Wheh!

I made it back last night and like I said in the previous post I was too tired to write. I just got out of a meeting a school and now I can share.

Day 1 - I left work and went home to get my bags. I decided to carpool with a female colleague. She drove. Mistake #1. She was late getting to my house to get me. We had to drive about an hour to the airport because the tickets were $140 cheaper to fly out of Raleigh as opposed to Greensboro. I like to save money when I can. If the tickets had only be $50-60 cheaper, then I would have paid the extra $$ to fly from Greensboro. Anywho, like I said she was late getting me. Once we got on the highway I was nervously watching the speedometer noticing that she was hovering around 60 miles per hour. In a fit of desperation I finally blurted out that we were not going to make it to the airport in time to catch the flight (foreshadowing - remember that from ninth grade English?) if we kept up this pace. She sped to about 70. I was thinking wow you're really going fast now. It was at this point that she shared with me that there was something wrong with her transmission and she couldn't go very fast. I'm thinking the transmission. That's major. If you had said that before we left, I would have gladly driven. Please understand that I don't like to ride with people because I trust myself and my automobile more than other people's stuff because I maintain my vehicle. No shade tree mechanics. I take my ride to the dealership.

When we made it to the airport we went to the self check in kiosks and we couldn't check in without assistance. I knew what that meant. We were too late. Of course that's the message that the people behind the desk communicated to us. The flight we were scheduled to be on was the last flight leaving out that day on Northwest. We checked other airports and other hubs to see if we could fly to another hub and catch a connection to Dallas. No such luck. They wouldn't put us on another airline either. The best they could do is offer us the first flight the next day. Meanwhile I had a hotel reservation in Dallas for Thursday night because the conference was starting early Friday morning. Before I finally accepted that I wasn't going to Dallas on Thursday without coming out my pocket to just buy another ticket I pulled out all the stops. Usually I can convince people to be sympathetic to my plight--especially if the person is a woman. If I do say so myself, I can be very charming and persuasive. Imagine my surprise when exhausting every ploy and tool in my bag of tricks she still had not agreed to put me on another airline so that I could get to Dallas Thursday night. She gave us the "distress passenger" coupon for a nearby hotel so we just crashed in Raleigh waiting on the flight for the next day. We got something to eat. My colleague was so apologetic; she didn't want me to talk shit about her. She was like please don't be mad at me. I told her if I were mad you would know. I'm not usually really good at hiding my emotions--a flaw that I sometime manipulate to be advantageous for me.

Both of us were hungry so we caught the hotel shuttle to get a bite. On the ride the dude was taking us on all these back roads with no streetlights. I'm thinking to myself and then I asked her--let's call her Michelle--why are there no streetlights? What is he doing? My mind started thinking about how he could be taking us to a secluded area to slaughter us or something terrible like that. It was at the point that I decided if I didn't soon see some civilization that I was going to open the door and jump out. I was not comfortable because I just had an erie feeling. And the dude wasn't talking to us. I mean, he could have been tired or whatnot, but there's nothing wrong with being pleasant and making small talk if to do nothing more but put people at ease. Eventually we made it back home and crashed.

Day 2 - We woke up around 5 a.m. to be at the airport by 6:15 because our flight was scheduled to depart at 7:10 a.m. I checked my bag and had a carry on. I thought they had relaxed the liquid rules at the airport but apparently I was mistaken. They told me I could go back downstairs and check my carry on if I didn't want them to throw away all my stuff. I tried to do that but it was too late to check any more bags by the time I got down there so I ended up having to go back through security and still got all my stuff thrown away. The flight was uneventful. We had a connection in Memphis so I got to try the infamous Corky's since they had a little place in the airport. I had a pulled pork barbecue sandwich that was decent. When we finally landed in Dallas we caught the train to the hotel. There's a tunnel that leads from the train station to the hotel. Absolutely ingenious and so ultra convenient. If you clicked the link you see the tall structure with the ball up top? I'll pause while you look if you didn't already. Okay, now that you have the visual, I wanted to go in there but it was closed for renovations. It's one of those revolving restaurant deals where you can get a panoramic view of the skyline. I chose the hotel in part because of this. I feel like they need to make an announcement on the hotel web page to say that the tower is closed so that people will at least be aware and possibly make another choice of hotel.

