What a Difference a Bookcase Makes...

So since getting back to Chicago three years ago, I had removed my bookcase from my tiny first one-bedroom studio to make room for my then boyfriend and later our child. Three people (well, two and a quarter) in a one-bedroom studio is not comfortable or sexy but it was what we could do at the time. I moved out my cheap little $30 bookcase when I had the bright idea to move the bookcase still loaded. The result was a wobbly mess of a cheap $30 little bookcase. Since I needed to make room for the addition, anyway, off to storage my books went. Then when we finally got a bigger place, I never got a new bookcase to replace it b/c I didn't see us being there long... I was correct.

Now that I am in a much more spacious home -- my house (hooray!) a dear friend got me a bookcase for Christmas/housewarming present to match my lovely new desk I inherited from a guy who worked in another suite at my old job and it is just LOVELY how my office turned out. I loaded my bookcase last night and I realized I have a really good selection of reads. So many in fact that I haven't had a chance to read them all, and haven't even cracked the spine on a few of them (The Bluest Eye, Mis-Education of The Negro) in far too long.

I even found my Sacred Woman and ZPB Handbook that I was sure I lost in a robbery of my back porch early last year. I thought they were both in a messenger bag I carried at the time. I am glad to know that they were not. The first ones I pulled from the shelf to kick off my 2009 reading kick are as follows:

1. Get a Freelance Life:
With the demise of that position I mentioned earlier coming to an end sooner than expected, I am left with plenty free time to really assess what it is I want to do with the next step in my professional life. With some money in the bank as a cushion, I am starting to think it would really be a good idea to finally, really consider being my own boss in a lot of ways which would free up my schedule to be Mommy a lot more frequently than after a 9-to-5 and on the weekends. If I could ignite a freelance career, that along with the occasional contract consulting gig, personal training and exercise instructing could be a very flexible schedule and more than steady source of income. Perhaps now is the time, to make it the time. I would then also have time to volunteer and give back to my community via my sorority and other organizations I believe in.

2. Beautylicious! The Black Girl's Guide to the Fabulous Life
I actually completed this book back when I bought it in, I want to say, 2005. But I didn't retain much of it apparently because I could have sworn it gave me pointers on how to get some money in the bank and I JUST caught on. So this could use a refresher course. It also included some stuff on how to "ball on a budget" (my words, not the book) which I could truly use now as a mommy on a stricter budget than when I was a single girl. I was just telling my Soror how I hadn't shopped for pretty panties in so long I couldn't remember the last time I bought a nice bra... or hell, for that matter, anything hosiery or clothes for myself. The Sun rose and it's been all about him, since. So this is going to help me put some things into perspective to regain my Fabulosity (Thanks Kimora for the term!).

3. Heal Thyself Natural Living Cookbook:
A lot of people don't know this about me, but I was completely vegetarian (NO MEAT whatsoever for about a year and a half) then I moved to fish only in 2006 when I moved back to Chicago. Then I got back with my first love and it was, literally, all down hill from there. I am starting a detox on my birthday (tomorrow) to rid myself of a lot of toxins I've built up over the years. Not in the sense of a normal detox though, I don't want to shock my body too much by doing something as drastic as the Master Cleanse right off the bat, but I do want to eat smaller portions of better for me foods and drink plenty water and fresh juice (I also found my juice recipes book that came with my juicer that's been packed away for three years as well.... my Jah, wtf happened to the girl I was and why did it take me leaving the man I loved for me to find her... why can't I be who I am all the time with whom I love? He's supposed to make me better, not... different. I digress. This is a whole OTHER blog post for a different day... or no day at all. Positivity and light are back in my life and they will remain. Be-leave that.)

I have always been a read one book at a time kinda pimp... but that only applied to my fiction. In the spirit of going back to school (I was considering searching for an MBA program but the Gypsy part of me thinks I really do need to consider this freestyle life, in a serious, non "sure, I guess I can do that" kinda way) I will read these three consecutively since in a roundabout way, they are all synced to how I want my life to begin transforming, hell regressing, if you will. It's freestyle, but it still ain't gonna happen without putting in some work, time and research. And Jah... His help is always nice and necessary too.



See... it really IS immaculately stocked with some fine reads and references. Gosh, I just love it! And how cool is my tall Senagalese (I've decided she is from Senegal) woman sitting atop of it? Making me (the Zeta statue) look all shawt hahaha...