Showing posts with label random. Show all posts
Showing posts with label random. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

So....


So I've been busy and whatnot. Not making excuses, but I'm just saying. I've been reading blogs all morning and have a renewed sense of purpose about sharing with my long lost blog buddies. I'm sure nobody is gonna stop by to really read since I kinda fell off the map for several months, but I promise I'll do what I can to get back on your blogrolls and to become a part of your regular blog reading rotations. Okay, enough of that.

So since during the summer months I have a more relaxed schedule, I am able to go in for a few hours a day if I feel like it or when I'm called. I love everything about being on your own schedule. Right now we're in the midst of a transition on my job. Much to my chagrin, we're moving forward with new leadership for this upcoming school year. This puts me in quite a precarious position. Here's why. Whenever there's a change in leadership, often the entire leadership team and persons who were loyal to the vision of the leadership or in support of the same are slowly moved out. I don't necessarily anticipate that this will be my fate, but I'd be foolish to think that it is not at least a possibility. In addition, the people who have wanted to 'get at me' because they were jealous of the relationship I had with my former supervisor now probably feel that it's their time to come up in the world. Those who know me well know that I am not intimidated by this. I can hold my own. Again, I'd be foolish, however, to pretend that this is not a real possibility and would be even more foolish to believe that it isn't likely that some people might attempt to capitalize on this and attempt to throw me under the bus. These feelings have been undergirded by the reports I've received from persons informing me that people are indeed beginning to run off at the mouth. Not to worry. These are the people who will feel the cold steel of stricter observations and increased visibility for their many shortcomings. If we gon do whatever, then we need to be prepared to have whatever done back to us. It's not right, but it's okay. (Somebody stop me.)

So in the very near future I will be making a voyage to Savannah, Georgia, to put right what for years has been so tragically wrong. I don't like nothing (a purposeful double negative) about what's going on at home. After having lost two limbs, sight, functioning kidneys, and in the absence of a heart that is functioning in the way that God originally ordained, him* is still acting a fool. Unreal. Be having my moma up at all hours of the night looking up stuff online and reading him* the Bible. I cannot for the life of me figure out why she won't just shut that B.S. down. People who don't have legs, eyes, kidneys, and only have perfunctory hearts, DO NOT MAKE DECISIONS. Since everyone at home doesn't seem to know this, it is encumbered upon me to be the voice of reason to bring this message to the forefront so that everyone will be aware. In many ways I feel like a savior with a message of deliverance. It's my job to set the captives free! So did I also mention that the church voted him* out? Him* still feels like him* needs to be preaching so him* coerces my sister into updating his resume and mailing it out to various churches in the area, begging for preaching engagements so that him* can take his tainted message of the road. UN-FUCKING-REAL! It absolutely unnerves me that this foolishness is going on. I cannot take those people. And they wonder why I don't go home. I simply cannot get with that ridiculousness. Who does that? So now churches now have to add to their list of requirements:

  • Of good report
  • Faithful and diligent
  • People person
  • Walking
  • Seeing
  • Able to effectively exegete a text
  • A visionary

Sounds absurd right? Yeah, so is thinking that someone who is unable to walk and see and is generally in poor health is ready or fit to be a pastor of a church.

So I've been actively seeking high risk insurance on him*. I found a company. At this point I've given them all of the required information and am just waiting on them to get back with me on the terms. Basically, if they write me the policy, I'm sitting on a lottery ticket.

So this is random, but let's see, so far we've covered job and family stuff. I woke up this morning with an insatiable desire for some french toast. I made some but then got even a lil more inventive. I decided to try to make a smoothie of sorts to go with my french toast and bacon. I used cantaloupe, kiwi, grapes, milk and a little orange juice. It was almost terrible, but nevertheless I didn't want to waste food so I drank it anyway. I included a pic. Doesn't it just look aweful?


So I thought I'd add....

I laid my brother's soul to rest in the Popeye's parking lot. He play too much and he play with grown folks.

I went to bingo the other day and had a blast. I've gotta get back on my bingo grind.

Been hanging out in DC a little more now. The city really has grown on me.

There was something else I was about to write about but it just slipped my mind. I hate when that happens.

Take care....I'll update soon.

Friday, June 6, 2008

No Excuses

We had a pretty good time yesterday, although we left sixteen minutes late. One of the students got off the bus to use the restroom and I didn't know and I instructed the driver to go and so she got left. That says to me that you have to be in place. So many people want to operate outside the covering. If you had to use the restroom, there were some options. One option would be to make use of the facilities on the charter bus. Otherwise it is critical that you inform someone where you are going so that someone would know and could be accountable and awaiting your safe and speedy return.

