Completed my hair transformation this weekend. Everyone seems to be equally impressed/shocked by it. Finishing this whole project has given me the confidence to know that I can accomplish other amazing things to completion.

Today I took a step towards my ultimate goal of being in the 2009 Marine Corps Marathon.

My first benchmark is the St. Patty's Day 8k on March 15th.

Yes I realize it's Feb 26th and therefore I've left myself only 17 days to train for an 8k

And yes I know that's absolutely silly of me.

But hey look - I got caught up in my hair transition all lost month (which is another story in itself). For those who don't know about the epic saga of my hair - let's just say 6 weeks ago I had a head full of 5 year old locs and now I'm sporting an uber thick afro instead - and leave it at that.


Day one has been interesting/encouraging.

Started off the morning eating a bowl of Cookie Crisp cereal w/ rice milk.

While that's not as healthy for you as other types of cereal, its all I had at my desk and a definite step up from the super sugary Vanilla iced coffee from Mickey D's and 2 breakfast burritos that I usually have.


By lunch I was slightly ravenous but showed some contraint by not going to Burger King next door for a Whopper Junior and some Chicken fries (I'm convinced that reading what I've been eating lately would make Richard Simmons weep). Instead I opted for a healthy/hearty meal of this:

Double veggie burger on multi grain bun w/ Healthy Request chicken tortilla soup and ice water

I left about a quarter of the soup behind (tryna be better about my portions)

Which then left room for ths moderate sized pice of red velvet cake that a coworker bought to work that day

And still....I managed to leave some cake behind too

At 5:30 sharp I met my coworker Chris Brown and my other coworker Elizabeth at the elevators to go on a leisurely 3.3 mile jog (ha!)

Three facts to know about my running buddies:

1. Chris Brown is a sweetheart and has the most luxurious boufant of hair I have ever seen in real life. Seriously he needs to do Pantene ads or something.

2. Elizabeth is extremely good natured and smiles all the time

And

3. I weigh more than the two of them combined.
*This is not a hyperbole (i.e., an exaggeration used for dramatic effect to enhance my story). I literally outweigh them both - two against one.

It should have dawned on when I made plans to run with them, exactly what I was getting myself into. But I was so busy oscillating between optimism and disbelief all week that the gravitas of what it meant for my sedentary french fry eating ass to work out with experienced runners didn't quite hit me till 5:10 when I had to go change into my workout gear.

And then a small panic attack ensued.

Luckily I have amazingly supportive coworkers who calmed me down.

Some folks even clapped as they saw me walking through the office in my fleece lined jogging pants and promised to join us on next Thursday's run.

The workout itself was painful but went by quickly enough.

Chris and Elizabeth we very patient and went super slow so that I wouldn't lose them on the trail.

Seeing them jogging at a snails pace in circles, while I dragged myself up the hill in Rock Creek Park like a contestant on The Biggest Loser....was humbling to say the least.

A couple times I even saw some of the deer that were in the bushes staring at me with a look of "WTF" on their soft furry faces as I trudged by them.

But I kept my spirits up the whole time. Didn't complain. Thanked Liz and Chris profusely whenever I managed to get within earshot of them, and then vowed on the walk back to the office that I wouldn't give up on this no matter how hard it got.

Chris is set to go on a real run with my other coworker Justin later on.

Can't say I blame him - he barely broke a sweat with me.

The way I look at it, tonight was a litmus test to show me just how far I'd fallen off the wagon (or in this case under the wagon.)

The fact that I am so out of shape now will just make victory that much sweeter when I run across that finish line in October.

All in all. today was a great day.

I will be soar as hell in the mornin though. I've made peace with that.

this is me momentarily passed out at my desk after getting back from the 2 mile excursion in the park.

< /div>

In January 2003 one of my best (and oldest) friends Antonio suggested that I start my own website after my AOL inbox became flooded with mail from women who'd read my "I can't believe you broke my heart" webpage.

It was dedicated to an ex of sorts.

I was wounded and felt no need to hide how I felt.

For some reason, people really dug that.

And so BlueCypher.com was born.

Shortly after the site launched I started posting chapters of my novel-in-progress.

Even more emails came from strangers who started calling themselves "fans".

Rather than get cocky - I was humbled.

At the insistance of one of my readers from Netherlands, I started an online group to house my new internet family under one roof.

It was a crazy/beautiful time.

And 3 years, 1000+ members, 8 chapters and several life lessons later ...BlueCypher came to an end.

The girl who had started it, was no where to be found. In her place was a womanchild who was too overwhelmed by life to have the energy to process her feelings let alone pontificate about them in public.

Back in the day (i.e 2000 - 2003) there were webjournals/personal websites.

Blogging wasn't as commonplace, a lot more underground, and consisted mostly of a semi-tight-knit, uber incestuous, group of artsy/snarky introverts with exhibitionist tendencies.

People actually bought domains, designed their own stuff and poured yummy and damaged pieces of themselves into their entries.

I left the blogosphere just as it was beginning to become trendy. And still find it jarring when people say "YOU used to have a website? Really?"

So now....after all this time....in a world of TMZ, Perez Hilton, and numerous other internet celebrities, why do I want to dip my toes back into this pool of murky cyber water?

Well cause I got some new shyt to say that's why!

I like myself a whole lot more than I ever did previously.

And if I was so keen on chronicling my fuqqed up early-mid 20's...why not celebrate the dawn of what is already turning out to be a very grown and sexy period of my life?

Yes. I just said "grown and sexy". Don't roll your eyes at me just yet.

I'm actually old enough to remember when that term wasn't a painful cliche.

So any who.....This is me.

Some say I'm charismatic, a few say I'm a bitch, others say I'm too deep, and most agree that I'm a whole lot of everything.

However you slice it - theres never a dull moment.