i'm like a rubber band- till you pull too hard

its a brand new year but i can't stop thinking about old shit. Old people, to be exact. Not old as in age but old in reference to the time when they were actively a part of my life. Old boos, old friends, old enemies, old goals, all of that. I've been really thinking lately

what the fuck happened?

Specifically with friends. Im a person that may value friendship much more than the next person. It takes a lot for me to no longer want to fight for you to be in my life. I suppose you shouldn't have to fight for your friends to be your friends but,ya know, shit happens. Things aren't peaches and cream 100% of the time with your true blues. Sometimes things get fuzzy and one of you have to grow up before things get too out of hand. And hopefully the other person gets the fucking hint and get their shit together. 

Unfortunately that doesn't always happen and you end up having to decide how long you want to stand out on that olive branch alone. Or you have to have a pep talk with yourself to figure out at what point did you two outgrow each other. Where was the disconnect? Are you actually the asshole in the situation? I hate that shit. But it's happened. And it seems like the older I get, the more often its come to that.

Im a Capricorn and I think we're fiercely loyal by nature. I am also an introvert, a loner and a person who generally does not enjoy meeting new people. Especially at this point living in NYC working in fashion where the odds of meeting an actual genuine person are against you. That being said, once I find you and figure out that I like being around you, you're mine for life. And even when when you are tap dancing on my last motherfucking nerve or being a complete asshole, I'll still be down for you.

...but only as long as I'm sure you'd do the same for me.

If not, my friend-love immediately turns into resentment and hurt and disgust. Or just pity.

PS.
Elastic Heart was one of my favorite records from 2014. Constantly on repeat for the longest. It actually made me feel feelings- which i don't typically do (jk). There were so many lyrics that hit home and the entire 1000 Forms of Fear album solidified Sia as one of my favorite artist/musicians of the decade.  The video for Elastic Heart was a bit late for me but it was also shockingly on time, at the same damn time. Makes sense to me.

"Man, these kids wear crowns over here"

bust it.

let me just take a moment to give drizzy drake some love. i  heard an old record of his that came out before i left detroit and it  sent me to a warm place (it also sent me into a pre 2013 drake listening session). i may or may not have a drake quote on deck for every emotion, event, instagram caption, tweet, status, blog post ever in life. no one gets me like drake does.

ok, not really, but really. don't judge me.

ah, the trials and tribulations of being a twenty something. a kid in search of self. a person on a pursuit of happiness. and all the superficial and all consuming distractions/setbacks that you meet along the way. 

im closing in on year 27 of my life. 
27 was special. 27 was scary. 27 was everything.

i spent a great deal of this year being an angsty little twat stuck in her second pathetic teenagehood- complaining about first world problems one minute and trying to think of a way to change the society the next. seriously. i also often found myself straddling a thin line between feeling super accomplished and feeling like an utter failure. but ultimately i learned that thats pretty fucking normal for andrita, so yeah. such is life.

i got in my own way a lot this year. put my foot in my mouth a bit this year. i chose to do shit my way (aka the hard way)a lot at 27, too, always finding comfort and refuge in the fact that I'm 'an artist', so its fine.

bullshit.

at 28, i hope to take heed to everything my old heads, mentors, oracles, stars and crystal balls tell me. I'm gonna put my own stank on it, of course, but I WILL OBEY in this next chapter. Doing shit your own way is fun and fulfilling and all that but being a broke ass with no IRA or passport fucking SUCKS. Im abandoning Team Starving Artist.

ha. I'm only half serious about that one. 27 was an unstable mindfuck that required me to call on every life lesson I've ever learned but I honestly had a good time, a great time. And I'm closing out on a good note, optimistic and grateful for what I've experienced and whats in store next.

Death is at the tip of her tongue

I'm in a real Lupe kinda mood these days.

I don't mean to sound like a Debbie Downer, and perhaps this is just some unofficial seasonal depression trying to kick in, but I really feel like the world as we know it is coming to a close.  

With all of the horrible injustices and inhumane things going on around the world in an era where we undoubtedly have the capacity to eliminate them all I find it difficult NOT to think like this.

I passed a homeless couple sitting outside on a bench in the cold today.  I dont know what pissed me off more- the fact that they had found no other solution but to just huddle and freeze, the fact that I had absolutely nothing to give them or the fact that, even if I did have something, I wouldve been afraid to offer it for fear that they'd stab me or something. 

Then, when I got home I tried to finally get a better understanding of, and enroll in, the new healthcare stuff.  I found out that my being a single young non-child bearing mother would cost me about $180 a month for coverage- which I obviously can not afford at this point.  So that means continued knocks on wood, overpriced out-of-pocket fees for doctors visits and jank ass medical attention from the low-cost facilities for my impending sinus infection.  

Simultaneously, I was perusing Craigslist in contemplation of picking up a side gig only to find that employers have lost their absolute motherfucking minds in 2013.  Retail stores were requiring cover letters, bachelors degrees and recent photos of applicants. 

Retail.

Are you fucking kidding me? To fold clothes for minimum wage?

And most of them have the audacity to require open availability/flexibility.  How can you ask someone to be free at your beck and call when your pay rate barely even covers the cost of the transportation to get them to you?

You want me to be a college educated professional to WORK in your store? Lets not even talk about what qualifications I need to SHOP in it...

There are LEVELS to the layers of disrespect that these major companies/corporations are dishing out to the everyday Joe Schmo.

