Stolen MEME

Yes I got this from Organized Noise.


1. How tall are you barefoot? 5 feet, 3 inches tall, but that doesn't matter lying down

2. Have you ever flown first-class? Yes once when I was a girl. My aunt was the flight attendant on the plane and got me and my mom moved up to first class. I also go a chance to fly like real rich people - I went from Cleveland to Philly on Gordon Gund's G-4. All I have to say about that is OH MY Goodness - Sweet!

3. One of your favorite books when you were a child?The Mixed Up Files Of Mrs Basil E. Frankwilder.

4. A good restaurant in your city?Depends on the cuisine: Italian - Carmine's, Tony DiNapoli's and Pastina's in Hartsdale, Caribbean - Negril or Maroon's, Asian - Ruby Foo's, BBQ - Virgil's, Seafood - City Crab or Ricky's in Yonkers, Cajun - The Bayou in Mt. Vernon, Soul - my mom's house, Tex Mex - Blue Moon in Bronxville, Desert - The Cheesecake Factory in White Plains

5. What is your favorite small appliance? Umm my vvviiibbrraattorrrrrrr

6. One person that never fails to make you laugh? Umm I can only thnk of myself. Everyone should be able to laugh at themself and not take themself so seriously.

7. What's your favorite Christmas song? The Christmas song - by Nat King Cole

8. What was the first music that you ever bought? That song "Nasty Girl" by Vanity 6. I still love that song.

9. Do you do push-ups? Yes - just started with my trainer and I did 45 the first time (three sets of 15)

10. What was one of your favorite games as a child? football, tag, and double dutch

11.What is the one thing that you cook that always receives compliments? Rice and beans, Mac & cheese, meatballs, lamb chops, cube steaks and rice

12. When you were twelve years old, what did you want to be when you grew up?An actress. lawyer, a writer, fashion designer

13. Your favorite Soup of the Day? Chicken with veggies

14. What in your life are you most grateful for? My mother, she sacrificed so much for me and my sister. She is the best.

15. Have you ever met someone famous? Yes. Holly Robinson, Todd Bridges, Jeff Redd, Kevin Garnet, Andre Miller and all the Cleveland Cavaliers of 2002 season, Jim Paxson, Nelly, Q and Daron of 112, Ludacris, Charles Way (played for the NYGiants) , Blair Underwood, Malcom Jamal Warner, Mike Epps, Rashid Wallace, Shaq, LaBron James, Trick Daddy, Diana Williams (a newscaster in NYC), DMX, Jason Williams, DJ Red Alert, Talent, Field Mobb, Shawnna. and they all had the pleasure of meeting ME!

16. Date Of Birth? Jan. 8, 1969. I except birthday gifts at anytime of the year.

17. Top 3 thoughts at this exact moment: a) why am I still awake, b) wondering what am I going to do tomorrow, c) I'm glad I got my car fixed

18. Three people you're thinking about right now: a) Lightweight's mom - wishing her a fast recovery, b) my nephew, c) my friend who told me where to take my car to get it fixed

19. Name five drinks you regularly drink: Water, sprite, cranberry juice, gatorade, diet coke

20. From what news source do you receive the bulk of your news? MSNBC, Channel 7 News

21. Current hair? In need of washing so it's looking busted.

22. Current worry? That I'm going to have a challenging school year ( I work in a middle school)

23. Current hate?Umm I think if you read my last few posts my mind had been focused on New Orleans so I guess that would be my big "hate", the other hate is that the summer is ending and I have to go back to work.

24. Favorite place to be? Sitting on a tropical beach with a drink in my hand

25. Least favorite place to be? At work

26. Do you consider yourself well organized? Sometimess it depends on what I need to be organized for.

27. Do you believe in a afterlife? Yes I do, why not?

28. Where do you think you will be in 10 Yrs? I have no idea, but I hope not in the same place I am now because I would have never thought I would be where I am now. My life is way different than what I thought it was going to be 10 years ago.

