Thanksgiving- cellphones

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I really really wish you all the blessings, happiness and peace that God bestows upon you. Each of you have encouraged and believed in me in so many different ways and I am praying that his year I can give back that type of unconditional support and inspiration.

I have to say - this was my best meal ever! I finally got organized to cook what I wanted, how I wanted with a neat and clean kitchen to boot (without passing out afterward). Our friend Nelson spent today with us, he, my husband an done of my sons both fell asleep watching tv immediately after the meal - so ya'll know that food was good.

Only bad thing - i burned my hand. It was pretty bad, but I WAS NOT going to the hospital talkin about I burned my hand trying to cook Thanksgiving dinner. PLease. I had just finished preparing the peach cobbler and was moving it to the stove. MY husband said something, I responded and the thick, boiling hot, syrup peach mix spilled onto my hand. I refused to drop it, I had just spent twenty minutes preparing that thing. SO I screamed but neatly placed it in the oven and spent the rest of the day with burn ointment and bandages over my semi blistering hand (gross-i know). Just paying my cooking dues!

So, last night I got a shock. I was cooking and thinking about my cell phone bill and how it is finally manageable. At the SAME INSTANT, my husband dropped the latest Sprint bill in my lap. 1,834.00. Yep. You saw right. 1,834.00. Why? Because my son couldn't get clear reception in his bedroom and, unwilling to stand in one spot in the garage, like I have been doing, he decided to switch his phone to ROAM. So, for the past month, we had incurred roaming charges for every moment that boy has been home. I was fit to be tied. But it was the night before Thanksgiving, so I just decided its something I will have to deal with in the future....

Essence Magazine

I just found out - my poem Pre Destiny will be published in Essence Magazine. Can you believe that? Now, I don't want to get too emotional, I am normally pretty good at masking that. But...do you know what a milestone Essence magazine is for me?

When I was about 10, I read Terry McMillan's Discovering Acts. I remember it because I was, and am, a voracious reader and I had never read anything so real before. Toni and Alice felt so abstract in their writing (to my young mind) but Terry was real life. And with that I sat down and put pen to paper. I must've wrote twenty articles for Essence. But I had no idea how to get the article to them and no idea how to even ask for help. So they just faded away. And when teenage angst sank in, along with depression, I gave up hope of every realizing that dream. I was to busy tryin to survive.

And now it has happened. Not an article, or a book excerpt, like I had planned, but still. Something of mine will be in Essence. Whew...I have come along way ya'll. And I am still just getting started!! Which is both tiring and thrilling at the same time. So stay tuned for updates on the Essence issue...

Georgetown

So, I went to the Gtown game tonight. And I had a good time. We are friends with one of the Hoya freshmen and his family. It is something to watch him play at this level, it is mindblowing that he, or any other young man, can make it to this level. Playing for JT III? I am proud of him. He makes it look easy, but I know this journey couldn't have been all roses. No ones is, after you scratch past the surface. I hope his dreams come true and when he looks back he can feel contentment, no regret. What more could you wish for for someone?

I am proud of my son. I am proud of his circle of friends. I am thankful to God for placing us in Maryland during this time period, where my son could find other black young men with goals and focus, who didn't have to waste energy on proving their blackness through imitation thuggery, thereby being unecessarily distracted from their gifts, callings and abilities. It is purely divine intervention.


(I am only posting this because it is already on facebook - mine is in center, blue shirt, sunglasses and vest)







(mine in the loud red shirt(smile))






So as I sat at the Verizon center tonite, with my son and his friend, watching freshman Hoya accomplish the near impossible, discussing their futures which, for me and my friends was definitely impossible, I simply felt thankful. So humbly thankful...