Precious Jill

I rarely write reviews of any type, but I am and have always been a fan of Jill Scott. I have loved her music and songwriting from the beginning and was very impressed with her acting skills in Why Did I Get Married?

So when I saw that she was to star as Precious Romotswe, of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, I was intrigued. I had heard of the series, but had never made any attempts to read any of the books.

Some have criticized the books and the HBO series as being too light-hearted and simplistic, but I for one have enjoyed the first two installments. Don't we have enough gritty realism in our own lives?

I used to watch Murder She Wrote with my grandmother and Monk with my sister. How real are they? Not very. It is nice to have an African woman featured as a detective - and most of her mysteries are not murders. I like that no one has to die. Sometimes people do, but not every time, and to me that is refreshing.

I like the humor. I like the way she uses common sense to solve the mysteries, but she is still naive about some things as well. I like that. To me, that is real. Even smart, capable people have gaps in their knowledge and experience that make them vulnerable. The lack of foresight that all of us have accounts for so many of our mistakes, but if we are able to think and act quickly, we mostly avert disaster.

I love the portrayal of Africans. We see different types of hair and dress and grooming, some traditional and some Western. I love Jill's wardrobe and the fact that her full-figure is celebrated and Precious is proud of it, but there is realism in the fact that some people criticize her for it. Some of the men call her 'fat and fabulous', while a jealous wife calls her a 'fat tart'. Isn't that just how life is?

After watching the first two episodes, I am definitely looking forward to the rest of the series.

My Other Blog

Please check out my other, other, other blog - Showhomes in the Upstate.

I know y'all are like what is she smokin'?/she is trippin' for real....if she thinks she's going to maintain another blog....

For real though, I'm doing a lot better.

I was seriously remiss on the Internet marketing front last year, but this year I'm going to do better. I'm off to a great start. I have been posting to the new business blog weekly. Yes! Weekly.

Many of you have asked about my business via facebook and through my personal e-mail. I have not had time to reply to everyone individually, but business is actually going very well this year.

I would love for all of my readers who have followed my Sisterlocks story to subscribe to my Showhomes blog, and please feel free to leave your comments there as well.

Walk It Out

I'm very excited. I have begun my first week of training for the marathon. I am not sure what goal I will be able to reach. When I was younger and healthier, I could always whip my body into good shape in a matter of 4 - 5 weeks. As I have gotten older and experienced some considerable health challenges, I have realized that I can no longer take that ability for granted.

I would love, love, love to run the full marathon. But I don't want to set my sights that high and find myself discouraged to the point of giving up, so I am going into this with the intention of completing the half marathon as a walker - which will still be a considerable achievement for me.

Racing to Save Lives

Many of you know that I lost my sister Michelle to a blood cancer in May of 2005. I learned about Team in Training through Phil and Amy P. of Biggest Loser fame. (They live here in Greenville.)

I have a plan to get fit by summer and think this is an excellent way to make sure I stick with it!

I'm training to participate in an endurance event as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training. All of us on Team In Training are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives.

I am completing this event in honor of all individuals who are battling blood cancers. These people are the real heroes on our team, and we need your support to cross the ultimate finish line - a cure!

Please make a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance LLS's mission.

You may do so by following the link to My Fundraising Page.

I hope you will visit my web site often. Be sure to check back frequently to see my progress.

Thanks for your support!

Natasha Little

Sisterlocks Gathering

Blessed Gem Lady and I were talking last week and we decided that it was way past time for another Sisterlocks gathering. The last one was in March! We are so overdue for one.

We decided to have it on Saturday, February 28th at 12:30 p.m. We know that's about 2 months away, but that gives us all a chance to put it on our calendars, book a babysitter and save our pennies (if necessary).

It will be held at the Crown Point Family Restaurant, 2815 Sardis Rd North, Charlotte, NC 28227.