29. Do you burn or tan? Both.

30. Who was the last blogger you hung out with? all the bloggers that came up to the BBQ

31. Are you more optimistic or pessimistic about the future? Optimistic

32. Last time you had an alcoholic drink?This evening, a glass of wine

33. What songs do you sing in the shower? ususally a gospel song that the choir I'm in is practicing.

34. What did you fear was going to get you at night as a kid? Freddie Krugger

35. What's in your pockets right now? nada

36. Last thing that made you laugh? Something that Lightweight said.

37. Best bed sheets you had as a child? It was of three cartoon Bears. One of them had a big afro and one was really short.

38. Worst injury you've ever had? Two sprained knees at the same time.

39. Favorite song? Too many to list.

40. How many TV's do you own? Three but only two are working

41. In the last calendar year, how many people have you told that you love them? My mom, my sister, my niece and nephew, my great niece, a few friends, my grandma.

42. Last person that made you blush? It's been a while, so I don't remember.

43. Best Compliment received? You are smart, beautiful and single, stay that way.

44. What song is in your head? "Let your shoulder lean" I woke up to one of my neighbors blasting that and haven't gotten out of my head since.

45. What is your favorite book? Whatever I'm reading at the moment and that happens to be" Dreams from My Father" by Barack Obama.

46. Last meal you cooked for the opposite sex? Cheeseburger and fries

47. What songs do you want played at your wedding? I have no idea. Is there a song that says something like "I can't Believe this is really happening"? LOL

48. What song do you want played at your funeral? Great is thy Holiness or Eye is on the Sparrow"

49. What were you doing at 12 midnight last nigh? Sleeping.

50. What would you like to accomplish with the remaining years of your life? I would love to have a career where I feel fulfilled and was valued. I would like to travel more. I would love to find out what God's purpose for my life is and do what ever that may be!

WANTED

In a conversation I was having with a friend of mine the other day the topic of what do we want in a mate came up. I thought it was a good topic So here is what my list would look like if it were a "Wanted" poster (in no particular order).

Wanted:
A man preferable African American

Brown/dark skinned (darker than me)
Between the ages of 35 and 41
Physically, mentally and spiritually healthy
Educated - college degree preferred, not required
Height over 5 feet 9 inches, but negotiable
Employed at a job he likes or owns his own business
Lives on his own without a roommate
Has his own car
Never been to jail
Likes to travel (has been places)
Likes all kinds of food (not just a chicken and potato guy)
Honest
Loyal
Not afraid to show his emotions to his woman
Keeps family first
Believes in God
Not opposed to going church
One child or less if he has never been married
Goes to the doctor at least once a year
Won't trip if his woman makes more money than he does
Like to surprise his woman with tokens of love (doesn't have to be always be a material object)
Respects his mother/sister/grandmother
Not afraid to hang out with woman or he with her
Communicates his needs
Listens to his woman's needs and tries to provide them
Not opposed to marriage
Believes in monogamy
Will share all household duties
Has same view on childrearing
Not a remote hog

He will have to be physically attractive to me (yes men, we women too are visual)


Now these are just some of the main points that I am looking for. I'm sure some guy would read this and wonder what I'm bringing to the table and my answer to him would be - ALOT! If interested please "apply within".

Okay I Can't Seem To Let This Go

Just an observation - for the past few days TV and the internet and newspapers have been bombarding us with stories about the aftermath of Katrina. What unnerves me is that media should have been continuously covering this story all year long. Yeah yeah I know it's the 1 year anniversary, but damn the victims have been struggling everyday since it happened. With all the stories and reports, I still haven't heard about any "real" solutions. Ray Nagin and his yella azz keeps saying, "we will rebuild New Orleans." Who gives a fuck if they rebuild it or not. How about this - "we will provide mental health services, job training, medical care, and quality education for the citizens of New Orleans. We will help with housing."