Not all of the students chose to ride the bus. Some of them drove down on their own and paid the full price admission fee for the park. Again, that's what happens when you operate outside the covering. There's safety in the ark. If you had done what you were asked to do, then you could have saved about thirty dollars. It's not a big deal to me though. If they like it, I love it. I am one who likes to save a dollar whenever possible.

What is disheartening is that so many of these kids have a poverty mentality. They live in substandard housing with under- or uneducated guardians whose idea of a good time is facing a couple of blunts, frying some fish and washing it down with some alcohol.

Don't you just love it when people want to put their mouths on you instead of stepping to you and asking you what you feel about something. If you have a question about something, feel free to ask. I have no problem explaining to someone how I feel about something. That's not to say that I will address all inquiries. Some things are better left unsaid. But, for the most part, I will gladly field any inquiries.

Z didn't get too much darker yesterday at the park. I used SPF 70 with helioplex. I don't even know what helioplex is, (doesn't helio- mean sun?), but I just like to say "...with helioplex." It sounds like it makes all the difference. For those of you who want to get deep, no I do not have a color complex. I simply mean that I did not allow the radiation from the sun to excite the melanin present in my dermis thereby allowing less light to pass through. That is, if you put your color on a prism, the darker it is the less light that will pass through. Now that I've written that a racist could use that and make some really compelling metaphors.

Yeah, so if you've gotten this far you've realized that this is pretty random. No form nor comeliness. I don't know why I've been making so many biblical references lately. Maybe I'm just in one of those phases. That reminds me about this sermon I heard a few weeks ago. Wanna hear about it? Good, cause I was gonna tell ya anyway.

Let me give a little background. This was women's day so the women were ushering, singing in the choir, you know...pretty much doing everything that day. The woman who spoke grew up in this church, but has since moved away and started a life elsewhere complete with a husband and kids and a dog...blah blah blah. She's a minister and an educator and feeds the homeless and rescues stray cats from trees in her spare time.

The sermon title was, "No Excuses." First of all, to me that's more of a secular slogan that an religious theme/idea, but I was willing to listen and see where she was going with this. I'm pretty sure "No Excuses" was a part of an advertising campaign. She used two illustrations from the Bible. The first story was about a woman whose daughter was possessed with a demon and needed to be delivered. The speaker, let's call her Ms. Empty-Air, described how the woman demonstrated her faith when she asked Jesus to heal her child. It didn't appear that Jesus was in the healing mood, if you will, but because of her faith, he did it. Right here is a good time to say Amend. Emphasis on the 'd'. You know everything sounds more holy when you indiscriminately add and subtract letters as (in)appropriate. So basically woman asks for a healing and she receives it. The next story was about Lot's wife. Most people are familiar with this story. This is when Lot and his family were fleeing Sodom and Gomorrah (I wonder which on they actually lived in--or maybe S&G is like Winston-Salem or Raleigh-Durham) and the wife turned back and became a pillar of salt. She and everyone who was in their company fleeing the city had been warned not to look back. Someone should have told her that obedience is better than sacrifice. If I'm preaching you can stand up. Anyway, so she turned into the pillar of salt and everybody else kept going.

If you've forgotten, scroll back up and look at the sermon title in red. Okay, so just like me you're probably wondering what in the world this has to do with anything. What was so egregious is that she just kept peppering the discourse with no excuses like it was so sort of mantra or a theme for which she had laid a solid foundation. As I sat in my pew, I just couldn't make the connection with the illustrations that she chose. All the while she's still walking around hollering No Excuses. Finally she asked the pastor if she could come down on the floor to continue to speak. The pastor obliged. My interested was sparked at this time because I thought she was gonna really make the connection for me and tie up any loose ends in her sermon. so far, I had not gained a single thing. Once she got on the floor she just was talking about women having no excuses. I guess she meant like no excuses about being good wives, good mothers, good Christians, good in the community, faithful in service, etc. If these were her thoughts, she definitely didn't tie it together.

Other people were standing up and encouraging her as she spoke. I was looking around wondering to myself if they were listening to the same oration that I was. She was screaming about no excuses but hadn't said a thing since we had began. Talking loud, but saying nothing. To that I say no excuses. It's almost as if she didn't know she was speaking that morning and didn't have time to prepare. She knew at least a month in advance because I remember hearing it during the church announcements. I get really sensitive about church. I hate it when people speak and don't share anything new with me. Especially with the price of gas! I felt like going up to her and asking for her badge and her keys. I wanted her to turn over her certificate/license to preach because there was no excuse for what she allowed to masquerade as a sermon. I have an explanation for why people were standing up egging her on. Option one: I think that most of the people who were standing were just doing so because she grew up in that church and her mother still attends the church. Maybe they were supporting her and not necessarily supporting what she was saying. Option two: They are absolutely delusional.

