Prayers for Paris Hashtags Spark Anger on Social Media.

This weekend has been shocking for a lot of people. As many of you know by now, there was a horrific amount of violence that took place in Paris on November 13th.

I was at a bar with friends when the news about what was happening really started trickling in. People were carrying on like they usually do on a Friday night but at some point I spoke to a guy who asked me, “don’t you know what’s going on in Paris?” I said I did and he just looked at me. I looked at him. I then asked him, “Do you know what’s going on in Nigeria and other parts of the world?” He was quiet. I was quiet. Then I said, “The world we live in is fucked up.”

I’m not happy with the way I handled that. I wasn’t rude or unkind. I was dismissive.

Being on social media, I see that people are responding to the tragedy in Paris in different ways. Reading people's comments reminds me of what Lainey Lui said during her Ted Talk, that people can't consume what is in the media without filtering it through the "prism" of their own experiences. She said, "what inevitably comes out the other side, is a pretty definitive declaration about what we believe, what we expect, what we reject and how we process."

I can’t speak for other people. I can only look at myself and try to explore my reaction to everything.

I think I’m desensitized. You see, this isn’t shocking to me. This has been happening in Northern Nigeria for years now. This has been happening in a lot of places. The attack in Paris is not unique in any way. I can see how it could be shocking to someone who may not identify with many different cultures. I can see how the attack in Paris can feel more personal, how a tragedy in a place or to people you relate to can hurt more than a tragedy that takes place in a part of the world that feels so foreign it might as well be on another planet.

I’m not going to mislead any of you into thinking I am aware of every attack in every city in the world. I had no idea Beirut was bombed the day before the Paris attacks. What does it say about my awareness that I had to google, “hundreds of children killed in Pakistan attack” to know about something that happened almost a year ago?

I still feel the need to say sorry. Just because what happened in Paris happens every week in other cities doesn’t make it any less horrific.

I am praying too. I am praying that God helps me to be kind to others. I pray that I am never dismissive again when someone is hurting. I am praying that I never look at a person and only see the ways he/she is different from me.

New York, You've Been So Good To Me.

As I wrap up my summer of fun in my favorite city, I wanted to take some time to reflect on what being here has done for me. 

 When I was trying to figure out where I wanted to attend esthetician school, I gravitated towards New York City for many reasons. One, it was familiar. Two, some of my favorite people live there. Three, in my opinion, NYC is at its best in the summer, insane heat and all.

 I craved the mind-numbing effect being here has on me. I wanted the distraction. Yep, being here has been one big distraction. Now that I've been here for four months, I feel the effects of long hours in a classroom, not enough sleep, way too much alcohol, barely working out and a diet that was totally not vegan at all.

 Despite the trauma I may have subjected my body to, I feel pretty fantastic.

 With the long hours of classwork comes new friendships and a certificate that says I am a trained esthetician. The lack of sleep was a small sacrifice to make for the countless nights I spent chatting with my friends all night. The alcohol... okay, I probably could have cut back a bit but merriment and wine go so well together. As for the lack of exercise and the questionable diet, eating like there was no tomorrow was fun but I'm more than eager to get back to regular workouts, and the fruits and veggies life. 

 With the plans I have, I know spending months at a time in the states is a luxury that I'm not going to have for much longer. I'm okay with that. I'm ready to roll my sleeves up and get to work. I'm just happy I got this blissful summer. I'm going to cherish everything about it.

My Life in Pics

NYC 2012.

Goodbye Summer: Part 1

Labor Day has passed and a new school year starts. Though the weather lingers, summer is pretty much over. Even though I look forward to Sweater Season like it’s a holiday, it’s so hard to say goodbye to lazy days and shorts. And I can’t let the summer end without writing about the many amazing things I got to do. From concerts to hours spent at museums and yummy restaurants; I want to take this week to share my favorite moments from the summer of 2010.

Getting My Culture On: Museum Visits with Dave and Jesus

I feel no shame in admitting how lonely I am in New York City without my friends. People can live in one of the most exciting places in the world but if they don’t have partners in crime to share it with, they might as well live in Nowhere, USA.

