Perfect Fit

saidah said...
Queen to Be I have a question for you that was asked on my hair board and I thought I'd ask you since you work for Essence!

This is just an excerpt "I just got my monthly Essence .........I got to the fashion section and the "perfect fit" section in particular stood out. I noticed that the holiday dresses they were showing were all really nice but the smallest size they show an example for is an 8. So I decided to go look at my last 2 Essence mags and sure enough the smallest size was a 6-8 and that was only in one mag, the other the smallest size was a 10 I think in this section. What about those of us who are smaller? Has anyone else noticed this in the magazine?"

I was just wondering your thoughts. To be honest I like the fact that Essence is doing this. B/c it is hard for size 8 up to find nice fitting trendy clothes.

Nov 20, 2007 8:45:00 PM

I LOVE it. Hi Saidah and anyone else who reads this blog and has a question they feel I might know the answer to. Let me know and I'll do my best. So on to the question. As a thick girl myself I loved the dresses this month. The red one with the green shoes was my fav. Check em out for yourself. Perfect Fit is actually a special fashion page in the mag that focuses on "real women" sizes each month. It is the one spot you are guranteed to see models who arent traditional "model" sizes. Often Essence and all magazines get the critcisim of featuring clothes and sizes that dont reflect real women, so Perfect Fit offers women with curves clothes that fit their body. In the January issue Perfect Fit takes on jeans for the curvy girl! If you are looking for great party dresses in smaller sizes check the Party spread in the mag that was shot at Tilman's, love that place!

Thankful Day

So I needed Thanksgiving bad this year. Real bad.It was great to see all my family and my busy body (and LOUD) mom. I flew to Atlanta then drove to my mom's mom in South Carolina with my brother and his girlfriend. Yep, he brought Crystal to meet the family. And my cousin and her boyfriend drove from NY. 

We getting old! When did we start bringing significant others to Thanksgiving? I almost felt I should have brought a date
*These pics I all stole from from my cousin Aisha from facebook

My cuz drove his CAB to Thanksgiving dinner! We were on the floor! It ain't a holiday if the family doesnt electric slide . .. as you can see I couldnt stop laughing. And next was Cha Cha but I just couldnt show how low i can go with grandma watching . . .

and, Im from Atlanta so you know we can go low.

Friday we went to Augusta (the closest "big" city in the area:). Got me a cute cover for my new mac book. Riding back we saw these cotton fields and had to stop. We were mesm

erized and full of weird emotions. I took all serious pics respecting the history of folks who look like me and cotton. Then I had to laugh thinking of the fashionistas I know (Kish . . . the lovely teacakes . . . Z . . .) and there closets full of cotton. Whoever said progress was a slow process wasnt talking about us. Hope you guys had a great holiday!! 

Hang on the Mistle Toe

Ok, I'm lying. Bring on the Mistle Toe!!!

This Christmas will definitely be a special Christmas for me.

I am so excited fot the holidays . . . even if I am having a few issues with a certain "Ho Ho Ho" in my life.


I kid. I kid. Seriously though, last Thursday I went to a screening of This Christmas and totally got in the holiday mood. That movie was SO funny and I just liked it. Me and my coworkers even put aside our uppity-ness in the loud theater with all these Chris Brown loving kids and their loud mamas. Gotta love the people.

Earlier that day we had our office pot luck so I was definitely feeling in the spirit - literally. That "special" punch was popping.



But what I love about the movie is it was so real and honest and I could relate, without it having a ounce of hood or horribly broken English (No offense to the real Frank Lucas). And y'all, I hate spoilers with a passion, but just know when you see the baby oil be ready to laugh.

Lauren London and CeCe From Dreamgirls (Keith Robinson) played a couple who went to Spelman and Morehouse. Keith's character Devon's explanation of attending an HBCU gave me goose bumps.

So this week I lost the Tina Turner 'do, am back to a sensible bun and working on a new attitude.

Who ever said life was fair?

This is Sean Bell and his daughter Jada after her swimming lesson. He went out with his boys the night before his wedding and you know the rest of that story. A good Black man marrying the mother of his children. Any innocent man being gunned down is a devastation but the early morning hours of your wedding day?
I was looking at pictures of him for an assignment and this picture just froze me. When will it end? Tuesday night I went to a screening of "The Great Debaters," a Oprah-produced film starring Denzel at an HBCU in Texas in the 30s. In one scene the debaters and Denzel roll up on a Black man being lynched.
The movie was a must-see, great wardrobe, acting and cinematography. But it also filled me with melancholy of how blessed we are to live in this era, when these people fought so I could laugh at Midget Mac.
But the 'whew' that you would think 75 years later doesn't come like I thought. Not when Sean Bell is a victim of a modern day lynching.
The movie talks about Willie Lynch and reminded me of the power of the words that his name is locked in history for the devastation he caused - and also the power of one, and in this instance one who used his power for some serious evil.
Jada Bell doesn't have her dad to hug after swimming lessons anymore. I am the queen of shielding myself from the tough facts but this is one I can't hide from.