Now though I use that phrase as a running joke with some of my friends and associates with whom I've shared this story. At any time one of us might just holler out "no excuses" just for no reason. Pretty much analogous to how she used it. It might have been a little better for her to talk about no excuse for people going to hell because of Jesus' sacrifice. Maybe I'll prepare something and e-mail it to her using that same sermon title. The only difference is what I send her will be coherent (despite the fact that this post isn't) and will be understandable.

Friday, May 2, 2008

Yes You Did

How come when you call back numbers on your cell phone that you don't recognize sometimes the person on the other end swears that no one called? How in the world do you suppose I got this number on my cell phone if no one called? Somebody DID call. Even if it wasn't you, it was somebody. Today I called someone back and he told me that he hadn't made any calls in the last few hours and so it couldn't have been anyone. He asked me if I knew "Maya". I didn't know a Maya. My assumption is that Maya had his phone. He still didn't think anyone had called. What are the chances that I just randomly dialed some numbers just to mess with you about having called me? I'd rather people just say they don't know who called.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

'ruth'

Okay so this is really random and doesn't relate to anything, but it popped in my head as I was having a conversation with myself about someone else. Yeah, I talk to myself, but it's like thinking out loud. Nothing crazy about it. I've come across many people in my day who I would characterize as ruthless individuals. Let's deconstruct this word morphologically. Think back to middle school. The suffix -less means without. So the word ruthless means without ruth. Now what he heck does ruth mean? Have a great day.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Random Ish

*Oh, so when you called me you just acted like nothing even happened.

*If I don't go to the faculty meetings and the principal is in charge of that, how you gonna get mad if I won't come to the department meetings?

*You the one who brought that damned laptop to my apartment. Why the eff do you think I'm gonna bring it back to you? You can come and get it.

*So I left you a message and you haven't called me back yet. I'm not gonna run behind you even if we are blood.

*How come when peeps owe you money, the celluar phone satellites suddenly stop working? You know they say stuff like, "I didn't get your message" or "Something's wrong with my phone."

*I'm getting tired of you. Please stay out of my room. I know I shouldn't act like that, but I'm territorial.

*So I watch for five years for you all to wrap everthing up in fifteen minutes?

*And the person who I wanted to see fall doesn't even go down. Damn.

*Why was I convinced, to the extent that I had already made plans, that our Spring Break was March 17-21? It actually doesn't start until March 24th. Glad I didn't buy that ticket yet.

*I need to call my aunt and get her the CD of the Christmas pictures. I've been meaning to do it since...er..Christmas.

*Moving is such a job. I need to sit down and write out everthing that I need to do.

*I told my supervisor I was leaving early from work. Why did he tell me that I do what I wanna do anyway, so there was no need for me to inform him about my moves. I'm not the person to tell that. Whereas you think that reverse psychology would make me less transient, you just gave me a license to do whatever.

*Some things just seem forced. You know how when you know people are jealous of your success and they really don't like you and you can feel it but everybody keeps going like nothing's wrong?

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Stuff

I'm blogging from my sister's laptop in Savannah. I tried to leave to go back home, but she phoned me to let me know that I left a bag and my coat. I decided to turn around and return to gather my things. Now I'm just waiting until my mom gets off work before I leave. I already saw her today, but I'm a little sleepy so that gives me an excuse to see her one more time and will allow me to get some rest.

Mrs. Campbell, who I call my other mother, said something to me that helped me see things differently with regard to him*. She told me that he already has to answer for his wrongs. I'll be judged based on how I interact with him. That really helped me. I can be cordial. I just have to limit my engagements with him though, because I'm not nearly as strong as it may seem. My inclination is to lash out at him, so I have to be really careful not to go around him too much.

The whole holiday thing went okay. I did leave the house the night before Christmas and considering getting a room, but I decided to return. My mother seems so happy now that I'm home. I know she misses me because it is so rare that I come. She knows why though. She doesn't necessarily like it, but she does know. We only talk about it on occasion. It's kinda like gays in the military - don't ask don't tell. We choose to ignore the big pink elephant that did the somersault in the middle of the living room.

I was glad to see my aunts and uncles and cousins and brother and sister and their families. One brother didn't make it. He and his wife went to her parents' house. I guess that's what you have to do when you're married, but they also went there for Thanksgiving as well. On top of that they didn't send a gift for my mother. He claimed he couldn't afford to buy any gifts this year. He recently got a job and did you miss the part where I said they went to the other in laws' house. We're talking about a three hour drive. I started to call him and go off, but a part of my personal growth and reflection has been for me to take my mouth off people and their situations. As much as I would like to question whether they purchased a gift for his wife's mother, I'm gonna try my best to leave it alone. I'm not trying to make comparisons, but I just have some questions...

