Thursday Thirteen: Things I Want To Do In 2010

These aren't resolutions, just things I want to do for the New Year. What's the difference? I don't know that there is one. I just don't like the idea of New Years Resolutions.

1. Travel out of the country - Step one - get a passport, step two - convince someone to buy me a ticket

2. Start sleeping like a normal person.- for instance, right now while I'm typing this, its 5:37 and I'm not close to being sleepy.

3. Get a job that lets me use my brain - self explanatory. I'm too smart for what I do. I sometimes get scared that I'm like my father. He was brilliant, but never could parlay that into a career. Maybe it was the drugs, but it still concerns me if I'm being real.

4. Find out about my father's birth parents - He was adopted and I know nothing about his birth parents. In fact the only thing I know is the legend of how he was adopted. Apparently my grandmother was a nurse, and just brought him home one day. Things were different back in 1948. I don't know how I'm going to do this since he's dead, and my grandparents are dead, and I don't know any of the family that are still living, but I should at least try.

5. Relearn French, and/or learn Spanish - I can recognize some French, but when I speak it I sound like un idiot. And since the whole country is going Spanish, I want to be able to communicate with my Hispanic brothers and sisters.

6. Conquer my addiction(s) - I'm not going to tell you what they are. If you know me, you already know. If not, I don't want to get lectured by you too. That is counter productive.

7. Go to a dope concert - I can't believe I didn't go to one show in 2009. As much as I love music, I've got to fix that.

8. Attend at least a game each of the big 3 sports. Football, basketball, baseball. - We got the Falcons, the Hawks and the Braves in town. I think I can manage to do at least 2 of the 3.

9. Get back to writing. Either finish some of the old stuff, or crank out something new. - It's crazy that I have movies in my head that don't translate when I try to write them. I want to apply myself this year.

10. Spend some quality time with the nephews and nieces. - Maybe I'll take them to a game. Knock out two goals with one stone.

11. Do something, anything unexpected. - Stepping out my comfort zone would be a plus. I want to do something that makes you say "DAMN!! I can't believe Rah did that." I don't know what it would be. Maybe something as simple as taking a dance class or something crazy like bungee jumping. Yeah, probably wont be bungee jumping.

12. Get Jameil a gift that is not practical at all, but that she will love. - I'm not a good gift giver. I know that. Jameil makes it easy for me by telling me what she wants. Or if she needs something, I'm there. I want to get her something that she would never ask for, or get for herself. Hmmm... I'm drawing a blank, but I have 365 days to think of something.

13. _ _ _  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ -  I can't tell you this one because you bloggers don't know how to act. Mind your business, nosy!!! LOL

We Be Clubbin'

Saturday night in Charlotte, I went out with Jameil, her cousin and her husband. It was his birthday, so we went out to dinner at this spot called Mez. It was cool. Good food, good conversation and afterwards, he wanted to hit up a club. I didn't know we were going to do that, but I was down. We headed to this spot called Tempo.

Let me get this straight. Your club is housed in what looks like an Elks lodge/renovated barn. Your parking lot is a mixture of mud and gravel.  You have a lady selling homemade incense in the hallway. You got an large man in a bright red jacket spinning around looking like the Kool-Aid Man. Your music is not playing loud enough that I have to talk above my normal voice to be heard. Ain't nobody dancing. There are women with gold everything outfits. There are men with Coogi shirts on. I can smell the desperation in the air, or maybe that's the Black Love incense that's burning all night long. Bad weaves and age inappropriate clothes are the norm. There are middle aged men leering at 20 something females and desperate looking 20 something females showing all their cleavage to these same middle aged men.

And you didn't want to let me in because I didn't have on the right shoes? Like I said, I didn't know I was going to a grown and sexy club, otherwise I would have broke out the hard bottoms. But for real, it wasn't that serious. I was still easily in the top ten percentile of dopeness in my pink shirt, jeans and casual shoes. I got in on the strength of the cousin's husband knowing everybody, but I just found it funny that I was getting turned away in light of all of the mess that was going on inside that place. Probably would have been for the best, cuz that wack club was not for me.  

Whatever Happened To...

This post is what happens when I can't sleep, and my mind starts to drift. Some of these "Whatver happeneds" are things that only I would think of. I made a conscious effort not to sound like an old curmudgeon, so you'll notice no "whatever happened to good music like we had back in my day" ones. Feel free to add your own in the comments.