Sunday Kind of Love

My fave Etta James song. And what women who seem to "have it all" have stumbled upon. I should be making final edits on an assignment that is past due but I'm up goofing off as I battle writer's block, just got finished watching Oprah and now am watching a 'Real Life Divas' profile on Lisa Price. Love her! If me and Whit thought hearing her talk was inspiring and how her husband was a major part of it, listening to this man talk about his wife, definitely was on a whole nother level. It was beautiful.
That's what I need in my life . . .one day.

Drinks on Dwele etc . . .

So yeah, tooth decay isn't the sexiest thing to post about. Just hope a certain someone doesn't read the blog. Well, after a rough week I felt things were coming back together. Thursday night I was able to go to a show with Dwele and took my book club buddy Eniola along (she just happen to find Teacakes when searching for a book club on facebook . . . sexy right?) I beelined to the bar when we made it and wouldnt you know it was an OPEN BAR. Feeling drained that two of my friends, well are saying things you wouldnt want a friend to say, I could really use a drink.
I got a reality check of how small my problems are when a producer came up and started talking and then shared how his girl for over a decade was killed a few weeks ago in a robbery.
Anywho, Dwele was great. His band was on it. I even forgave him for not doing my beloved "Flapjacks":)
Friday I was reminded again of my imperfections: I'm a sleepaholic. After my texas size drink with my shoot, waiting for the check, I start to nod off to sleep at the table. What can I say? I was tired . . .
Saturday was low key as me and Arion hung out, went to a NCNW meeting and grabbed some Make My Cake. I hit the gym and felt the burn.
Sunday I got up and was pumped to hit my first gym class: cardio kickboxing.
It was as intense as it sounds and all these in shape New Yorkers intimidated the hell out of me. And if you promise not to tell I will admit I was the worst in the class. lol. But that means I can only get better!!! They haven't seen the last of me.
With sore muscles, I made it to Abyssinian and had a flashback of the line at 2K9 for LaTex with everybody waiting outside. It was the church anniversary and the first service ran long making a crowd and ushers walking up to anyone who wasnt Black saying "no visitors today." The crowd lets out and Gordon, former NAACP prez walks by. Last time I was here it was Fonsworth. The service is amazing with a great sermon on "Hallelujah Any How," just what I needed to hear.
The service ended with a reminder just for me on why NY is so freaking grand. Up comes Ashford and Simpson to sing with the choir a special church anniversary song they wrote for this occasion. They are jamming to this song "Be Blessed." I love my church in Atlanta but celebs just dont roll in to sing for our anniversary. And you know Nick was shaking that hair;)

CJ
On a serious note, wasn't news of Donda, Kanye's mom death really sad? And the fact that is was so unnecessary that much more heartbreaking?

Hammertime on her Toes

That line from Boomerang popped in my head while I was sitting in the dentist chair this afternoon.
Can I just say I love my dentist office? It's on 45th st and so New York with beautiful marble floor and romantic granite statues throughout the place.
Some smooth soulful music was playing the whole time I was being worked on with my dentist humming along, a Irish band with a guy named Damien. My dentist is so cute and cool. She can flip from dental and medical jargon to complimenting my sweater in lightning speed.
But back to why hammertime toes popped in my head.
I felt my imperfection.
Well, after she numbs me up, she begins my root canal that was started last spring back at my alma mater's (I love saying that word now:) and is drilling. I begin to smell this funky smell. I think it's just the combination of the drill, the metal and the plastic on my top lip. Well, she then tells me I received some less than stellar dental work that didn't take out all the tissue in my tooth so what I'm smelling is decayed tissue that was left in my tooth which was then given a filling, so now after taking out the fillling there is a little gangrene she has to drill out. Gasp.
Not sexy at all.
She cleans out the tooth and I have to go back next week for her to complete the procedure and am on antibiotics till then.




After that I ran over to a screening of Dirty Laundry, this movie with Loretta Divine, Lavetta Alize from the Steve Harvey show (can I just say I love his morning show), the guy who played the husband and family man with the kids on Soul Food, Sommore, bobby jones from BET gospel and the ultimate scene stealer Will's aunt from Fresh Prince who is always funny. I love Loretta!!
The movie struck a sore nerve seeing someone who lives and works in magazines in new york go home to Georgia to visit. I have been going through my own moment these last few days.
New York is indeed the center of the world
But Atlanta has always been the center of mine till now.

