Hablas Espanol

So I walk into the briefing, and the guy asks do you need a spanish interpretor. Ummm no I reply and I sit down and begin headlining my notes in prepreration. Ok that was odd I think, do I look like I speak spanish. And as more people walk into the room he as would you like an interpretor from Spanish to English. Suddenly it hits me. This briefing is about foreign affairs and will be conducted entirely in spanish by our guests. I return to the guy. "Ummm can I have an interpretor please?"

My People, My people

When I was younger I read ( or at least started reading) Dust Tracks on the Road by Zora Neale Hurston. In it she had a chapter titled "My People, My people." Now my age is showing when I say I had never heard that phrase before, but its an older phrase. In the chapter she talks about the woes Black people face, and how saddened it makes her, well the phrase is like a " shame on you mantra." Said with exasperation and sadness over the ways and actions of Black people. I say this phrase sometimes over the foolishness that some Black people subject themselves to. I feel like the white man....sorry the media portrays a stereotype of us, and we try to fulfil it, not undermind it. "Oh my people, my people" when will we learn. When will we rise above the stature that we so " happily" live in, and somebody must be happy because unhappy people strive to become happy to become better than their circumstance.

Attack of the Mosquitos

While watching the sunset behind the Capitol, I noticed a persistant itch creeping at my leg. I scratch once. I scratch twice. I scratch a third time to discover a raised bump on my calf. Darn mosquitos.

Last week was the Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference and as an intern with Congressman John Lewis I was privy to events at the conference actually that is neither here nor there.  So I was leaving one event Saturday night, rode the train to the Metro parking lot @ Suitland and got in my junky car. I am driving a long when I notice some bugs flying around the dashboard. I kill one. Suddenly my shoulder starts itching, then my leg, then my other leg. I am so distracted that I can't operate my dern stick shift. I pull over to find my car is infested with mosquitos  who used my car as shelter from the rain. It was almost a small storm of them except they weren't in a group. Needless to say I had an uncomfortable ride home and was plagued with mosquito bites.

Body Maintenance

In the midst of doing my research on sexual behavior of adolescents and young adults ( actual paper progress!! there are words on paper) but seriously I came across this webpage with some advice. We are sexual beings ( some moreso than others) but nonetheless we need to care for out bodies. Mentally, spiritually, and physical. That being said, this webpage includes information on taking care of your "special" physical parts( men or women). Stay sexually healthy!!

 http://www.health.arizona.edu /health_topics/sexual_health/gse.html

Just Sayin'

You...you get my creepy old man stare...yes u have a creepy old man stare and its reserved for you.... lol. My skirt is NOT that short!

Southern girls

Just realized these DC boys aren't use to my Southern thickness lmao

Morning bus ride[ continued]

"Its my body, its my baby" loudly screeches out the mouth of the young mother seated diagnolly behind me.

"Mom you don't him, you only talked to him on the phone"
[The conversation continues with her hysterical outburst through the phone as she scream at her rambunctious children(plural) who run through the bus aisles.]

"He be coming over my house all hours of the night harassing me..."

"Mom its none of your business"

[Conversation II]

" Man I called my Mom this morning, an she she's gonna call him and tell him when the baby's born, I told her its none of her business."

[Lastt remark I transribing]

"And she betta have my $50...she had money to get her hair done, she had money to pay her...and she betta have it, I'm not going to her house i'ma go to her job before the 1st of the month...."

Ok lady, thanks for telling all your business.

Oh and the bus moves out of traffice as she waddles her pregnant belly off the bus.

Good Morning!

That really just happened

And the guy yells to the guys bumming cigarettes off people, " man come and get this rock," he continues, " man come over here don't spend all your money." Ummm where is this bus??...

On the way to the football game

Sitting here on the bus listening to the passengers complain about the bus being late. Their complaints are drowned out by the sound of the crazy lady 3 seats back sitting Sinatra loudly, off key, and with no concept of words. The lady diagnol from me speaks her the jibberish of her foreign lady with the quickness of her native tongue. As we stroll along the same 70 bus passes us by, and a new round of complaints ring from the group in the front. Oh the injustices of being an old man. [Towards the bus driver] "keeping old men waiting...in the heat"

Ummm next stop please!

Just Sayin

Just for the record. I do not think I am better than look, nor do I look down on you,etc. Its just that for everytime you perpuate that stereotype of the loud Black ghetto woman. I have to work 3x as hard to extinguish that perception. Please just stop