So my roommate and his boyfriend took pity on me (or I guilt-tripped them) and let me tag along on some of their excursions this summer. Some of my favorite moments from this summer have been with them, going to the American Woman exhibit at the Brooklyn museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, checking out the Brooklyn Pride festival or just having dinner and talking.

With Dave and Jesus moving in together in October, I'll have to content myself with many visits to their sweet digs in Prospect park.

I can live with that.

Just Because

Hey guys!

I wanted to share some extra photos from backstage at the Mackage show and the Arise show.

Enjoy and have a great weekend!!!

Subway Playlist.

1. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll
2. The Sounds- Dorchester Hotel
3. Blondie - Call Me
4. Wheatus - Hump Em and Dump Em
5. Matisyahu - Time of Your Song
6. Regina Spektor - Us
7. Led Zeppelin - Good Times Bad Times
8. Metric - Empty
9. The Rolling Stones - You Can't Always Get What you Want
10. Make Her Say - Kid Cudi
11. Franz Ferdinand - Come on Home
12. The Bravery - Above and Below
13. The Like - Falling Away
14. Santigold - You'll find a way
15. Kid Cudi- That New New
16. Postal Service - Nothing Better
17. Blondie - Maria
18. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium
19. Bloc Party - This Modern Love
20. CSS- Off The Hook

Happy Birthday To Meeeeeee!

Hello dear readers!

How have you all been? Good? Super duper? We're now in August and I can't help but feel a little sad that the summer is almost over. Is anyone else dreading it? The only great thing about the summer ending is my birthday. Well, for me anyway.

I LOVE birthdays. Since I was a baby, my birthday coincided with the mini-reunions we had in Lagos with all the other Ajayis and Odukoyas. I associate birthdays with Nigeria, huge family gatherings, fried fish, jollof rice and cake.

Family and food, my top priorities!

Well, a lot has changed and it's hard to get everyone together for anything let alone something that's not even recognized as a holiday (I'm working on it people). But as long as I have some cake and calls from the family, I'm a happy gal.

For my 23rd, Yemi and her roommate came down from Boston and our friend Viv flew in from LA and it was an amazing three days which was made even better by all the facebook birthday wishes.

Thanks guys!

We went dancing at M2, went to a karaoke bar near NYU, had some sushi in Bay Ridge, some vegan pizza in Williamsburg, a little craziness in Central Park, sake for me and Viv, cherry bombs for Yemi and Nastia and cake, a HUGE slice of coconut vegan cake.

Cuz that's how I roll.

We never made it home before the sun came up which resulted in some odd looks from the people on their way to work as we dragged ourselves home.

And I got the best presents, like a vegan guide to NY restaurants (thanks Shola) and the book Why Men Love Bitches (thanks Nastia) and the best picture of the sisters (thanks Yemi). But honestly, just being able to spend time with the people I love was great.

Life is short people; cherish every second you have on this earth with the people you love and care about.

Anywho, it was good. It was super. I didn't have a care in the world. Ofcourse, Monday came around and it was back to the reality of having way too much work to do but for those three days, life was pretty sweet.

Swimsuit Season (noooooooooo)!

Hey people!

Check out the feature I put together about swimsuits for ambermag.com! Great advice from the experts for EVERY body type. I really enjoyed this project and I hope it helps!

A 4th of July Freakshow

Hola amigos! How did everyone enjoy their fourth of July festivities? Did you go to the beach or bbq at home? Did you blow something up? Oh the great American way...

I usually don't do much for the 4th of July but decided I wasn't staying home. I'm in New York bitches! What the hell am I going to stay home for?

No, I went out in the hot weather and walked my ass off (literally, I do believe I dropped a size on Saturday). While this great, magical place we call NYC offered up such entertainment as Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest 2009 and fireworks, I opted for the unbeaten path and went to the International African Arts Festival with my sister Shola and her awesome friend Shuf. It was a lot of fun; I haven't laughed that hard in public in a long time! And the pieces (jewelry, clothing etc) were incredibly authentic. I'll be featuring a lot of the artists in future blogs so keep your eyes open for that. I also had amazing food (it is me); vegan red velvet cake, vegan meat pies.

It was an all around good time and I'm glad I had a chance to go.