The invitation is open to all who have attended in the past and anyone within driving distance who reads this post and would like to attend. If you have locks (of any kind), want locks, are considering locks or going natural, you are welcome to join us. The only thing we ask is that you RSVP to me through my blog or by e-mailing me at the address to the right. We need to have an accurate count to make our reservations at the restaurant.

It seems we've done it again...

We all know that sometimes another blogger will write a post that expresses the very same thing we were thinking about in almost the very same way.

Sunsail has just done a post about whether or not she needs grooming.

Ha-ha! She posted very good pictures and her locks look exactly like mine do right now at 20 months. So now I don't have to.

Or, rather, don't have to feel guilty about not posting them because we all know I'm slack about the pictures. I wasn't about to illustrate my point, just describe it.

I have the same fuzzy-wuzzies.

I look at my hair overall and the fuzzies don't bother me at all. I think it looks fine and neat enough.

It's a little unruly, but I freestyle 95% of the time and I didn't start locks to be buttoned-down and conventional. I'm not expecting perfection and total conformity from my locks.

I knew I wouldn't have the smooth, silky, rope-y (is that a word?) locks I see on other people. But ... having said all that, when I look at them individually or run my hand down the length of them, I feel like something needs to be done.

I feel like I am due for a grooming.

I've had the odd bunchy mini-fro that will sprout from a lock.

Until recently they have been few and far between and always near the ends. I've been trimming those with scissors at will, but in the last month it's like they have suddenly gotten totally out of control.

I have more than I can keep up with and they are appearing anywhere along the length of my locks - near the scalp and in the middle.

As all my readers know, my consultant moved away six moths ago. It has been ok because I started self-tightening a year ago.

But now I am missing her.

I was just thinking earlier to-day that I must be due for a grooming and who can I go to?

There are two reasons I don't want to do it myself.

1) The very first time I tried self-grooming I lopped off about 4 inches of the end of one of my favorite locks - not even the one I was trying to groom. So every time I take scissors to my hair I have a tiny scary flashback, but I take a deep breath and go at it anyway.

So far I have not done that again.

2) There are just so many that need it. I will undoubtedly miss some and I want to be done with it all at once.

I enjoy retightening my hair at random and over a period of days, but I do not feel the same way about grooming. I am going to need to find a consultant!

Bras for Bros

Occasionally I see stories on the Internet that I just have to share.

This definitely falls into the "what the....?" category.

I was trying to find another story entirely on the MSNBC site when this title caught my eye, "Bras for Bros a Hit in Japan." Having once dated a man with man boobies (very briefly and don't ask!) I was immediately intrigued.

No mention was made of the bra being worn for actual support of male breastuses, but more for the psychological need to satisfy their 'inner woman.'

The bra is available in black, pink, and white and designed to be "worn discreetly under men's clothing." Consumers are quoted as saying, "Wow, we'd been waiting for this for such a long time."

Really? Who knew?

Another Flashback

Check out this collage I did at two months. I can't believe how light and fluffy my locks were.

I am so glad they have much more weight and density now. That's what I've gained instead of length. That's what's happened to all of the hair I feel like I'm 'missing'.

The Lazy Woman's Comparison Post

So the 18 month marker got me thinking that I should do a comparison post to track the changes, but my other photos are on my other computer that's slow and i haven't transferred the files and it just seems like too much of a chore right now.

However...just about a year ago I did comparison shots of the first 5 months.

Here is a link to that post.

You can observe the first part of my progression.

Do you see what I mean now?

Look at how full and long they were at 4 and 5 months before they started to shrink!

Seems like the growth just stalled for the next 8 months and just started up again about three months ago.

I know it was growing because I was tightening it up on the regular, but here I am a year later and it looks not very much longer than it did a year ago - especially compared to the fast growth you can see that I experienced in my first 4 months.

Intellectually I know that it is continuing to grow at a steady rate, but the growth is showing up differently according to the different phases of lock maturation.