Turkey Time ... Almost

I’m sitting at work waiting for quitting time. Tonight, I’ll be hanging out with some friends before heading over to my parents’ for the eve of Thanksgiving. Then we’ll probably cook, play Scrabble and dabble in my stepfather’s HUGE bootleg collection. (don’t tell, ya’ll!)

My Mom is always the one that’s truly in the holiday spirit. It’ll be just the three of us celebrating, so she may make us go around the table and list something that makes us thankful. Right now, the only things that cross my mind are selfish and silly things that I’d rather mention here than to my family. So here goes.

I am thankful for ...

-The new coat I bought from Target last night. It’s very rare for me to go into a store intending to buy something and actually finding something that I like. Good stuff!

-Catching the old school song of the day while running out for lunch today. The dj played “Before I Let You Go” by Blackstreet. That truly took me back. I remember that video because Omar Epps (a member of my harem) was in the vid, along with Shari Headley (Coming to America), who was my favorite soap opera actress at the time.

-The 70 degree weather. It means that I have no need for this new coat today and I’m suffering in my non air conditioned car, but still … it feels good.

-That I get to watch “Razor” on Saturday with a fellow BSG geek. We may also fill up the day watching “Hostel II” and “Hot Fuzz”

-The white girl who shares my cubicle wall. She’s a preppy, private school, New England-bred gal. Her mom’s birthday is on Thanksgiving and she told me that she’s buying her Kanye West’s cd because “she just loves Kanyeezie.” My jaw fell open.

-Alice Smith. "For Lovers, Dreamers & Me" is on constant repeat.

-Having cable. Yes, I have let the corporate predators into my home once again by linking into their network. Now, between FX, Bravo, BET, Vh1 and Soapnet, I can never leave the house. *Sigh*

Ah well, that's all I can think of at the moment. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! No matter what anyone says, eat as much as you want. No one likes a dieting dinner guest. =)

(Image from http://www.humormatters.com/holidays/Thanksgiving/Thanksgiving.gif)

If the children are the future, then the future is fcuked

No, that is not a typo. It's just an example of how this next generation of children is headed toward illiteracy at a rapid rate. I confess that there are certain things I'm a tad bit anal about -- grammar and proper spelling are only two of them. Maybe it's the writer in me, but I've been known to lecture people about using affect and effect improperly and the misuse of a semicolon really ticks me off. I mean, respect the language, folks. Respect it!

Awhile back, two of my younger cousins requested to be my friends on Myspace. My page is private to anyone who is not a friend, so I immediately cleaned it up so that they could view it. That caused me to remove a couple of folks from my top friends' list, like my friend with the cartoon of a lion coming out of a woman's vagina and my other friend who each week is either a Gangsta Bitch, The Main Bitch, or The Bossy Bitch.

Anyway, I added my two cousins -- both boys, one is a freshman in high school, the other is in sixth grade, or middle school. It started out innocent enough, Freshman Cousin constantly sent bulletins about how much he loved his girlfriend and other chain letters. Things were fine, until he sent one with the subject, "I like to fcuk." (I'm not sure if I was more pissed at the topic or the incorrect spelling) It was one of those forwards where your birthday month says something about your personality. Obviously, I was not too happy to get this from my 14-year-old bird-chested cousin, so I emailed him and told him so. This is what I got back:

----------------- Original Message -----------------

From Strength

Date: Nov 1, 2007 7:43 PM

its a bulliten chill i didnt make it

Let's examine the problem, shall we? First of all, can a sistah get a bit of punctuation? And what is a 'bulliten'.... hmm? Where is the apostrophe for 'it's?'

That alone unnerved me, but I kept my mouth shut. But it wasn't too long before Freshman Cousin started again. I was online once late on a weeknight and I saw that he was also online, so I sent him a message and told him to go to bed. This is what I got:

----------------- Original Message -----------------

To Strength

no skool i gotta go lol peace i was just talkin 2 my gf

Allow me to translate that. Basically, he's telling me to calm down because he doesn't have school tomorrow and the only reason he was online was to talk to his girlfriend. But once again, no punctuation. Call me old school (school!! not skool!), but I need a subject, verb, and predicate in my life.

