This past Friday was the day of reunions. I'd recently landed, Sade just got back from her trip and what better thing to do than to link up before the back-to-school breakdown? There's this hipster/college student cafe Sade heard of on U-street that's all about coffee, their cookies, and their "good looking" staff. I can say, their coffee was great and their cookies will blow your mind. Their staff on the other hand? Let's just say they're particularly friendly. We played our usual game of catch up in their beautiful yet bug infested ~and I'm not one to fear insects~ courtyard. As we were crossing the streets back to the station I caught sight of various colors on a wall, grabbed Sade, and we both giddily ran across a thankfully lackadaisical street to the playground where this beautiful mural was displayed because how could we not take pictures with it as a backdrop. When God throws beautiful things your way like that you simply cannot ignore them! Our day was then filled with shopping in the usual spots of The District, rushing back to College Park, and a dinner date with our beloved high school French teacher and confidant. It's safe to say it was a grand ol' day, as it always is with us two. (Coming to a city near you)
xxoo missusmonroe et Sade
I planned a mini vacation in Brooklyn for the past weekend. I stayed with some family. It was freeing and comfortable to take a break from my continuous summer work. When I arrived in BK, it no longer contained a sense of alienation and foreign land. I felt at peace. I wouldn't say that I felt as comfortable as I do when I'm in DC but it was close. I had the greatest time visiting friends and of course catching up with family.
While I was there, I felt myself thinking about "adulthood" and what it means to really be do things by yourself in the world. I understand that when you are in college, there is a certain level of adulthood. However, I refer to that experience as "supervisory adulthood" because even in that experience, there is a sort of "bubble" setting. It's a setting that plays a proxy of the real world but doesn't quite make the mark. The real world is very different and very big compared that of a sheltered setting. I would like to think that I am ready for what that entails but I think that in life there is a certain level of unexpectedness that you can't study, prepare or train towards. And I think that it is in those moments that you have to grab life by the horns and hang tight. Hopefully, I'll learn how to enjoy the ride.
Even though it's not, as soon as August first rolled around it was suddenly like, "oop! School time!" I was totally prepared before that hit me. So I think I'll just continue reminiscing on summer until the last possible day I can hah. Now that I'm back in the USofA I can show y'all my last days of Nigeria. I was only there for two months and it was already so difficult to say goodbye to everybody, especially in the office. But before I left I took pictures with *almost* everybody I was close to, memorabilia I suppose. As much as I'm going to miss the office I'm not going to miss all of the behind the scenes sneaking around those Naija men, and not just Nigerian men, do. They make for great stories but only until you realize that's actually someone's life. In any case, of course my aunt wouldn't let me leave without doing my hair. I'd been stalking this method of doing hair for almost a year now, or even a bit more than that, and I planned this exact moment to try it out myself. I literally had to teach the "hairdressers" in the salon because apparently nobody knows how to crotchet braid, whatever. After hours of telling them they were doing it wrong and showing them over and over again, they finally learned the style. Here I am just handing out hair lessons and whatnot, giving them new business! Everybody loved it when it was done. I liked it, but I didn't love it until I layered, chopped myself, and blended the two textures we had to use together. Here are my last days.
xxoo missusmonroe
Today's my last day at my Industrial Training AKA work here on the beautiful island. It's kind of bittersweet, I'm tired of some people, as expected, but I'll miss many of the staff. I love great personalities, it keeps me so very interested and that's what happened for the most part. We're busy taking loads of pictures today, but I hope my camera will last all of today cause my battery is already on like 1%... Such photos will be uploaded in the future but seeing as though my flight back home is around the corner and work was the only place I could manipulate the internet, I won't be around until I leave. Until then, I'll leave you with a few snaps of some of my favorite looks from this designer I just stumbled upon the other day. These looks were from her A/W RTW line for 2014; while I was watching fashionTV here they briefly showed the show and I just had to find the photos (from Google). The turbans, the long coats.. completely breathtaking and in my favorite colors! It also makes my skin itch for Fall. Meet, or be reintroduced, to Stéphanie Coudert.
See y'all soon!
xxoo missusmonroe
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| Stéphanie Coudert Womenswear, Fall/Winter 2014 Collection, Paris Haute-Couture |
I wanted to make this post before the weekend that just passed but how life worked... well y'know. In any case I went to visit my grandmother whom I love ever so dearly. This was my second encounter with her in two years, the first a few days before and it was definitely the first time since my grandfather's death. This woman is so so strong. She was just reminiscing, I'm sure subconsciously, about the random things of life when they were still together. We went to her church on Sunday and we walked past a sidewalk with those long gutter slits? She just passed the comment of how she used to tell my grandpa how he should watch out for his cane, to make sure it didn't get stuck. It was such a simple statement and she even laughed a bit but it only filled me with grief and sadness. To be someone's life partner for so long then to have them just taken away... I don't know man.
