Hey Girl, Happy Birthday

My birthday was January 3rd. I was all set to have a pity party about it because new year same shit. Sorry, for the language its just how I felt. BLEH.

But my mom is awesome and she makes bad feelings melt away like snow in the Bahamas! It has been tradition for my mom, my daughter and me to explore NYC for my birthday weekend. This year it was Brooklyn.

Hey Brooklyn your city is awesome!

First surprise. Brooklyn Nets game at the Barclay Center and my name in lights courtesy of my mom and daughter…oh, and of course my dad who respects the girls weekend but still contributes.

We ate, we walked, we laughed, we shopped and we ate some more! I needed it.

I had a fabulous weekend with Aminah 1 and Aminah 2! I feel invigorated and motivated so for all of those who have followed the blog, get ready I have some awesome things coming up.

Catfish from the Neely’s Restaurant

Typed from my IPhone. I hope this works

LOL

Trinity: A Novel

 And not just any novel, a novel written by my dear friend Patrick Fox. Trinity is now available on Amazon.com for the U.S. price of $2.99. Why should you buy it? Because it is awesome that is why!

Well, of course I WOULD say that because I rode the literary train with Patrick for a good deal of his editing this book and I feel attached to it, like it is my neice. I am immensely proud of him and all of his hard work. He painstakingly went over this book a million times making sure every comma was in place and he was giving you, the reader, an exceptional entertaining read. He is meticulous that way.

Despite my prejudice, Trinity is truly an interesting piece of fiction, so if you are looking for a humorous, romantic, very well written book about an imaginary friend returning to guide his old charge, who is now a fully grown man, well Trinity deserves a read. 

What, you say, an imaginary friend? No way. Yes, Patrick brings back, Trinity, the imaginary friend of Ben Rider twenty-five years later to sort out his mess of a life. Trinity in Ben’s youth was cowboy and when he pops up in Ben’s kitchen one day…well the adventure begins.

 

Ms. Aretha

I had the pleasure of catching the Queen of Soul at the Fox Theater in Atlanta Monday night. Thanks to my dear friend and her husband who bought us tickets for her birthday. It was worth flying down south from Providence to see her.

Honestly, I didn’t expect an awesome show. Ms. Retha is 69 years old. I thought she’d do most of her singing from a stool but sistergirl came out in her heels and rocked the mike. I mean my girl ROCKED!!!! She did her little two steps, her shimmies, and moved those hips. She ROCKED!

I’ve always appreciated her as the Queen of Soul, I have several of her cd’s and since I was a child my favorite Aretha tune has been Rock Steady. I gave her the title Queen of Soul because everyone else did and I respected her position in music but I didn’t know how truly she deserved that right till I heard her live! Her voice is majestic! I tear up thinking how beautiful it was to hear her. I tear up with pride at being blessed to have a piece of her in my life. She is simply amazing and I cannot tell you how much I adore her, respect her, and I am inspired by her. Seeing her the other night makes me want to do better, be better, fulfill all my dreams or at least work as hard as she did and does. I’m so proud to be a black woman like her.

Now the best part of the whole night was when Ms. Aretha ended the show and walked off the stage waving and blowing kisses and sent her stage manager back out to get her purse she left on the stage! OMG the whole audience erupted because we all have an aunt, a grandmother, someone who carries their purse with them EVERYWHERE! My own aunt even would carry hers into the bathroom in her own house LOL
Ya’ll know!!!

watch?v=eSNE-WPBcXM

My favorite Aretha tune Rock Steady. On my sixth or seventh bday my mom bought me my first record player, it had animals on it, and at my party I played this back to back at least a hundred times. Then one of my little monster cousins broke the needle on my record player. WOMP WOMP

Mother to Daughter Advice

Me @ 17

Me: ugghhhh i will never wear tampons again. those things are painful. The nurse said I wouldn’t even feel it once it was in. After an hour I took it out, it hurt

Mom: did you take it out the cardboard?

Me: huhhhh

Mom: did you take it out the cardboard and just put the cotton piece in? you should have read the instructions. You just shoved everything up there

Me: How was I supposed to know. you didn’t tell me

Mom: you should have read the instructions and you had pads. You just wanted to be grown and go to the nurse for a tampon. Rolls her eyes

Me: Every time I try to tell you something you, forget it…stomps off

I was trying to be grown. all the girls in high school were wearing tampons I felt like a chump still wearing big old diaper pad, luckily that year the adhesive pads had come out. Yeah, remember the belt you had to wear…no, you probably don’t. Shit I’m old

Me @ 40

Me: Mia if you wear tampons make sure you take them out the cardboard

Mia: What cardboard? They come in a plastic tube.