Whatever happened to Claudette Ortiz?. You remember the singer from City High. They had that song "What Would You Do?" She was supposed to be the next hot "singer" but I ain't seen or heard from her in years.

Whatever happened to virtual reality? That was supposed to be the big thing. You put on the headset and be transported to a digital world where anything could happen. But I ain't heard nothing about that recently.

Whatever happened to D'Angelo. Is it really possible that this dude that makes such good music only has two studio albums in 15 years. Every now and then you hear about how he's in the studio, or on coke or something, but where is the music?

Whatever happened to John Singleton. His last movie was Four Brothers in 2005. He used to make some good movies (and yes, Jameil I am including "Baby Boy." That joint was dope.) For that matter, whatever happened to Spike Lee's fiction movies. I know he makes docs now, but he hasn't made a real good fiction movie in awhile (with the exception of Inside Man.)

Whatever happened to Elian Gonzalez? I know they sent him back to Cuba, but is he back now? Did he come over on a raft and start pitching for the Yankees? That was a ridiculously big story back in the day.

Whatever happened to TV theme songs? They used to be 30 seconds to a minute, now its like 8 seconds and then the show starts. And its not like the shows are getting longer so they needed to cut out theme music.

Whatever happened to SARS? We don't worry about that no mo'? It's all H1N1 and the rest of the pandemics can go to hell? That ain't killing anymore?

Whatever happened to acid rain? When I was a kid, that's all you ever heard about. Acid rain was going to kill us all or mess up our cars or something. I don't exactly remember. I was a kid. Give me a break. I ain't heard nothing about that in forever. I guess that's been replaced by global warming. Speaking of global warming, whatever happened to El Nino. They used to talk about that all the time too.

Whatever happened to the WNBA? Do they still play? I know they do, because they were constantly giving away tickets to the Atlanta Dream games last year. But does anybody watch anymore? Did anybody ever watch?

Whatever happened to Dominique Dawes? She was hot. And speaking of younger days crushes, whatever happened to Lark Voorhies? You know Lisa from Saved By The Bell?  Where she at?

Whatever happened to Black Enterprise magazine? Do they still publish that?

Whatever happened to Black Rob, G-Dep, Loon, Faith, Craig Mack, 112, Shyne and all the other artists on Bad Boy not named Biggie or Diddy? I blame Puffy.

Whatever happened to R&B singers that didn't want to act like rappers. Ever since Jodeci came out with their hip hop style, R&B just stopped dressing alike and dancing around and stuff. I blame Puffy.

Whatever happened to Dylan, Ness, Babs and the rest of the Making The Band cats. Walking to Harlem for some cheesecake didn't make them no hits. I blame Puffy.

Whatever happened to my 40 acres and a mule? Can I get a conference with Barack to see if we can get that back on track. I'm just saying. I blame Puffy. LOL

What Would You Do?

Say there was a woman that you worked for a couple years. One that you didn’t particularly care for because of her overbearing, suck up attitude, yet at the same time, really really dumb demeanor. Then say that she used to flirt a lot with a dude you knew at the job, like touching and skulking in corners during lunch. Then next thing you know, he gets fired and the word on the street is that said woman filed a case against said dude when their quasi relationship (read: hit and run) went south. Then about a year later, she starts dating this other dude at the office and then when things went south with them, she allegedly was spreading rumors about his… Then fast forward to this week. She is flirting with another dude that you kinda know, but don’t really care about one way or the other. You know him enough to speak when you pass in the hallway, but not enough to have a conversation with. Would you tell him of the impending danger or would you just let him find out himself? In fact, you don’t know if it is anything other than flirting, so your warning may not be necessary. But just in case, do you think you should say something? What would you do?

BTW – This is not my dilemma. I don’t get involved in other people’s mess, I just blog about it. Somebody at the job asked me for my sage advice, to which I told her to mind her business and stay out of it.

New Year's Meme

1. Was 2009 a good year for you? It was up and down, but for the most part it was good.


2. What was your favorite moment of the year? Thanksgiving was cool.



3. What was your least favorite moment of the year? Getting robbed at gunpoint kinda sucked.


4. Where were you when 2009 began? At a club called Artistry with Jameil and Stace. Watching girls fight and listening to "Shoulder Lean" umpteen times.


