Monday, July 4, 2011

Grandma's Hands. [91 Years]

We all knew it was coming. A week ago my Mom called my brother and I to tell us that the pain that my Grandma had been complaining about in her side was indeed, cancer. As unfair as it is for any person to give another an expiration date, the doc said that she had roughly 3 weeks, she passed away yesterday at 9:32 p.m. I can remember summer after summer, packing up our family, old school music, and snacks for the drive to the small town where the legacy of our family began. It still amazes me that I have 16 aunts and uncles combined, over 200 cousins, and Lord knows how many distant cousins... all from my Mom's side of the family. It's obvious that recessions never effected my Grand parents who always kept their large family clothed, fed, and well loved. They always kept things together, regardless of the circumstances and I know they are the reason why such determined blood runs through my veins. Grandma always kept a light spirit; offering a smile to everyone who entered her life and serving up raw wisdom wrapped in love. Every gathering was literally a celebration and one thing that she laughed at for years was that I told her that every time I come to visit, it's like a party. A woman with many [church] hats, and swore her baby soft skin to cold cream, I will cherish every moment I had with her. Evolving into a dynamic woman who is capable of doing everything she has.
I send my love to all my family, near and far and pray for the prosperity of our family. 

Grandma, give Grandpa, my Dad, Marquis, Uncle George, Aunt Nancy, and everyone who came before me a kiss... and continue to watch over us.


i'm wearing the biggest church hat i can find for this "party".

Friday, June 24, 2011

Social Networks are the Devil!

This past month has been crazy you guys! The business side of things seem to be consistent for the most part but my emotional house is all jacked up! My shy nature keeps my circle small and my drama to a minimum but I guess it was just in my stars to end smack dab in some mess... eventually. I have been noticing platforms like twitter, myspace, and facebook becoming the topic of conversation in talk shows; being blamed for the reason friendships and relationships end for a couple of years now. I personally gave up my myspace page after a local 'mean girl' used me to became initiated into the legion of internet gangsters years ago. The whole experience turned a place where I found entertainment and met new people into a pain in the ass and something I avoided all together. After that, I joined facebook to stay connected with my huge family and past classmates from my previous high school. Even though that page has been established since 2007, I hardly use it, and am thinking about seriously putting it on total lock down after a person I didn't know tried to ask me out. Twitter started out of pure boredom. I was newly single, with a new phone, at a new job that didn't require me to do a whole lot (considering it's slow day shift). I began finding people who I knew's pages and through them met a group of genuine people. I started opening up a little bit more and instead of it being something that I used to make fun of, I was encouraging non-tweeters to sign up. Things were going smooth for the first 2 years, then last month happened...

I was being foolish, oblivious to every game there are rules, and rule number 1 is: never put any personal information about your relationship on your time line! Well, technically I spoke generally, but non the less, I had a lonely follower who bit on my bait of depression. Me and this guy began exchanging friendly messages back and forth, with him being the initiator. He would say things that were encouraging, involving God and what not, and ask me what happened between and Mr. Even though he did his best trying to pump me for information, I'm a loyal person. And I'm no fool. All contact stopped before the apple dropped to bring the New Year in. Me and Mr. were back "on" and went on living our lives. Roughly in about April, I began to see him mention me on his timeline... "hey, it's been decades... what you been up to?" would randomly appear and I would continue to ignore his existence. One day, my Mr. decided to shout me out on twitter. Something that I always was on the fence about because to me, love on a social network is like blood in the ocean: the sharks and any other ruthless creature will definitely come from nowhere to feast. But pride, being the two sided coin it is, took over and I lovingly obliged. Little did I know that this dude on the sidelines would see this and get so irrationally angry at the whole situation.

 Seeing how at least 4 months had passed since last we talked...