Me: well make sure you take it out the tube before you insert it

Mia: Mommmmm I’m not stupid. who would be dumb enough to leave it in the tube

Me: I’m just saying…

Mia: but that’s just dumb.

Me: whatever I’m…forget it since you know everything. every time I try to tell you something…stomps off

She is NOT smarter than me!!!!

E ‘stato un po’

It’s been a bit. That is as close to ‘It’s been awhile’ I can get in Italian…

It has been awhile since I featured a foreign film on my blog and I saw a really heartwarming one a few nights ago.

Quiet Chaos (2008) via Netflix

Pietro Paladini is off enjoying the day at the beach with his brother when two women in the water cry out for help. His brother saves one and Pietro the other. The insane irony is when he returns home to find that his wife has fallen off a ladder and is dead in their garden.

Pietro is left to raise their daughter Claudia while dealing with her silent grief as well as his own. Dropping her off to school he tells her he will wait on the bench till she gets out, he decides to do this everyday. Pietro goes through is day working from his car oblivious to a big merger as he developes small relationships with the people surrounding his daughters school.

Low key with a few twists but very touching.

SN: Why doesn’t English sound as lyrical as other languages?

this kinda friday

I know, I know…

SMH!*

*shaking my head.

I came across this ‘letter’ to Ask E. Jean in Decembers copy of Elle Magazine.  I just refuse to believe that this is a true letter. I refuse to believe that someone could be this stupid and if someone is this stupid PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE seek therapy and add a few shots of self-esteem boost in your Starbucks coffee. WTF!!!!

Suddenly, It Hit Me Last Night

My sixteen year old son was in a car accident Wednesday night and you must know upfront that since I am typing this he is 100% okay. If he were not, I can’t even imagine what my mental state would be.

He was the passenger of his football teammate who was dropping J and two other players home after practice. Driver has only had his license two months and will be seventeen in a few weeks. Sadly, he was clearly the one at fault because he did not come to a complete stop at a stop sign. As he drifted past the stop sign in his Honda Civic a Ford F150 hit the passenger side of the car, my son was in the passenger seat.

The car was sandwiched between a tree and the F150. My son, saw the truck coming and somehow from his account, managed to move more towards the driver side thus avoiding direct impact from the side hit. After seven hours in the emergency room at Hasbro Children Hospital for CT’s and observation my J walked out smiling.

I was cool as a cucumber throughout this whole ordeal because I missed the initial calls back and forth from the firemen, the police, and the hospital emergency admitting nurse. I was on the train home from Boston and minus my cell phone. When I got to Providence Station and retrieved my car I decided to stop at Stop & Shop to buy something for dinner. Then I stopped at Shaw’s Supermarket because I forgot cat food at Stop & Shop. My daughter took all of those calls. The call where all she heard was that her brother was in an accident. She was devastated. Her mind had him in a morgue, she saw the newspaper headline of North Providence Football Players in serious car accident.

As I was driving home thinking about the homemade anchovy & roasted tomato pizza I was going to make for them, she was busy getting the details. By the time I walked in the door and saw her red eyes and swollen face from crying I didn’t have to go through the emotional ordeal she did. She gave me the news calmly all I heard was that she had spoken to him and he was okay. No emotional rollercoaster. No tears flowing from fear of the unknown while I tried to determine he if he was really okay. Mia spared me that. When I got to the hospital J was looking fine and I didn’t cry but we talked and we laughed for the next six hours. Tragedy averted.

Not quite. Last night as I was drifting off to sleep it suddenly hit me. I could have lost him. Tears swell in my eyes even now as I type this. My baby was in a car that was pinned between a tree and a truck!!! I cried because I felt the fear I thought I escaped Wednesday. I cried because I am so grateful that I was able to spend all Thursday with him (even though we all slept most of the day) and make him grilled cheese and salad. I cried because the thought of letting him go to a place where I never will be able to see him hurt like hell. I had to get up at midnight just to look at him. It is still hitting me just how badly this week could have been for me and I am so grateful that all of my children are in this world yet another day.

The Misadventures of An Awkward Black Girl

OMG! How did I miss this gem???? Maybe, because I am not a YouTube follower of any kind but that has changed. Consider me a stalker now.

I go to YouTube when someone forwards me a link of some idiot doing something idiotic, or to view that little girl who is going to kick some monsters ass, and the occasional YouTube channel on natural hair.

I had no idea that there was the Misadventures of an Awkward Black Girl! I love this girl! I love her hair and the funny as hell story behind it (hell yeah! I’ve cut my hair after a bad break up, more than once!), her filthy foul mouth rapping (sometimes curse words are fun!) and the love triangle that makes my heart go- awwwwwww!

Check out Episode One and Seven then go watch the episodes in between. You will not be disappointed.