Don’t Speak

Peep Chrisette Michelle covering No Doubt’s “Don’t Speak.” I have always loved this song and used to wear out my Tragic Kingdom tape (yes, cassette tape) in high school. I had a real alternative/ska/angsty period that snuggled up to my hip-hop/reggae tunes so No Doubt fit in quite nicely. Oh, and this song stands out because once I was at the skating rink with all my friends, must have been freshman year, and I got into an argument with my boyfriend at the time. I think he was talking to some other girl or whatever. Could’ve been anything back then. Anyway, our friends tried to mediate the whole thing and nothing was working. Someone requested “Don’t Speak” and since at that age we searched for meaning in every lyric of every fucking song, we were so overcome with emotion that we just had to makeup. CORNY, I know. LOL.

 

Vodpod videos no longer available. 

 

 

 

Did he go too far?

One annoying thing about staying at my aunt’s crib is having to deal with my uncle commanding the remote control. He’s got me watching all kinds of bullshit. In additio to the crap he makes me watch on television, then there’s the garbage he subjects me to on WebTV. Yes. There is a WebTV in this house. Mainly, it’s because my aunt won’t let him touch her laptop so he’s banned from accessing the internet like any rational human in 2009.

Anyway, the latest YouTube vid I’ve been subjected to is one of a 15 year old girl being “abused” by the police. It’s an old video (been discussed in the national media and even Al Sharpton’s posse got in on it) but I’ve got to put it to you all. Please watch this and tell me if you think that the officer in the clip abused and battered the girl. My uncle is of the opinion that it was a gross miscarriage of justice (although he would never use words that big) and I wasn’t that offended by the whole thing. Peep game:

Okay. See, being arrested is a scary thing so someone is bound to be irrational. Still, I think the cop gave numerous warnings in a calm manner while trying to handcuff this girl. Apparently she was getting hemmed up by 5-O for a curfew violation, but no matter what, it’s policy of many police departments to handcuff anyone they’re going to put into the car. Safety of the officer, ya know. So let’s assume Officer Gilroy had to cuff her. How many times do I have to tell you to put your hands behind your back before you understand that I need you to put your hands behind your back?! He even said he didn’t want to force her. Clearly Shelwanda is small/skinny and could break a bone or whatever, but that’s all the more reason for her to have chilled out. To me, the situation became worse because of all of her flailing around. The resisting itself makes it more likely that she’ll get hurt. So you’d think if a person were trying to bend  your arm behind your back and it was hurting, you’d quit all the resisting and just let it go. No. Oh… and she bit him. 

My uncle kept reiterating that she was small and of no harm to the officer. Okay, true. still, I think she did as much contributing to whatever injury she sustained as the officer did. Tell me, how else was he supposed to get her cuffed and in the car? The vid’s editor makes a point of slowing down certain parts but I think the slo-mo exaggerates it instead of allowing us to see more clearly.

I concede that the push into the hood of the car and the pepper spray may be a bit extra. Buuuuuut sistergirl needed to calm the fuck down and maybe if he didn’t subdue her that way, she would have continued to resist and ended up getting more hurt in the end.

Or I’m just wrong and I support police abuse.
Discuss.

Throwback tune

Yesterday, I was at a Memorial Day BBQ with my girls from way back. After stuffing ourselves, playing some Taboo and several drinks, we sat back and listened to some 90s music. In honor of all the fun I had yesterday and reminiscing about the grown-ass songs we had no business singing as teens, here’s an oldie but goodie.

so long as you die happy?

I used to have this cat named Tiggah (womp womp, yeah I know). Anyway, I got Tig when I was a junior in college and had this lil off campus apartment. At first my roommates were all like “that’s your cat so no one else is responsible for taking care of him”. I could understand that. However, after a little while, Tig began to grow on everyone who came around. He was so cute and I watched him grow from the little kitten I got from the shelter into a nice lil young adult cat. LOL. Then I eventually graduated from college and had plans on going away to Louisiana for law school (obvy I didn’t go there, but it’s a long story) and in the meantime I was moving around. I couldn’t really take Tig with me all around so I brought him to my Auntie’s crib and basically gave him to her. It worked out because she freakin loves Tig. LOVES him. Spoils him like nothing else. The one thing that bothers me though is that Tiggah is a fat cat.

