Saturday

Saturday is truly my day of rest. I dont do nothing. Sometimes I feel like I should be doing something but hell to the naw.. im gonna catch up on my shows and eat some food and maybe not get out of bed... its loverly to have the leisure to do so... i dont think this post has a point.. but thats what im doing right now, nothing hahaha

book lover

I got a new library card today. I moved, and so now I live in a municipality with a different library system and I am in love with the fact that the country created libraries. SO many books.. so little time.. you can browse and peruse.. you can read and re-read.. and all for free. (until you turn your books in late, which I always do) But whatever.

Just enough for the nerd in me to get a little high. Nothing better than looking through rows and rows of books of all different titles.

I also bought some used book at a book sale at my school this weekend. i wonder who has read them and what they thought.. did they finish it.. did they love it or hate it.. do they feel the same feelings I feel as I read the book...hmmm

Life.

Let me tell you why I teach. I teach because there are students whose eyes light up when they see me everyday. they wave at me in the hallway and make it their business to stop by my room just to say hello. Some come and ask me for advice and some of them go out of their way to draw me pictures or talk to me. I am a teacher because for the time I have my students I know that I might be opening and child's eyes to a possibility, or making them feel safe and welcome... and that is priceless.

I know that I can't do everything for every child and for some I'll just be another teacher they will have long forgotten. But I had teachers who changed my life, and who I worked harder than I ever thought i could work in order to make them proud. In my darkest days I had teachers who were patient and kind to me; those were moments that changed my life.. and I teach not hoping for the recognition of those moments, but knowing that each moment has that potential.

SO I show up everyday.. I try to smile everyday... and i am just as thankful to my students as they sometimes are for me..

and also. I love it when they learn something. gosh.. being able to teach someone something new. to see the F student get an A.. to push a child hard and see the results.. makes the bad days worth it and the worse days just par for the course. I teach because its probably my calling.. even when I don't feel like answering it.

Let's stop talking about it...

So, Derrion Albert was like the saddest thing all week. Derrion. Kermit. I'm sure you could add a name of a young black man killed over something dumb. True, Derrion was an honor student and Kermit was a college student, but every death is just as senseless when its over gangs, or drugs, or bullshit or just because. I am committed to stop talking about change from my Ivory Tower. Stop pontificating on the socioeconomic factors and the culture of poverty or the gentrification that may or may not be a factor, and I am committing myself to doing something to stop the bs.

1. I am already a mentor, but I am pledging to take those relationships beyond the superficial and commit more of my time and energy to my mentees.

2. I am going to look into volunteering more at programs that provide a safe haven for kids to stay off the street. Then after I look into it, I am going to commit to it.

What are you gonna do? We can't wait for the government or some city initiative. and where you are, I promise down the street there are kids who wish they could see a way out, and a different choice for their life...

How are you going to Be about it?

Ugh, your baby stinks...

...and he's sticking to the carpet... no seriously.. that dried juice on his face is tangled in the Berber..

So, I work in a middle school, where on any given day a child is hygienically challenged. They stink, they have on dirty clothes, nasty hair, even food all over their faces. Disgusting, I tell you... but I can understand how adjusting to hormones and the subsequent funk can allude a child every once in a while.

But one thing I hate MORE than when tweens are dirty is when babies are disgusting. You know, that baby with hair all over its head that has little bits of fuzz in it, and they have some sort of pudding/applesauce/ice cream/kool-aid ring around their mouth that has more fuzz stuck to it. Then you look and they have on a dingy stretched out onesy, unsnapped at the bottom, with a myriad of stains, detailing their activity for the last day (or two). This is especially reprehensible at public events, in public or when someone is having people over. Yeah, Johnny might be cute, but i am not touching that walking/crawling/slobbering bacteria factory. You must clean your child... not just daily, sometimes its hourly, sometimes minutely... cause babies are gross.. they throw up, spill shit, just plain shit.. throw things all over themselves, wipe all kinds of everything on their bodies and faces and rarely do they stop to take a visit to the faucet to wash up just a bit, or into their room to find the new t-shirt under the bassinet.

I know, I know.. Spidey, you dont have any kids... how dare you speak on how I keep my child??? Well, I don't have a dog, but I definately know that mange and fleas are unacceptable.. get a groomer or don't buy a pet.. clean your kid or close your legs... its just that simple...

So... you can feel free to keep your child as dirty as ever... because 99% of the time, i wont be in their company anyway (remember.. i dont do children under 12)... but if I have to see them at Christmas/Easter/Baby Shower/church/when you bring them up to parent teacher conference night cause you dont have a babysitter.. wipe their damn face before you get out of the car/bus!! I don't want to judge you... but i will :-)

For more information... visit here. :-)

OMG I almost FORGOT!!

Mackenzie Phillips?!?! WTF!!?!?!

White folks definitely took an L on that one too.

Sorry for ya.

I feel sorry for white people.

What?

Yes, I really do. I feel sorry for them because if I was living in some other country I think I would assume that white folks are crazy as hell. The portrayals of them on TV are completely outrageous. Let's think.

Kim on RHOA.

The Real Housewives of NJ

The Crazy Tea Party protestors

The Crazy contractor Orgies in Iraq

Glenn Beck

Rush Limbaugh

SO many insanomaniacs, for right now, I do feel bad for whitey cause they look crazy as hell.

Is it just me? or are white folks getting played in the media? Sucks to be them.

OMG

Mufaro's Beautiful's Daughters

When I was a kid, we had nothing but Black books. I didn't think White folks existed except on TV (and at my gifted school, and church, and my mom's job, and downtown...) okay sooo they existed but not in the crib. One of my favorite books was Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe. The book had girls in it named Nyoka and something else.. but they are different names like mine, they had braids and brown skin and I just loved loved loved the book. AND it had one of those gold seals on the front that lets you know a book is SOOOOO legit.

So I used to peruse this book daily and as I got older prolly a couple times and year and lo and behold, I know the woman who inspired the cover art for the book.

Check it out:

They are totally the same person.

Sooo Linzo. This one is for you :-) Tell me they arent the same... I dare you!

I bet you can't tell which one is the book and which one is my friend????