Top 5's of 2013...Hello 2014

A little late, yet still on time. It's my Top 5's (kind of) of 2013. The good, the bad, the ugly. The learned and the taught. My moment to reflect, vent, and rejoice. Here goes something...

People:

1. Dad

2. Pete

3. Kelly

4. Jason

5. Ed

Places:

1. Jaipur, India

2. Kuta, Bali

3. Vegas

4. Atlanta, GA

5. Tokyo, Japan

Books:

1. $100 Startup

2. Steve Jobs Bio

3. David and Goliath

4. The Icarus Deception

5. 48 Laws of Power

Films:

1. Mandela

2. 42

3. Fruitvale Station

4. Silver Linings Playbook

5. JOBS (it sucked though)

Words/Catch Phrases:

1. Dope

2. Insane

3. Out of Control

4. I can't.

5. Hmmm

Lessons:

1. Face your patterns

2. Families wait for no one

3. To prove resiliance you sometimes have to become a human punching bag

4. What you fight may be what you need

5. I have a hard time trusting people, who are friends, with people I don't trust

'Failures':

1. severe, unearthly love triangle and hexagons...like I fu%^king can't anymore.

2. money, in general.

3. pitching a tv show process

4. balance...lost all remnants of it by the end of the year. was severely overwhelmed by the time the clock struck 12 on Jan 1, 2014

5. All of the lessons and mini lessons had here on this Bali NomadnessX trip

6. Realizing some people don't need trips, they need a therapist. And you'll never be able to please them, ever. So do what you can, as soon as you can, as professionally as you can, and leave the rest to the Universe.

7. Namyohorengekyo

Successes:

1. RV Tour...like, damn we really did that

2. Not losing my sanity or spazzing out on people during moments when it would have been 100000% warranted

3. Receiveing the Trailblazer Award at the Powerhouse Summit

4. There was a very difficult day in the Tribe this summer in which it looked like massive things were about to implode. People leaving of their own accord, people getting kicked out, it was a mess. Jason had to step in that day because I was actually contacted to be a part of a documentary that an EXTREMELY well known entrepreneur was putting together in NYC. I have been signed to secrecy, so I can't say who. I am just waiting patiently for footage to drop. Oneo f the best/worst days of 2013 for me, at the same damn time.

5. Signed my contract with Serendipity Literature becoming an agent backed author...crazy how this has been a childhood dream of mine. Blessed for this beyond belief.

Song of Significance:

1. Happy- Pharell

2. Pour It Up- Rihanna

3. Mine- Beyonce

4. Worst Behavior- Drake

5. Diamonds- Rihanna

Memborable Moments:

1. Superbowl Weekend/Ed's Crib

2. Dans Le Noir (dining in the dark) with Tribe in Barcelona, Span

3. HOLI in India with Tribe

4. Phone calls and positive talks when the Tribe felt like it/me was about to self implode (shouts to Roz, Francis, Maestra, Ed, Lioness, Kali, Kenna, Jason, Mom, Dad, Keith, Macario, Daphne, Patricka, Bruce, etc that came through in emotional clutches)

5. a 7am email in which I made a decision that defined where I was as a woman. One of the most adult and selfless moves I have ever made in my life.

6. Izekaya last day in Tokyo with the Tribe and Suguru and Kotoyo

7. Enshrining my Gohonzon at home

8. Waking up to sunrise over the Grand Canyon with the RV Crew, and going to bed that same night on the Vegas strip

9. October 1st, at a photo studio in White Plains, realizing I was beginning to fall in love with a friend I have had for over a decade, that I'd rejected just as long.

10. Two year anniversary party for the Tribe

11. Grandad's funeral in Jamaica

12. A revelation at a bar in New Orleans in April, that was eerily similar to a revelation in my bedroom in November

13. TEARS...there were mad tears this year.

Goals for 2014:

1. never have to worry about money again

2. Have my 1st book published and walk into a Barnes&Noble to buy it..preferably the one in Union Square

3. The Nomadness Project -film

4. Continue towards dropping 30 lbs by my 30th birthday

5. Get Nomadness off Facebook and onto own social network site

6. RV Tour 2014

7. Book an average of 4 speaking gigs a month

8. TED/SXSW approved proposals for 2015

9. Claim and recieve everything I desire, and deserve, in my love life. I put recently on a status update that I want a 'whole' love. In 2013 I attracted a lot of half love. Love attached to exs, drama, babies, people who hadn't really cleared their plate before sitting back down at the table again. I am over it, Universe. I want the love I deserve. A whole human being ready to give whole love, REGARDLESS of any circumstances or timing. Someone who is as willing and ready as I am to be two WHOLE human beings coming together to elevate one another. Thinking I may need to re-read that section of the Celestine Prophecy again. It's my turn to be happy. It's my turn to be chosen.

10. Prep myself physically, mentally, spiritually, financially, and emotionally to start a family of my own in 2015. I am an evolving woman, and as scary as it was when it finally hit me that this is where I am...it is still my truth and I had to acknowledge it in my life. I don't forsee it in 2014, but in 2015 I want to become a mother.

barcelona, my love...

