Disappointment

This morning I found out that a close male friend of mine was in a relationship. And under normal circumstances, I would be happy for him, congratualte him, ask questions about the girl, etc. But these circumstances were FAR from normal. See, this friend didn't call me all excited to tell me. Nor did he tell me when we talked just this weekend. This friend changed his relationship status on FB!

So I, of course, had to pull him to the side, via electronic message and express my EXTREME disappointment. Over the past year, he and I had become quite close. I held him in high esteem among my male friends. So for this to be how I found out left me absolutely crest-fallen. I was speaking to another male friend this morning about the term "disappointment" and how much DEEPER it is than getting upset or mad. Merriam-Webster defines the word "disappoint" as such: to fail to meet the expectation or hope of. Meaning I have placed my hope and expectations in you -something I do less and less to avoid EXACTLY this-  but you have not lived up to such. In essence, the trust has now been broken. That is harder to fix than just being mad or upset with someone, i have learned to get over those things quite easily.

What makes matters worse is that he said he started to tell me and couldn't. What or why he would think he couldn't tell me is BEYOND ME! I felt most betrayed because he knows that another one of my close friends had done a similar thing and how much that hurt me. Overall, if and when I do get over this disappointment... our friendship has been damaged and it won't get any harder and it' won't get and higher...

A disappointment.

Oh, you shouldn't have done,

You couldn't have done,

You wouldn't have done the things you did then...

But it won't get any harder,

And I hope you'll find your way again.

And it won't get any higher,

And it all boils down to what you did...

Image from: http://www.norcalblogs.com/bullfight/archives/disappointment.jpg

Messin With a Good Thing- Monica

I heard the sounds of Deniece Williams' Silly coming from my radio Monday. But what I heard was not Niecy AT ALL. It was Monica singing over MY SONG.

In '95, I had my friend make me a TAPE with that song on it 5 times so I wouldn't have to rewind it. THAT'S MY SONG! I used to write the words to that song on pieces of paper in my spare time in middle school. THAT'S MY SONG! When I randomly start crushing on a new guy or a guy that's not that good for me, I hear Silly playing in my head.THAT'S.... MY.... SONG!!!

And Monica DESTROYED IT! And here is why... the melody of Monica's song is the same as the sample... who does that? The words themselves are nice, I'll give her that. But there is something I am NOT digging with the use of the Silly sample. But I listened to it all the way through. and then she went & did it... she tried those awesomely beautiful notes at the end... the result of which was LAZY AND LOUSY! Thereby negating anything nice I had to say about the dern thing. What I WILL say is that that black & white houndstooth blouse in the video is MAGNIFIQUE! But that still doesn't make up for the lazy, lousy high notes at the end. C'mon Monica, man, THAT'S MY SONG!

Check it out for yourselves:

Try Sleeping with a Broken Marriage

I deleted my previous post that was a little judgey-judgey and gossipy and decided instead to simply say this:

Dear Alicia Keys,
I hear you are marrying Swizzy this summer. Good luck with that, let us know how that turns out for you, ok?

Insincerely,
Bri

Shutter Island/ Shudder Island

I saw Shutter Island yesterday with some of my girls from grad school. And let me first say, it was NOT what I thought it would be. And I mean that in a bad AND good way.

Let's start with the bad first... I was looking for a psychological thriller with scares & chills & things that go bump in the night. So when there was more talk than real spooky, scary, gory action, I had to adjust my mindset a little & get into it in a new way.

The GOOD part... I was REALLY surprised by the turn of events. And the ending left me wanting to go back and read the book! The ending also made us feel like our MA's in Forensic Psychology did NOTHING to prepare us for what we had just experienced. We sat in silence for a few moments at the end of the film just trying to wrap our minds around it. It went THAT deep for us.

I don't want to give away TOO much. But i want you all to know that the end of the movie made me shudder. I could not imagine being in that scenario or anything close to it. It was fascinating to me... so much so that I have the book on hold at Borders & I am going to pick it up this evening. I have to be able to go back through and fully comprehend what it is I saw!

I encourage anyone that likes psychological movies to go check this out. It will not be what you expect. My girl had to read the plot synopsis during the movie to be able to get in the right place for it, mentally. HILARIOUSNESS!
 The official Paramount Synopsis:
Synopsis: From Oscar®-winning director Martin Scorsese, "Shutter Island" is the story of two U.S. marshals, Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), who are summoned to a remote and barren island off the coast of Massachusetts to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a murderess from the island’s fortress-like hospital for the criminally insane. --© Paramount

And it's a SWINDLE because the movie is SO much more than that!

Girl, You Gon' Think I Invented Speedskating!

I remember hearing about Shani Davis back in 2006. A Black speedskater, WOW! A Black Gold Medal Winner in the Winter Olympics, WOW! But I'll admit that it slipped my mind to really pay attention. Fast forward to 2010.
I'm sitting in a restaurant with a friend & there are tvs all around us. We're taking them ALL in... when I say to her: "HEY, that skater is BLACK!" We catch a glipse of him as he removes his hood and skates off the ice... Then It occurs to me I had heard of him. But I couldn't remember his name. I found him because Google is AWESOME and u can pretty much type in any random words & come up with something!

*sidebar*I dare you to try it: go to "The Google"

and type in your mother's maiden name,

the color of your shirt, the name of your first pet

and see if you don't come up with 27 pages of stuff...

Don't worry... I'll wait... lol. *end sidebar*

So I read up on him and refresh my memory and it turns out, Shani is what Malcolm Gladwell would call an Outlier! His life and the cosmos aligned to bring him to where he is today. With his 10,000 hours of practice starting at the age of 6, Shani is definitely the Subject Matter Expert on speedskating. Just a brief bio on Shani: he was rollerskating just after he could walk, he was DUSTING grown-ups in the roller rink on Chicago's Southside when he was three, he took up ice skating after a suggestion from a coach, and shortly after that his mom started working for a lawyer whose son was deep into speedskating. 1, 2, 3 just like that... he's the best! In 2006, he was the first black to win a gold medal in a Winter Olympics individual event. And he was the first PERSON to win the 1000m Speedskating gold 2 Olympic games in a row!

Some will say he is quirky, and kind of hard on himself considering him not doing so well in the 5000m and walking away from the 500m. But what remains is this and this:

Plus he's cute!

Please note: I am WELL aware that he is missing his 'stache... I am going to assume it makes him more aerodynamic and add him to the EXCEPTIONS LIST with Obama and Denzel, thanks!

Ready for the World!

kite, originally uploaded by BriCooley.

After being snowed in since Friday evening, I am finally ready to step out amongst creation! I enjoyed the time away from the world and WORK! But now I am ready to fly a kite, or just enjoy being alive!

I took this picture back in May and though I wish I could wake up & it BE May, I plan to enjoy my life until it IS May and from that point on. I realized that I like being home and not having to do anything, or be anywhere or see anyone. But I also like having something to do, some place to be and people to see. I appreciate the serenity of solitude and the comfort of camaraderie. This snow in has given me a mini vacation from life as a whole and I am thankful for it. I planned properly (Exept for the shovel in the trunk... OOPS!), I was responsible in my eating! YAY ME!

Now, back to the grind, but I refuse to let it grind me down! I am ready for the world & to put my feet to the streets!