So like most ol’ people, I fell asleep wayyy ‘fo the ball dropped in Times Square…which is even sadder when you realize I live in Texas.  I just can’t seem to stay up til midnight now that I have hit my 40s.  I even made myself get up and go to a neighborhood restaurant for a drink with the hubby.  I had a Mexican Sparkler which is a fun-sized bottle of champagne served upside down in a margarita.  Yeah, that only made me sleepier.  We live 5 minutes from the restaurant, and I started yawnin’ when the hubby started the car.  All this is even sadder when y’all realize that my kid (who’s 5) went to a New Year’s Eve Party at the after-hours childcare place.  I told her when she got dropped off that I would see her next year (she ain’t get the joke – kids *side eye*).  Little did I know, no truer words had ever been spoken.

I must admit…I was sorta glad to put 2014 behind me.  It was a rough year.  Even though I finished chemotherapy for breast cancer in 2013 (December 26th to be exact – oncologists can be so cruel!), I suffered with side effects for another six months.  I also got expanders put in during my double mastectomy (expanders are temporary breasts that the plastic surgeon fills each visit to expand your chest and ready it for the permanent breast implants) and one started to fail during chemo.  Well it burst last year (May).  I woke up to a bloody chest.  Gives a whole new meaning to “I woke up like this..”  So I had emergency surgery for that and didn’t have enough skin left to close the wound so I had to wear a wound vac.  Which meant I also had to have a home health care nurse come every couple of days to change the dressing and repack the wound.  I wouldn’t wish that sheeit on my worse enemy!  Painful.  And open wounds smell bad no matter how much they wash it out.  And it was sore.  For a long time.  31 days I wore that wound vac.  Don’t even make me relive the home health care nurse-scapade.  Whew chile – that first one needed her license revoked!  And then it took til about September for the wound to close all the way, and it still looks gross to me.  A month later, the other expander failed and I became flatchested.

Let me just say this – boobs make your clothes fit so much better.  I can’t wear strapless.  I look like a little boy in  wifebeaters.  Shirts look crazy.  Dresses look crazy.  I got a big arse and no boobs.  Just skin stretched over some bones.  I’m sorry – scarred up skin.  I do have some inserts but they just make me miss having boobs so much more.  I’m gon’ get me some boobs in 2015.  Some big ol’ nasty boobs.  I might even go topless for bout 3 months.  Sheeit..y’all ain’t gon’ be able to talk to me.  I’m gon’ topple over into erry happy hour and party.  But I digress.

2014 wasn’t all bad though.  I got to travel again – headed to Nawlins with the fam for my first trip since June 2013.  McK had beignets for the first time and even though I was in a lot of pain, I tried to make the best of it for my little girl.  Then, we were off on the retreat for cancer survivors and their families (Little Pink Houses of Hope) in NC Beach for a week.  We loved it and met some great families.  We all had breast cancer in common, but drew strength from each other for that week and built lasting relationships.  Then I headed to DC for the NABA Convention where I was honored with the National Community Service Award.  I wore a strapless.  With one boob and the other one made of socks.  LOL!  Hey, I looked cute.  (I think).  But I was worried that I would trip on the front of my dress walking up on that stage and that the gig was gon’ be up.  Thank GOD favor ain’t fair!  I made it and only Dana and Kathy were the wiser.

I went to Kansas City for the first time on a girls trip with one of my sisters and her aunts and cousins.  That was such a fun trip that I almost didn’t take because I needed to have surgery to remove that other expander.  Also, that open wound was still giving me problems.  I went anyway and so glad I did.  Had the best time!  Danny’s Big Easy was really fun – ceptin’ for the old man who was sangin’ and lickin’ his damn guitar.  He wanted to see each one of us nekkid on check day!  The fam took a trip to Memphis/Tunica and I got to see all my old classmates since I had missed them in 2013 (my 25th reunion) and I had great time with the BFF and enjoyed some good eatin’.  I had to get on FB and beg for a hook-up to make some of it happen, but hey, ye have not..cuz ye ask not, right?  LOL.

Then it was off to Florida to see my in-laws and my boys…that was a really fun trip and I had a good time with family.  And then, I headed to the Cayman Islands with 10 of my girlfriends.  Loved soaking up the beach, drankin’ good dranks and making fun memories.  But that trip left me broke for bout fo’ (holdin’ up five fangers) weeks.  I’m excited for the trips in 2015.

2014 brought us THOTs (I wonder who came up with that anyway); Daddy and Mama Pope; How To Get Away With Murder (in case you were planning something); low gas prices ($5 is gas money again!); election disappointments (some foke are just now findin’ out Texas new governor is in a wheelchair); Nikki Minaj; more Beyonce and all them 50-11 videos she made along with a concert with her man; Top Five (mine is Biggie, Pac, Jay-Z, MC Lyte, Big Daddy Kane); the Porscha/Kenya ‘snatchdown’; Apollo Nida’s second prison term; Barack Obama still emailin’ foke and beggin’ for money; epic HBCU homecomings (go JSU – thee I love); Frozen with Elsa and Anna and the song “Let It Go”; motherhood for Lil Kim and Kim K; a second marriage for Kim K; Ray Rice and Solange up in them people’s elevator; and even bigger booties.

I can only hope that 2015 will be just as uh..er…colorful.  Happy New Year Everyone!  I spent mine relaxing, sippin’ Mommy Juice and watching Lifetime while enjoying time with the family.  Oh, I also got in some shopping. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.  Love y’all!