

A couple of friends and I went to the Anthony Hamilton & Musiq Soulchild concert on Sunday. It was a really good concert! Anthony Hamilton sounds just as good live as he does on his album. He's got Southern gospel roots so when he took the concert to church with "work it out" I wasn't at all surprised. And it felt like church! I remember thinking that if church was more like that I'd probably go more often.

Day 33

Chin hair is the current bane of my existence. I'm thoroughly convinced they are the karmic result of the constant teasing of the neighborhood lady who did nothing to tame her mustache and chin hair. And though you'd never see them upon first, second, or third look at me, I know they're there.

Enough about my chin hair woes.

Today is my 33rd day of unemployment. I think around day 28 I was becoming outrageously overcome with boredom. I have hobbies, don't get me wrong, but here's what I've learned about hobbies: they cost money. I just got this nice, gently used DSLR camera and realized that I need money to get to all the cool places to take pictures. And where I live, over here in the East Bay, is not very inspiring to me.

I have a hair consultant today. I think it's about time to permanently straighten my hair. For black women, permanently straightening their hair is commonly called a perm. About 3 years ago, I undertook the tedious task of growing out the perm to don my natural kinky hair. Now I'm tired of my natural hair and ready for a change!

I have to really think about this though. It took me a long time to grow my natural hair out, but I'm prone to flights of fancy. Me wanting my straight hair back is probably one of those flights.