Not fat cat like Garfield who is a comic/cartoon cat that talks to a dog and eats lasagna. Garfield is funny. Tiggah is a real cat who can develop diseases and die from obesity-related conditions. Tiggah is not funny. Ever watch Maury and see those parents whose 4 year old children are obese? The parents usually say that they have trouble telling their kids no or they want to provide their kids with everything they want. If those wants happen to be food, so be it. My aunt is like that. There are cat treats all over the place.

Sorry Tig

She and my uncle feed him all day long, wet food too. When I had Tig, I tried to balance his wet and dry food intake. Why? Well he loved the wet food and would gobble it all up. He’d eat it if it was there, even if he wasn’t hungry. but the dry food, he liked okay but you knew it wasn’t his fave. He’d only eat that when he had to eat SOMEthing. Here, in addition to the dry food being out all the time, new cans of wet food are popped open all day and treats are given out. It irks me so much.

You’d think I’d be upset because Tiggah used to be my cat and now he’s this fat hairball who can barely jump up on the window sill. No. I’m upset because I see the treatment of the cat as an extension of how my aunt and uncle view food themselves. Both of them are overweight. I should probably note that they’re brother and sister, not husband/wife. Anyway, my aunt suffers from a ton of problems with her back and joints that she could likely relieve should she lose some weight. My uncle has been diagnosed as a diabetic but still eats like food is going extinct. I probably wrote about this before, but I am prejudiced against overweight people. I can’t help it. It doesn’t make sense to me to KNOW you’re ill because of your size and continue to do nothing about it. Now granted, I understand that there are a lot of psychological issues and some biological issues behind overeating. I know because I can identify some of those psych issues in my aunt pretty easily. I’m just saying.

grad recap

Warning: self-pitying bitching ahead.

What’s the point of going to your graduation? I’d say there are two major reasons: (1) you do it for your family and friends so they can celebrate your achievement and be proud of you and stuff like that. (2) you do it for yourself so that you can have some kind of culmination, closure and celebration of your hard work. That being said, I probably shouldn’t have gone to my graduation.

Before I start my rant and complaining, I want to thank my friends who came to see me walk across the stage, especially those who traveled across states to do so. Everyone contributed in their own way (a ride, emergency funds, their apartment lol). Even though I had six friends there with me, I couldn’t help but be aware of the fact that I only had six friends there with me. Let me start from the beginning though.

Yesterday was really rushed, I felt. I had to take a bus from NYC down to Philly the day of the graduation. As of right now, I don’t really live anyhwere so I didn’t have a spot to stay overnight in Philly before the graduation. As soon as I got in the city, I had to get picked up and taken over to the bookstore where I was supposed to pick up my graduation regalia (cap and gown, hood and tassel). I had planned on having it earlier but was unable to get to Philly. They wouldn’t let anyone pick it up for me so I had to wait until the day of. Anyway, I get there and they tell me that they don’t have any regalia for me. EXCUSE ME? Naturally, I stopped dealing with that undergrad lackey and started talking to the managers. Phone calls were made, we searched for the confirmation, everything. No dice. Yo, I know I sat in my room in Tokyo and ordered that shit. Well they don’t let you walk in the graduation if you don’t have regalia. One of my friends had to purchase the $80 doctor’s gown set for me about 10 minutes before I had to be lined up. The stress of that whole ordeal sent me into tears which pissed me off because I was messing up my eye makeup and I didn’t want anyone to think I was crying because I was graduating cuz, well, that’s lame.

Commencement 2009

Hey all. My school is live streaming graduation for those who want to but cannot be there. Cool, huh?

Catch the ceremony on May 21st at 4pm HERE!

Honestly, the thing is kind of boring but you know, be on the lookout for your girl!

Yep, still here.