When I got to the hotel I was waiting in the line for Gold Passport members. The front desk clerk made the asinine move mistake of taking the next customer in line before calling me. I wasn't having it. I let her know that I wasn't confused about where I was standing and that I am in fact a GPM and would like to be treated as such. She apologized profusely and got me straight with my room. I appreciated that. You should have seen the indignant looks on the Caucasian people's faces who I was taken in front of. For a night at a hotel you can use MasterCard. For the look on their faces when I was shown preferential treatment--priceless.

Before I checked in we jumped right into the conference sessions. The stuff that people were presenting was so substandard. I was encouraged because I know that I can do a presentation if that's all that is required. Of course I wouldn't be half azz when I do a presentation because it has my name on it, but for what I saw it appears that anyone who signed up to present was afforded the opportunity.

That night we went to a club called Purgatory. I didn't know the name of the club until we had been inside for probably an hour. I ordered a long island from the bar but didn't like it. I don't waste liquor because it's expensive in the club, but I threw it away. Had a good time. Kinda felt like college days. I stumbled home good and sweaty around 4:40 a.m. Of course we had sessions on Saturday morning beginning at 8:15 a.m. When I got back to the hotel Michelle had already left the club and was asleep. We shared a room, but not a bed. I slept on the roll away and let her have the bed, even though I'm the GPM among us.

So I'm actually leaving out a part of the story. I started not to write this part, but I may as well be truthful. I left the club about 2:00 with this girl I met inside. We walked to another club in the area but left after a few minutes. We were both feeling fresh and feeling each other. Yeah so you see where this is going. When it was over I called a cab from her spot and that's when I stumbled in the room at 4:40 a.m. subsequent to me getting my rocks off. By the way, ole girl has an oral ability that should be studied. I would rank her in my top three seriously.

This is turning into a lot....I'll do days three through five tomorrow.

Tired

I'm gonna write about the events of my trip to Dallas probably tomorrow after work. I just got back and I'm just too tired to sit down and put anything together.

I have a conference to go to in Dallas. I'm still home but my flight leaves in under 2 hours. I thought about changing from my work clothes to some jeans, but for some reason when I'm dressed in a tie things at the airport jsut seem to go more smoothly for me. Sometimes I get picked for the "random" search, but as I reflect, I've never been picked for the psuedorandom search when I was dressed in slacks. Does anyone know anywhere in Dallas I can get in some trouble? If I do happen do anything interesting while I'm there I'll be sure to share.

Even in 2007?

I had been going through some financial stuff and whatnot. When I was able to recover from the issue, I decided to take myself a little trip to unwind. This was in December of 2007 around the 20th. I went to the city of brotherly love. I didn't really know anyone, except a couple of homeboys from college, but that wasn't really my purpose. I hit them up so that we could hang out while I was there, but my main purpose was just to chill and unwind. I stayed at a decent spot while I was there. I'm actually a gold passport member, so I collect points and get discounts when they offer promotions.

The second day of my stay I decided to go to
Ms. Tootsie's. You know, that's one of the restaurants the queen of television spoke about on one of her shows. If Oprah puts her seal of approval on it, then you know it's bonafide. Remember when she said something about not eating beef and some of the heavys from the beef industry sued her for lost profits? I enjoyed what I ate. When it was over I wanted to stroll down South Street and check out the scene before returning home. At some point it got a little wet and messy. I tried unsuccessfully to hail a cab for about 20 minutes. 20 freakin' minutes.

