Three Drops in F Sharp!

I am a child of the eighties, and being a child during that decade, I was still able to be raised what they called “old school.” My parents were very strict with me and my brother. We couldn’t trick or treat, go to slumber parties over anyone’s house, go outside when the street lights came on and watch television Monday through Thursday. Now I know that would be saccreligious today, especially when young kids love to play video games. I mean we had an Atari and Nintendo and what not, but that was weekend stuff.

But what stands out the most about my childhood was church and music. My parents used to host parties at our house all the time. They had a lot of friends who were married and the married folks would get together and have card parties in our basement. We had a music room in our basement, with two turntables and a wall of records. We also had a really nice sound system with speakers strategically placed throughout the length of the basement, which ran the length of our house. So, when my parents had their parties and my brother and I were supposed to be sleep, we would be up listening to Teena Marie and Rick James, The Commodores and Earth, Wind & Fire. There was a heating vent in my room and I used to love to lean up against it in my blanket to keep warm, and I could hear the party going on downstairs and the music flowing through the house, and it took me to far away places in my mind, and I believe it was during that time when I was about four years old listening to the music through the vent that I truly fell in love with music.

To this day, anytime I hear “Portuguese Love” or “Boogie Wonderland” or “Sweet Thing”, I think about my parents’ card parties. Hand in hand with the good music and card parties, was church. Like in most households at that time, my dad didn’t go to church, which was unfortunate, because I often felt my family getting closer at church.

I grew up in a spiritual church, which is a non-denominational church that kind of runs like a Catholic church. We have candles in our church, altar boys (and now girls), and we preach the word, which is a bit different from Catholicism. Anyway, my dad was on the altar as an acolyte, or altar boy when he met my mother who was in the young adult choir at the time. Later, I would go on to be in the junior choir and my brother, an acolyte as well. Church was a lot of fun, my church has a children’s church, which is next door to the main sanctuary. My mother would leave me and my brother in the children’s church and go next door to worship with the grown-ups.

I can remember the first time I saw someone shout. I wasn’t scared or thought it was funny, because even at a young age, I could feel the holy spirit. I just remember being enthralled, like I was watching a movie or something. I can remember listening to my mother who was and still is one of the main soloist sing. I remember how people would respond to her. My mother was like a star, we would be at church an additional hour or so just talking to people that wanted to say something to her. I also remember me and my brother participating in church programs, and it just seemed like church was another part of who we were.

Unfortunately, I don’t have that feeling anymore. With time and death of church leaders, my church is under a new regime, and my once thriving and groundbreaking church, has been cut in half in membership. Also, as I have grown and have moved onto boards in the church and my involvement changed and got more in depth, I realize that a lot of people go to church out of habit. They look at it as something they are supposed to do on Sunday, which is a shame because church is so much more than that. Church is about community, worship and spirituality. In anything, it should be personal, and yet another avenue into our personal relationships with Christ.

However, we all know, church often isn’t like that. Church folks are sooooo…..nope, I am not going there on this blog. It will be all love and just a peek back into how it used to be.

One of the funniest old memories I have came on Mother’s Day one year. Every year we would set up a big white tent and have a tea and fashion show at church. This one year, we came to church and my mother being the woman she is , had made three big cakes for the choir table and my brother’s table with the altar boys. We get out of church and everyone is making their way to the tent with their goodies and my mom is making her way to the van we had at that time, when she noticed the back door of the van cracked open. She panicked, she was like OMG, someone broke into our van. So we run across the street from the church, after all, our church isn’t in the best neighborhood. She looks through the van, my dad’s leather jacket is still hanging on the hook. A couple of bowling balls, tools, MONEY! Can you believe that, I mean it was a little change missing, but a lot was left. But guess what was missing? You guessed it, my mother’s three cakes. You could actually still smell the cakes in the van. My mother was so angry. She just couldn’t believe that someone would still those cakes and on Mother’s Day! My brother and I laughed about that one for a long time. Personally those cakes saved the day, because they probably had planned to clean us out, but smelled those cakes and decided to pay mama a visit.

This is just a snippet of what my childhood was like. Feel free to share some warm memories of your own…I know you have them.

Remember the first time that you saw Thriller?

I was perusing Nude Africa today, (for those that don’t know, it is a black amateur site where peeps can post nude pics of themselves), and some of the brothas on there had some real nice packages and I was like damn, now I would get a piece of that and that and that…..I used to think that men were a bunch of neanderthals sitting around getting off looking at nude pics of women, but I get it now. Because I swear, I was ready to make some calls…although it has been a while since I have hit up a FWB, I know some of you all have them.