But home boy caught feelings and began reaching out to Mr, and a slew of other people who followed me and I spoke to on a regular basis. His posts accused me of being promiscuous and scheming. A "trifling" female who needed to be "exposed". The way he went out of his way to make people believe that I hooked up with not only him, but "others" who followed me made me sick. I truly felt violated in the way you would if you were in school getting bullied by an upper class men. Even though we are peers, and I shouldn't have felt any specific way about  his psychotic behavior, I did. I understood that this person was trying to hurt me, and the one who is closest to me. I tried to keep my mind off of it, but every time I attempted to go on like nothing was happening, I couldn't help but check and see what new lies were being posted about me. A nobody who would never do anything like this to anyone else. Eventually, it made me not want to tweet at all, and I was frustrated at the fact that the only thing I (and a few good friends) could do was send emails to twitter, reporting him as spam. To wrap up this long story, the perp's account was deleted and I can breath a little easier about tweeting. But I have definitely learned my lesson O_o

What is it about facebook-ing, myspace-ing, and twitter-ing that makes people forget they have minds? Besides the fact that they're a faceless person on the opposite side of the screen who can be anything that they want to be that is... lol.

It is a guarantee that before I go to sleep at night, I will see or hear about somebody acting a damn fool  on the Internet. Whether it be through shit talking over a bruised ego, setting up dates on walls instead of in boxes, or sharing explicit photos and videos with others. I will say this now: trust no one! When it comes to your personal image... it's everything. These days it seems everything is fair in love and scandal and as petty as it may seem, even a 'special video' made for a mate can be used against you and damage a reputation. And once it's out there, it's out there. It's hard to deny a questionable photo after it has a personal account attached to it, so if recent news of 'Weiner-gate' has taught us anything, you might want to think twice before trying to impress a perfect stranger.


 There are a reported 80% of marriages that have ended up in divorce with cyber cheating being the basis of the split. And since I brought up Wiener, I pose this question:

What should newly pregnant Huma do?

The aid to Hillary Clinton has been holding up pretty well in my opinion, despite all the press. I guess what I mean is, she's maintaining herself; continuing to work instead of breaking down. She has chose the high road. Of course some people say she should leave him. But I think that sentiment is more attributed to his looks, and not so much his actions. It's a fact in America, that the better looking you are, the lesser the crime (lol). We're shallow and I think that was the exact flaw that got him in trouble in the first place. Power does something to a person. Especially a person who isn't used to getting attention about their looks. Perhaps he was really feeling himself, knowing that his wife is 'like this' with Hillary Clinton, he's a (former) U.S. Rep, and he's about to have his first child. On top of that, he had chicks hitting him up on twitter... 

I don't know! lol, I would just hate to see any one's marriage end...for any reason. Regardless, Huma is sticking next to her husband and even though she was not seen next to him during the scandal or his stepping down speech, they have been seen in grocery stores and continue to work on their marriage.

I woke up one day and noticed that people had stopped talking. Well not exactly, written expression had taken over and every one's phone or computer had them (dis)connected to everyone else in the world. The need for personal fulfillment will not be found one day while tweeting, or anyplace online. Let's use good judgement, and remember to change your passwords often! 

"You Look Like..." v.2

Ever since I went natural, I've heard all sorts of references (complimentary and derogatory) to describe the "look" my new hairstyle gives me. One of the more flattering ones is that it reminds some of Rae Dawn Chong.

I had to pause the first time I heard the name.

"Chong... Chong...? Where have I heard that before?"

She wouldn't have by any chance have any relation to the guy in the show 'Cheech and Chong' would she? 
  
Yes!

Not only is she the daughter of actor Tommy Chong, she is an actress who has featured in over 30 films, including my favorite... 'The Color Purple'. And I'm not sure what the movie 'Quest for Fire' is about, but it gives me the impression that she's comfortable with her body, which is something else we have in common.  So once again, I am flattered to be compared to such a gorgeous woman. I can now consider myself to the reincarnated daughter of a pot smoking hippie. Life is good. I started this series to share with you guys my many "twins" of Hollywood... I hope you find them interesting and humorous since 90% of them were mentioned in pick-up lines. Lol.