While We are Waiting

So you see, while I am still waiting on my muse, I have decided to regale you and bring you up-to-date on the events in my life in the past few months. This shouldn’t take long, I mean, it has been that uneventful.

Take 1: NYSC

I decided that I might as well make myself useful while I am around here. I am quite restless by nature so NYSC was a laudable idea for me, I mean, why postpone the evil day? I had been checking up on their website since around April, just so I could remain informed and be sure to take every important document away with me from NY. On getting here, I even went to the Ibadan and Lagos Secretariats to verify the validity of my documents. My diploma hadn’t been mailed to me as at the time I left NY, but I had my “Letter of Attestation” and this was supposed to suffice, according to the NYSC website. Armed with all these documents and a large dose of confidence (having had the said documents checked out by the 2 secretariats), I went off to Abuja. 8am on that great Tuesday, I was by the NYSC Maitama office, only to be told that I’d have to wait till 10am.

No wahala….I waited, signed in…queued……only for me to be turned back for not having my BA Cert/Diploma. I reiterated to them that the website made provision for the use of a “Letter of Attestation” in lieu of the Diploma. I was then told that the requirements had been changed, less than a week to my coming to Abuja. I was 10 feelings shy of depression. I was angry, upset……mad….every name in the book. Who changes requirements in the MIDDLE of registration?!!! I kept wondering why they could not have waited for the current registration to end before altering the requirements. So inadvertently, they made me waste my time and money heading to that place, even after I had tried to tighten all loose ends on my part. Perhaps catching a glimpse of that fine fine fine ex-governor. Donald Duke, at the airport, was supposed to make it worth my while……..SNORT

Take 2: Grandma’s Burial

About a week after I came home in July, my paternal Grandma died. Frankly,  I was emotionless. She was 84 years old, give or take, so all I thought of was “Oku Amala”. As far as I was concerned, there was no reason for tears and as a result, I made plenty fun of my dad when I heard that he cried. 

Fast forward to the burial day: It all started with my bro (who was driving) and I finding ourselves behind the hearse. Those stupid pall bearers and their stupid heart-tugging songs (sniff). Hearing all those farewell songs had my tear ducts prepping themselves, but I still sat there tryna feel gangsta with myself. They set her up outside the church for a short Lying-in-State. They opened her up and that was it! She was by no definition a fair-skinned person in her life, but deng! The person I saw in that coffin was BLACK! and FRAIL and VULNERABLE-LOOKING and very much “UNLIFE-LIKE”. While the type of embalmment used might have contributed especially to the “unlife-like look”, I couldn’t help tying it back to nature. He did say from dust we come and to dust we shall return. The picture I got that day was so literal and lent credence to that assertion. Grandma really looked like clay…… she really did (sniff).

From that experience, I can readily advice anyone who is trying to find an essence to this life to attend a funeral and attempt to see the corpse. It makes it much much much clearer….. This world is vanity and you will only be remembered by your deeds, both good and bad. No matter how much Mary Kay, MAC, Iman, Shiseido etc you invest in, in the end, it won’t even matter……at all. Ish!!!

The entertainment part was nice though. I was particularly excited for the “Oju Agbo” (specified dance). I personally handled Ma Petrillo’s plastic bag (for sprayed money :D). I was definitely on the winning team…:D

On another note, the hustle for party souvenirs is real yo!!! Whhatttt?!!! I lost count of how many times I said “Whoooosaaa” that day. People just kept stretching my patience. I don’t understand the need to have EVERY item of souvenir given. Not to mention those who had like 5 of each.

I have placed an embargo on my household after that experience. Maternal Grandma has to wait at least 5 years from now before she kicks the bucket. Siblings also have to wait for at least 4 years before they talk marriage, unless they have incorporated the money for the event planner. Yes, Ngor (Not Lady Ngo), my dear sister, it includes you! I am still dealing with my room smelling of burnt firewood.

*Phew*

I am in search of a marketable certificate course to embark on. It seems everyone and their dogs are going into Project Management around here. Kindly suggest other business related courses that you are aware of.

I miss regular blogging and regular blog-hopping…..this internet sucks major!

Shout out to my new followers. Can’t believe I gained followers even during my unannounced hiatus. Welcome here, you rock!

Oh, It was my birthday on the 4th, Ma Petrillo's on the 16th and the blogiversary on the 11th (iThink? See? I am losing it!). October sure is a special month.

* all images gotten from google

__ Don Waka, We Still Dey Carry Go

     So, as you might have surmised, October is a big month for me. My birthday was on the 4^th as well as Mama Mia’s on the 16^th (yup! 9jaGreat, we Librans are jest too special!….:D) and a year ago from today, this blog was birthed. You know, I thought I was going to have something really bright and ingenious to write/do to commemorate this 1^st year anniversary ……turns out that I don’t. In the stead of that, permit me to regale you with the run-down of how and why I started blogging.

