The Chronicles of a VBG (Voluptuous Brown Gurl)

In less than 12 hours, I'll be re-entering the workforce for the first time in 7 months. No, it doesn't have the kick-ass travel option I yearn nor is it an industry with a bright future.  What it does offer is a chance to get my recently flagging confidence back and make new networking connections. AND...I'm very ready to take this next step on my career path.  For most of the time I'd been unemployed, I was fairly unfazed about it. True, I endured a major life change with the loss of my Dad almost three months in.  Settling his affairs and finding a comfort level  with my Mom being completely on her own for the first time in 45 years took another month and a half.  During that time I also tried to study for the Foreign Service Officer test and did indeed take it, though my focus was sorely missing. Still and all, I am glad I was blessed with that down time when it was so critically needed. By the time I was approaching my 7th month of displacement tho...

A few weeks ago one of my favorite singers died.  You may never have heard of her, I did only by accident. Almost a decade ago, I was visiting Barnes and Noble and I heard some awesome club beats that happened to be her album, Club Sodade. It contained remixes of her songs set to some serious club/dance beats. I will giddily admit to being partial to anything remotely related to Portugal as well as club music - so I was hooked. The summer before my 20th class reunion, that cd in my handheld walkman helped me maintain a walking regimen that had me looking better than I had when I graduated high school.  Cesaria Evora, was a cigarette smoking, voluptuous, barefooted Grammy award winning babe from the African island nation, Cape Verde. After decades as a bar singer she was "discovered" at age 44, traveled to Portugal to perform at the invitation of her countryman Bana, and from that exposure later recorded in Paris. Her first album was released when she was 47! How's that...

With a New Year comes another chance to manifest in my physical life what I've carried around in my head for years. I brought 2012 in quietly with calm celebration with family and more than a few swigs of Bellini but this year there are no resolutions to find the perfect career path, become vegetarian, lose weight, get out of debt, save more, go on "X" number of dates, play hostess more or get my travel mojo back. Of course, I still want to do all of that. But this first week of  2012, one of the most auspicious times of the year for me, I have chosen to celebrate my accomplishments of the previous year. I learned all too suddenly and sadly how fleeting life can be.  And the postponement of desires, joys until ... can sadly become never if one waits too long not knowing the hour of our quietus.  Through gratitude and reflection I hope to propel myself forward in the new year while living and feeling more in the moment than ever before. So here we go.  In 2011 ...