Another time, the Sixth Grader sent me a message asking me how I was doing. I responded and this is what I got back.

----------------- Original Message -----------------

To Strength

can i be on your top.even know i'm aloud, don't tell my mom or (freshman) that i was on mysace.don't ask!

Again, allow me to use my bilingual skills to translate. What he meant to say was, (insert British accent here) "Hello, my beautiful and enchanting cousin! I was wondering if you would give me the honor of being one of your top friends on Myspace. My mother and brother are aware that I am on this site, but I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention this message to them. Cheers!" Instead, I got a muddled mess. Where is the question mark in the first sentence? And didn't he mean 'allowed'? I can forgive the 'mysace' as being a typo, but as for the rest ..... ARGHHHHHH!!!! (Of course, his parents are aware of this convo and for unrelated reasons revoked his myspace privileges).

I may have to start a one-woman literacy campaign. I haven't seen my cousins in quite awhile, but the next time I do, we're going to have some spelling practice. I refuse to allow them to become statistics!

(Photo from http://www.ticketspecialists.com/theater/images/25th-annual-putnam-county-spelling-bee.jpg)

Don't Ever Wonder (Or, Appreciation Pt. 2)

Sometimes the moment hits me harder than others. There have been times when I'm driving in my car and a certain song will play on the radio that makes my shoulders shake. Other times, like today at work, I just want to shriek, "WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME??!!!"

I am talking about Maxwell, who I had the pleasure of meeting in 2001. Okay, it was a concert, with thousands of other people there, but I'd like to think it was just the two of us in the room. This was back when his last album, Now, had been released and I was playing it nonstop, particularly "Lovers Only." A new singer by the name of Alicia Keys opened up for him and I spent the rest of the show drooling over Maxwell, or Max, as he lets me call him.

Max and I have a complicated history. Back in college, two of my roommates were crazy about him, but I just didn't understand. His music was alright, but I thought he was rather odd looking. His hair was all over his head and he was always doing something bizarre in his videos. I liked his music, but he wasn't on critical levels.

Then a few years later, I saw him do an interview on BET. I don't know what it was -- the sunglasses he wore, the tone of voice or his outfit -- but it was then that I got it. Dude was special. I was sold.

Because I worked (still do) in a creative environment, I was able to display the poster I bought from the 2001 concert near my desk. Of course my colleagues wanted to talk smack, particularly the men. One guy in particular always had something smart to say -- Maxwell's overrated, his music sucks, when is he coming out with a new single? I kept my head high and ignored the naysayers.

That was years ago. Now it's truly time to ask, 'When are you putting out a new single, Max?' I've been patient -- Lord knows I have been. I give him a fair dose of Google and I saved him as a friend on myspace, which includes a sample from his "upcoming" album. Other than that, I sit tight and check the new releases each week.

The problem is -- I am not a patient woman. I listened to one of my stations on Pandora.com the other day and they had the nerve to play Max's "Ascension (Don't Ever Wonder)." It took everything within me not to keep from falling out of my chair. Oh, Max. It was so good to hear his voice again.

Now I'm back to checking his website and Google, to see if I can get even a mention of a cd release date. Hopefully, I'll get some news soon. It's so hard to be dedicated, especially when there are so many men out there who deserve my appreciation.

(Photo from http://z.about.com/d/randb/1/0/Y/5/-/-/Maxwell.jpg)

Reunited

Please forgive me for my recent tirade. I had a terrible day and needed to vent, so I did it on the blogosphere. I'm much better now and thanks for hanging in there with me. I hope I didn't offend anyone with my rant. I was going to delete that post altogether, but I think I'm going to leave it there so I can return to it a year from now and look at it as a distant memory, a lesson learned.

Anyway, the recent drama in my life sent me straight back to my home away from home, Barnes & Noble. Say what you want, but I am a regular at this spot, which is just outside my parents' neighborhood. I often get in trouble for traveling to the B&N and leaving without saying hello to my folks. Ah well.