I thought that perhaps the reason that the cab drivers weren't stopping was because I wasn't doing it right. Maybe I should have been flailing my arms in a left to right motion instead of up and down. I'm not exactly a city slicker. Being a good ole country boy I thought that my cab hailing ability left something to be desired, as hailing cabs is not a valued skill in the south because everyone has a car. Anyway, no one would stop. Meanwhile the drizzle has turned to light rain. I start the trek back to my hotel. I ran up on some dudes hustling cds on the street. I asked them why the cab drivers wouldn't stop for me. They told me that there had recently been a series of cab driver murders committed by individuals who looked like me.

Let me describe my appearance. I looked like an Express model, minus the height. Loafers, jeans, sweater, light bubble jacket. Clearly not threatening. And it's not like I have dreads or anything that people associate with a threatening black man. I'm clean cut, small framed and well attired. Still these m effas wouldn't stop for me. So I'm still just walking back to my hotel. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks.

That's RACIST like a mug!! Here I am staying at the fuckin' Hyatt Regency looking like an Express model (I'll throw in articulate--you know how white people say that like it's a compliment that you can use the King's English) and these peeps won't give me a ride that I'm willing to pay for back to my hotel. I wasn't headed to the projects or the rough side of town, but they wouldn't even stop so that I could tell them where I was going. They simply saw my outer shell and opted to keep it moving. I guess they don't need money that bad.

Other than that I had a good time just unwinding and chilling. I met some interesting people one night on the street. (Don't ask). Suffice it to say that I've never met a stranger.

I Got the Hook Up

When I went downstairs this morning after a rather event less night, the living room carpet, kitchen and bathroom were soaked. I discovered that some kinda way the toilet downstairs had sprung a leak. Where the toilet meets the ground--you know where the caulking is--there was a steady stream of water just running out. Talk about freak occurrences. I called the maintenance emergency line and after about 20 minutes they sent someone. Did those m effas hear me say "emergency"? I left while ole boy did his thizzle to fix the problem. By the way, I was expecting the regular maintenance dude but instead I got a white boy who looked like he had just done meth or was on his way for a hit as soon as he finished.

I'm out doing the Saturday morning errand thing. I dropped my car at the car wash. Call me old fashioned, but I don't do those AutoBell type car washes. No machines on my fiberglass. Only real live hands can get near it. When I got out the car these two workers approached me trying to get me to have my car compounded which costs like $150-200. I was like not for that price. I've been getting along just fine. I mean, the car was in desperate need of a makeover, but I just hadn't planned on putting that kind of money into it today just on a random Saturday errand trip. We negotiated on a flat rate of $100 to do the job. He did a little test area on the trunk for me before I decided to let him do his thing. I was pleased with that so I got him to do it for me. I walked about three blocks to the barber shop.

When I got there it was thick as it was Saturday morning, but luckily my barber only had the guy whose hair he was cutting in front of me. After my barber brought sexy back, I went to the ATM (still walking) to get the cash I was gonna need to pay the dude working on the car. Understand that I got from the tone of the two dudes' voices and the fact that they pulled me to the side that this was going to be some under the table/side hustle type stuff. When he was finished with the car, I asked just to be sure if I was supposed to pay him or the guy at the cash register. He told me to pay him and to just get in the car. Mind you, the dude behind the cash register is now outside with us watching this go down. I'm sure he suspected that his coworker was involved in something unscrupulous because he had been watching Mr. Compound work on one car for about three hours and dude behind the counter knows how much money it costs for that service. He knew that no one had been in to pay for that type of service, so I'm sure the sum of those circumstances raised his ire. Anyway, I got in the car thinking to myself, "I'm taking orders from a stranger. This has got to be illegal." Before I got in the car I had made a motion to take the money out. That's when he told me to get in the car and he'd get it from the other side. Again, I'm thinking that this is weird because he's orchestrated how to complete this transaction without seeming, in his mind, suspicious. I laid the money on the space between the gear shift and the arm rest where the ashtray is and he was wiping down the exterior of the car. He opened the door like he was wiping down the interior of the car and swiped the cashed, asked me if I was pleased with his work, I said yeah and he kept it moving. I drove off quite amused knowing that I had participated in this deception. The realism is, though, that the car looked 346,764.92 times better than when I took it in there.