Everything that I see in the world nowadays just makes me want to unplug. Not on some suicidal shit but just, like, fuck off from media of all sorts.  I know Im sounding really angst-y teen-y right now but everything looks like a bowl of bullshit as far as Im concerned.  

Im starting to feel like life in this era is just one big ass hologram. Most of us are constantly chasing these intangible ideas of happiness and freedom in a society whose main goal seems to be to convince you that that doesn't exist.  Or worse, they DO exist, you just have to play by these rules and follow these steps to just get closer to it.

I dont get it.  

And the really shitty part about it is that we have become so numb, complacent, accepting, selfish, lazy, or whatever you want to call it, that theres nothing left of this world but to self destruct and fast.

Hopefully whatever comes after us will retain the technological advances of ours but have the heart of the people before us.

Transitionin' from Standing Out to Fitting In

You know how when you have a low moment in life and all you want to do is dial up your closest people and just...talk?

And no one answers?

Thats the fuckin worst, bruv.

And then there you are, all hypersensitive and shit, left to sort out your latest mid life crisis in absolute solitude.  

Fuckityfuck.

And you know that even if they DID answer the gotdamn phone, there would probably be little to no understanding or solution to whatever latest debacle you're going through today.

You dont care. You just want to be assured that someone is there. Thats it.  Even if they cant do a motherfucking thing, you just want them to hold the phone and listen. Or better yet, at least pretend that you're not a kook and you're complete rightgeous in feeling however it is that you feel or believing whatever it is that you're believing.  

Like when you barely have two nickels to your name but you're working like a MVP. And you know that money is coming- lots of it. You have the invoices to prove it. But until that unbeknownst-to-man day comes, you're living on magic beans. And, truthfully speaking, you almost dont even mind it because you're in love with the overall nature of your life. But no one else gets it. And no one else seems to want to hear that shit. And that shit is usually the straw that breaks the camels back when it comes to your ability to persevere. Fuckin holdin on to the dream gets really real when no one is seeing or believing the shit but your sole unstable ass.

If it weren't for that one time you were prepared to put your very last ten bucks for dinner on the counter and the cashier told you your total was only fifty-nine cent due to some invisible coupons that you didnt even know you earned on that bum ass rewards card on your keychain....

If it weren't for that one time your dont-see-often friend (rather bewitchingly)hit you up for dinner/movie ON THEM when you you thought you were gonna be forced to spend another afternoon at home contemplating getting a job at McDonalds or entering the sex trade....

If it weren't for the fact that doors have consistently and continuously been flying open and ways have been made repeatedly throughout your journey....

you might've given up by now. 

But thank God you know better than that.

Because if you can't handle not having someone to pat you on the back and tell you every things going to be ok then how in the hell are you gonna handle all the proverbial slaps in the face that you will certainly continue to get while trying to carve out a career and life in this city? How will you deal when you show up to a gig and you're the only splash of melanin on the entire set? Or when you're surrounded by people who absolutely refuse to be real and instead propel lifestyles of very real materialistic wealth but faux happiness (or the dyslexic ones who are genuinely happy to boast fake/short term material wealth)? How will you handle the people who are only in your life to keep tabs on you and not actually support a single thing you do? The ones who are only interested in keeping their foot in your neck? 

I'm still only at the beginning of my journey but I can very well see the many pitfalls that stand between me and my dreams and Im just hoping I dont fall into one of them.

Young, Fresh and New

I think we all get a bit uncertain about where we are, what we're doing and where we're going in life from time to time.

That is space I often find myself in and Im praying to the highest that this is something exclusive to my twenties and not a lifelong battle.

BUT

Everysinglefuckingtime I get to that point I usually immediately get a signal from the universe telling me whats up.

I did a gig for a major sneaker brand commercial campaign that I knew would be intense, as those kinds of gigs tend to be, but I didn't know what type of team I'd be spending the few days with- which makes the utmost difference.  

Much to my surprise, one of my favorite young stylists (Marcelo Gaia) was on board for the project and so was one of my favorite cool kids (Joey Labeija). And I was working with two awesome girls (Kira and Christy) on the H/MU team that I just met at a runway show I worked.

Trust, you do not understand how amazing it is to show up for a job that youre not yet sure about to find people that you already know and like in real life are going to be working beside you. You dont know how it feels to show up to a job full of fancy folks as an assistant and hear someone shout your name in excitement (or confused familiarity). Its like an affirmation that you, the technicolor haired black girl from Detroit, do in fact belong right where you are.

And to meet new people(people who are far more advanced in their careers than you/ people who are far more cooler and in demand than you) and they're receptive and warm to you without you doing a motherfucking thing but being your genuine natural born self- is quite amazing as well.

To simply be in the company of a few very talented young professionals who you KNOW are gonna make it to the top and have a mutual admiration/appreciation and belief in one another is all the verification I need to know that, even if I cant yet work out the details, Im certainly moving in the right direction.

Suspended

Don't you just love it when shit makes sense?  Isn't it grand when you're not suspended in a state of confusion? 

Maybe it's just me.  

The more I advance into (and through) my twenties I'm seeing that life is really about experience, reflection and impact.  On most days, those three simple ideas leave me with a case of the crazies wondering whether or not I'm doing it right.

But today is not one of those days.

I'm Baccarat. Or at least I'm as clear as I should be right now. Life has a really interesting way of bringing things to light for us. Folks say you should check yourself if you keep ending up in the same type of situations, and while I believe that to be true in many cases, its bullshit a lot of the time too. You are who you are and where you are for a reason.  Your mortal ass attempts at changing that are counterproductive to your purpose. Don't waste your time.