     If you live in a little college village upstate New York and you are as fickle as HoneyDame, chances are that you will get bored very easily.  I love to read. I pride myself on at least giving everything I stumble on equal chances to be read (although somewhere along the line, I drop some for not being interesting/engaging enough). My friend had started blogging a few months before me, maybe even more than a few months. And she had sent me the link to her blog to check it out. I did, and from time to time, went there to see what was new. I had no idea that I could just click on some of those links to read other blogs.

     At that time, blogging seemed to me as the new facebook, as everyone and their dogs had blogs.  I almost even swore that I wouldn’t join the band wagon. I spent a few hours on Bella Naija from time to time but wasn’t satisfied because the update time on interesting stuff was too far between for me. Naijapals was just…..”urrrgghh” for me. Those forums were bland, and for the most part, full of obnoxious and totally clueless people (by my estimation). It just wasn’t my type of thing.

    I had always wanted to keep a diary of some sort, or more appropriately, a journal. But the one time I attempted doing that, the writing space wasn’t enough and I had to code the entries so bad for the fear of it being discovered. It wasn’t like I had classified information in there, but I just wasn’t comfortable with the idea.  I later tried to re-introduce it into my facebook page but soon realized that I couldn’t just update my status everytime an idea/topic for discussion ran through my head. Plus, if you haven’t already noticed, I am quite a lady of many words (especially when I am being social). So again facebok couldn’t cut it for me neither would twitter (not that I even attempted that one).

   I can’t remember how, but I stumbled on Baba Alaye’s blog. I had just read his latest post at that time and decided that he was captivating enough to make me want to read his posts from the beginning. I did. And from there, I moved to T-Minx’s blog. Apparently, the two had some blog love going on. Either that was real or just a joke, I still don’t know because now, I have realized that on Blogger, the possibilities are endless.

By the time I was done perusing the blogs, I had found the answer to my “troubles”. I could just have a blog! I could write about those things I found interesting around me. I don’t take myself too seriously so for the most part, it was for the entertainment value. That way, I could amuse myself sometimes. Also, I don’t know about anyone else, but I get kicks from reading something I had written at a prior time. I am intrigued by reading generally because I can create the scene in my mind and make conjectures about the thought process of the author at that time…etc. So, without much ado, I took maybe 2seconds to decide on a name and signed up for a blog.

    On why I decided to be anonymous, I don’t really know why. Perhaps it is just in my nature to attempt doing something from the background first and then take it up a notch if after a while I feel convinced it is the best thing to do. There really isn’t much logical explanation to that.

    Remember I said starting the blog was majorly for my entertainment. I mean, I had no idea that people read other people’s blogs like that. So I carried on with that notion and you can imagine my surprise when about 2months after I out up my first post I saw that I had a comment! I mean, I was still (and still am) learning the ropes at that time! P.E.T Projects, I could I ever forget that?! How did you even discover me? I was ecstatic! The ecstasy escalated when I got my first Myne Whitman comment. It was/still is such a big deal to me. I had heard her name somehow somewhere before then. I had seen her blog and made a conclusion that she was in the very least a blog celebrity. So in my mind, I would have to be bordering on grey-haired before I would ever be recognized by her person on blogsville.

   And before long, I started getting those “regulars” of that time; you know the ones who would still drop a line or two on your crappiest post ever just to encourage you. The feeling was indescribable. Shout out to Ble Ble and @ilola. And to think, a year down the road, they still haven’t deserted me.

    Uhm, my original purpose for starting a blog has been fulfilled so far. There is never a dull moment with blogsville.  I totally love my life here. I am grateful for your giving this blog a chance, for the occasional educative and all time entertainment pieces on your blogs, your comments here (I can’t over emphasize)…..just everything.  You may not know it but perhaps if I got no encouragement, I might have dabbled into some life threatening activity to pass time, perhaps I  would have been auditioning for the next Big Loser from eating so much junk to pass time…..In some ways, you saved me.

And to my followers: You guys are the next best thing since shortbread. You are amazing. About 2-3 posts ago, I mentioned how I would love to have 100 followers to commemorate today. Maybe or not they were humoring me but between then and now, I see that about 11 people obliged me. You rock!!!

To those Silent Readers Who Don’t Leave Comments But Still Read Anyway:  You are awesome. And even though I’d rather you drop a line to let me know that you were here, I still appreciate your virtual presence.  

40 something posts, 700 and something comments, 97 followers , a few awards and an incredible and ever growing community after,

Here

To an even greater year ahead.

So this is me saying “Hopefully, next year (if you don’t all desert me) I will have something more profound and concise (and maybe shorter too) to say. *Pause* Again, thank You.”

****wipe tears-filled eyes****

The Parry continues at 9jaFOODie's and LohiO's for some lemzing.

***Disclaimer: Image gotten from google.com***