Before that sadness though, the day before my cousin, my grandmother's driver and our driver and I all went out when we arrived to the waterfall in Erin-Ijesa. I was under the impression that I was going to see some water...not that I was going to do some intense hiking where if it wasn't for my cousin I probably would've slipped in the multiple unsafe areas to my certain death. Y'see the waterfall apparently has seven layers where you must climb to each level. The first level they've completed so there are stairs to it, but the following level has a much steeper set of stairs that lead to where they expect one to climb down to the water without a path. The next level you've got to scrape and grapple for stones, thick branches, and little bits of the mountain to grab onto. It was beyond beautiful when you finally get to where is necessary. Clearly I wasn't prepared for any of this, including bringing the swimming essentials I was apparently expected to have handy. I didn't even dwell on a possibility people would be in the water! I think I thought of it like the Niagara but even then, I still haven't even been there. Whatever, it was amazing either way.
xxoo missusmonroe
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| Olumirin Waterfalls |
Many of you guys might know I was featured on Fashion Bomb Daily's website for the second time, this time with me actually submitting. Actually, new readers might know but for our usual indulgers here's the link: http://fashionbombdaily.com/2014/07/07/fashion-bombshell-day-dami-maryland/ . This post is about that submission but more so what stemmed from it. The thing is there was a strong amount of backlash in response to the posting of both my official post and highlights on FBD's insta with people behaving in their usual tendencies when they see something they may not be able to completely understand, in other words whenever they see me: rude/harsh commentary about anything but the point, far-off assumptions about my life or the way I live it, instructions on how I should ~those are rather funny~, and just a lot of hatred and apparent bitterness. With that being said, that's still not the point of this post. I could sit here and complain about how people are, I could respond to each and ever of their comments but seriously why the hell would I waste my precious time? I just wanted to address something to all of you readers out there who may not be as confident as I am or who are but are struggling with bullying or whatever you may have it.
First of all, the short description I gave Fashion Bomb Daily was the complete truth. I've been different from the beginning and I will go out different. My different isn't even like others' different. I've noticed if someone is what others consider beautiful if they are "different" or "stand out", which isn't really hard to do if you're beautiful, it's completely okay. In fact, it's encouraged and praised. BUT if one is to be like me, completely hideous to one person but wonderfully beautiful to another, it's not allowed. No, no, if that beautiful person is of my complexion and they are wearing some nice, bright red lipstick they're fierce and praised for not allowing complexion boundaries disallow them to move forward and be their beautiful. However, if someone like me were to do the same thing I'm torn down, I'm ridiculed, and make fun of endlessly. I'm told I shouldn't do that, instructed to "tone it down", be like everyone else. What's the difference here? PERCEPTION. I want to let y'all know that if you are in the same position I've always been in, it will be hard to shut those voices out. It hurts at first, it hurts a lot. You just continue to wonder why people treat you this way and why can they not accept the fact that you aren't like them! Simply and plain, you will also never be like them.
The events of the past week reminded me of so much that I had gone through, because up until now it's been pretty good in relation to this. But people will be people and many ignorant people will continue to believe that all of their opinions are indeed fact when they are nothing but opinions only relating to little ol' them.
A comment that I happened to read with the official feature though was pertaining to one of the looks and it said something along the line of look blah-blah would look a lot better with heels and a clutch. Heels and a clutch people, I almost threw-up through my laughter. If you even just browse through the submissions that's all everybody submits! To some that's stylish but to me it has its time and it's place. It's not really "classic" and it's not truly fashion-forward. It's more so something to fall back on if all else fails. That comment stuck with me and with all of the insults and worthlessness people wrote, that probably insulted me the greatest. To simplify myself so that someone else can feel comfortable? How far must I go then to make you, the not-owner of my life, happy?! My style doesn't depend on others and my beautiful doesn't need the approval of others. I'm comfortable with me and if nobody can accept and respect that, that's completely fine with me.
I've been away from my youTube uploading for a brick but I haven't left mentally! Ha, it's just really hard as I explained attempting to record in my dorm room. In a few weeks I will return from abroad and will be uploading my usual BTS videos with a few new things to add to the annual Back to School series. In any case, there are so many box braids, including my three heheho, and Senegalese twists hairstyle tutorials but with the most recent type of protective style mainstreamed, there are hardly any tuts on it. So here are the styles that I came up with on the spot. Hope y'all like!
xxoo missusmonroe