Hey sweeties! I’m still alive, although it doesn’t always feel like it. Still playing the waiting game… waiting to pin down what I’m going to be doing with my life. Who knows. I graduate on Thursday, so that should be fun after I knock out all the stress of getting to the ceremony. In the meantime I’ve been checking in on my family, going to the movies and catching up on season one of True Blood. Yo, WHY did they have to kill off Lafayette? I loved him! All set for season two now, though. Can we talk about the Grey’s Anatomy finale too? Shonda Rhimes and co were trying to take me through changes with George being all jacked up (to the point he was unrecognizable), Christina finally breaking down and saying she loved homeboy, Izzy nearly dying! WTF?! I’m glad they got their shit together and didn’t go down the drain like Heroes did.

What else is new? Well on my trip home I learned that I’m probably destined to have my uterus removed. Yep. See my mom had a hysterectomy (partial) last month. Her older sister had one some years ago. Her mom (my grandmom) had one too. This is all before they were 50 years old. I have another aunt in the pipeline so we’ll see if she can hold onto her plumbing but it’s not looking good. Borderline TMI (but we’ve gone there before, right), the women in my family have always had issues with really bad/painful periods and fibroids and shit like that. If you know anything about fibroids, they’re more common in women of color so the fact that I’m Black and my womenfolk have experienced them means I’m pretty likely to follow suit. There’s also the fear of cancer which was why my mom had hers cut out. What does all of this mean? I’m 27. I’m thinking that I need to get on the road to having some kids before I need to get my uterus snatched. All the more reason to get my shit together, right?

Finally, in news unrelated to my reproductive system, if you haven’t already done so, you need to listen to & purchase Tanya Morgan’s Brooklynati! I wouldn’t steer you wrong. Available in stores, on iTunes, or go to Myspace and take a listen for yourself. The concept is pretty cool with the three emcees from Brooklyn and Cincinnati (duh, Brooklynati!) bringing you hip hop you canNOT be mad at. If you wanna get better acquainted with Brooklynati, hit up the city’s site: http://www.brooklynati.com/home.html.

Nine to One

Yep. I swiped this from Ms. Glennisha who got it from Bella. My family is driving me nuts already (it has been less than 4 days!) so this is what you get out of my boredom… If you do it on your blog, tag me!

9 Lasts
1. cigarette: About two or three weeks ago in Tokyo. No, I don’t smoke, but I was in this bar called Propaganda where they have cigarettes on the bar, gratis, like beer nuts or something. I grabbed one and lit it, pulled and remembered why I hated them. DISGUSTING! I just had to do it though cuz, you know, they were free.
2. beverage: Blue Kool-Aid. LOL, I’m at home!
3. kiss: I don’t kiss and tell…
4. hug: Cinco de Mayo
5. movie seen: Halloween, the remake. Michael Myers was fucking twisted.
6. CD played:CD? I had my iPizzle on shuffle last night.
7. song listened to: I think some Day 26 crap. Sue me.
8. bubble bath: New Year’s Eve. In that big ass hotel bathtub. With people coming in and out of the bathroom.
9. time you cried: Last week.

8 Have you evers
1. dated one of your best friends: Negativo
2. skinny dipped: Yes, back in college. SPRING BREAK!
3. kissed somebody and regretted it: Yes
4. fallen in love: So I thought
5. lost someone you loved: Yes
6. been depressed:Yes. For sure.
7. been drunk and threw up:Sheeeeit. Do you know me?
8. ran away: Nope.

7 States you’ve been to
New York, North Carolina, Florida, California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma

6 Things you’ve done this week
1. Arrived in the United States
2.Ate my mom’s home cooking
3. Drank margaritas
4. Looked for work
5. Visited my grandpa
6. got into like three arguments

5 Favorite things in no order
1. Music
2. The internet
3. Salsa
4. Shopping
5. Dancing

4 People you last talked to
1. My Auntie
2. My Uncle
3. My mother
4. My Grandpa

3 Wishes
1. To be independent again
2. To accomplish my short-term goals
3. Deiminished reliance on foreign oil. lol

2 Things you want to be when you grow up
1. A dancer
2. A veterinarian

1 Thing you regret
1. Not becoming a dancer or veterinarian.

Update 5/9

Grades are in and I didn’t do as poorly as I had thought possible. That’s pretty much always the case, but I guess it’s best sometimes to expect the worst so that you’re pleasantly surprised in the end. That International Dispute Resolution exam was the one I worried about the most and I ended up getting a B! That’s pretty amazing considering that I had lost all my  notes prior to the exam, I had the time wrong and ended up with 30 min less than everyone else to take the test and I never got around to finishing or fixing the first answer that I knew had mistakes in it. The only explanation for my grade is that everyone else in the class did a pretty lackluster job on the test, fixing the curve in my favor. Thanks guys!!