See ya,
Reah

*and for the record I don't have hammertime on my toes . . .

Still Wallowing

I still feel like my tail is between my legs or however that saying goes when you feel like crap for something you did (or in my case didn't do).
But as India Arie belted out, the only thing constant in the world is change.
Or as my mom the coolest Sunday school teacher ever would say, "this too shall pass".
Nothing reminded me of that more than when my Christmas songs came on the ipod today.

First time in about 11 months I didn't shake my head at my out of season carols. I love Christmas time and adore Christmas songs! And I let Gladys Knight's "Do You Hear What I Hear?" and Destin'y Child Christmas song go right along and play. Sidebar - my dad's new lady friend looks like Gladys he says. Get em pops:)

Just continuing with the random pics this week. When I get sad or need grounding I always turn to old pictures because I thank God for a great childhood. This one is me and my bro circa 1988. I've always been a tea drinker it seems:)

More than you can chew

So today my tendency to be super involved came back to bite me on the butt. Hard. It stings. I was so blessed to come into freelance work with someone I adore and somehow I managed to mess it all up. horribly. The hours in the day aint changing so it is time for me to do some serious house cleaning in my life and get organized with a schedule. I sent my first ever "I'm sorry" flowers and I hope they will be my last because obedience is still better than sacrifice. If you say you are going to do something, do it. (that's me preaching to myself. And this is me biting off more than I can chew at the School of C ceremony)

But me feeling like my hands are in every pot is nothing compared to Brian White, who dropped by the office today. He is soo intelligent and the ultimate multi-tasker doing his thing with a production company with Boris and writing scripts along with acting. I didn't realize he was in the NFL before, worked on Wall Street and definitely knows how to work relationships he made while at Dartmouth (my second choice!). He has a lot of plans for Hollywood and I'm not mad at it. For someone who is offered a lot of "mainstream" roles I had to ask what he thought of the tendency to cast Black leading men like Will and Denzel with their love interest not Black like Eva Mendez in Hitch (which I SO need on dvd. Really) and his answer was interesting. I guess I really have done a little growing up not even trying to sneak a peek at his back. lol. And I guess he and me apologizing are good friends as my post from last winter on Brian White shows after seeing Stomp the Yard.
living through the growing pains,
Reah

You ain't here it from me:)

You know I'm so humbled folks read the blog, so if you are so kind to come I better give ya what you are asking for. And Ive made a vow to post daily so come on back, ya hear. (and yes, that southern slang just gave me a flashback to when my mom would watch Beverly Hill Billies and me and my brother would do this hoe down in the middle of the den to the theme song:)





But back to the mandate for a lil juice on the 30 dates party. You know I'm conflicted on blogging on things work related so I wont just put it out there. You read the bachelorettes blogs so you know drama that goes down and I'm not sharing anything that isnt already public knowledge.

Well, I walk into the party with my editors just in time, right before the toast is made. First thing I notice is *Lay has brought a date. She is gorgeous with a cropped close hair cut and is hanging close so there is no doubt they are "together."

Hmmm, by later that night he is by bachelorette #1's side, who is being followed around by the controversial bachelor who was voted to get the second date and who is unfortunately not as cute as the screen let on.


Bachelorette #4 is with her match who we all say she better marry. She is def living the good life and enjoying the bubbly that is merrily being tossed around, as is most of the crowd including yours truly. By night's end she is laid out on the couch sleeping it off as her guy attentively cares for her.


The Siren is there with her guy L and they are cute together, even if he is a lil shorter. Hand holding, back embracing. Me and my editor/big sis talk to him for a second before leaving. He's a cutie up close and his drink is talking and telling all about how he does care for Bachelorette #3 and he was hoping whoever the online hater was to show up. Cyber drama is real.

But in all honesty, that party reminded me let's not marry any of these folks off after a date or two. The Romantic looks great and working the crowd and so is bachelorette #2 who still got it and was getting her dance on a little.


Being there got me reminiscing. Turns out I'm not the only one who's had a fab date in Baltimore! Check out Glo's and her shout out to Gary. Don't sleep on that harbor:) So I'm off to breakfast and prepping for the wedding that starts at 3pm. And dont tell my mom, but Im also going to buy a dress because I didnt really feel I had one I wanted to wear. I know, I know . . .
I absolutey love weddings so I need more folks to do it soon:)
And thanks for the advice Jameil: shorter posts, more often. Got it!!