This time, I saw two other people who are at the B&N as often as I am. First there's Duane -- I call him that because he reminds me of a guy I once knew of the same name. I can never figure out if Duane is a writer, student or homeless. No matter what the weather, he walks around wearing a wife beater, dark hat and dingy pants. He's always in the cafe and his table is covered with books and papers. He's always either writing furiously or reading furiously. I'm torn between asking him what he's working on and giving him a dollar. Instead, I just leave him alone and watch from afar.

The other person is Helen. She's this college-aged disabled girl and her father usually drops her off there and picks her up later. I don't know anything about her, other than what I see. I'm not so sure what the name of her disability is, but she walks with an exaggerated limp. The first time I met her a few months ago, she scared me to death. I was sitting at my table, minding my own business when I heard this strange, noise. It's hard to describe, but it sounded the way I think a demon would sound shortly before it took it's next victim. Anyway, I soon realized my life wasn't in danger. The noise was Helen, grunting as she copied some words out of a book.

Once, I went to my beloved B&N, only to see that there was some kind of emergency inside and the fire department had it blocked off. I went into a panic and called the operator, trying to find another B&N. There weren't any nearby, so I had to settle for Border's. Once I got there, who did I see? Helen and Duane, doing there usual work. Now that's dedication!

Anyway, it was good to be surrounded by books, quiet and some familiar faces. Plus, a caramel macchiato makes everything better. Yum!

(Photo from http://www.engineersedge.com/catalog/images/books.JPG)

Today ....

I am pissed off. Frustrated. Annoyed. Aggravated. Sad. I'm trying so hard not to be bitter, but I am losing that battle. And today was definitely not a good day to listen to Phyllis Hyman on pandora.com, but I did it anyway.


Today ...

I wonder why I even bothered to do the "right" things in my life -- get a degree, good job, wait until I'm married to have kids -- while it seems like everyone who does the opposite gets everything I want.


I am tired of being described as "sweet" and "the girl next door", by men who are screwing the chick around the way, the one they don't even like, just because she's ready, willing and able.

I want the folks from Trojan, Durex, LifeStyles, etc. to do a national demonstration on how not to make a condom break. But would anyone show up?

I wish I could direct my anger at the right target.

I wish there was no such thing as too good to be true.

I wish I could say I never felt this bad before.


Tonight, I will ...

Sit around in my pajamas and use up every tissue packet in sight.

Watch Grey's online and lust after McSteamy. (McDreamy's played out).

Drown my sorrows in burnt popcorn and cherry flavored Kool-Aid.

Cheer on "Dexter" as he chops people into bits and tosses them into the ocean.



And tomorrow, I will put on my fake smile and go about my business. I know things will get better. They have to.


(Photo from http://erkansaka.net/blog/archive/Metallica-StAnger-thumb.jpg)

Thanks to Muze, I don't have to write a real blog post today

I've been tagged by Natural Muze. How fun! So here are the rules and some random information you may or may not wish to know about me.

The rules of the game are:

A). Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog...

B). Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself...

C). Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs...

D). Let each person know that they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

Okay...my seven facts are:


1. I can't stand to see dirty dishes in the sink. However, that doesn't make me a neat freak. I simply hide them in the microwave until I get around to doing them.

2. I have a serious collection of Archie Comic Books. I even have some issues that go back to the 1960s and 1970s, thanks to my old science teacher, Mr. Moy, who gave me his old comics. Thanks, Mr. Moy!

3. My favorite color is red. It makes me happy and I think the color makes everyone look better, particularly me!

4. People with restless leg syndrome really bother me. There is something about seeing someone's leg twitch constantly that makes my skin crawl.

5. I have a bit of an addictive personality, particularly when it comes to the Internet. If I haven't checked my email or blog comments several times a day, something is wrong with the world! It's a good thing I don't have any really bad habits.

6. I recently got cable again after going without it for nearly two years. It's a whole new world!

7. When I was a little girl, I wrote to several celebrities in hopes of getting their autographs. My collection includes autographs from George Burns, New Edition, along with several astronauts and comic book creators.

**Bonus: I have this intense fear of running out of toilet paper. Whenever the stash is dwindling -- as it is now -- I run to the store in a panic.

And there you have it. Now I'm tagging Andy, Naysue, Camille, Eclat, Juicy, Motown Runner Girl and Nicole.