I get angry when I see that the French Quarter is thriving but the ordinary citizen doesn't even have a grocery store to go to. WTF? I've been to N'Orleans twice in my life as a teen. It is a very poor city but with so much to offer. I think that the government and the army corps of engineers for years has ignored N'Orleans and hope that its problems would disappear or no one would bring it to national attention. Then BOOM - along comes Katrina. I know some 44 long (white male) was sitting someplace saying, "shit this is just what we don't need. If we look busy dealing with other things (Tsunami, Ben Laden, etc) maybe no one will notice." Yeah they (gov't) didn't notice, but how the fuck could we not notice? The government really thinks We The People are really stupid. It is really them who are really stupid.

How can we the "richest" country in the world be the dumbest country in the world? We need to stop fighting other countries battles and focus on our own. Let the Muslims and Israelis fight their shit out. That conflict has been going on since biblical days. Damn if you really get into it that conflict was a Muslim and Christian war - The Crusades. But anyway sorry to digress.

Bring our troops home and let them build housing, hospitals, schools, etc. in New Orleans since they seem to be so good at it over seas. Let the military send out special forces to negotiate peace treaties and cease fires between the gangs, since "there is some much violence now happening.

sidebar: for yall who don't know the military has special units that go into "villages" in Iraq to negotiate with the village leader for information, passage through, surrender of "bad guys", etc. And their negotiating tool - money. They pay the village money for this things. I know because someone I know is over there right now doing just that job.

Katrina and its aftermath will have effect on the next two if not more generations. Kids are messed up behind this real bad. I pray for all the kids that are having a difficult time behind all of this. I'm sure they are or will suffer from post traumatic stress disorder. The government can't just put a bandaide on this and think that everything is gonna be just fine. They have to do some real work - but we know that is not gonna happen cause we are a country of lazy fucks run by lazy fucks.

thanks for listening.

Well They Are Still Broken

Did you watch Spike Lee's documentary on HBO on Monday and Tuesday? I did and it made me angry all over again. Not to say that I had gotten over being angry the first time. Just seeing the images were depressing. Then to hear what all the people were saying just made me hate our government even more. Bush - well he can go hide in a bush, and the rest of his crew (Condalezza included) can go to hell. How can they run from this and think it's okay. I know next election time I will ever so carefully choose who I am voting for because the Democrats ain't much better than the Republicans. At the end of the day they both shit on black folk. They use us then push us by the wayside. If Black people in this country don't stand up for ourselves and our people after this Katrina thing then we'll never get where we want to be. We may as well go back to pre-civil rights days.

I don't mean to talk politics but that Katrina mess wasn't about politics - it was about human life. I'm pissed off about it. How about you?? I'd like to know your feelings on it all.

thanks for checking in.

Peace,
Phoenix

Dreams Deferred

Harlem (by Langston Hughes)

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore -
And then run?
Does it stink like a rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over-
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

I was at the movies today watching my second movie ( If I pay to go to the movies I usually walk in and see a second one- movies are too damn expensive to only be seeing one these days.) I didn't plan out the time right to see the 2nd movie I really wanted to see, so I sat in on what I knew was going to be a wack movie - Step It Up or whatever the name of it is. Anyway as I was sitting there watching, I had plenty of time to think about a whole lot of stuff. One thing being sparked by the movie - do you have dreams and if so do you go for them?

Well me being the person that I am (or would like to think I am) started to really ponder this question in my mind. And this is what I came up with. Sadly I think we all start out with plenty of dreams, some attainable some not. For me, I know as a child I had so many dreams of what life would be like for me. Some of the dreams, of course, were your everyday lotto dreams like: if I had all the money in the world what would I do.... And some of the other dreams I had were in the category of what are you really gonna do with your life.

Some of my dreams were crushed by society, other people and just maturing. While others were dashed by me. I don't really need to give specifics as to what the dreams were, but the fact that I let them "dry up" like in the poem makes me sad now. Yeah I know some would say "never give up on your dreams." But fo-real, reality is a mutha and will slap you in the ass when you aren't looking. Also life starts to come into play - responsibilities: bills, rent, eating, how are you gonna pay your bills, etc. So you get a job to pay the bills and put food on the table and a roof over your head and before you know it you look up and it's too late to change careers now cause you make a "little" bit of money and if you leave your current job you know the new job if you can get one (in the "dream" field of your desires) will not start you out making the same money you left......

