Weekend in Santo Domingo Jan. 2012

I spent MLK weekend 2012 in Santo Domingo and what  an experience!!! This is the first of many things I have planned for YOP and it was well worth the trip. First of all, my flight was the party flight. I got free shots from my neighbors who celebrating for no reason (I like that very much lol) and when we landed they gave the flight crew a standing ovation. ROTF. It was really serious. So the first thing I learned about Dominican people is that they celebrate EVERYTHING!!! I fox with that LOL. It took me 45 minutes to get through customs, not because the security staff were giving me a hard time but because I couldn't walk two feet without having someone trying to pick me up. I mean anyone and everyone, from dudes on my flight to airport staff (mind you, I'm in leggin's and a wife beater. Nothing fancy; especially not in comparison to the other ladies who were in stilettos and dresses etc. I clearly did not get the memo LOL). And these guys are extra about it too. Example, I'm trying to exchange money and it's myself and the guy behind the glass. I watch a crew of 6 men (who work for the airport) walk by my. I'm watching their reflection in the glass so I know they watched the booty the whole time as they passed by and then about 3 minutes later the crew comes back (yes all 6 of them, that's apparently how they do) and start what I like to call 'the hunt' LOL. The man hollas at me in Spanish (he assumes I'm Dominican) and while I'm fluent he spoke so fast and it's been so long since I've had to only speak Spanish I didn't understand him LOL. So I ask him again and he speaks perfectly good English. Peep the game ladies, he's asking me about my plans etc. I'm giving some info but not too much. I'm ready to leave and this is the swag - 'Welcome to your country, I hope you enjoy your stay'. I'm not gone front the hospitality did make a chick blush a little. That was cute, but it did not make a chick give up the number. Try again LOL.

I finally get out of the airport and my home girl Kali scoops me with my new friend Mr. Abel to take me home. Home is about 40minutes away without traffic. Dude, DR traffic makes NYC traffic look like Smithfield VA (If you don't know you should google it LOL). OMG. First of all people are crossing the free way to get to the water and go fishing, there are motorcycle cabs that have infants and babies stuck between two adults (hustle hard my dude LOL), dollar cabs (yes they original dollar cab did not start in the Bronx I'm sorry people) piled with like 12 people in a ford focus LOL and the list goes on. Talk about insanity. It's worst because you know they run on propane tanks which are in the trunks of the cars so if you get hit you really might just literally blow up LOL. We get home and I have Churazco with Mashed Yuca mmmmmmmm for dinner courtesy of Kali. We play Michael Jackson for the Wii (Yes, I went all the way to the DR to play Michael Jackson LOL) and then it's play time. We hit up this local bar and it is parking lot pimpin'  hard body!!! So, the bar is a bar restaurant and they put tables and chairs in their parking lot for people to kick it on. They have a dj and they play sports on the flat screens. Next door to the bar is a liquor store. So my lovely Dominican people being the hustler's that they are, roll up in their cars, blast their music from their trunks, buy bottles at the liquor store and use the chairs from the bar to have what is basically a tailgate party LOL. So Kali and I are drinking (mind you I paid like $4 for a mixed drink (BAAALLLIIINNNNN LOL) and we're catching up on everything. No body is talking to us. Everyone is pretty much to themselves and no one is dancing. One of my favorite songs comes on (yes, I like reggaeton) and Kali and I get up and start dancing. Would you know a crew of 5 dudes all of sudden speaks perfectly good English and wants to our friends (Really pimp? I gotta shake it to make friends out here LOL). It was so much fun, the guys are pretty well traveled, one of them is a bass player in a local band and he also does graphic design (amazing work) so we still keep in touch. We had a debate about politics and racism in the DR and how the country's history has shaped the mindset of people today. It was lovely.

Saturday we laid low because we got home pretty late and because I'm a little lazy like that. We had pizza haha (I'm so american it's a shame LOL) and ice cream...Oh yes, the ice cream trip lol. So I'm shorts and a wife beater and we're walking to the ice cream parlor and we have to pass the bar we were at the night before. There are workers there doing some flooring work and we can hear them talking as we approach. Why when we walk by does all talking and all work stop so they can stare LMAO. I have never seen anything like this outside of a movie and I laughed so super hard. It was too funny. We messed up and got ice cream on a cone and sat outside and ate it. It only occurred to me that that wasn't a good idea when I noticed people staring. Ladies, do not have a phallic symbol near your mouth when you have just made life stop for men around you LOL. Sigh..the best most uncomfortable ice cream experience. We went into the toy store so she could show me how strange it is that there are only blonde headed dolls on the shelves. No black dolls, no mexican dolls nothing. Soooooo Strange. This racism is killing me inside LOL. We tried find Scrabble but no luck there and if you're wondering, yes, it was also a spectacle of men watching and following us around the store. I go hard in the mutha Effing paint. The ill bomb was that Everybody stared but NO BODY said two words. Not even hello LOL. You get used the objectification to the extent that you don't even notice it. It's very interesting how that works. As a matter of fact given my low key style of dress (just like chicks were in the airport in stilettos they were also at the grocery store, the ice cream shop, the toy store the whole nine looking like they were going to Club Amnesia LOL) I started to feel rather fly to be able turn heads in what they consider to be rags. ooooowwww LOL. Ladies, if you want to feel sexy, go to the DR. I'm telling you size doesn't matter. I saw women who were a nice 18 - 22 in fly a$$ cocktail dress and pumps, We even saw them in 2 piece swim suits and no one stared or treated them like they were wrong for that and men were buying them drinks. Sexy is not on the outside, it's on the inside. Don't believe me, go to Santo Domingo. We went to Zona Colonial later that day to look at the sites where Columbus first landed and I got my history lesson on. This guy tried to hustle us out of 900 pesos, Faiby talked him down and we had margarita's and chillaxed.