5. Who were you with? Oops, I already answered.. Jameil and Adei Von K



6. Where will you be when 2009 ends? Not sure yet. I don't get off work til 10, so I have no idea where I'm gonna be.


7. Who will you be with when 2009 ends? Jameil, of course.


8. Did you keep your New Year's Resolutions of 2009? I didn't make one



9. Do you have (a) New Year's Resolution(s) for 2010? Yep, but i'll keep it to myself in case I screw it up.


10. Did you fall in love in 2009? No.I already was in love.


11. If yes, with who?  Jameil


12. If yes, do they know? Sure she does


13. Are you still in love with them? Of course. This line of questioning is getting annoying


14. You regret it? Not at all, still annoying with the questions


15. Did you break up with anyone in 2009?  No, we are still going strong.


16. Did you make any new friends in 2009? Nope, I went 2009 totally friendless, and I'm quite all right with that


17. Who are your favorite new friends? Did you just see that I don't have any?


18. What was your favorite month of 2009? November is the best month. I also liked July when I was with Jameil for long periods of time


19. Did you travel outside of your country of residence in 2009? Nope, need to fix that


20. How many different states / provinces did you travel to in 2009? Georgia, Florida, North Carolina. I guess I drove through South Carolina if that counts.



21. Did you lose anybody close to you in 2009? No, I wasn't close with my mom's husband, but I was sad that he died.



22. Did you miss anybody in the past year? Yes,



23. What was your favorite movie that you saw in 2009? I can't call it. I've seen a ton of movies on DVD and Netflix this year. I guess "The Hangover" was the best I saw in the theater.



24. What was your favorite song from 2009? Impossible to say. I think the one that is stuck in my head right now is "Do Over" by Ghostface and Raheem DeVaughan, but I wouldn't say its my favorite of the year. .


25. What was your favorite record from 2009? It's a toss up between Raekwon's Only Built For Cuban Linx II and Masta Ace and Edo G's "Arts and Entertainment."



26. How many concerts did you see in 2009?  Is it possible I haven't seen 1?



27. Did you have a favorite concert in 2009?see 26



28. Did you drink a lot of alcohol in 2009? Yeah, I did. More the first 7 months, but not as much after



29. Did you do a lot of drugs in 2009?Nope, just sleeping pills. Nothing illegal.



30. How many people did you sleep with in 2009? WTF? Do people actually answer that?



31. Did you do anything you are ashamed of this year? Sure, but I'm too ashamed to tell you. (the real answer is no)


32. Why are these quizzes always missing a number?? I made that question up since it was missing.



33. What was the worst lie someone told you in 2009? "Your performance goals will not change in 2009. We are committed to associate satisfaction."


34. Did you treat somebody badly in 2009? I probably hurt people's feelings, but I wouldn't say I treated them badly.


35. Did somebody treat you badly in 2009? Nah, part of not dealing with people is that they can't treat you badly..


36. How much money did you spend in 2009? More than I wanted to, but less than I made.



37. What was your proudest moment of 2009? I'm just proud that I'm happy, healthy, and able to keep my sense of humor when bad stuff happens around me. I know it's not a moment, but I'm still proud.



38. What was your most embarrassing moment of 2009? I don't really get embarrassed easily. They would all be minor embarrassing moments that I would then come home and blog about. 


39. If you could go back in time to any moment of 2009 and change something, what would it be? Stop my mom's husband from dying.



40. What are your plans for 2010? I'll tell you this one in a few weeks.

Kwanzaa

You may want to take away my black card for this one. Here goes: I don’t really care about Kwanzaa. There, I said it. Go ahead and jeer me and call me a sellout. Now, let me explain why. I used to participate peripherally, but haven’t for some time. Here’s my problem with it. It’s not a religious holiday. I can’t put it in the same category as Christmas or Hannukah because it’s not based on a faith. While I know, the practices surrounding the more traditional religions are not necessarily religious, the holiday itself is. Say what you will about Santa usurping Jesus, but there would be no Christmas without him. From what I can tell, Kwanzaa was created in 1966. I don’t know the details, and perhaps I should study them, but I can’t revere it as a holiday. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a wonderful concept, but I’m not completely sold.

That being said, if you want to get your Umoja, kujichagulia, ujima, ujamaa, nia, kuumba, and imani on, more power to you. I just can’t bring myself to be fully invested.

Merry Christmas

By the time you read this, I should be in Charlotte with Jameil and her family. I’ll be meeting her sister for the first time and apparently hundreds of cousins too. I hope everyone is having a wonderful day with their families and that you got everything you wanted. If not, then get it yourself, you cheap freeloaders. LOL I’m kidding. Again, Merry Christmas.