On Sunday, I met up with a friend at Coney Island. The first thing we did was attend the Coney Island Circus Sideshow. It was really entertaining in that campy way and I think they were going for that so mission accomplished.

The highlight of the show was definitely Heather Holliday. The cute as a button chick swallows swords and breathes fire; every guy's dream girl right? Serpentina's set was a snoozefest! She came out on stage looking wasted and proceeded to walk around with her disinterested snake.

Moving on to the rest of the day; am I the only one who didn't realize Coney Island was on the beach? The place was packed but it was beautiful out; great 4th of July weekend weather. People were even fishing and they were catching everything from crabs to cat fish to empty bear cans. But they weren't throwing these poor animals back which made me think: are they actually going to eat what they caught? I mean cool... I guess. Why not? Ignore the third eye that fish has, it probably has nothing to do with toxic chemicals. I actually saw one man using a chicken lap as bait because that's normal. Let's forget evolution and the food chain and feed a chicken's carcass to a fish. Yep, makes sense. I'm sorry, I know I'm getting all "tree hugger" on you guys. It's a free country.

You couldn't pay me to put a toe in that murky water though.

P.S. Here are some pictures if you'd like to sneak a peek

Oh What a Week

You know, I started this blog with the intention of posting something new every day. I would love to say that’s going to happen but I just don’t know. This week was INSANE. Insane, but in a good way. In a “wow I can’t believe I get to write every day man I’m tired yay the sun is out and my mommy’s here I’m going to take a walk omg it’s fleet week hello sailor yes $35 for a crapload of organic and vegan food god I love this country whoa that dress is supercute aww cute babies everywhere central park is so not overrated and David Moon is awesome I’ve never seen that before and they have a Indian restaurant in this neighborhood too” kind of way. Like I said, it’s been a long week. I'm gonna do the bullet thing. I can't communicate any other way right now.

• My mom flew in for my sister’s graduation so Shola (one of my other sisters) and I got to spend some time with her. Well, Shola spent time with her. I was busy, frantically rewriting blog posts. My mom managed to take me away from my laptop long enough for us to get lunch in the hood. This place Las Pollitos is a very yummy Mexican restaurant across the street from the apartment. I don’t know what I ordered but it was vegan and it was good. Yes, I’m behaving again.
• So I usually shop at Whole Foods and Publix for groceries. Shola took me to Trader Joes, a cheaper version of Whole Foods. While they didn’t have the biggest vegan selection, they did have the basics and I only spent $35 for groceries that will last me about three weeks. Yay!
• It’s really beautiful outside and it has been for the past few days. And I’ve been inside for most of it. So when Friday came, I didn’t care that the sun was already down for the day. I was just excited about going anywhere, let alone some fancy schmancy party. Cocody Productions hosted a party with Nollywood NYC at Le Cirque and the boss lady sent me to cover it for the magazine. With Shola as my plus one we took a taxi to the Upper East Side. The party was fun; I was a little nervous about getting enough photos for my review but I think I did okay at the end. The yellow cab ride back home was even better. Who knew a person could check people.com while waiting in traffic?
• Saturday was jam packed with stuff. With Shola leading the way, I did my laundry, saw a postal worker delivering mail door to door, made a key for the apartment, stopped at the bank, came home, headed to Manhattan , met up with Shola’s friend Amber and her boyfriend Dave at their friend Dave Moon’s AMAZING apartment across the street from Central Park, headed to the park, chatted a bit, got ready to leave, got on a very busy train to head back to Brooklyn, saw some sailors, ordered some Indian food, bought some wine, watched a depressing French film and passed the hell out. I feel very accomplished.

Stay tuned for a post this week about Dave Moon, the artist who lives in the coolest apartment I’ve ever seen.

Some stereotypical tidbits about the city

I’ve been here for less than three days and I’ve already learned a lot. For example, a lot of those stereotypes about New York are true:

Small bedrooms – My sister’s room is ridiculously small. Not Orlando small, when you have trouble practicing feng shui because of the big screen TV, desk and king size bed in your room. No, it’s small like I can’t cross the room without climbing over a twin size bed. I’ve heard about claustrophobic NY bedrooms before but I always thought it was an exaggeration. And I was so wrong. But the bedroom can’t take away from the rest of the apartment. The living room and kitchen are spacious, a lot of light comes in and the neighborhood is in an awesome part of Brooklyn. Who needs a car when the bar is across the street?

