Adventures of Nefertiti

My sisters and I live for concerts. Since I moved back home, we've been hitting the road non stop for the next live music experience. Most recently we saw AOMG in Chicago. So who or what is AOMG? Only one of the top hip hop labels in the world! Run by Jay Park and Simon Dominic. My sisters ( Idol Noonas ) and I, had VVIP tickets for the concert, so we got to take a photo with the artists and briefly meet with them before the show (for a hi-5 / hand shake). During the concert, Simon D was strong on the mic, Gray and Loco were cute, and Jay Park was sexy, fine and smooth, even after he jumped into the crowd and landed on my sister's chest.

After three years as a news producer in Savannah, GA, I decided to move back to Lexington.  I had left home almost 20 years ago, soon after I had graduated from the University of Kentucky. I moved back home December of 2014. Actually I moved in with one of my sisters and her now 4-year-old son Teric. I also got hired as a news producer at a local tv station. It feels good to be back home, although I look nothing how I use to look, because of all the weight I've gained. Still it feels good to be around family again, and to do stuff with loved ones, like go to concerts. Before I moved back, I discovered Kdramas, Kpop and Khiphop (in that order). The dramas I watch on Dramafever.com and Viki.com. The great thing about Kdramas is that they usually only have one season, so there's only about a 20 episode commitment. Right now I highly recommend "It's Okay, That's Love," "Marriage Contract" and "Fated to Love You". Kpop I discovered after w...

This time last year, I was a timeshare exchange onsite resort liaison for the largest timeshare exchange company in the world. And then less than two months later… in April 2011, my company of ten years, RCI, told me they were eliminating my position. I was in shock. I was in disbelief. I cried like a baby. RCI offered to relocate me back to headquarters in Indianapolis, but I declined. Something in me told me it was time to part ways with this company of mine… that had been good to me, had great benefits, and that I had grown to love. RCI is the largest timeshare exchange company in the world. RCI does not sell timeshare at the resorts… but we (oops they) help owners exchange their properties to other resorts. So say if you own a timeshare at XYZ but wanted to travel to ABCD and then later to EFGH, then you would go through an exchange company like RCI. RCI founders created this whole exchange industry and culture in 1974. RCI’s main competitor, II (Interval International), follow...

Irene never really had an interest in me and so I never really worried much about her. Living coastal in the South Carolina Lowcountry, I knew early on from news reports that Irene was one storm that was going to pass me by. She was heading north, leaving me with only outer bands of rain. But there once was a storm in South Florida that I’ll never forget, her name was Wilma. I was new to South Florida in October 2005, having only moved there eight months before. And I was all alone. Although a sister of mine moved to Florida with me in February, by May, she and my two nieces were back home in Kentucky. So when Wilma came in October, it was just me, alone in an overpriced two-bedroom apartment. Oddly though, I wasn’t fazed and I wasn’t afraid. Wilma, early on, a Category 5, battered the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico first. After hammering down on the resort town of Cozumel, Mexico, Wilma headed due northeast, and crossed the Gulf of Mexico to Florida, where she made landfall near N...

My Grandfather was a nuclear physicist, and one day your child can be one too. I’ve written about my grandfather before, but I wanted to bring him up again as you prepare your children for the upcoming school year. My grandfather, my father’s father, conducted experiments for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at the Plum Brook Reactor Facility in Sandusky, Ohio. My grandfather, born 1927, in Liberty, Texas, was the youngest of twenty children from a Creole family originally of Arnaudville, Louisiana. When my grandfather was 14-years-old he joined the navy to fight in WWII. After the war, he took advantage of the G.I. Bill to go to college, where he met my grandmother. In 1962, he joined NASA as a nuclear engineer. In 1966, my grandfather received his reactor’s operator license from the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. My grandmother tells me that he would be exhausted after coming home late from experiments in the reactor. Below is a summary of my grandfather's...

For any family member or friend that comes to visit, keep in mind that in addition to sightseeing and hanging out on the beach in Hilton Head, we will also take a day trip to one of my favorite places in the whole wide world, Charleston, South Carolina. Charleston has the look and feel of New Orleans; alive with old city charm, rich in history and tradition. The other day my Dad and his wife and her sister came to visit me for a few days. Actually first they stopped in Atlanta to stay with my cousin Shandra and then they traveled further south to Orlando to visit with my Uncle Harrison and my brother Tommy and his kids. Since I don’t have children to play with (like my brother) or a nice relaxing indoor swimming pool at the house (Uncle Harrison), their visit with me meant plenty of time enjoying the sights outside in the heat. I first took my family down to the May River in Old Town Bluffton to enjoy a cool breeze on a boat dock. Next we headed over the bridge to Hilton Head and slowl...

Great thing about being human is that we are diverse and unique in our oneness. And when we open ourselves to new adventures, we learn to appreciate ourselves even more. But you don’t always have to travel half way around the world to experience something new. Sometimes a good festival can give you an introduction to sights and sounds from abroad. Saturday I had a chance to experience music, dance and cuisine from Asian cultures of Polynesia, China, Japan, Vietnam, and Thailand at the 16th Annual Savannah Asian Festival. It was a beautiful daylong event attended by diverse people from everywhere. A packed house… White, Black, Brown, Asian, mixed… everyone came out to celebrate the unique cultures from the East. And what a celebration! In addition to live performances and great food, we were also treated to shopping at the Asian Cultural Marketplace and a workshop on Asian and Middle Eastern Tea. This is an annual event and I hope to have the pleasure to attend again next year. In the m...