10 Things That Made Best Man Holiday The Worst

**Warning: This piece contains spoilers, but no worries.  If you intend on seeing the movie you’ll completely figure out the whole plot within the first 20 minutes.

“Times change.  Friendship doesn’t,” reads the tag line for the highly-anticipated Best Man Holiday…but apparently neither does the plot.   Don’t get me wrong, Best Man Holiday is a good film, but it falls into the trap that many horror sequels do: Besides the huge shocker it highly depends on to keep your interest, it’s basically the same movie as the first.

Admittedly, I’m biased when it comes to black film.  As proud as I am to see our brothers and sisters on the big screen in roles that don’t include cross-dressing, gang banging and stripper poles, it does bother me that we’ve been seeing the same 6 -10 black performers in big-screen dramas for the past 20 years.  I mean, Morris Chestnut and Nia Long have got to be sick of sharing the same set since 1991.

Best Man Holiday hit theaters this past weekend and every ratchet across the country who wanted to commemorate cuffing season begged and pleaded her man to take her for date night.  The movies are expensive and sitting to watch a drama with an audience of other emotional folk for $10.00 a ticket isn’t my idea of a good time.  In fact, if something isn’t getting blown up or there’s no creepy kid walking on all fours on the ceiling, I pretty much don’t even entertain date night at the cinema.  That’s just not my thing.  But alas I was dragged to see Best Man Holiday by my best friend.  Since I predicted the whole movie within the first 20 minutes, it left me plenty of time to write about 10 things that Best Man Holiday could’ve done better:

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6 Ways Women Try to Keep Men From Cheating That Don’t Work

There’s a big difference between an insecure woman and a woman with insecurities. We all have our days when we question our flaws and mourn our mistakes, but if you feel you have to pull a Warren G. and regulate your man’s behavior to keep him from cheating, you need to check your trust issues and not his ability to be faithful.  What many women fail to realize is that before you start working overtime to catch and keep a man, you have to make sure you’ve made sufficient progress on yourself.  It’s cliché but it’s still around because it’s true: You can’t expect anyone else to love you, if you don’t love yourself.  Loving yourself doesn’t mean you make sure you hair and nails stay done and you like what you see in the mirror, it’s truly knowing your worth and what you deserve from life and love.

I hate to see a woman work harder trying to keep a man from cheating than they do on their 9-5 grind.  A relationship will turn an insecure woman in a computer hacker, a private eye and a district attorney.  Women will install hidden GPS on their man’s phone, take the day off to follow him while he runs errands, and look for stray hairs under his floor mats all to build up a case about what they usually already know. I’ve seen it from all sides. I’ve been in relationships where I suspected my man was cheating, I’ve cheated and I’ve been the girl that men wanted to cheat with and in every situation I’ve learned there’s only one way a woman can keep a man from cheating:  Find a man who wants to be faithful to you. Cheating is a sign that something’s gone off track in your relationship or that someone isn’t ready for a monogamous relationship in the first place.  Save yourself the frustration of convincing your eyes of what your heart already knows.  Here are six ways women try to keep a man from cheating that never work:

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Single Black Female Addicted to Retail: 10 Reasons Why We Stay Broke

Kanye called it: I got a problem with spending before I get it.  In fact this morning I once again found myself doing some creative math hoping that if I added up the bills in a different order somehow there would be some money left over for me to play, or who knows, maybe even save for a rainy day. Of course the only thing I discovered that needed to be checked was my unnecessary spending and not my math.

I work 40 hours a week.  I volunteer.  I give back.  I’m a good person.  I pay my bills and taxes and I don’t try to scam the government because my ass knows better.  Uncle Sam will catch me claiming somebody’s kid and shut all my shit down, meanwhile Tanisha around the corner can claim her and her hairdresser’s kids and the government will be like, “Can we give you any more tax breaks this year, ma’am?  You still have those Pitbulls in the yard that can get you another $1300 on your refund.”

The point is, I deserve nice things. But sometimes I lose my damn mind.  Well more like every 2 weeks I lose my damn mind and buy another pair of jeans I don’t need or some bundles of Freetress Beach Curl  weave because it’s pretty and I’ll use it…one day. I’m seriously trying to escape this mindset that every paycheck requires me to be ridiculously self-indulgent and spend some more time being thankful that I can pay my bills, watch some satellite TV and have a little left over.

