Soul Dose

When I started this website I never thought it will help free me so much, I never thought I'd meet such incredible people and I never ever thought someone would give me an award, no not me... So when I received the first I was shocked and very happy but still shocked, and I keep receiving them the level of happiness keeps going up. Receiving an award is so humbling, I feel connected to the people who read my blog and it's time I'm honored to get an award, it's a huge honor and I'm so grateful to everyone who care enough to pop into Soul Dose and read what silly me has written, it makes me so much stronger to know that someone out there took the time to find out what's in my heart.

Thanks to the people who gave me the award I'm talking about today and thanks to everyone who spare a few minutes to visit my site.

First let me honor the first award I received - The Best Blog Award, I got it from my blogging friends:

- Doraz who has a fantastic and hilarious blog titles Believe In Yourself,this woman has the kindest heart and is so caring and loving. She makes each person on earth feel special and always finds a way to make people laugh.

- Alina whose blog is filled with eye popping pictures over at World Is In My Eyes,Yesterday I even asked her whee does she find this art because it takes my breath away, yeah sometimes it's creepy but usually it's gorgeous.

- Tasneem who wants the world to laugh at her blog Laugh Hard . Another woman who has jokes that make me laugh till my stomach hurts

- Blissbait, is a painter extraordinaire and a haiku pro with a blog called Bliss Bait. She has a fun relaxed places filled with beauty she creates and her spirit is beautiful.

- Jaymie a poet who writes poems that grab you and make you think over at Jaymie Thorne's Personal Musings,she is a poet I'm honored to call my blogging friend, a pro at what she does and she's also a kindhearted woman who loves people and life.

This is the award I'm talking about

The Thing is it came with a simple instruction, whoever got it had to pass it on to 15 bloggers and simple as it sounds it ain't............ The 5 people who gave me this award are more than deserving of getting it back but I feel like new people should get it, it's an award to be shared far and wide.

So here are my 15 recipients in no particular order:

1. The Soaring Implse

2. Scented Pixels

3. To The Max

4. Baglett

5. melsdream

6. Wherever He Leads We'll Follow

7. Shiteki Na Usagi

8. life with a severely disabled child

9. Adventures Of Home Schooling Noah

10. My Life with Gabriel

11. KNOW YOUR "IT'S"

12. Into The Quiet

13. Ramblings of a Skinny Little Sister

14. Love Being A Chihuahua

15. Trippin' With Rip!

 The official rules are you have to pass it on to 15 people but here at Soul Dose you can do anything you want with it but please come claim it and copy it if you've never received it before, passing it on is all up to you.

I'll pass the next award next week, starting tomorrow I'll be talking about my illness, the illness that won't quit. It keeps piling up and coming with new surprises and not good surprises... So from tomorrow it's doom and gloom, ha ha ha.

                                       Cheers And Stay Beautiful

I'd like to say thank you to my blogging friends who have been super kind to me. They've welcomed me into their lives and made me feel so blessed, they make it easy for me to open up and talk about things I wouldn't normally talk about and my messed up life isn't messed up to them, it's just a life.

I received awards this past few weeks, the first awards I ever received in my whole life(I blame my French teacher for cheating me out of my Matric French Award)

My memory is terrible but I'll try to remember and write everyone's name,and I also have to pass on the awards and I will.....If I forgot to thank anybody please please please don't be offended, leave a reminder and I will thank you.

Thia award was presented to me by some great great people who have changed my life for the better and made it a lot of fun.

• Doraz - One of my fellow blogging friends Doraz  honored me with this award on the 24th, Her continued support and kind words are enough to turn a bad day into a fun one. Do visit Doraz and add her to your list, Doraz is someone you wanna have as a friend trust me. She's loving, honest and so much fun. I'm so taken by this blog I visit it a number of times per day.
  

• Tasneem - The next day my very nice friend Tasneem bestowed the honor upon me once again and it humbled me. Tasneem is so full of cheer and a visit from her is always highly appreciated. Tasneem has a fantastic blog where she just wants us o laugh and feel good.

