Friday, March 22, 2019

Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

Still smiling! Through it all! Want my advice on how to get through anything? Keep smiling! Stay in as good a mood as you can muster! No one said this journey through life was going to be easy, did they? Choose your reaction, dear brethren! TMI, my bra is too big in this picture, but that's a NSV aka, non scale victory!
Keep calm and carry the fck on!
I'm still online, trying to figure out a way to get out of this funk! I am not talking to a lot of people about it, probably 2-3 people maximum knew about my situation as I was going through it. Always play you cards close to your chest, kids!

I was filling out all kinds of forms and trying to get as much proof of whatever I felt Immigrations would need to see as possible. Immigrations works with nothing but receipts, as you may have seen in my post on how to apply for Green Card. Luckily for me, I get to do this process all over again. Only, this time, I have no idea what the heck I'm doing and if it's going to lead anywhere, but nothing ventured...Some of the proof that one could use to prove the legitimacy of your relationship with your spouse is from your neighbors, who have nothing to gain by lying for you. However, the neighbors' loyalty was with my husband, Calvin and his family. I mean, some of the neighbor's rent their homes from my in-laws, so there's that!

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Because hubby was trying to get me deported, I had to have a plan B of where I was going to live, should sht hit the fan. I knew at this point that he was not my friend like that. I applied and applied for rooms and apartments. I saw a room in the Pasadena area. Nice neighborhood! The apartment was above a business. It was the only unit there, so no neighbors. It was a one bedroom apartment with a huge dining area and living room. The guy sectioned off part of this common area and ended up with a nice and big room. There was a small bed there that I could use if I wanted to. Rent was cheap. Guy told me he lived there by himself and had a job. We seemed to get kind of along as we were talking. People seem to be super interested once you tell them you do some acting. So there was that.

I asked to see the rest of the place as I saw that we had spent most of the time chit chatting in the bedroom. The bathroom was tiny. There was a trash can full of poopy toilet paper in there, so, naturally, the bathroom smelled shitty! Are we back in Eastern Europe? There was a small cooking area but the apartment, really wan't designed for someone who needed full kitchen use, like me. He took me to his bedroom to show me how he had set it up and how one could fit an entire King size bed in my room like he did in his as both spaces were same size. While in his room, I thought I was tripping when I saw a full head of hair on his bed! Turns out he has a 2 year old daughter who comes over every once in a while. OOOOkkkkaaayy! This also explained the pink walking ring that was in the living room. I asked a few questions about the baby situation and didn't get answers that were satisfactory.

Free parking at the business downstairs! What? This is a gem! Especially for the price! I had to be at CBS in Studio City, so I rushed to the bank to withdraw deposit money. Not before he told me that he would only hold the place if I paid full month's rent and full deposit on that day. That kind of threw me off because, we're not moving in yet and you aren't even giving me a key today. That's not what was said on the ad! I still drove down the street and got his money, asked for a receipt and rushed to The Valley. It was a nice day. I felt good about the possibility of moving out of hub's place for good. I still didn't know how much time I had in The US, but positive thoughts, right?

The following morning, something went tink! Tink! Tink! in my head! I looked up the guy's ad and found it still there. In fact, he had refreshed it that very morning. Why would this guy refresh this ad if I paid him full rent and deposit just yesterday? I called him. He didn't pick up! The actual phuck! I texted him, no reply! What on earth?!?!?!?!!? My heart started to beat funny. I did not just get got by this poopy guy right now!

Nobody else knew about this new rooming situation but me! Now, I gotta show up with a weird ass story with a weird ending to people? No, man! Think fast, Brook! Think fast! I sent him a text from a random number enquiring about the room. He told me the room was still available. WTF? I asked what the requirements were blah. He gave me all the info. I asked if I liked it, would he require a holding fee. He told me yup, because a lot of people are interested in that room. The more he tried to rip 'another person off', the more, I was fuming inside! I had also texted him from my main phone number and asked what he was up to. He had given me his schedule the previous day, so he couldn't lie that much. He told me he was home. I was like, great cos I'm on my way to pick up ALL MY MONEY, sorry for the inconvenience but, rain check! He tried to tell me about charges and sht, I told him that luckily, he still has the place listed, so, I'm sure, he'll have no trouble finding someone else. The place was going to be available for move in in about two weeks, so, he had time. I think the fact that he didn't want someone to move in was part of the facade. I don't know if he even lived there, at this point. For all you know, he was just babysitting!

Maybe he was living in the room to rent, sleeping in that small bed, who knows? Hell, maybe he was the cleaning lady! He just hadn't gone around to the tissues in the bathroom yet.

I didn't give him that much choice, I was on my way and I was going to collect all my money, if that was the last thing I was going to do in America. Speaking of which, before I left, I gave Calvin a reader's digest version of this story. I just wanted someone to know where I was going, in case, I didn't make it out of there alive. Calvin was more concerned about the fact that Iw as that serious about moving out. 'Do you hate me that much, Brook?' Oh Gosh! I gotta go!

The guy was like, I'm leaving in 15 minutes, so ... I got in my fcking car, rushed to the Police station first to find out what my options were. They told me that it was a civil matter. However, if the guy as much as touches me, to call them! OK, I'll call you on my way to the morgue!

I rushed to the room. I had my camera on the dashboard rolling as I always do for my Youtube Videos. I was going to cover all bases, should I end up dying, maybe he won't take the camera and someone will play the video back. Or something!