Saturday night we partied @ La Vanazuela, which is like the strip in Miami. I had some Brugal and let me just say, it's strong...like sneak up on you strong. Good good rum. I brought two bottles home. My graphic designer friend met us there and what a show. We saw a lovely transvestite put on a show in the streets LMAO. She was not playin' I've got pics. Kali tipped her 50 pesos (which is like 1 dollar us) it was too funny. We danced and drank and danced some more ( I love Bachata, Salsa, Merengue etc. so I was right at home) then we went to El Barrio on some straight street party ish. OMG..If you ever seen Daddy Yankee Video Dembo, that's exactly what it was like. It was shoulder to shoulder for like 4 blocks of people just dancing and chillin'. They had dance battles it was just real cool ish. We didn't stay long though as we were told that people get to shooting the later it gets. So I was outie 5K.

Sunday was recovery time, I spent the day at Boca Chica. This guy tried to charge me 300 pesos for a table. Umm, no pimp. So I talked him down like I was local and told him I've never paid more than 150 for table. So he dropped the rate :). The beach....first of all the water is amazing!!!! I was in water up to my neck and could still see me feet. So dope!!! The men are hot!!! So super sexy but they know it so they're all in love with themselves which is not so attractive so I didn't holla but we did enjoy the eye candy LOL. Here are My favorite things about the beach, 1. Men are swimming in Hanes...yes Hanes logo out and all LOL. 2. chicks are really walking in pumps...really? LOL that's what's poppin' on the streets LOL. 3. I had a 2 year old boyfriend who flirted with me the whole day. Super cute and his father encouraged him even though his mother was one table away from us (talk about starting early LOL) 4. You can always tell when Americans are coming by we look sooooo out of place LOL. I mean Jordan outfits? Really? You're gonna get sand in your sneakers. Why? Where are your speedos LOL.  White chicks with corn rolls, you know you over paid right? You know by wearing your hair like that you're asking people to rip you off right? LOL too funny. 4. SWAT LOL. Yes, it was real life Call of Duty in that mug. As a Swat team of about 5 dudes in full uniform showed up to the beach and were just strolling and taking a few minutes to pose etc. It was the funniest, strangest thing ever. I had to take pictures. You can see it on my Facebook. I got caught taking pictures so I then had to explain why I was doing that LOL. Which landed me, a dinner date for my next trip ooowww.

Monday I had the best time ever! I got to teach Kali's classes. High School Students 9-12th grade and talk to them about the importance of being able to write well in any language and what kinds of jobs they can get by being good writers. The students were great and had wonderful questions and we just made a great connection. I can say though, I definitely don't want to be a teacher, at least not high school. There's way too much politics on the administrative end that I wouldn't want to have to deal with. The students are great but the rest of the job, you can keep it LOL. :).

I had the best time ever in Santo Domingo and made lots of new friends. I'm really looking forward to going back. I encourage anyone who is balling on a budget to plan a trip to Santo Domingo. It's cheap, the people are great, the island is beautiful and the weather is AMAZING (80 degrees all weekend! In January people. It's winter for them LOL. :)) So if you haven't been you should go and if you've been already, you should go back. I know I am.

Year of Pleasure (#YOP)

Everybody is hard at work keeping their New Years Resolutions and I traditionally don't make resolutions for New Years however I do like to declare mantras and new attitudes for the new year!

I've decided that 2012 is the Year of Pleasure. This means that I'm going to start doing all the things I've always wanted to do in my life but never made time to. Everything from cruises, cooking classes,to Jet Skiing and anything I can think up in between is going to happen this year!

It also means that I'm going to be sharing some of this pleasure with my loving fans and friends! I'm going to be giving away more free gifts to you this year than ever before and I might even plan a few special play dates to kick it with you guys outside of work ;).

