I'm really glad we got a chance to sit and down and rap a tad.

Listening to T.I. while the bleach and cleaning fluid soaks in my shower... that's right, doing some of that good cleaning. My Grammy is staying in my place (at school) for Thanksgiving. We're going to celebrate this holiday with my mom's side of the family here in Philly.

I can't even think of the last time we've done that. Typically, if I'm not with my dad's side of the family, I'm with my grandma and brother. My maternal family stops there for the most part. Granted, I used to be very close with the cousins on my mom's side of the family. Time and distance changed things.

Lately, being around them just makes me nostalgic and depressed. But as I've already noted, it doesn't have to be like that. So, I'm excited to be with them.

However, I'm trying to make this place spick and span before my lady (Grandma) walks in the door. My "clean" living conditions aren't the "clean" living conditions I want her seeing. She needs to be impressed and smell Pine-Sol when she walks in the door. Mind you, I'm probably going downstairs to meet her smelling like bleach cause she should be here soon.

I can't express how hype I am about seeing her. My plan? She said she's bringing the Scrabble board, so that's already a wrap. Scrabble is a big deal in my family. If you can't put together some words, you're good as done for. Maybe that's where this poetry thing manifested.

Oh yeah, it just hit me that she'll be here for my show on Friday. She's never seen me perform. I've read her stuff, but nothing recently. Hopefully, I can get something extra special written for her and memorized by Friday. We'll see how this goes :holds breath:

My phone just vibrated. I thought that was her. I was about to say, let the good times begin. On another note, it hasn't hit me that tomorrow's Thanksgiving. I'm actually on duty tonight in my building. Picture that.

A lot of people are like, you aren't coming home for Thanksgiving? Want to hear something crazy? I've learned that wherever I am is home. So, I'm home. And if my Grandma's coming too, oh it's definitely where I'm supposed to be.

My sister is making a turkey for the first time, doing dinner with her brother, daughter and husband. AHHHH! I forget she's like a whole grown, family having, woman. It's crazy to think she's starting her own Thanksgiving tradition now with her family. I told her to take pics of the turkey.

Assuming she'll read this, Rae-write down everything you did to that turkey if it comes out well, cause I'll have to do one myself someday. Blah. Craziness. What if the people I prepare for like stuffing, but I don't, would I still have to prepare it? LOL Really though.

I'm bout to go scrub this shower. If time permits, I'll post my tidbit about Mr. Flatter Yourself and Mr. Intelligent. The latter person is more a comedic anecdote. The first one, man it's just a hot mess. I don't even know a better way to put it. There might be two other Mr.'s to add to this list, but there names would be more positive. Like, Mr. Nice and Mr. Inspiring. Definitely. Yeah, I gotta get on top of that.

Oh yeah, went to an open mic turned show last Friday celebrating my boy Amun's b-day. It was ill. Like, the energy in there had me feeling like I was about to explode from all the positivity. Much like this cleaning fluid has me feeling like I need to crack a window :) Really though. The quotes I pulled from there, along with the ones I got from Excelano's show-man o' man, it's over.

Here are (just 2) pics from the show: (wait, gram is calling! She says, "If I'm not at your building. I'm going to take a nap, get back in the car, and go home, cause this has been the trip from Hell!") Gotta love that (she's been on the road 2 hrs longer than the trip takes), here are the pics, I'm outty. I'll remind you about the Mr.'s, really- but for now I gotta go rescue Grandma.




Like a Thief in the Night,
B

I'd Rather Drop Jewels

You Still Rap? from Konnoisseur Creative Group on Vimeo.

I See You Shinin',
B

For Audrey

I guess we're both up for different reasons. I saw the comment you left on my old post, Fav. Quotes. I didn't know if you'd look back at the post for the answer and I couldn't get to your profile or page. So, to answer your question about the quote:

"We live a love that even God would envy. And for her I would carry the cross to my own crucifixion if it'd make her have more faith in me..."

It's from a poem, Shihan's poem to be specific. The name of that poem is called "In Response". I saw it on Def Poetry, but I can't remember which season since I have them all. Here it is though:


Hope That Helps,
B

Thought for the Day 11/24

Just because it sells doesn't mean it should.
Being good is no substitute for being amazing.
-Heard it at a show on Friday(?)

Much Agreed,
B

So, I have a show on Friday

& you should be there.



Don'tcha Think?
B

Thought(s) for the Day 11/23

...and I'm early this time, chicka-chicka-yeah.

"Sometimes the greatest help you
can give folks is to leave them alone."
(?, got it out of a book full of quotes)

This quote holds so much truth in my life right now. More than I care to acknowledge or expound on. We'll go two for two, because I feel like the one above isn't enough. I watched I Can Do Bad All By Myself this weekend, here's what Madea had to say (yes, my second time quoting Madea-who'd of thunk it?)

"Clothes don't make you pretty.
They make you broke."

Such is Life. Right?
B

Meet Georgina

This pretty lil' thing right here is the newest addition to the office I work in. And today, we named her. Georgina. Fly, right? Initially, when my coworker said Georgina I was like... "man, hell to the no" in my head. I waited before I voiced my opinion and before I could open my mouth, something in my head said "it's actually fitting".

And since me and him (my coworker) were the only ones present at this naming ceremony, the name stuck. What happens next is what I would like to call "When Keeping it Real Goes Wrong", and if you ever watched Dave Chapelle you understand:

After we honored Georgina with a name, she broke. Rude, right? The nerve of her. I guess she was showing her disapproval.

