My Lack of Patience and That Terrible Thing People Call ‘Hair’

So I finally decided to transition from relaxed hair to natural hair. Say YAY! And slap my palm. Thank you.
After over 15 years of chemical treatments, I decided I want my natural hair back.
This transitioning, though, is pushing every patience button I have. And I don’t even have that many. Seriously. Patience is NOT funny.

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Growing out my relaxed hair is not so much about wanting a new hairdo as much as it is about accepting what has been planted on my head when I was born.
I was born with curly hair. Kinky curly hair. But after 15 years of trying to ignore all of that, I decided I want my hair to be natural, free of chemical, crappy stuff.
I’m tired of using relaxers. It’s freaking dangerous stuff, it burns your skin and it’s time consuming. When my hair is natural, it’s like having freedom right there on your head. Once my hair is natural, people might see me walking around with the Statue of Liberty on my head. Just to display my freedom, because that’s how free I’m gonna be once this is all over.

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Back From Kansas City

Before I start I want to share one song with you. You can listen to it as you read this. You may or may not like it, but remember you have a choice. This life is full of choices! After you hit ‘play’, you can hit that same button again to make it stop. Isn’t that nice? It’s really easy!
Also, if you make it to 3:48 into the song, please remember that it’s still a guy singing, not a girl. Just sayin’…

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In Loving Memory of Me

I’m not dead. I’m alive. I’m very, extremely, very much alive. I checked this morning, I took a look in the mirror and even though I didn’t like the way my hair woke up, I knew I was alive.
However, this is my obituary.
One day someone is going to write my obituary and it’s going to be one heck of a stupid story. Since my blog is going to live on forever and ever and ever and ever until the end of the sun, moon and stars, I wrote this, my obituary:

July 1982 – August 2084
Yesterday Oklahoma City was hit by a series of 3 tornadoes. There were no victims except the 102-yr old Ruth. Some liked to call her Ruthie.

Ten years ago Ruthie moved to Oklahoma, hoping to chase tornadoes for a living. Instead, tornadoes chased Ruthie.
Ruthie was affectionately known as the “Tornado Lady”.
Unfortunately she never got to take a good look at a tornado, because whenever she saw one, it looked like it was going to hit her and she freaked out.
But yesterday night Ruthie was woken by the sound of a tornado alarm.
Happy and frustrated as she was, Ruthie wore her Converse Chucks as she ran out the house wearing her pyjamas. All the while the alarm was sounding, but being the stubborn person that she was, she ignored every second of it.
The police think her brains were already damaged by her bad habit of sniffing kerosene every night before bed.

Yesterday night Ruthie was wearing her cute Grammy pyjamas decorated with flowers, but her Converse Chucks made all the difference. She couldn’t have looked better that night.
As she was staring at the tornado touchdown, it came right toward her and swallowed her within 3 seconds.
Eye witnesses who saw the accident say they only saw a part of Ruthie’s afro as she was swallowed whole. Continue reading


I Almost Killed Myself, But Then I Didn’t

I almost, nearly, very much almost and super accidentally killed myself.

Last night I came home and noticed I left the gas stove running all day. And to tell you the truth; I left it running since the night before, just the gas, no fire. Like… aaaaall day and aaall night.

I’m basically glad I didn’t decide to lit my candles. I would have been poofed away immediately.
It goes without saying that I would have poofed my annoying neighbour away too. As annoying as he is, I don’t want to poof him away like that. It’s a bit cruel, poor thing.

So as I turned off the stove, I decided that maybe I’m not really human. Because how is it possible to let gas run aaaall night and sleep through that? And then actually wake up feeling half-conscious as always and not notice a single thing?

I only look human on the outside, but if you were to tear me apart, you’d see I’m not really human.
I was born on Mars, 300 years ago, part of the alien community that survive gas.
Seriously, it’s even in my birth certificate.

It’s either that or there were a bunch of gas angels in the house all night. Gas angels fight gas for a living. How much awesomesauce is that?!
They had jolly good fun in my house!

So yeah, everyone does stupid things at least once a year. I hadn’t done anything stupid this year, so I was entitled to still do something stupid. What’s your stupid act?


Antilleans And Their Stomach

So one thing that has always made me wonder is how Antilleans think of food from the moment they wake up. It’s not because they’re obsessed with food or anything, but it’s because they just need to know what they’re up to. Because, what if it’s 11AM and you still don’t know what to cook? In Curaçao that is unthinkable, impossible. It’s even unthinkable for my parents to this day.

I could call any random Antillean right now as I’m writing (it’s 9AM) and I’m pretty sure they know what they’re going to have for dinner today, tomorrow and probably even Monday too. There’s no way they’re not going to know, because preparing food takes time. Loads of time. Continue reading


The End of the World

A little while ago I wrote this post for this cool blog.
Now I decided to post a shorter version here.

