My chica Tiffany & I went to see Usher URXtour Dec 9, 2014 at
Philips Arena in Atlanta.The show started off a lil slow cause
sadly we weren’t really familiar with the opening artists.Once Usher took the stage he made it very
much worth the wait.2 hours of nonstop
awesomeness!!!He even brought on a lot of
kick ass Atlanta artists like Jermaine Dupri, Ludacris, Lil John, Geezy, T.I. and
some newer acts that I can’t recall their names, but have heard my daughter
listen to them lololol
Wanna hear some insignificant yet slightly awesome
ish???Jermaine Dupri and Ludacris
both reposted the pic below and it totally made my night.Just thought I would share that useless
tidbit of info.
Jermaine Dupri, Usher, lil Jon, & Ludacris
T.I.
Let us take a moment to enjoy the favorite part of the show…
the soft core porn, the no shirt, muscles flexing, sweat dripping, bow chica
wow wow moment.Amen Halleluiah
How many artists can go on a solo tour and pack arenas based
on the strength of ONE album?I have
been a Stevie Wonder fan all my life and never in a million years did I would
get to see him live.The show was
nothing less than amazing. I went out and bought a medium camera about 4 hours
before the event and sadly it did not have enough time to fully charge so my
pix and video were limited.Oh let me
elaborate on medium camera, I have a small action camera, a large DSLR (not
allowed in concerts), and my medium camera died during my trip to Barbados this
summer.I had to record some of the video
on my camera phone, but I feel like I captured enough of the monumental event
to enjoy the Good Vibrations for on and on and on.
Decided to take a quick, very low cost vacay for the
Veterans Day Weekend. The trip was practically free, here is how I did it.I signed up for the Capital One Venture card
which gives you 2 reward points for every $1 you spend.If you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months
they give you40,000 bonus points.Spending $3k in 3 months is easy if you
charge every single thing you can to the card (household utilities, grocery
shopping, vehicle fuel, dining out, boozing, etc.).They key is to only charge what you would
normally spend and pay the card off in full, not acquire debt in the quest to
get bonus points.So that 40,000 plus
the double points on the $3K I spent paid for my flight, car rental and hotel
in Islamorada.
Miami Hotel was paid for using Hilton points.The key to getting free hotel stays is you
gotta stay loyal to one hotel until you acquire enough points, then move over
to another brand if you like (you can also convert air miles to hotel points if necessary).Hilton
give you 10 points for every dollar you spend, but if you sign up for their email
distro list you will often get emails offering your double and triple the
points, that means 30 points for every $1 you spend.That makes getting free nights
easy.
Next is to score a low cost car,because this trip extended into weekdays the
car was higher than my usual weekend rentals.Even using my favorite Avis discount code K817165 (which took $100 off the rental) renting from E-Z was cheaper. 2 things I must note when renting from E-Z: 1) They require a
$200 deposit, but I don’t mind paying that to save some coins . 2) In order to get the
best discount rate from E-Z you must start a reservation and then act like you
are leaving the page right before the reservation is complete.You will then get a popup saying, “HEY WAIT,
here is 10% off if you stay!”BOOM!!!
E-Z Don't Go, pop up box
Excursions for the trip were handled through Groupon.Groupons purchased through American Air Shopping earns you 3 miles for every $$ you spend.So you are saving money by purchasing a
Groupon, you are earning airline miles for purchasing through AA shopping, and
then of course I earned 2 points for every dollar on my Capital One Venture card.Triple Win!!!So I purchased a $20 Snorkeling trip in Key Largo and also an afternoon in The
Florida Everglades for $13.
Ok so let’s take it from the top.Veterans Day (aka no work) was approaching so I decided to
take a quick get away.BRT weekend
happens to be that weekend so that was perfect.The only problem was that a very old friend was getting married on Ft.
Benning , GA Saturday evening.Went to
the wedding, drove home to Atlanta that night, finished packing and was on a
7am flight to Miami Sunday morning.
BEACH ROAD TRIP WEEKEND -simply put, is a large group of people taking a road trip to party on
the beach, night and day, for an entire weekend. The festivities consist of 6
uniquely themed all-inclusive (free drinks & food) parties across a 3-day
span in the beautiful resort town of Islamorada in the upper Florida Keys. You
pay 1 low price and get admission to all 6 parties.
Landed in Miami 9am, hop’d in my rental and drove 1 ½ hours
south to Islamorada in the Florida Keys for the last day of the BRT weekend
festivities.This was a solo trip, but I
knew I would see familiar faces Sunday because Caribbean people can’t resist a good
time.
First flight outta Dodge
First on the agenda was the DAY BREAK BREAKFAST PARTY. Didn’t really have breakfast, but the booze was free flowing. The DJs were cool, then the fan favorite One Drop Sound from Atlanta touched the stage and had us dancing nonstop, even when the rain passed through briefly (did someone say Wet Fete).I wanted to go chillax by the beach after the fete, but exhaustion took over me and I got the nap of my life in.
One Drop Sound
Next up was the evening all white fete DAYDREAMS WHITE SANDS.All though all the BRT fetes were All
Inclusive (meaning free food and drinks), I didn’t get to eat here either, but
I did drink to my heart’s desire.The
time flew by and before I knew it the fete was over.They had an after party, but that really isn’t
even worth discussing. The 3 day
weekend pass for BRT was $200. I paid $75 for the Sunday pass.I don’t know if I would enjoy an entire
weekend of BRT, but it was an entertaining Sunday.
DAYDREAMS WHITE SANDS
Monday morning I woke up bright an early and hit up Burger King for some gourmet breakfast, then went to sit by the water at my hotel with my road dawg Lil Yellow Mustang.