But I think I have finally come to that point where I really want a relationship, because the FWB thing got old…quick. However, I will say this, if you can find someone that you have a LOT of fun with, that is a good thing. But very often it doesn’t work out like that. You will either meet someone that you get along with really well, but the sex is just okay. Or, it is someone where the sex is off the meter, but they have really deep character flaws that make you not want to be around them most of the time.

So, what is a girl to do? My little five fingered friends haven’t let me down that’s for sure LOL. Well, I am about to chill with a nice drink and a little old skool R. Kelly….”temperatures rising, your body’s yearning for me,” you all don’t know about that..

Have you ever been walking down the street, and you see an attractive person on the other side of the street walking towards you in the opposite direction, and as they walk past you, you have to turn around and look at them? Most of us go through that scenario everyday. But we don’t always look back. Correction, women don’t always look back. Interestingly enough, men tend to ALWAYS look back. (Must be a booty thing).

There have been times when I have seen a brotha so fine, I had to look back. But one thing I have noticed is that women tend NOT to look back because they have already seen what they need to see. Women love eye contact, they want to see your face and expressions and all of that. So as you are approaching her direction, she has checked you out already from head to toe and back up again. The last thing on her mind will be your face.

However, brothas want to stare at the booty for a while, which usually ends up being the last thing noticed. And most women can’t stand to catch a man staring at her booty. So, do I look back? Sometimes, but rarely. I look at the eyes, mouth, hands, shoes and walk. These aren’t the only things I look at, just what I find most attractive.

I will give the fellas a heads up though. If you want a woman to look back every time. Wear some cologne, nope not Axe, but some D&G, Samsara, Bvulgari, Cerutti Image, etc. Women respond to a good-smelling man, I am a witness. We will stop, look back and even flirt. But, please take notes. Don’t get her to look back and then, chicken out and not do anything about it. Approach her, let her know how you feel, and you would be surprised at the success rate. Ladies, keep checking from the front, get all that you can with a meticulous eye, and look back when you see something in those eyes that implies future promises.

Alright I am rambling and literally falling asleep….Smooches!

Thursday, my cell phone rings while I am at work and it is my brother. I am really surprised because he works in the legal field just like I do and rarely calls me during the day unless it is an emergency. I call him back, and come to find out one of the members of his team quit, so he wants me to come and bowl that night with him. For some strange reason I accept.

That evening, I barely have time to change before we are off to the bowling alley. For three hours and three competitive sets we bowl. Now, I am a very competitive person, and I literally cannot stand not being good at something. I hadn’t bowled in about six months and knew I would be rusty. I bowled a combined score of like 280, and that is in three games, so yes, I was terrible. It was so embarassing because the team that my brother’s team bowled against was bowling like a team average of 200. We got stomped.

Then to add insult to injury, I get bamboozled into taking the open spot on the team. So I have been researching bowling shoes, balls, totes, gloves and traction for right handed bowlers. I feel like friggin Ralph Crandon. I cannot believe that my social life is reduced to this and that I actually like it. The interesting thing though is the ratio of married men to single women that bowl at this alley. I cannot count the number of married men that openly flirted with me. It was interesting because I was there with my brother and I get the feeling that if he wasn’t in the league, some of these brothas would be trying to get digits and all. I have been through all of that before, and it is just not my style. I despise married men who step out on the family. NOT COOL!

I just want to bowl dammit, and be good at it. If I could just get my fiery competitive/perfectionst nature out of the way, I would have more fun. I will have to keep the blog updated about the League. I see already there are some serious characters in this league. Now if we could just work on the cuties, I would be in business.

Okay, so it is Friday and I am at work and like a million other Chicagoans this past Friday, there is this excitement in the air because today we are going to roll out the red carpet for the White Sox, so it is so exciting. In fact, my firm decided to let us dress casual and wear White Sox gear. I was so mad because I bought the coolest Sox shirt the night before at the bowling alley and forgot it in my brother’s truck. So, because of that I couldn’t “dress down,” instead I was in regular work clothes.

So, around 11:00 I hear all of this noise out of the window. To set this up, I must first tell you a little details about the parade/rally. The Sox started off in a motorcade atop double decker buses at U.S. Cellular Field (”The Cell”). They then headed north, rolling through neighborhoods as people stood outside of their homes cheering. People even pulled over on the expressway to cheer the buses as they passed. This went on all the way downtown. We had a ticker parade, where people line both sides of the street. It started at the Chicago Board of Trade, which is literally across the street from the building I work in. I had the most incredible view of everything. Needless to say the Sox didn’t make it downtown until about 12:15 p.m.