So what am I doing now? As I said last entry, I’m back in the USA. For the past week I’ve been hopping around 3 cities staying wherever while I try and land a job. I have a hard time understanding how people are content with having nothing to do all day (unless they live in paradise). Now that I have no classes to wake up for and no job to run out to and no money to spend on anything I’m pretty much just reading and job searching and sleeping… a lot. It’s borderline trifling because I’m all out of my “i’m jetlagged” excuses. I know, this is so not bourgie but trust, I can remain pretty bourg in my poverty and desolation. LOL.

I’m kind of excited tomorrow though because my mom is coming over and cooking. I will put my mom’s cooking up against any of yall’s. Seeing as I haven’t had her cooking in ages, I’m pretty hype. I’m not even gonna be shy. I’m gonna have multiple helpings. It’s pretty good that I don’t visit home that much, or else I’d probably be fat. I’m not really sure how long I’ll be here. My family tends to grate on my nerves pretty easily. To be honest, I’m considering going back to Japan and taking the NY bar over there in the winter. Tickets aren’t so bad right now but I’d still have to tap dance with bottle caps stuck into my chucks to raise the funds :/

That’s it for now. I’ll just catch up on television I missed out on while in TKY.

Back to America/Almonds

Oh man. I’ve been flying like a crazy person. I’m so tired of traveling. Let’s see, I left Tokyo on May 1 and flew for 10 hours to Los Angeles. I’d like to point out that I lived for two Fridays. Yes. I traveled into the past. See I left Japan on Friday evening then arrived in California on Friday morning! Crazy, right?

The flight would have been great because I love Singapore Airlines but I was stuck next to the stinkiest man I’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting in life. LIFE! Ugh. I didn’t know what to do about it. I considered asking the flight attendant to talk to homeboy, see if he had a clean shirt in his carry-on or if he could go to the bathroom and splash some water on his pits. I consider myself a straight shooter but I didn’t realize how difficult it is to tell a stranger, a foreigner, that they stink to high fucking hell.

Like I said, normally flying on Singapore is great. They served two delicious meals, bring you all kinds of free liquor, give you slipper socks and a toothbrush… I even had significant leg room. Too bad Dr. Stankenstein was next to me. It wasn’t too bad once he sat still and quit stirring up the funk. I was literally covering my face. Speaking of face covering, this fool had the NERVE to put on one of those face masks that Japanese people (and surgeons and those afraid of Swine Flu) be rocking. Oh word? I’M the one who needs to be wearing a mask to guard against YOU! Ugh.

Anyway, I get to LAX where I have a 9 hour layover. With nothing to do and nowhere to go, I just chilled in the terminal from 1pm to 10pm. What did I do in all that time? Had lunch, had dinner. Read. Listened to iPod. Played with my Blackberry. Sat next to an NBA player who was waiting on a delayed Southwest Flight. That shit boggled my mind because recession be damned, I don’t know why homeboy is flying one of the cheapest airlines around AND waiting on that shit to boot!

Finally, I boarded a flight to Philly… 5 hours long. Soon I’ll be in a car for a 2hour drive. I can’t tell you how much I want to just sit still. My body hurts like I’ve been in a fight too.

I’m without computer for a little while so posts will be sparse. Before I go, let me tell you about these damn wasabi and soy sauce flavored almonds I’m eating right now. SERIOUS flavor! Maybe Japan had a bigger influence on me than I thought! Try them if you get a chance though. They’re Blue Diamond brand.

My Japan friends… please send me some Meiji chocolate almonds please. I swear I didn’t even like almonds until I tasted those wonderful things.