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| Down more than 100 lbs |
Just as I was celebrating my pounds weight droppage, I got booked to be on a show about weight loss. I still can't believe how all that happened. They wanted to celebrate people who had lost great amounts of weight. I was lucky to be one of the chose ones. The show is The Doctors, some of you saw me on that episode, I was siting front row. I got messages from my social media from people as far as Africa, telling me they saw me. It's always fun to hear from my people as I know they get just as excited randomly seeing someone they recognize from social media on their screens!
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| Off to The Doctors |
What I wore to the show. I felt amazing! It's funny how much skinnier once you see that they weight has gone down on the scale, isn't it? And vice versa. It was a fun show where I sat next to a lady who had lost as much as me, but that's all the needed to lose, so she had since had surgery to tuck everything in. She looked so sexy. Behind us, was a lady who had lost 600 lbs and counting! (more than 250kg).
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In other news: I had a viewing in Monterey Park. This is a decent neighborhood in the Eastern part Los Angeles county. I had talked to the lady a few times over the phone. First of all, the lady called me super randomly from a number I not only didn't recognize but couldn't trace it back in my texts after talking to her. I asked her where she got my number from. She told me she was returning a voicemail I had sent her weeks prior. Apparently, she had had a death of a loved one and was out of commission, so to speak. I sympathized with her and she went on and on and on about the friend, who she would refer as a friend, then fiance, then boyfriend. I just didn't know what was going on! She told me about her father, and the different races, and how we should stick together because certain races are racist and all that. That whole racial conversation is not for me. I didn't even know the lady but I can tell you one thing: I'm black and she's not. So, we were already not the same race, so I was kinda thrown that she wanted to discuss other races with me as if she expected me to agree with her school of thought. What if I was racist towards her people? I kept trying to cut the call short. All I wanted to find out was if the room was still available and when I could view it. That's all I really care about. I had enough on my plate as well. I didn't need to add on the trauma of her fiance having been found dead in a house he was living alone in weeks after he perished. And her conspiracy theories around the whole death. Gosh! I had to ask myself if I really wanted the energy this woman was already bringing to the table. I wanted to keep an open mind, so, I asked when I could see. Long story long, she wanted to meet somewhere in public where she would verify my paperwork. Thereafter, she would decide whether I qualified to be taken to her home or not. Fair enough.
I drove to the fast food joint she had said to meet her at. I waited more than 30 minutes for this woman who lived less than 5 minutes walk from the place. What the actual fck? If you pick the time at which you would like to meet someone, the least you can do is to be there on time. You chose the hour, didn't you? She looked younger than she had told me she was and nothing like the energy she had presented on the phone. The thing about energy is: it doesn't lie! Right?
She had driven to meet me. I was to follow her car with mine, but she first wanted to walk to the gas station next door to get cigarettes or something. There were no customers in the gas station. She went straight to the cashier to ask for what she needed. The vibe immediately shifted in the store. She accidentally dropped her cigarettes. As she was picking them up, she dropped something else, it became quite the show! Then she used once credit card to pay, DECLINED, tried another one, DECLINED, third card, DE-FREAKING-CLINED! What on earth is the deal with this person right here! The cashier lady looked at me and rolled her eyes. I wasn't sure what her deal was because, you don't know what my relationship is with this person. Why would you let me know what you think of her like that? We could be best friends for all you know! We left. There's a drug store right next door but lady told me to follow her in my car there. OK. Interesting. We drove there to look for these dogon cigarettes. The lady drove so fast and through amber lights, which left me with red lights, so now, I gotta be anxiously trying to see where the heck you disappeared to. I tell ya, it was a circus! She did complain about how that cashier always has a snide remark whenever she sees her. She doesn't know why the cashier doesn't like her. Nobody likes that cashier in the neighborhood. I had to wonder about that but OK.
We finally get to the house, cute house, full of furniture. She had a shrine of all the deceased people in her life right as you enter the house. That made me feel like I was intruding into her very private home. I sympathise with people who have to find roommates because you're letting a stranger into your life to help you out with $$$. I've been there, so I get it. The meeting at the house lasted forever because the lady wouldn't stop talking. We weren't getting anything done. I tried taking photos of the room because,remember, I don't remember contacting this lady about this room. I didn't even recognize the room from pictures once I got there. She immediately asked me not to take pictures of her house. She told me that she was a very private person blah. I mean, if I'm going to rent this room from you, it will no longer be yours like that, lady! At one point, we agreed on everything,not really, cos she was shocked that I asked where I would keep my stuff in her kitchen. She told me none of her previous roommates ever needed to use the kitchen. She also did tell me that she had to call the cops on one of the previous non-kitchen-needing roommates because she did drugs in her house and snuck a man through the bedroom window. We went to the bank, I withdrew deposit, paid, signed some papers, got the keys, it was a done deal! Welcome to the neighborhood! Her loose mouth ass, went on and on with her stories and done told on herself, talking about, oh so the postmaster hates me. I don't get my mail delivered here, I ended up renting a private bag blah blah blah. THAT was the final straw for me! This must be the most hated woman in this neighborhood! Why on earth would I want to live with this person! I feel like I'm suffocating here as it is! I told her there and then that I changed my mind. I asked for the signed contract back and for my money back. Between this situation and the previous blog experience, I mean! Can a sista get a break? Do you know how relieved I was once I left that house? You couldn't even begin to imagine!