So here is the dramatic scene, there are literally hundreds of thousands of people, just on the corner of Jackson and LaSalle. People in the Board of Trade and Bank of America buildings are standing on the roof of their highrises, or sitting in the windows. Confetti is being shot all over the place, so it looks like it is snowing. All of these people are getting in anywhere that they can. Literally standing on street posts, sitting on street signs, atop television vans, people were even sitting atop the port-a-potties. And then the band walks by, and the fire department and city officials. Then here comes the buses with the Sox. It is so loud and so surreal, that it is like you can’t even breathe. I know it is just a sports team. But there is sooooo much love in the air, that you can feel it pouring off of people. That same love shone back from the team. I saw them up close and personal. Ozzie, Dye, Piercynzki (misspelled I know), Buerhle, Konerko, Frank Thomas…it was just a great dam parade.

Of course I didn’t want to work the rest of the day, and neither did anyone else. One thing that remained was that feeling that was in the air. I wish everyday could feel like this. It was like having an incredible block party. All I can say is, “GO SOX!” And, I hope this feeling never goes away.

Okay, I can’t even breathe right now, I am soooo excited. I have been a White Sox fan my whole life, as I am a true South Sider in this great city of Chicago. And, in 9 innings off of great pitching and one run scored the White Sox have swept the Houston Astros….

WHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, for those of you all who don’t know, I am a raging sports fanatic! And to think that my south siders just took the MLB World Championship, I can’t even put into words the elation I feel, it is just so great.

So, why did the Sox win?
They simply played the game of baseball. They didn’t moan and complain about bad calls, and yes they got them too. They didn’t bitch about the opening or closing of a roof, hell when they played the first two games in Chicago, they weather had just changed and it was cold and raining here, and they still came to play.

No one said they could do it, everybody had the Yankees winning it all and they didn’t even make it to the second round, so yes folks you heard it here, the White Sox are the DAMN CHAMPS!!!!!!! It is so beautiful to see people work hard, play hard and WIN!

GO GO SOOOOOOOXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX!

Okay folks:

Not sure if you read about it today, but apparently Sheryl Swoopes, a woman many referred to as the female Michael Jordan came out to ESPN Magazine. WTF!!! First of all, wasn’t she married? Didn’t she have a child? I mean everybody is gay nowadays but for some reason this one hits me a bit differently.

First of all, female athletes have a gay rap to begin with. When I was in High School, I really wanted to play basketball, and I did. Although my mother really didn’t like it. But one thing that was evident to me from day one, was that I was the “girliest” girl on the team. A lot of the girls on the team weren’t even shaving under their arms yet, which was just saccreligious in my house. I also had nails that I was trying to grow which I quickly found out was a no-no in women’s basketball and I liked doing my hair, smelling good and checking out the boys basketball team. Don’t get me wrong, when I was on the court, I was all business. I could shoot threes and defend with the best of them, but off the court, I was just a girl. So, I know firsthand how people perceive female athletes, especially basketball players.

It is kind of like in the movie Love & Basketball, we know the lead character isn’t gay, but she isn’t exactly ladylike either. I think that with anything, there has to be a balance. My mother would always take me with her when she would go get her hair done and she bought me nail polish and lip glosses and those things were feminine and helped shape me into the woman that I am today. But often, this doesn’t happen. Mothers who disagree with their daughter’s choice of extracurricular activities or dress tend to just let it go and not take an active part in their life, thus bringing about the myriad of young women out there that would rather wear timbs and throwbacks, than skirts and pretty dresses.

But on to the matter at hand. Sheryl Swoopes claimed that her 1999 divorce had nothing to do with her being gay, but that in fact, she only recently realized that she was gay. Okay, did Terry McMillan’s husband pass this disease on or what? It is my belief that sexuality is chosen once you hit adolescence and you begin to feel and experience affection towards others. I realized it when I was eight and I had a crush on this guy in a class above me. Honestly, now that I think about it, I liked him because he reminded me of my dad. (But that is for another blog). So, with that in mind, how is Swoopes thirtysomething and now realizing that she prefers being gay or is gay? I tell you what it is - malarchy! That chic knew she preferred the coo coo when she walked down that aisle and put on this show that she was a straight and dutiful wife.