Tap water that doesn’t taste like ass – New York tap water is drinkable. It actually tastes good. As a former employee of a water treatment company I used simple facts to lure people into buying water filters. Fact: NY has the best water in the nation; Florida: not so much (we’re second to last). I won’t drink tap water in Florida unless it goes through my Brita first. When I got to my sister’s Brooklyn apartment, I had some water and it tasted ass free so I’m sold.

NY pizza is amazing – Yep, it sure is. Really good. I’m not supposed to eat pizza. I gave up animal products more than a year ago. Dairy = Big no-no. But I’ve never had NY pizza before so I gave in. I don’t remember the name of the restaurant but I remember the ricotta and spinach slice I ordered. That’s the culprit in the photo above. I’ve been paying for that slice since I ate it but I can’t say it wasn’t worth it.

They really do sell everything here – You can buy an iPhone on the side of the road or have your shoes shined while you wait for the train. You can even buy porn in bars and on trains. Yep, my sister’s roommate was approached by a sweet old lady who walked into the bar offering “cigarette , porn, cigarette, porn” the way a vendor would yell “hot dog, beer, hot dog, beer.” Once you agree to buy something she asks “man- woman, woman- woman, man -man?” and apparently she goes to the different trains to offer her goods as well. Wow…

Everyone looks so put together – I feel strangely underdressed every time I leave my sister’s apartment. You have the hipsters in their fedoras, plaid and leather and you have the Blair Waldorf wannabes (or the inspiration behind the character) toting around their Chanel 2.5 quilted bags. Everyone has some semblance of style. I love it; it makes “people watching” feel like an impromptu fashion show.

There hasn’t been a dull moment and I’m completely enamored right now. It could be the change of scenery or the exciting internship or the 10 different restaurants down the street or all of the above. I even enjoy taking the subway! I’m going into the city on Monday to research an article. Hey, maybe this time I won’t get lost…

First day of internship in the big city!

It’s no secret that I’ve been trying to get an editorial internship in NYC forever; I applied to almost 200 in the last two months. It was disheartening not hearing from anyone and I’m naturally whiny when I stress so you can imagine how much fun my family and friends had hearing me cry about my “nonexistent career.”
When I got my first internship, I was ecstatic. Xanga.com is this network where people (mostly teens) can submit personal blogs. My job is to edit submitted posts and create my own for the Xanga websites. I don’t officially start till June 1st but I’ve been writing for them since April. Check out my blog for Datingish.com
I applied to more publications even though I had an internship for the summer (I must enjoy being overworked). The editor in chief of AMBERmag.com, an online beauty and fashion magazine, emailed me. This resulted in a three day happy dance that lasted till I bombed the phone interview. By some miracle of God, I got the internship anyway and left for New York two weeks earlier than originally planned. I finally met the boss lady in person yesterday.
What can I say about the boss lady? She’s intimidating even though she’s a lot nicer than I thought she’d be. She’s a fantastic dresser and an authority in an industry I’ve wanted to work in forever. She’s cool. After my CMS training I headed to Varick Street for a meeting with an organization Ambermag is sponsoring an event for.
My job was to take notes during the meeting and contribute ideas for the fundraiser being held in honor of World Aids day. I was pretty impressed as I sat in a room full of teenage girls, listening as they debated over which celebrities should host their event. These girls opted to skip the Soulja Boys of the world for “socially conscious” celebs. One girl mentioned actor and activist Hill Harper. Rosario Dawson, Wyclef Jean, Hillary Duff, Kerry Washington, Pete Wentz and Mary J. Blige were also brought up. NO ONE wanted Rihanna because they felt she was no longer a good role model for women. Interesting, no?
So yeah, that was my first day. I’m excited about both internships but the Ambermag one has more to do with what I’m interested in; I get to interview artists, designers and photographers and write about everything from pop culture to the best boutiques in New York. So I’m pretty happy. The boss lady has given me a lot of responsibilities and she trusts me so I’m determined to make up for my lack of experience with my kickass work ethic and my star intern qualities : )
Here’s to not royally screwing up.