For a while I got really good at budgeting and saving, but then some bad habits crept back in where I found myself borrowing from my savings, taking full advantage of grace periods and developing another addiction: caffeine.  But like most things in life, being fiscally responsible is all about balance.  It’s about finding the gray area between relegating yourself to water and peanut butter sandwiches to save money, but also not filling your closet with Michael Kors and then looking crazy when your student loan payment is due.  I’m definitely not as disciplined as I could be but here are a few habits that am I kept myself from digging the debt hole even deeper and prioritizing my paycheck:

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5 Life Lessons for Twentysomethings from Lorde’s Royals

Just heard this song the other night and finally understand why everyone is digging it. Besides the catchy beat, it’s the “Everyday Struggle” anthem for today’s twenty-somethings. I know I can relate to living off Chef Boyardee for lunch for months just to see J. Cole in concert, patching part-time jobs together since companies avoid providing health insurance like the plague, saying “Retirement huh?” because I barely make enough money to live now to think about saving for golden years and spending all day on the computer between my day job and blogging hoping I can make a name for myself so one day I can snag an enlightening yet terrifying interview with Kanye West.

Gen Y Girl breaks down why we all can relate to Lorde’s “Royals”.

Gen Y Girl

Today I’m thrilled to publish the following guest post written by Lisa Crocco. I’m a huge fan of Lorde, and I love how her music is something that we can all relate to. Have a great week everyone! Hope you like!

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If you haven’t heard the song “Royals” from Lorde (Ella Yelich-O’Connor)- the talented, sixteen year old from New Zealand, then you must not have turned on your radio for weeks. This catchy song has been sung, hummed, covered, and jammed to on repeat enough to hit the top of Billboard Hot 100 chart. Not only is the song super catchy, but its message is also powerful.

When we break down some of the lyrics we can see how Lorde wrote a song that is actually relevant to the majority of our lives.

‘I’m not proud of my address’

Unless your postal code is 90210 chances are at one…

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The Talking Shit Commandments

Source: SheKnows.com

Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.” I don’t know if any accurate studies have been done but I’m willing to bet that on average all of us get a bit small-minded several times a day.  Whether you’re talking about Kanye’s recent rant or exactly how the girl in accounting got the big promotion, you’re guilty of gossip…we all are. Bloggers, journalists and reality TV have built a whole industry around it. Much of our entertainment is filled with analyzing and commenting on the lifestyles of others.

Talking shit isn’t right but there’s a right way to do it.  There’s levels to this shit.  If you’re going to gossip, do so responsibly and abide by the following Talking Shit Commandments:

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Cruise Control: 10 Things I Just Learned About Cruise Vacations

In the continued effort to fulfill the goals pictured on my 2013 vision board, last week I went on my first official cruise.  With my fiancé and his family I toured parts of the Caribbean touching down at destinations including St. Lucia, St. Kitts, St. Marteen and Barbados.

I was reaffirmed of the lesson I learn no matter what vacation I take, big or small: It really is about who you travel with.  That goes for the people you’re with as well as those that you’ll meet.  Bad company is almost a sure fire way to ensure you won’t enjoy your trip.  By bad company, I mean folks that don’t know vacation means to relax, not to micro-manage, control or complain.  Bad company can have your ready to haul ass from the most beautiful places on earth.

Before you continue, I warn you I may be somewhat biased.  When it comes to vacation I’m just not a beach-blanket-bingo kind of girl.  If you’ve noticed some of the most epic experiences of my life have taken place in big cities.  I like hustle and bustle, fancy restaurants, shopping malls, and trendy clubs.  Relaxing on the sands of a Barbados beach with a rum punch was beautiful for about fifteen minutes and then I found myself wondering, “What’s next?”  I make no apologies:  I am typical North-Philly born and raised rose from concrete.  I don’t snorkel.  I don’t jet-ski.  I feel like if we were meant to swim we’d have been born with gills.  But the great thing about a cruise is that there’s more than enough to do, if you have a little bit of common sense and know where to find the fun:

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