• Alina - The Romanian beauty awarded me with it again on the 26th, that day Alina put a smile on my dile when my day was really not on my side. Her support and kindness make me heart melt all the time and I'm thankful Alina is one of my blogging friends. Alina's blog is one of those places you find all things fun, do prove for yourself.
  

• Bliss Bait - then yesterday I got another unexpected honor from my friend Bliss Bait, a woman who is so loving and so unique and our Bliss Bait is the definition of "A bucket full of life and spilling over with love. Bliss Bait cheers me up and being awarded by her is a great honor. Do pop into Bliss Bait's blog and fall in love with her art.

         Thank you very much to all for such an honor.

This award was presented by another great blogging friend and I'm truly thankful for it.

• Coco - The cutest Coco woofed this award my way, it is a huge honor and a humbling on at that. Receiving this award brought a joyful tear to my eye dear Coco, thank you very much and I enjoy your blog so much. You're the cutest and loving Chi and whenever I enter your place I know I'll enjoy it. Coco's blog offers something refreshing a unique, do check out Coco if you haven't already.

                            Thanks a million Coco for this honor.

   (That's me on 05 February 2005)

One black South African tradition is called "Umhlonyana/Umemulo", that is they make a ceremony for a girl saying you're a woman now, you're free to get knocked up... I'm joking about the knocked up part, just trying to lighten the mood after my boring post yesterday.

During the ceremony, the young woman is showered with gifts in the form of money notes, which are attached with safety pins to something she wears on her head called "inkehli", it's  hat of some sort with decorations and I don't know the English word for it... The whole thing is really nice and to prepare for the the local girls together with the girl in question sing and go around the neighborhood dancing for neighbors and asking for coins in return, it's all part of the fun and of tradition. If they come knocking on your door you go out and watch them Zulu Dance for you, then you contribute and the sing as they walk to the next house. They do this every evening for the whole week till the ceremony day.

Mine was a lot different though, I was getting worse and was about to turn 21 years old, my family wanted to do it for me because it was time but also because they wanted to make me feel alive and part of something outside my bedroom. I was hesitant because I knew a lot of local people were gonna come and a lot of other people, I hadn't been seen by lots and I was too self conscious. But they convinced me and well who can say no to a party.

So we spent Friday night at my grandmother's house (my dad's mother) and went back to my other grandmother's house for the party, the one I live with. We got there very early in the morning on Saturday the 5th February 2005 and as tradition I had to go bath in  the river with the other girls that were gonna be Zulu Dancing with me......... I couldn't do this but my family thought it was important and decided to drive me and dip me, leaving the other girls behind (I hated this part of the ceremony but I was about to have my memulo and that was too nice because I had written it out of the things I was gonna have, along with children, marriage, degree, job, you know the usual, ha ha ha.

We went back home and I got dressed in my slight traditional wear and that's my grandmother getting me ready to go to the yard where the dancing and celebrations were to happen. The man next to me is my grandfather's brother and my favorite guy. He sadly passed away in 2006 and I'm still not over it because I only heard it fresh in April and he was very special to me and apparently we got even closer after I got sick.

Then I went out to start the celebrations..........................

And another one......................................

They put money on my head (my favorite part)

I did have some unpleasant fainting moments and couldn't keep my head steady after wards, like above.

When the dance ended I changed and wore my party clothes, we went into the tent and  I had all my friends with me, take a look.

I'm the one in the light blue top and the one holding me on my right is one of my oldest friends, the one holding the left we were during our last year of high school.

After that we went to my bedroom because I was tired and laughed for hours, some spent the night and others left very late..... Judging from the pictures it was a great day and I thank everyone who made it possible, God bless you all.

It has taken me over a day to try and come upp with a name for my warrior but I keep pulling up something lame, something weak, something horrible and the worst, something too cute. So I''ve decided to ask you guys to help me name this  amazing fella........... The Price: Thhe gratitude of a girl with a nameless warrior on her hands.

Alright here are a few things you might wanna know before you help me here.

• He's been living here at Soul Dose for a day
• He hails from the colourful world of Doraz (Go  ahead, click on her name)
• He has demonstrated strength like superman's
• He gives great hugs and tell the best jokes
• He can play cute better than Puss In Boots
• He fears nothing, but respects everything.
• He keeps me company
• He enjoys being hugged every now and then
• He's my warrior and keeps away bad spirits
• He loves jumping around the room on one leg (I'll  ask Doraz about that)

But The Biggest Thing Here Is...............................................

• He's nameless and needs your help, any suggestions???
  

Doraz from Believe In Yourself gave me this beautiful gift from the kindness of her heart, it was the nicest thing to see after a long stressful day and I can honestly say she lifted my spirit and made my day. It was unexpected and came at a time when I needed a pick me up, thank you.

Her blog is one of those I find irresistible, it is a place where you go and come out with a great mood no matter how crappy it was before you entered. It is funny and it really  feels like you're in someones home. I'm privileged to knock on her door everyday because she opens with a smile and welcomes everyone... She also has these posts where she put a picture and then a question, it's my favorite part.

Take time to visit her blog and I promise you'll be hooked.

Thank you Doraz.

I'd like to tell you about my friends who are simply the best.

OK I should repeat that my friends are the best, they've been in this from day one, they visit me and we laugh like there's no tomorrow. They never changed, they never made assumptions, they never judged, when my illness started they didn't treat me differently, they treated me as the old SK they've always known.

• SK is a nickname this guy friend of mine gave me, it means Street Kid and I got it during my wild days but this post isn't about that, we'll talk about it another time, or not we'll see.

I was talking to another friend of mine the other day and she was telling me of their reactions when they first heard I was ill... As an extremely energetic and hyper person they all first thought my illness news weren't true, then they started thinking it was a passing thing but one of them decided to come see me. When she saw me she was shocked and reduced to tears, what was even harder was watching me shake and vomit every 5 minutes, at first she feared I wasn't gonna wake up, then she started seeing just how serious things were.

A few days later she gathered about 15 of my friends and told them to come see me before I died, like everyone including myself at the time she also believed the only place it was going was 6 feet under...  Yes I was a popular girl with lots of genuine friends......................................... My friends came two days later and I was wheeled to the living room, the minute I saw them I smiled and cried at the same time, it was hard not to because those clowns were already crying so I decided to join the fun, ha ha ha.

We sat and talked, well they talked while I signed and wrote what was really important on  my phone.. And then they gave me the fruits and juice they had brought for me, I didn't wanna disappoint them and I took a sip.

The usual happened, I threw up and had a huge fit attack, it lasted for about 10 minutes and my mouth was foaming by the time I stopped breathing and fainted.

By then the living room was empty, all my friends had ran out, some were hiding behind the house crying, others were in the veranda, others were behind the tree (each one of them is a bigger sissy then the last but I love them). I woke up after a few minutes but had difficulty breathing, seeing how freaked they were made me pretend like I was OK and  after some convincing they came back into the house.

They spent a few hours updating me on the latest developments in their lives and the day was great, being with my friends made me feel normal and I invited them to my 21st birthday party.

The 21st was gonna be divided into two, I was gonna have the traditional celebration which is a Zulu "Coming Of Age" celebration, then we were gonna have the decorations and cake celebration, pity I wasn't gonna actively participate in any part. The Zulu part requires a lot of Zulu dancing and the other part is all about eating and dancing to loud music and drinking and all that, I couldn't do any of that but still I was looking forward to it.

To conclude I'm gonna say I have lots of friends but about 7 best friends, these girls are my insides, they mean so much to me and I love them to bits...... They've made life easier and tolerable, they give me strength and make me feel normal, they're my touchstones and blessings from God.