Side bar: I did steak shorts of the entire room, just for the heck of it! I won't be sharing them with anyone, but I wanted to prove to her that you can't control people like that!
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I had an opportunity to view another room. Two, actually. I went and saw one, which was so close to where I was living with my husband, Calvin, it was a joke! They already had one room rented out, the parents were sleeping in one room and would share the bathroom with me. Their daughter was sleeping downstairs, sharing a bathroom with a downstairs tenant. It was already too crowded for me and I wasn't in the mood to share a filthy bathroom. I didn't last there. That evening, I had to go to another neighborhood. The landlord and I texted back and forth. I told her when I was five minutes away. Pulled up out front, and walked into the yard. I wasn't seeing myself living there. I was just drained of looking at all these peoples houses. I just wanted my own apartment. Don't get me wrong I viewed my fair share of apartments as well. I knocked on the door. The lights were on, the door was ajar, so there definitely was someone in there. And they were expecting me. I kept knocking. Eventually and older woman came to the door, didn't say hi or anything but just told me that the place was no longer available. I'm gonna go ahead and tell you right now that that lady didn't let me into her home and tried to ignore me because of my race. And then I'm gonna leave it at that.
That evening, Calvin asked me to join him for dinner. He knows what I like, so...
My favorite: Honey, walnut shrimp, left and duck skin on some rice pork rind type chips on the right. Calvin had ordered whole duck, so they skinned it, and ...
Duck and bok choy
Lots of deliciousness! Asian food comes in all shapes and sizes. That was a nice way to end the day. I told Calvin about some of my room viewing experiences. I wasn't going to be secretive anymore. This sht was too much for a little girl like me. He would always sympathise and then promise to be a better person to live with, and we'd get home and he'd go crazy again. So I didn't believe a word. We're in this situation because I'm done believing your stories! I even told Calvin about a room I was trying to 'interview' over the phone for. They would ask questions that are trying to find out what my race was. I was getting so fed up of all this. Don't assume you know what race these people were. We did have so much fun with the above-mentioned interviewers because once they found out I was black, the mood changed on the phone. they told me they would call me back and let me know if I could view or not. they didn't. I called again and they told me the place was no longer available. The room was relisted online. Calvin was like, fck these people! Give me their phone number, my Brook! He called, had them on speaker. Asked if the place were still available. They had listed it as girls only. He was clearly a man! They asked if he's hispanic, Asian, or..? He told them he was white. The girl almost sounded flirtatious with him. He was being so silly, saying crazy things like, he knows they're looking for girls only, he wanted to know if it's because they wanted to hook up with this new girl roommate. The girl would just laugh, he kept pushing the boundaries, she was just entertaining him. It was past 8pm, this girl's over here chatting up a storm with a random man. Eventually, Calvin had to go. The girl called him back to follow up on whether he wanted the room still or not. We were giggling so much at this mess!
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| Nick Cannon in a movie I worked in |
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Some of my walk photos. The one on the right was a 2 hour walk.
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Hiking with Calvin. This was a great time! Calvin was so impressed by how fit I had gotten. I led the pact and wasn't even out of breath.
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I helped Calvin wrap Xmas gifts. On the right are the gifts he gave me.
Calvin is a very good gift giver! His mom, who hadn't talked to me since we had had the big fight that ended with me moving out temporarily, passed gifts on to Calvin to give to me. That made my stomach turn. Immediately told Calvin to return those gifts. I didn't even want to open them up. Lady, you obviously aren't feeling me very much right now! What are you doing? Calvin said he wasn't going to do that to his mom and break her heart. I said, well then keep em! My neighbor, who had once asked to be friends with me, and had been avoiding me since that day as well, sent over a box of chocolates for me for XMas. I wanted to regift her the same gift! The chocolates were from overseas, so she would have known that it was the same box. I really wanted to do that. All I had to do was change the name on the wrapping. I even wished I could be the fly on the wall when she opened it. Then I was like, let me not be mean! Her kids will appreciate the chocolates more... How would you have handled these situations?
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Xmas flowers from Calvin and a random pic of me with my perfumes that had bn missing until I found them in a bag. Most of my stuff was still packed since the move
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Setting up a client's Christmas Tree. This was my first time doing this, in life!
Random photography from my walks
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Out and about with Calv. I was feeling super skinny here, haha! Pink UGGs
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Mediterranean food. Mhh! Caviar!
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More pics from our hike in Pasadena / Altadena.
Love you for reading, please keep the comments coming, especially here on the blog. If not, you can drop them on Facebook I love getting your feedback.
The next blog will update about Deportation situation. Stay tuned!
@BabalwaBrook on Youtube and all social media
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