I got there and called him cos I was parked in a no parking zone. He told me to go upstairs. Yeah, I need to do that like I need a hard eggplant emoji in my butt. So you can kill me? I told him I wasn't able to leave the car, he came down. Dude! I have this entire transaction on video! You should see him walk towards my car in frame! It's magical! He was so confused as to why I was withdrawing, he was really looking forward to rooming with me. Bull fcking shiiiiitttt! I got all my money back, or someone else's money, I don't how how many people he may have duped since me.

I drove out of there like...

Bitch better have my money!

One more thing to be thankful for that day and beyond!

Turned off my camera and called hubby. In fact, he called me to find out if I was OK. That's one of the reasons I married him. Cos I knew with him by my side, nobody was going to fck with me. He apologized that he had made things to unlivable for me and promised that he was going to do better. OK, I believed that like I believed the guy was still keeping the apartment for me AFTER our chat on my fake number. Fake news!
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Meal prep as usual. Tilapia
I actually don't eat as much fish as I would like, come to think of it! Anyway, moving on...

Who has read this book?
My lovely sister sent me this book by mail. All the way from South Africa. Criselda is a beautiful South African celebrity who is living with HIV, living very openly with it and is very involved in the fight against it. The book is a very easy read. I would like to hear from those who have read it their opinions. I may have shed a half a tear when I got this in the mail because it was something from home, my loved one had touched it with her hands AND look at the title.... YOU ARE NEVER ALONE! Thanks again, sis! For those of you who live in South Africa, or who have access to SABC 3, My sister, Pumla of Pumlas Food is a regular cooking guest on Afternoon Express, check her out and reach her on all social media under @PumlasFood and find me @BabalwaBrook See you there!

Jamaican Food
Speaking of food! Calvin took me to dinner at a Jamaican restaurant we had been trying to go to for a while but their open hours are random. Apparently, this restaurant was featured on Kitchen Nightmares TV Show by Gordon Ramsay. The oxtail was delicious, everything else was ok but the jerk chicken was too dry. This was also Gordon's critique, the restaurant owner told Gordon, she wasn't going to change anything. Guess what? 

This was a nice night. Every night with Calvin is not the worst ever.
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Me, on The TV Show, The Mayor
A Facebook friend spotted me on The mayor and sent me a message. This was the picture I found, so I took a screenshot for ya. I did more than one scene on there, so I don't know if this is the one he saw as well. I actually wore those very leggings yesterday, haha! If you were a fan of the show, you may have spotted me on several episodes. I was pretty much a regular on there. Leah Michelle from Glee was on this show, it was nice to meet her. I had a fan girl moment there for a second.
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Walking until it was dark out

Walking is not only a great exercise, free and easy, it's also therapeutic to be out there breathing fresh air and getting Vitamin D. You don't have to walk until the sun sets, easy does it.

Walking again!
Same week, because, same nail polish. If you follow me on Facebook and Instagram, you know, I like to post Nail colors of the week. It's a fun way to interact with my friends. They get to post theirs in the comment sections. Believe me, everyone's nails are better looking than mine and I love it! I do my own nails. Do you?
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Goergian Friend from Akhaltsikhe

While I was minding my own business, a good friend of mine from Georgia, Eastern Europe, sent me a message and told me he was in The States visiting. What? We need to meet up! I was home along that weekend, not that this mattered. I was tired from cleaning houses but I definitely would have energy to hang out with an old friend! I quickly gave him my number, he called me on the phone and I was tripping out. Like, what is life? How am I talking to you right now? He was going to be in Hollywood the following day. Guess where I was going to be the following day? Freaking Hollywood, man! I was going to be there, come rain or shine! This guy not only a friend, we were so close, I was almost kicked out of our friend group by the person who introduced me to him because they thought I wanted to be more than friends with him. He's cute but he's married. Not only that, I love his wife. I have values! I was more concerned that the people I thought were my friends thought that I was that girl. Really? I was a black girl in the middle of Eastern Europe. I could have any d*ck I wanted, hellloooo! This guy was also the guy instrumental in one of my best days on earth! The Enrique Iglesias concert that I attended in Batumi, Georgia. Click on Enrique to be taken to that blog post. If you look up that  concert by MTV on Youtube, you could spot me in the front, having so much fun. My sister saw me when randomly aired on MTV in South Africa. I was already in The US by then, imagine! I love this guy, he is so intelligent and has the best aura. He came here to promote his Georgian wine that's already sold internationally. We had such a fun night together. Lots of laughs, lots of snapchat videos, pics, no, I'll pay, no, I'll pay. It was awesome! 
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Vintage headshot photoshoot
How do you like my vintage wear? I need to wear this dress somewhere before it gets too big, actually!

Food from set
I like to overdish and take home leftovers. Leftovers on the right. Very protein rich

Squeezed myself into this Ivanka Trump dress
I love Ivanka's clothing line, her bags are cute too. Her line, is very Jessica Simpson-esque. If only her dresses had sleeves.

I left the house before the library even opened on this day. Escaping the wrath of the Mister. I waited in my car until the library opened and used their internet to look for a place to live. When my brain was fried, I went shopping, hence the fitting room shot above.

Love you for reading. Please leave comments on here. I truly appreciate hearing from you.

@BabalwaBrook on all Social media and Youtube

xox




















2 comments:

  1. Do you own any of my Ivanka's clothing line?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I do have a pair of Ivanka shoes. I’ll post them here in the future.
    You?

    ReplyDelete