She also mentioned that she hoped this would not reflect negatively on her career as a role model. Let’s see - she is a black single mother of an eight year-old boy who is a professional athlete and has now revealed she is gay. Sorry Sheryl, but you can hang the jersey up, because blacks have it much harder than whites and if Rosie O’Donnell couldn’t be gay and famous, neither can you. Even with Ellen Degeneres’s popularity, people don’t look at her as being a role model, well except for gays. Although I don’t agree with the lifestyle, and no it is not for religious reasons, I feel like people should do what they want to do and whatever makes them happy and comfortable in society.

If coming out makes Sheryl feel better about herself and her place in society then so be it. However, this world is harsh and cruel and with her being a sista, there will more than likely be some backlash.

Hi readers:

Well, I must say that I am sick of sick people at work. This guy at my job has been sick since he started working there three weeks ago and it seems like his cold/flu/ebola has gotten worse. I have never had to listen to so much sniffling and blowing and coughing in all of my life.

That is understandable, everyone gets sick. However, today, we had a meeting for our team and he pulled napkins off of the conference table to blow his nose, except he didn’t get it all, and instead of grabbing another napkin, he decided to use the back of his hand several times instead…IIIICCCCKKKK! I wanted to vomit. Why do people do that. You know when you simply didn’t get it all, it was so distracting.

Furthermore, I realized today that work is just a haven for sickness. I can’t count the number of people I walked by who didn’t cover their mouths when they sneezed or coughed. I couldn’t even get a printout off of the printer without some chic sneezing all over it, I was like dam, dam!!!

While I am on the work topic, what is up with people who smoke. Most office buildings now are non-smoking. (Thank God) So, when you go outside, there are always a bunch of people collected at the entrance puffing away. In other words, you walk around downtown Chicago and it is like a second hand smoke deathtrap. Not to mention it is the end of October, so in the Chi, the warm and mild weather is gone. It was about 55 today, not so bad, but downtown, where the buildings close off the air gaps until you hit a corner, it can be downright freezing in a wind breeze. And to add insult to injury the majority of the smokers just take the time to grab the cigarettes, so now they are outside with no coat on trying to smoke in a cold breeze…it is silly! I am so glad that is a habit I don’t have. Personally I think these non-smoking building should just include smoking lounges, that way they have somewhere to go and get a drag and they get to breath in their own second hand smoke.

And, if my day wasn’t eventful enough with all of the sick people. I am on my way home on the Express bus, and there is this crazy dude on the back of the bus acting like a damn terrorist. He is straight having a conversation about the White Sox with some imaginary person sitting next to him. And if that wasn’t bad enough he decides to ring the damn bell while we are on Lake Shore Drive. So I ask, why do crazy people ride the bus and train? I mean wouldn’t it be better for them to just take a walk or a jog or something. Just a thought!

I thought I would give every one a goodnight kiss, well not so open-mouthed….LOL!

Sometimes I am alone chilling with some sexy music on and I “go there.” You know that space you get in when you know if someone attractive was there with you, you would just tear him apart….LOL!

Like tonigh, I was in my room listening to a bunch of cds, and of course, I have to live vicariously through the music. I get up and dance and sing with the remote like it is a microphone and pretend I am on stage shaking my moneymaker and singing to thousands of people. ( I know I am not the only one who does that).

Right now I am listening to TP2.com. I had not listened to this cd in a while and there are some really sexy tracks on this cd. The kind of songs that they play right before the club lights come up and you end up connecting some serious eyes from a guy from across the room and he gives you that meet me outside look on his face. I actually love that, I always have been somewhat of a subtle but deadly flirt. I suppose my facial expressions can be really sexual….LOL. Hey I am young and single I can do that!

I used to sing a lot in college and one time, I can remember being on stage singing at a party and there was this really gorgeous brotha in the crowd and I started singing (subconsciously) to him. Next thing I know, before me and my friends leave the party, he slips his number in my pocket and kisses my neck. Now see that is a mack move, nice, but a mack move nonetheless. I am not even sure if I called him, I typically don’t go for the playa types. I prefer men who are quiet and clean cut. Those are usually the ones that will surprise you. The real nice men who are smart, quiet, but have a lot of friends. Then you get left alone with them and they have you pinned up against a wall…..not a bad thought.

But as I sit here listening to R. Kelly sing about the greatest sex…I wonder if I should make a late night call, or chill and take myself to bed considering I do have to get up early and go to work. Sometimes I miss the days when I was still in undergrad and all I had to worry about was my next paper, meeting, party or escapade to get into. Well, I am starting to get longwinded so…til next time.