The world is going to end this year. Maybe you thought this was going to be a happy post, but instead it’s a really sad post because I just told you the world is going to end.

However, you can still turn this year into a great year.
That’s what this post is all about.

I don’t believe the world is going to end this year. It is not funny, it’s not practical and it’s stupid.
Think about it, the Mayans said the world is going to end on December 21st, 2012. How stupid is that? They could have said the 27th, because I still want Christmas presents.
Even though I don’t believe the world is going to end, I want to be nice to those of you who do believe it is all going to end this year. I will give you great advice to make the best of this year.

It is ridiculously important you carefully follow my instructions.

1.Forget the diet you’re on, the world is going to end.
Why waste your time eating like a rabbit? Why worry about your waist, your booty or your belly? You can finally let all the fat hang. If you have it, flaunt it.
Nobody cares about your butt when the end is there. They won’t look at your butt, I promise. So no more lettuce, kale, and peas. You can actually eat crisps all day. And while you’re at it, it tastes really good with chocolate. Do not restrain the yearnings of your heart.

2.If you are a guy then I’m pretty sure you don’t worry as much about your belly.
You drink beer every night and eat pizza while watching soccer. Your belly is already huge. Good, this year is all about what YOU want.

3. Get a loan.
Think big. Go for at least a billion dollars. The world is going to end.
Get the loan and say you will start paying off your debt as of the 22nd of December.
When you get the loan, give me half of the money, just as a way of saying ‘Thank you, Ruthie!’
With the rest of the money you can buy yourself a nice little house on the prairie where it’s really pretty. I will visit the penguins of Antarctica.

4. Schedule your Christmas celebration on the 20th.
Do whatever you need to do to not miss out on your Christmas presents. Write notes and letters to every single person you know, even if you don’t like them. Tell them you want to celebrate Christmas on the 20th.
To save money yourself, tell them you didn’t buy them anything, because you have a HUGE surprise for them, they will find out when it’s Christmas. That way they will be extremely excited because they know you are rich (remember the 1 billion dollars?) and I’m sure they can’t wait.

5. Sleep in as much as you want. Sleep in a lot.
If you have a job, don’t go to work. It’s okay if you get fired. Who cares, right? The world is going to end.
Sleep in, dream nice dreams, get some rest. Just don’t sleep in on the 21st. You don’t want to miss out on the huge end of the world event, right?! Wake up early to see the end with your own eyes. It will be so much fun!

Oh and when you’re up early, watching from your bedroom window, staring into the great sky, waiting for something to drop from the sky and you notice you’ve been standing and staring for at least 23 hours…and you realize the end still hasn’t come, then I’m sure you start freaking out.
Because there you are, nice and cute, huge, fat belly fully of crisps and chocolate, a huge loan, tons of people waiting for your exciting Christmas present and out of a job… Oops!
Don’t blame me, I told you I didn’t believe in it!


Ellen Draaijer, Chantal, Kippen, Ballen, Messen en Al Die Dingen

Over sommige dingen kun je echt alleen maar in het Nederlands schrijven. Daarom apologize ik voor iedereen die geen Nederlands spreekt, vandaag doe ik het in het Nederlands. Lang niet zo leuk als in het Engels, maar whatever.

Vandaag was een bijzondere dag. Ik voelde me niet alleen bijzonder, het was allemaal echt bijzonder. Op het werk deel ik sinds lange tijd een kamer met mijn lieve collega’s Ellen en Chantal. Wanneer je elke dag zoveel tijd met elkaar besteedt op een kamer, dan leer je elkaar best goed kennen. Zo weet Chantal bijvoorbeeld dat ik slechts een halve dag (of net iets langer) nodig heb om vier pakjes kauwgum naar binnen te werken. Echt? Ja, echt. Ik ben kauwgumobsessed. Geen grapje. Chantal neemt daarom regelmatig rare-smaken-kauwgum mee uit Duitsland. Kijk maar:

Kauwgum is niet gemaakt om heel lang op te kauwen, mensen vergissen zich daar regelmatig in. Kauwgum is veel lekkerder wanneer je om de twee minuten een nieuw stukje pakt, en dan moet je kauwen alsof het je missie is om dat stukje kauwgum dood te maken met je tanden. Dan haal je het allerbeste uit je kauwgum en zul je optimaal genieten.

Ellen ken ik weer goed genoeg om te zien wanneer ze een mailtje aan het tikken is. Zonder de woorden te lezen, weet ik wat ze erin zet. Haar wenkbrauwen en ogen komen net boven haar scherm uit en gaan op een bepaalde manier op en neer en heen en weer. Toevallig kan ik ze echt heel goed lezen.

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