This is all over the place. I just checked my email and a guy contacted me about a job. I need to decide whether I plan to follow up with that or not....I could use the extra bread to help me with my relocation expenses.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Random Thoughts

1. I started a new routine since beginning work again. I go to exercise each morning at 5:30 for about an hour, then come home get dressed and go to work. So far so good, but this morning the enemy tried to make me lie in the bed and not go. Get thee behind me Satan!

2. My boss asked me the other day when I was going to call a leadership team meeting. Mind you has not yet talked to me about being leadership chairperson. She sent a message through someone else asking me if I'd be interested. After some debate in my mind I agreed to do it. I had to think about it because last year I told her that I'd be interested in doing it. She gave it to someone else. That person is now in another role and can't do it. I guess that's why she decided to ask me if I'd be interested. On one hand I was offended because I felt like she should have given it to me when I inquired about it. Maybe she didn't feel that I was ready at the time to handle the responsibility. What convinced me to say yes is that it will look good on my resume. Anyway, so she has yet to step to me to officially let me know that I am leadership chairperson. Then all of a sudden I'm asked when I'm going to call a meeting as if to imply that I'm slackin' on my pimpin'. Naw, we ain't havin' that. I told her let's sit down so that we can discuss expectations.

3. How do you strike that balance between not seeming pressed but at the same time indicating your interest? There's this girl (well, woman--we're all grown up now) in whom I'm interested. (I almost said "...girl who I'm interested in", but my obsessive compulsive grammar disorder (OCGD) wouldn't let me, which is weird because I will use colloquialisms like wanna, gonna, etc.)We used to talk back in college. She lives in the ATL. I live in NC. I wanna spark things back up, but I can't tell exactly where her head is. The last time I saw her (about 3 weeks ago) we just kinda talked and whatnot at her spot, but I couldn't talk talk with her because one of her absolutely annoying homegirls was at the spot. This homegirl said a couple of times, "I need to take my azz home," and things of that nature, but next thing I know she done grabbed a blanket and got comfortable on the couch. I was thinking to myself, "Please, please take yo azz home. I got business to handle." Ole girl was like a tree planted by the river--I shall not be moved. Yeah, but I gotta let her know that I'm interested, but at the same time I don’t want to seem like I've been pinning away after her for a couple of years, because that's not the case. Like the old saying goes, you don't know what you have until it's gone.

4. I get so pissed off when my windshield wipers don't work. For whatever reason they work at their own leisure. The crazy thing is I recently had the 60,000 mile service done to the car (okay, it was like three months ago) but still they should have caught that/fixed that issue. When I take it back in I will definitely make sure that they are aware of the problem.

5. Hardly being a tv watcher, I feel so out of the loop about the current gossip and happenings in the world. If I don't find out on the courttv website or something like that I just won't know.

6. I have one friend who calls me daily. I need a good way to say to her that I enjoy conversing with her, but I cannot be productive/get any rest if I'm on the phone for 2 hours at a time. Again, I really do enjoy our conversations, but I don't wish to be tied up for that length of time. Who has 2 hour conversations anymore? Since my grandmother died, that's a thing of the past.

7. Perception is reality for most people. Do people see you differently from how you see yourself? Case in point: A curriculum facilitator (former teacher, now she tells other people how great a teacher she was when she was in the classroom) at my school gave a presentation and when it was over pulled me to the side and asked me my opinion about how she did. I thought she did fine. I asked why she asked me of all the 30 individuals in the room. Her response was because I'm so critical. I really don't know a time when this woman has had opportunity to interact with me and make this assessment. Further I disagree with the assertion. Perhaps I should have requested proof in Whitney Houston-esque fashion ("Show me the receipts!") to substantiate her, in my humble opinion, unfounded claim.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

The African Children's Choir

So, I've slacked off on the posting. What else is new? Today I graded some papers, keyed in the grades and tomorrow I'm going to distribute progress reports to anyone in my AFM class who is failing. We don't want to have any drama toward the end of the nine weeks. I had a filling meal today of not tender enough roast, macaroni and cheese, okra, rice and gravy.

Yesterday a colleague invited me to attend a performance at a sister/partner church of theirs in Durham. Me and some others went down and the performance was unlike anything I had ever seen. It was the African Children's Choir in concert. If you aren't familiar with the ACC, every 15 months a new choir is commissioned with new children. Typically the childrens' ages range from 10 - 12. In this year's cohort there are 9 males and 12 females. The children hail from Uganda, Rwanda and various other countries in Africa. The inaugural choir first performed in 1984. The children travel around the US singing and raising money to send back to African to fund research into stopping the spread of AIDS and to helping find a cure. While the children stay here in the US they study, pray, rehearse their songs and are involved in academic pursuits.

Because the children are of African origin, the children donned intricate stage clothes and their songs were accompanied by dance that I assume is real "African" dance--definitely no Americanized.