So sitting in the movie I begin to cry - not cause the movie is so moving, but because I realize that I've let my old dreams "dry up" and I haven't any new ones that are worth anything to go chase. This has been my "heavy load" for a while now and I can't seem to shake it. Don't get me wrong my life as it is now is not bad, but it could always be better. I do remain hopeful that one day again (hopefully soon) I will again dream and begin to chase those dreams.

Thanks for checking in. PEACE!

Those Damn Huaraches #2

Okay I'm chilling at home waiting for my personal trainer ( another story for another time) to come and I look out the window and what do I see? A baby Huarache walking in the front yard.

sidebar: for those of you just tuning in please refer to my post Those Damn Huaraches

At first I didn't think nothing of it. Then I thought to myself okay this is odd where is an adult. I walk to my other window just to make sure I wasn't over reacting. There wasn't an adult in sight. The baby is in the front of the house by himself. He can't be more than 18 months cause he still has that just learning to walk wobble. I look and all the adult Huaraches are chilling in the backyard, if you want to call it that. I should call the cops on them but I'll let this go cause there are too many of them over there to begin with . If one goes missing, they probably won't even notice. I can't stand them. They play soccer in the front yard, hitting cars parked in front of the house on the street. The yard has barely any green grass if any at all. Why can't they take care if their property. They just annoy the ish out of me and I don't know why.

Just my rant for the day! Thanks for listening.

Life After the BBQ

The BBQ was great and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. I really need to big-ups my partners in crime for the day - Lightweight and Slish. Thanks to all who came from near and far to spend some time with "family". (stay tuned to find out about our next function).....

After the BBQ I had all intentions to hang out with Royce's Daughter and her girls and Lightweight and whomever else. But as you can already guess my body had other plans for me. I was beat, tired, dead. I had to get up the next morning and drive to Virginia to pick up my great niece. I know you are saying, "Phoenix must be out of her mind." I'm beginning to agree with you. To drive 7 hours right after a long ass day is way too much for anyone.

Well I picked up Momma Phoenix (my mom) and we began our journey at about 11:15 and got to Newport News to my sister's house at 7:30ish. Thank goodness Momma Phoenix did most of the driving this time cause if it were left up to me I would have ended up around a tree or something. We hung out with my sister for the next 2 days. Then on Tuesday we picked up my little darling - Destinee. She is too much. Two and a half years of personality. She is much like her dad, my nephew when he was her age, funny, mean, smart, precious and full of energy.

We drive back and get to my place about 1 am. What time do you think Miss Missy went to sleep? 4:00 am. So you know I am exhausted to the enth degree. She is the type of birth control money can't buy. I would love children but if that is not in my cards then I'm okay with that. Actually as of today I don't need to have any kids. I work with them all school year and I get My Precious for a week in the summer. I'm burnt out.

I do empathize with parents. I know what it is like to want to go out but you have no baby sitter or you want to take a nap but the baby won't go to sleep. So I have about 5 more days to go, a small break and then back to school for me.

I'm a great auntie and I love my great niece, niece and nephew, but doing this full time - well let's just say I'm not sure I would do as a good job.

So this is life after the BBQ (this year).

Caramel Spice

CARAMEL SPICE


Have you ever had yourself some caramel spice?

You think you may have but let me tell you something
The real caramel spice is hard to come by

It’s rare
There are many pretenders so if you ever get the authentic Caramel Spice, you better treasure it.
It’ll never do you wrong

Caramel Spice will lift your mood when you are down
Comfort you when no one else is around

But you need to know how to care for your rare Caramel Spice
You must respect its qualities
Consider its delicateness and tenderness when mixing it with other things

But truth be told
It’s been said it is the only spice you’ll ever need

So do you have any Caramel Spice?
If not, you need to get you some