I'm sure a good bit of you are wondering who cares about having a new printer at work in the first place? Well, the answer would be ME. I'm not ashamed. Clearly, I've been at my job too long. But you don't know how terrible our old printer was. Not to mention, Georgina has a bunch of pretty, shiny buttons and the kid in me can't deny anything that allows me to push it and witness it make noise as a result. It's responsive. Like a real live person! LOL

Pathetic, huh? I mentioned it to another one of my coworkers in the hallway today, and she was like, "Yeah, it's dope." The printer. Is dope. See? It's not just me. So, Georgina started acting up and getting jammed with paper after we named her, but she had pictures showing us how to fix her and step by step instructions where we could click "Next" upon fixing each instructed step. How polite.

She wasn't broke because she had a jam though, it actually was something I did when trying to put more paper in the tray. Some little piece popped out and was loose after that... took me and my coworker some time to get it right, but we did, and we were damn proud. One silent victory for the home team. However, if something else happens to the printer I'll have to deny the fact that I was involved. Yup, yup. I'm goin' to act like it's the first I ever heard of Georgina having problems.

Ok, I'm done. I just wanted to introduce you to the new boo in my life I was excited about getting to know.

Be Nice to Her,
B

Someone remind me to tell you all about Mr. Intelligent and Mr. Flatter Yourself later on.

For Jo and Jazz (& Anyone Else Who'd Like to Follow)

[like Pam and Jess, maybe? HINT HINT]

Yes, I gave ya'll a nickname. Is that ok? (insert: bashful meets bold face here)

This post is an instructional on how to "Follow" me and a general update.

I know some people are like, wait... that's not hard. You have no idea. I asked a few people and there was mass confusion, and since I don't follow my blog-I didn't know what were the necessary steps. Not to mention, when I tried to-the process is different for me since I already have a blog.

God bless Skype, because now we have an answer!

Thanks *Beans for sharing your screen while going through the motions. Here's how it works folks [wait.. let me interrupt and say that the aforementioned Beans just got his dream job on Wall Street... raise your glasses to the sky for him or just send prayers and positive energy his way when you get the time and space, plz. Proceeding]:

1. Scroll down to the portion of my page that says "I Lead, You Follow?"
2. Click "Follow"
3. If you aren't already signed into an AIM, Google or Yahoo account-it will ask you to log into one of those accounts, upon doing this- it's pretty self explanatory.
4. HOWEVER, if you don't have any of these account types, then you need to create one.

... that's all. Simple as pie. Well... maybe not, but you got it. Let me know how it works?

On another note, I have to give Jo and Jazz a special shout out. As poets, we know the power of words. As people, we often forget that our talent really reaches people. As a blogger, I often don't know if I'm writing for anyone beyond myself... I mean, yeah people are "following", but the comments aren't a clear reflection of that.

I went to "The Greatest Show on Earth" yesterday that was presented by Excelano Project, U. Penn's poetry collective, and I ran into into these two girls and they just showed me so much love. First off, not many people are bold enough to admit that they read your blog regularly, let alone approach you. Hell, my friends learn things about me via blog and then bring it up all offended but try to omit the fact that they actually were reading it in the first place. "It's a curious thing." (I said was going to start saying that. Went hiking two weeks ago. Don't ask. It was something I had to do for class, and the hiking/tour guide man [don't know the proper term] kept saying that- "It's a curious thing."

Anywho, they showed me all this love, asked to take pictures with me and were just so endearing. I just felt honored. Like, here's "regular ol' me" coming to see the show, not even performing, yet they wanted to take pictures with me. Me. It was one of those, "they love me. they really love me." moments. It's funny writing this now that we're Facebook friends and all. Communication and connectedness is so real though.

As far as the actual show, you know I took down some quotes. I'll be posting them soon, just not tonight. That show had me in tears. I literally had to walk out for a minute and compose myself so I wouldn't make a scene in the midst of it. One of them wrote a poem about her father's mother dying, from her fathers perspective and it had me thinking about my mother.

Somethin' I've realized: I haven't coped with her (my mother's) death as much as I think I have. Like, intense conversations about death (meaning anything that goes past typical "death" conversation, whatever that means) shouldn't result in tears. Like, it's just ridiculous. Damn me and my emotional self. Nonetheless, I've decided to write about it which should be peace.

The first and last poem I wrote about my mom was more like a letter and it never left the page. Performing it really wasn't an option cause I couldn't get through it without breaking down. Hmph. Change gwan' come (said in the worse Jamaican accent known to man). Here are the actual pics with Jazz and Jo from last night.

Clearly, this was after the show. Hence, my red puffy face and teary eyes. Bahhh humbug.

This was prior to the show... when I first received their love and was fresh-faced. Oww! :)

Alright, alright. That's about it. Peace to ya'll though, sincerely. It's endearing and humbling all at once when people show love. Did I mention I have on show on Friday at Freedom Theatre? See you there?

One last thing: I chilled with my friend Jadon this week too. His energy is amazing, and it had been a while. That also contributed to my feathery feeling as of late. He's a humble dude. A poet at that. Not too many humble male poets left, especially not ones taping Sprite commercials and such. Everyone's moving up man. Progress.

Maybe.
B