I grabbed something to eat from K&W. The couple in front of me looked kinda sad. They were black and had about five children, one of whom was in a carrying thing (I can't remember the name, but you know what I'm talking about). Ole dude ordered multiple entrees for his plate. K&W is ala carte like Picadilly or Morrison's or whatever they have in your neck of the woods. Back home my living room had been totally rearranged (read: messed up). The maintenance dude moved stuff to one side of the room revealing the poor job I had done of vacuuming regularly. There's also this blower down there that is supposed to be helping the carpet dry faster. They moved my table and chairs in the dining area as well. I wonder if they expect me to move that stuff back or if they plan to move it back when they come pick up that fan.

A friend of mine I'm sure is quite upset with me because I wouldn't take any of her calls yesterday. Sometimes you're just not in the mood to talk. Nothing personal.

I'm a visual learner so here are pics of the whip and my ransacked living area. I threw in an extra. The last one is of my immediate family at Christmas. You finally get to see him*. At this time he's blind and a double amputee.





Left to right
1st row: My younger brother and him
2nd row: My older sis, my mom and myself - Don't I look like I don't belong? I was uncomfortable because I really don't do him and don't like to be in his presence for extended periods of time. By the way in this pic I'm around 145 lbs. down from the 171. Now I'm at 140. I'm not going much further.

Let My People Go

I'm sick of this school. I need to get hired in the A. I can't wait until I can move. These Negroes get on my effin nerves. I was late Tuesday. When I got to my classroom Mr. G was in my room with my students getting ready to make a phone call to someone. I don't know who he was getting ready to call. I was maybe ten minutes late. I come on in and start class and he slips out the door. No problem. Later on that day he sees me and makes a comment that I need to fix my alarm clock. Why *plural form of the word that we buried* gotta try to be slick out the mouth? Since he gotta put his mouth on me about me being a few minutes late, I decided not to come to work the next day at all. Was I being petty? Maybe because I know I'm leaving I just don't care anymore. One day I'll be able to say I'm free at last. I need to be out of this toxic environment.

Obligatory Post

I'm at home right now in the bed when ordinarily I would be at work. I decided to take me a day. I haven't taken very many days off this school year and so I figure I'm due a day to just stay home and chillax. I'll grade some papers perhaps that I've been "grading" for the last five or six days and do a little house work and whatnot. I'll probably rewatch the last episode of The Wire that's on OnDemand and face devastation again as I see my favorite character be so unceremoniously gunned down, with no warning, pomp or circumstance. Now that he's gone, I can't image what they are going to do for the final couple of episodes.

I bought some books the other day from the local Barnes and Noble. I have Race Matters by Cornel West, "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" by Dr. Beverly Tatum and Raising Black Boys by Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu. Sometimes I'll get on a 'black' kick and just wanna read stuff and be intellectual and whatnot.

I haven't heard anything from the application I submitted for Atlanta Public Schools, but I'm sure they'll be contacting me soon. I mean, I'm young black and a man--who wouldn't want me to teach their kids? Not to mention the fact that I'm actually good at what I do.

Off the subject, but let's say you used to talk to this girl (or boy or whatever depending on who you talk to). A lot of time has passed since ya'll parted ways, but sometimes you think of them fondly and kinda wish ya'll could try again. You've been with other people and so has she. As a matter of fact she's with someone right now. If you were really feeling her again, would you step to her even though she's with someone else or would you let it ride? What if the person is married?

By the way I'm watchin' ole Barak. I really like him. I even have a picture of him on my fridge from when I went to hear him speak. I'm hesitant about him receiving the nomination, but the way things are looking, he just might pull it off.