Sitting on this small area that our ten foot tall windows open up to in Barcelona, red wine sipped at the equivalent of 11:30am in New York City, yet 5:30pm here in Spain. I'm overwhelmed with all this trip has been. My second time to the country, something I'm not known for doing, and an entirely new experience it is indeed.

Barcelona, my love-- I am seduced.

It isn't so much a not wanting to leave, as it is a prepartory gameplan on how to come back on a more permanent basis. I think back to the brief encounter I've had here with a man named Scott. He is Japanese, and unintentionally drawing. I have a little crush- but I digress. He spoke about living all around the world, specifically Cali and NYC, but how Barcelona has been home over the last three years. He used a word I'm used to -- hustle -- in thecontext that one can do so in Barcelona, legally, and live. I'm still a bit skeptical and awe-stricken, but we exchanged information and I look forward to the point where we can chop this up, because I'm seriously giving some things consideration. I'm learning...

I can be calm. I realize more and more the S&M relationship I have with NYC is like a constant assault on my senses, particularly the neighborhood I live in. My stresses are still the same here. I worry about the same things, yet I finda space not to here, and it's much more difficult, on the verge of impossible in the spot I call home.  

My paradise involves more than water. About a year ago, a tribe member posted a photo (I want to say) of Maldives and asked where everyone's personal paradises are. I remember writing that the water would grow to bore me day in and day out and that I needed the energy of a city nearby to keep me inspired, creating, and stimulated. My paradise includes culture, street art, wine, attractive human beings, diverse human beings, and water somewhere easily accessible. Well...... in an alleyway close to Placa Reial, I sit writing this post with a glass of red wine, my laptop, and inspiration for a number of posts and status updates to come. I am at my best when creating...like, right now. I am in the middle of my personal paradise, and I don't know what it's supposed to make you feel like, but I have been smiling for no reason a lot. A lot like NYC in the summertime, but not so much in the winter.

My life will consist of three B's. Brooklyn, Bali, Barcelona. I have visited all three-- yet, it's time to live. These will be homes.

Traveling with an ex can be awkward if not checked properly. Again, just a personal observation.

Topless beaches, where thirst is to a minimum, are kind of my thing.

Tattoos create a lust unbareable for me. I was taken by surprise at how dope the ink culture is here. there are tattoo parlours all over the place and the amount of work I've seen done on people is amazing. I see half and full sleeves more than any other tattoo type out here.

Dining in the dark is a LIFETIME MUST DO EXPERIENCE.......but only with the right people. The term, shit gets real comes to mind. Dans Le Noir in Barcelona was absolutely amazing. It's anxiety producing, sensory overload in many ways, as your most dominant one is stripped from you. The emotional state you are brought to when having a conversation, in the dark I feel is rare and unqiue to that specific circumstance and those around you. You must be free and embrace. The fact that the waiters are blind, is such a powerful element to the entire experience. In life, they rely on us. As the host said to us "In the dark, the blind is King. Listen everything they say." And that was the truth. When lining up to go in they say the person with the least amount of fear should go in first. Before I was even able to gauge my level of fear, the Tribe had thrust me to the front. Alex, our waiter, turned around and instructed me to put my hand on his shoulder, as that is how we all walked in, forming a line. When Alex turned aroudn I couldn't help but read his shirt.

"There is no blindness, just ignorance."

That was my silent cry moment, walking in, behind curtain one, then curtain two, into complete (can't see your hand in front of your face) darkness. That, was the beginning...

This trip, these people, this city. Nomadness.

NMAN Symposium...yea, the Universe was on overdrive

The Universe has been on overdrive the past 48 hours, and we've been synching up rather flawlessly. It's always dope when you meet strangers, under a series of coincidences-- that clearly didn't have to happen-- and it busts very necessary doors open for you. It gives me a momentary break from picking those same door locks myself. ;-) 

This is precisely what happened two nights ago, and less than 12 hours later I was introduced to a number of fellow entrepreneurs and start-up investors at the first ever National Minority Angels Network Symposium. More than worth the $200 registration free, and a clear(er) indication that Nomadness is on the right track. As the Nomadness High Council and I continue making our Pinky and The Brain international moves, it feeds the hunger, calms the nerves, and reinstates the faith that we will get everything we need to properly launch our initiatives in 2013. We got this!! 

A few of my favorite quotes from the Symposium yesterday:

'There are 3 keys to business... 1. Make $1 2. Make $2 3. Make $1 million"

'I want to be dumb.' (An investor speaking on simplicity of pitches)

'Marketing is a series of coincidences that results in a transaction.' 

'People in hell are thirsty, all I have to do is deliver them ice water."

"Just because an investor will give you $500,000 doesnt mean they are the right investor. It's worse to have taken the money from the wrong investor, than to have never taken the money at all. Look for a passive investor, who will give you the money you need, then let you run your business in your vision."

"You don't ask someone you're on a first date with for $1 million." 

"In a bacon and eggs breakfast...the chicken is involved, but the pork is committed. I want the entrepreneur that is the pork." (even the pescitarian in me could appreciate this analogy...ironically, the person who said it is pescitarian too.)

beasting into and through 2013!