So stay tuned because the Year of Pleasure has already begun with the first stop being a weekend trip to Santo Domingo starting this Friday!!! Oooooo weeeeee! #YOP

To Tease & Please.....

Valentine's Day is fast approaching and if you've been in any store recently you may have noticed that they had V-Day merchandise up for sale before New Years Eve hit LOL. Regardless of whether your single, married, in a relationship or involved in something that's undefined, you deserve to get something special on V-Day and I'm here to share some tips on how you can keep it sexy for the holiday!

I recently took a chair dancing class with a good friend of mine, Ms. Essence Revealed. Essence is an AMAZING burlesque dancer who holds an MFA in performance from NYU and she has over 10 years of performance experience. The class was AMAZING! We were a small group (5 women, of all ages, sizes and races) and we worked in a dance studio which she converted to a very sensual and safe atmosphere complete with fresh fruits, water and candle light. She provided us with a brief history of world views on women's sexuality as well as the history of chair dancing. Then she gave us several different moves (my personal favorite were the 'ass class' where we practiced making it clap Ooooo weee) and gave us space to practice and come up with our own combinations and at the end of class we each performed a solo chair dance routine to a song of our choosing.

The experience was very empowering, I felt extremely beautiful (even though I definitely had on gym clothes) and sexy. I even created a lap dance play list and do dances for myself at home every now and then. The best part of the class was how much I learned about myself. People assume that because I perform erotic poetry that I'm 100% comfortable in my sexuality but you'd be surprised at how much of that is just fantasy and how much I'm still exploring and learning myself in that way.

So even if you don't have someone to share it with right now, I highly recommend that you take the class (I plan on taking it again) not for someone else but for yourself :)!  You'll be surprised what you discover and you'll always have that tool in your bag of sexcellence when you do meet that special someone.

visit http://about.me/essencerevealed for more about Essence & visit: http://sensualessence.storenvy.com/ for class dates and rates.

Stop Blocking

  You may or may not know that I spent this past Sunday rocking @ an event called The Sweet Spot in NYC. The Sweet Spot is an Erotic Poetry Event which features live music, burlesque dance, fashion show, visual arts and of course erotic poetry. During this event our lovely host, Ms. Ingrid B, brought  up a great point regarding female body language. Many of the African American women in the audience were sitting with their arms crossed and Ingrid noticed this and called them out explaining to them that they are blocking their penis blessings. Then she proceeded to point out how the Latina sisters and Asian sisters were sitting in a more open fashion which is why our men are quicker to try an pick up a woman of another race because they come off as less abrasive.
There was a recent study conducted by a university in the US in an effort to define which 'race' of women were the most attractive and the study concluded that African American women were the least attractive because we have higher levels of testosterone in our bodies than any other 'race' of women, thus making us the more masculine of the female gender. I personally don't like the word choice used in this conclusion and disagree with the conclusion because it's my opinion that having these higher levels of testosterone make us best suited for survival and thus the most desirable mate when considering the strength and continuation of your bloodline. However, these two observations do bring to light and call into question a very important aspect of dating; What does your body language say and are you actually blocking yourself from meeting Mr. Right?
We all know that communication is more than just words, as there is a number of communication exchanges that happen just from our body language alone. There are even new discoveries in physics that suggest that we communicate through the electromagnetic fields in our bodies long before we even ever physically see another person in the space. This being the case you have to ask yourself what type of 'vibe' (electromagnetic pulse) are you giving off? Is it one that is inviting? Is it one that says, I'll walk all over you? Is it one that says I'm desperate?
 We all have our days when we don't want to be hit on and we just want to have a good time & then we have our days when we're actually out on the hunt and are trying to be picked or are doing the bagging ourselves. Have you ever noticed that the days you don't want to be hit on are typically the days when you get hit on the most?  I believe this happens because on those days our guard is down, we're more relaxed and open which makes us more approachable. Think about it from a male perspective. Men are in a hostile environment all day, they have to fight for seat on the train, compete with their co-workers for promotions and recognition at work and or deal with a boss who is less than understanding (often at a job he hates anyways LOL), they have tons of pressure to make a certain level of income and maintain a certain level of disconnection from their emotions in order to be considered a man by American Social Standards. So when it comes to finding a mate, the last thing he wants to do is put himself in another hostile environment where he feels he will have to defend his honor and go to extremes just to have the opportunity to prove to you that he's a worthy mate. So why would I holla at the lady with her arms crossed and her face balled up when I could holla at the lady who's sitting with open arms and laughing it up with her friends?
So stop blocking yourself, uncross your arms, cross your legs at the ankles and slap a smile on your face :). it's really that simple LOL. Don't believe me? Test it out for yourself. Go out one day and walk down your block, arms swinging while thinking of something that makes you smile (a song, a joke anything) and just watch how many men will stop to compliment your and or to holla.