Lil Yellow Mustang drove to Islamorada
Early afternoon I headed north to Key Largo to
cash in my Groupon for 4 hours of snorkeling.I’m not going to lie to you, this was my first time snorkeling and I didn’t
really enjoy it.That’s not to say I
will never try it again.Now I gotta say
something about Pale People. I love Jagermeister, goldschlager, fireball
whiskey drinking;gung ho, grab the bull
by the horns, cowabunga dude Pale People.The Catamaran skipper told us that its Jelly Fish season, but to not
panic and just swim away from any we encounter.I get in the water and see 1 too many jelly fish and am like, “F*ck this
sh*t, Im going to drink some beer on the catamaran."The Pale People on the other hand are cool
with occasionally being stunk and swimming with the jelly fish.As we moved to our 2nd snorkeling location
one of the Pale People told me to just gently push the jelly fish on their soft
side.UM NO!!!!I got back in the water and after passing my
3rd jelly fish I got my ass back on the catamaran.I will definitely try snorkeling again,
preferably in the Caribbean where the water is clearer and hopefully not during
jelly fish season.
After snorkeling it was time for some grub, so I pull up American Air Dining to see where I could eat and earn some Airline miles at the same
dayymtime. 5 air miles for every $$ spent at the restaurants on their list. Not sure why I feel the need to say this, but
for the record I do not eat sushi.I had
a Ginger salad and Beef fried rice.
Ended Monday evening in Miami. I thought about hitting the
town, but ended up partyn in my room with a juicy bottle of rum, some
plantain chips and Mr. Bose.Not gonna
lie, it was a marvelous evening of some much needed Chill Time.If you recall I really like The Grand by Hilton Doubletree, but I was cashing in Hilton Points and The Hilton Miami Downtown was
10,000 points less a night. I could however admire The Grand from my
window.
Started Tuesday with another gourmet breakfast from Burger King and
then went to the Miami Beach Botanical Garden. I really wanted to visit the Vizcaya
Museum and Gardens, but it is closed on Tuesdays. Vizcaya looks like some
top notch sh*t, hope to get to visit one day. The Botanical Garden wasn’t
that impressive, but atleast it was free. A quiet place to enjoy a
morning beverage of a Jamaica Me Crazy wine cooler and rum.
Miami Botanical Garden
After
I ran outta morning beverages, I relocated to South Beach with my traveling
mimosa kit and Mr. Bose.Nothing better
than chillaxing on the beach with some chunes and booze free flowing!!!I set up shop at the southernmost point of
South Beach, twas quiet and peaceful.I didn’t want to leave, but an afternoon in
the Florida Everglades awaited
Drove about an hour to cash in my Groupon for a tour of the
Everglades.Somehow visiting the
Everglades ended up on my bucket list.I
fly in/out/through Miami often and always glaze out the window at the Everglades
and wonder what It’s like down there.It
was an amazing afternoon, the landscape and wildlife was breathtaking.I definitely need to go back and spend more
time there so I can venture further.
Tuesday evening was spent chillaxin back in Miami, downing
my favoritest drink in lifeAmaretto
Pineapple from Fat Tuesday.I slept like
a mother beep’n champ Tuesday night cause as you saw I had a jam packed
day.And that folks was my version of a
chillaxing solo getaway.
PS: I've acquired a new point based credit card so I can start planning my next free get away. Yeah that will drop my credit score a tad bit, but I don't plan on financing a car or house anytime soon.
So honored to be asked by the Carnival Doctor – Rhadi Bullard Ferguson Phd
to give a quick interview about my carnival lifestyle for Trini Jungle
Juice.Rhadi is such a great guy, so
easy to talk to.I was just speaking
extra freely that afterwards I worried that I came off as an arrogant mad
oooman.
Rhadi asked if there was ever a time that I missed a
carnival that I was supposed to attend and my answer was flat out NO!Now there are circumstances that should have
had me missing carnival, but I wasn’t going to let that happen, carnival is my
life.
1)I am in school at Georgia State University and
have been forever,I have had to drop
out because there were tests that conflicted with carnival and missing the
tests would have caused me to fail the class.Yes DROPPED school vs. skipping carnival.
2)When trying to decide on a wedding date my best
friend picked the weekend of Miami carnival.Her wedding was in Jamaica, I told her I would fly in wedding morning
and fly out that very same night.I wouldn’t
dare ask her to change her wedding date, but 1 day away from carnival is all I
can give her. She ended up picking another date.
3)My brother Paco said if his job ever told him
that he couldn’t take leave for carnival he would quit his job.His resume is a lot more impressive than mine
so I don’t know if I could go as far as to immediately quit.But I surely would start looking for a new
job in hopes that I found something that would allow me to still attend
carnival.
I want to introduce you to a very extraordinary
young man, Myles Kingston Sadler aka lil Bob Marley.
Myles Kingston Sadler (born 19 December
2012 in Atlanta, GA) was born to a Haitian & Cuban mother and a
Jamaican & American father.His
parents have a deep love of Caribbean music and Myles has been listening to Bob
Marley since he was in the womb.His hobbies
include watching Barney, eating saltine crackers, touching things he is not
supposed to touch, playing peak a boo with his little brother, and reenacting
Bob Marley performances (as seen below).
Myles Kingston Sadler = Rudeboi from birth
Myles attended his first Marley concert before he was even born and he even got to meet Stephen Marley after the show (kinda sorta). Can you spot Myles under his momma's pink shirt???
Since taking his love of Bob Marley online, Myles has made lots of new friends that love
Bob Marley as much as he does.I invite
you to follow the chronicles of Myles Kingston Sadler on Instagram at:
