Because I said so

Barack Obama, the junior United States Senator from Illinois, announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States in Springfield, Illinois, on February 10, 2007. On June 3, 2008, Sen. Barack Obama became the first black candidate to claim a major party’s presidential nomination in U.S. history. That same week, a male friend of mine got into it with a white boy who called him "the n word", then my girlfriend told me that her guy has a cast on his arm because he broke his wrist on a white boy's face because he called him "the n word." What in "the h word" is going on? I mean have people really lost their minds? Obama's victory must have gotten a few people riled up and now Black men are under siege and I have a feeling things will only get worse from here. With every good thing there comes two bad things and as happy as I am for Obama's presidential nomination, I fear for his safety and the safety of people that look like him because ...

I ♥ my new hair. So I did it, I got a bun today! Yay me, I think it's a decent start but it's not that great so when I am more comfortable with it I can rock it a lot better but here is a dark picture of a side view. And its all mine... well except for the stuffing to make the bun of course but big ups to my hair for growing back. I ♥ Tylenol Cool tablets, especially this week because work has been very hectic and my temples have been POUNDING and I have been taking deep breaths and long eye rolls. Try Tylenol Cool tablets when you get a chance, they have a sweet taste and it leaves a cool trail as it goes down your throat. I ♥ Apple iChat. With my boyfriend being in Chicago and me not, I get to see his beautiful face and his stylish apparel on my computer screen, that is whenever his lazy butt feels like sitting in his computer room and talking to me. I definitely recommend it for long distance relationships that is if you are fortunate to have Macs like us, lol. Lastly I ♥ th...

Excuse my improper english but Kids is bad! I recently saw footage of a school brawl between a 10th grader and her 52 year old substitute teacher on the last day of school. The Police report says that the teacher started the altercation by kicking the student but the student had been pushing the teachers buttons all day by cursing her out and saying she would snatch off her wig. So the teacher took her own wig off and when the bell rang for dismissal, they began to fight. Of course all the other students immediately pull of their cell phone and began to tape the nonsense but many are laughing. Mind you that all of these students are bad because they are in some sort of detention class. But anyway, folks are getting on this teacher saying she was wrong but a teenager is grown these days so man to man the teacher should stand not adult to child... the student is bigger than the teacher anyway. I have had my run ins with teachers and I admit, my smart mouth got me into a lot of trouble bu...

After an elongated weekend with my boyfriend, family and girlfriends who I have grown to miss, I have came to the conclusion that there will soon be a time where my girls will no longer be my girls. I mean everyone knows the "boys come and go but girlfriends are forever" saying but the saying that trumps that one is "you are the company you keep."  I love my girls, don't get me wrong but when we all met in high school, we were one in the same. But now, eight years later, I am one of three actually doing something with their life, one of two to move out of Chicago and the only one to graduate college. It seems like the more we age, the more change.  Without saying their names, which I rarely refer to anymore anyway, I would like to introduce you to them: the youngest is "the beauty" for she is the cutest little thing, next is the darker of us all, "the booty" because even if you think she's cute, the first thing you see is her butt so her ...

I have this friend who broke his neck to get an expensive tickets to attend the Kanye West "Glow in the Dark" Concert last weekend. And as a result of such a wonderful concert, I rode four and a half hours with him only to get a scene by scene play list, a guest list of other entertainers who performed, a monologue of the two white boys sitting next to him and multiple references to this little book that Kanye wrote.  So if you are not getting my drift, the man is obsessed with Kanye! I mean he said he was a huge fan before but now he is his biggest fan and nothing else can grace his brain now that he has witnessed the best performance "in the world."  But even beyond my eye rolling and constant temptation to jump out the window I began to appreciate what my friend was saying about Kanye and as I was instructed to read the little book written by Kanye, I began to appreciate music and life as Kanye sees it and it is honestly a beautiful thing.  To be that in love wit...

Yesterday's words are a thing of the past. Kids today make up their own sayings or put a spin on old terminology to make it custom to today's scheme of things. What was "fresh" is now "raw."  Instead of saying "that's dope" we say "that's what's up." "Crack Heads" are now "Cluckers." And what was "played out" to them is "definitely not whats up" to us. So why is there one word that sticks around? One word that no matter what the circumstances, mean the same negative thing? When will we stop trying to turn something so bad into something good? When will we pay attention in history class to when people who don't look like us call us something that we now call ourselves? When will yesterday's word finally be old news and instead of calling me something that Nas thinks is so smart to throw around, you will call me something that kings call their wives or what the Gods called their wo...

How is your happiness defined? Happiness to me is seeing my baby brother with his nappy head and buck teeth, hearing his outrageous chuckle and his elongated stories about the bad little baybay kids at his school. Happiness to me is a peaceful day without arguing with my ex boyfriend about things that are now beyond my control... things that I would rather not be wasting my precious breath on. Happiness to me is making hard earned money and saving it in order have enough to move out of this state that holds me back from growing... Well how have I been able to maintain my happiness if none of these things have been happening? Simply on the basis that things could be so much worse than they are now! If you are having a bad day, week, month. Take a minute to think about just how worse things could be. What if you one of those people who are having a bad year? Lets be grateful people, because one man's trash is truly another man's treasure. So how is your happiness defined?

I imagine my future, as a grand one. One with no snot nose kids or ruthless neighbors. When I see myself, I am prancing down the street in a business skirt and some BAD pumps. And when I say BAD I mean BAD meaning good not BAD meaning bad. Sometimes I am on a cell phone and other times I am crossing the street and all I can see is a side profile of my black rimmed glasses and my hair in a bun. I envision being in a busy city, work related to journalism and pay being similar to now... livable . I never see rich and famous but definitely radiant and fabulous. I see me then, very similar to the way I see me now, except I am much more confident and humorously inches taller. (I gasp as I realize this) I am my mother! In my dreams I am my mother, a beautiful light skinned, (even though I am more on the caramel side) working women with long legs and a look of determination. Funny how I used to hate her, and now I wanna be her. This could've been a belated mother's day attribute but m...

Last week a fellow journalist died in a car accident. A lot of people at my job knew him as a kid from SIUC who died in that terrible accident the other day but I actually knew that kid, Ryan Rendleman. I went to school with him, I worked with him at the school newspaper and most times I talked about him on the phone with my girlfriend because that Rendleman was truly a trip.  His passing made me realize how quickly our lives can be taken away from us and how I really haven't done much to contribute to society, or to my obituary if I were to die today.  When I hear about someone my age or younger being pregnant, getting married or doing something that I would consider a grown up act, I gawk at how advanced they are, in a negative way, when I should really be getting just like them because life is so short!  I am in my early 20's, just graduated from college, have never lived out of Illinois, have never smoked, don't have any tattoos, interesting piercings or children.  This...

I need to get my power back. The lack of power that had me creeping out of the dorms, walking six blocks to my car at six o'clock in the morning. I have lost my power. Me! Of all people.  Earlier that day in fear of my power, or lack thereof, I reacted out of weakness, out of the unknown. Let me fill yall in to the whole story. My boyfriend's a business major, I'm a journalist. He asked for my help on a paper he had due the next day... (procrastinators), so I go and help him to the best of my ability without erasing everything he'd previously written and making the paper my own. Now it's time for him to go to work, and I stay behind to finish enhancing his paper. Some hour or so later, I get bored, take some pictures of myself and my new hair do with his computer camera. After looking at them later with a fresh eye, I no longer liked them, so I delete them and to make sure they were gone for good I went to the trash bin. Now I usually don't do this, but for some...

So I went to the Goodwill yesterday to buy a black belt because someone stole mine a couple of months ago and I came to a few conclusions about people and I have one question in response... what the health is going on? Why are there underwear, bathing suits and pacifiers for sale at a Goodwill? YUCK! I would never think to buy such a thing and I didn't think Black people would either but I was behind someone who was buying their child a used bathing suit and contemplating the purchase only because she thought the child already had one. "Are you sure can't fit the blue one no moe," the mother asked the child who responded with a nod, "cuz I could swear I just bought that one." There are just some things you don't do people, and buying a used anything that a persons personals have been on or in is one of them. Used draws would never grace my baby's bottom and a used "pasie" would never be sucked on by any child of mine. So really what the he...

As I said in my last post, last week was Alpha Week and since I am the Alpha girl of the Beta Eta chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, I most definitely have a million pictures to share. I will start off with a few from Panorama which is a Casino night, where I was one of about 15 beautiful Dealers and end with a few snapshots of the after party. Enjoy!

This week I ♥ sleep One can never have too much sleep... or could I? Last week was Alpha Week and for those of you who do not know, I am THE ALPHA girl of the Beta Eta chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha and their slogan of "No Sleep During Alpha Week" could be no closer to the truth. I honestly raked in about 12 hours out of sleep during the whole week and I have yet to make up for lost zzzzzz. I ♥ Haters My mother dear was hating so hard because Wednesday our system shut down at work and we could do nothing but answer the phones and tell people that "our system was down, call back later" for three hours straight! Don't hate Mom, so I texted her that I was coloring in my coloring book to stay busy and she asked why I had a coloring book and said that she hoped I work double time the following day. Hahaha gotta love those haters! I ♥ miniature Baby Ruth's Yummy in my tummy but yikes on the pearly whites. I have found a new favorite chocolate... last month it was ree...

If checkbooks could talk, mine would lie. It would tell you that I love my mother and my landlord more than I love myself since I stay writing phat checks to them both and I haven't spent a dime on clothes, shoes or jewelry since January. It would tell the biggest lie in the amount of my last withdrawl as if I have that kind of money to be withdrawing. It would tell you that I'm in a love/hate relationship with BP because every Monday I faithfully spend $40 to fill up and that I haven't cheated on BP with anyone else since December. If your checkbook could talk, what would it say about you?

You know I always hated lying. Even when I was a young lad, I felt it necessary to show people the true me, i.e. fessing up to stuff that I got caught in and trying to tell you in the most respectable way possible that I was going to do what I wanted to do regardless of what you say. That attitude got me into a lot of trouble especially when it came to rules and boys. But there is one thing I learned while being honest at a young age... it is well respected by people of all ages. I mean I was young but I wasn't dumb! I definitely can not say the same about these kids today! My brother for instance, will lie the clothes off of his back! But he's not good at it so he always gets caught. And boy does he ALWAYS get caught... lol . It's like he would start a small lie that would be the size of a mothball and it would just tumble weed out of control and become the biggest lie unnecessarily . Why not just tell the truth in the first place? I mean look at it this way: if you tell ...

For the past two weeks I have most definitely been crushing hard on the Day 26 album. Well maybe not the real album but the make shift album I made from searching limewire. It's on point, check it out if you haven't copped the album. I ♥ these young men. They sound really nice and Diddy has done yet another good job with his Making the Band kids. I also have to admit that I ♥ not having any food in my refrigerator! I was so over weight this time last year so without junk to snack on I have been able to get myself together and have only been eating when and what I am supposed to... oatmeal for breakfast, a Michelena for lunch and a light dinner. I am ♥ing the sun and the ability for me to wear my contacts and oversized stunner shades but not necessarily the warmth because my allergies are killing me. I ♥ all the blessings that have been surrounding me... my girl Lisa got a job in her profession, my daddy got two new jobs, my piece of crap car has not stopped on me in a week, my ...

Isn't it funny how we can talk about drug dealers and hustlers like dogs, how they set the standard for wrong doings and should be looked down upon... well then you know you trifling when a drug dealer/hustler does something positive and you don't. I was being treated to breakfast the other day and the nice young man that I was with opened the door for me, gave me his drink, let me eat his pancakes and my french toast and even stopped cutting his food to let me cut my food (because he's a lefty and I'm a righty so we kept bumping into each other). But this trifling fool walked away from the counter to pay an $18 bill with a $20 and put the change in his pocket. I grabbed his arm thinking he forgot and said you didn't leave a tip. He said "what, man come on... I don't leave tips" and left me standing by the register with my chin on the floor as he walked out the door. Huh? You don't leave tips? Who are you? I tried to give him the benefit of the dou...

I will never go back. I will never return to the place where I already spent 20 years of my life. I will move on, move forward with my life in anticipation for the next 20 years. When I said this to all of my friends and family they looked at me like I was crazy, especially the ones who were from Chicago. "What!? You'll never find a better city than Chicago." "What about me?" my best friend asked. "What about your sisters and brothers?" another person asked. Trust me when I get enough money I will send for them. I mean really how can I experience the world only living in one state? Illinois journalists don't make that much money and all I would report is crime crime and more crime. My father resides in Georgia and I am so proud of him for exiting his comfort zone. I have thought about moving near him but trife just might mooch me out of house and home (love ya daddy). My aunt lives in Texas so I was thinking of moving there but Texas is so big that...

I am not only an American Beauty with brown hair and brown eyes  My identity lies somewhere between my grade school pom-poms, to the left of my favorite baby phat jeans and slightly below the chocolate in my eyes It's my lips that guides the crowd, a go getter on any occasion.  You know me? Do you really? When I don't even know myself Listen Can't you hear the insecurity in my unsure answers? Sniff this Do you smell the fear in my heart? Open wide Can you taste the real flavor thats hidden deep down and underneath? Maybe I'm not aerialm I'm not who you want me to be I'm not wearing the mask that you wanna see I am me!  By way of what comes out of these vibrant lips It's my chocolate words. 

Every man wants a nice looking woman who can keep herself well groomed and presentable all at a minimal price but who really gets those type of women? No not the well groomed ones, the minimal priced ones...? The two months out of my adult life that I did not have a job should have been the turning point of my high maintenance mind set but it was actually the time that really proved to me that I was a high maintenance chick. It's sad, I agree but I have to have a different hairstyle every week and my visit to the nail shop are bi-monthly but luxurious as I pick the brightest colors to grace my nails and toes.  My shoe game is sick as I own 62 pairs and my scarf and purse game is nothing to snicker at even though you will always catch me in the same two scarfs and a simple black purse. I will be truthful and say my style is a little odd so my pieces are not all on point but give me a few phat checks and I promise to be haute by summer.  So ketchup to my mustard pumps, matching overs...