Hello World!!!

Guess what I spent most of yesterday doing? …Although I rarely sit down to watch a football game, I watched pretty much the entire SEC Championship game between the Florida Gators and the Crimson Tide — of course the wings, the libations and the raucous Roll, Tide, Roll fans helped…Yes, I was at a game party…

As I watched the game, those around me graciously told me about some of the players and explained some of the history between the two teams as I confessed my ignorance. One player caught my attention, Tim Tebow, the quarterback for the Florida Gators….As he was running up and down the field in the Georgia Dome, I finally figured out that he had a scriptural reference painted on the eye black on his face….John 16:33 actually…and since I am fascinated by religion and such…I kept wondering about the content of the verse…

And I wasn’t the only one. As the game unfolded and it was clear the Tide was going to wash over the Gators, people around me started saying variations of, “What’s up with that Bible verse on Tebow’s face?” So someone finally looked up the scripture on a Blackberry or some other smartphone…

John 16:33 (New International Version)

 ³³“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Of course, once someone read the verse, we tried to figure out what the verse meant as Tebow was beginning to tear up, anticipating his team’s loss…Some said it obviously meant that Tebow was going to be “aight”  though his team lost…That could be true…After a quick Google search, I have discovered that Tebow frequently has scriptural references painted on his eye black and is a unabashed Christian…..so why did God allow his team to lose then?  And when a sports reporter interviewed Mark Ingram from Alabama, he said the first thing he wanted to do was thank God for Alabama’s victory…One Alabama fan in the room gleefully noted that Tebow “doesn’t have the monopoly on God.”

So what’s up with all that? Most games, football or otherwise, can be compared to life…and with that metaphor in

Mark Ingram

mind, ponder these questions…

Why does God allow us to lose big sometimes when we are obviously believers in Him and His word? If two Christians are on opposing sides, how does God decide who will be the victor?  Does being a Scripture quoter mean that you know God more? 

Still on the same topic – the SEC Championship game …Besides the scripture discussion, folks were also discussing Tebow’s crying after the game. Many of the dudes at the party criticized Tebow for crying and also criticized one of his fellow players who tried to comfort him as he cried. They said Tebow needed to “Man Up!” and hit their chests for emphasis…hilarious…

So here is my second round of questions? Is it ever appropriate for a man to cry in public? If so, why? If not, why?

And here is my final round of questions…of course, we got on the discussion of Tiger Woods…y’all know the story…and if you don’t, a quick Google search will get you up to date. Most men at the party agreed that 90 percent of all men cheat at some point in their lives whether they are in a relationship with a woman as a single man or married…it that true? Why or why not?

Any thoughts?

Check the huge red glasses and the white shoes...such a geek...My grandma, who is now deceased, and my aunt in the background...

Hello World,

I know that according to Wal-Mart and other chain super retailers, we are now officially in the Christmas season…but for me, the Christian season doesn’t actually begin until Dec. 1.

So what’s to do in those days that follow Thanksgiving leading up til the big day? Well, I decided to clean my refrigerator…I’m ashamed to say I found various sauces, condiments, salt fish, chicken etc. that probably have been there since 2008…As I type, I know my ability-to-be-a-wife quotient is probably lessening with each word…And let me add for emphasis, the reason that I finally decided to clean out my fridge is that I started to smell the fumes of something that even the nearly air tight doors could no longer keep in…(If my mom, who is super neat, read this post, she would not be happy…oh well)

So back to my gross fridge, as I was emptying the contents of my fridge into several trash bags, I decided to watch a movie…I happened upon the movie “Little Miss Sunshine.” I’ve seen it before, but it’s worth watching again…Of all of the funny yet poignant things that happened in the movie, this quote stands out…indulge me and read it…I swear I’m going somewhere…

Dwayne: I wish I could just sleep until I was eighteen and skip all this crap-high school and everything-just skip it.
Frank: Do you know who Marcel Proust is?
Dwayne: He’s the guy you teach.
Frank: Yeah. French writer. Total loser. Never had a real job. Unrequited love affairs. Gay. Spent 20 years writing a book almost no one reads. But he’s also probably the greatest writer since Shakespeare. Anyway, he uh… he gets down to the end of his life, and he looks back and decides that all those years he suffered, Those were the best years of his life, ’cause they made him who he was. All those years he was happy? You know, total waste. Didn’t learn a thing. So, if you sleep until you’re 18… Ah, think of the suffering you’re gonna miss. I mean high school? High school-those are your prime suffering years. You don’t get better suffering than that.

This is a conversation between the angst-ridden high schooler who discovers he’s color blind thereby obliterating his dream to go to flight school and his gay uncle who survived a suicide attempt. By the way, Steve Carrell plays the uncle…he is perhaps the funniest white guy ever…next to Jim Carrey…

So my question for this post is: What has suffering taught you? What are some things that pain taught you that may have not learned otherwise?  I know, I know, somewhat of a morose post after eating yummy food, reconnecting with the fam and thanking God from whom all blessings flow and what not…

Since high school suffering was mentioned in the movie, I gotta say most of the people that were hella popular in high school probably should have suffered just a little bit…it would have given them something to aim for…as it stands now, a majority of the people that seemed to be on top then don’t seem to be too interesting now…and some of them look practically ancient…guess if you start clubbin’, boozin’ and wilin’ out at 15, you’re bound to look old in your mid ’30s. 

High school Jackie went through some suffering…She couldn’t go to parties…She wore big red classes that covered more than half of her face…She could date when she was 16, but wasn’t asked out until she was 17…She was not asked to be in any of the cliques…She frequently spent time an inch away from the mirror analyzing her eyebrows…She was accused of smelling like fish because she had a penchant for eating salmon croquettes before football games…and on and on…

(Yes, I was referring to myself in the third person…) Truthfully, I was in the low B maybe High C crowd…definitely not an A lister. Well, what did it all teach me? Well for one, I wasn’t drinkin’ and clubbin’.  I’m sure that my youthful glow is due, in part, to my delayed entry into the club scene…Also, I was forced to develop friendships with people based on personality rather than popularity…And as result, some of those people are still my friends today…And it made me yearn for something better…i.e. college…I was convinced I was going to be The Truth just beyond the “insipidia” (made up word) commonly referred to as high school… Sidebar: I must say though many of the rappers that hail from the A or their wives graced the halls of Benjamin E. Banneker High School, and many of them were kinda popular even back then…oh well…but I do believe they are the exception rather than the rule…

Since I decided to become a Christian, I have suffered through trials due to my stance on certain issues…It has not been pretty. As people say, Jesus won’t bear the cross by Himself. If you believe in Him, at some point, you have to suffer…no I have not been persecuted like what is described in the Bible, but I have been ridiculed by people for my beliefs…I wrote an article on “The Prayer of Jabez” frenzy…remember that…So I met the author of the book, Bruce Wilkinson, at a rally, and I wrote about him and the rally…So my editor had to read the article before it was published…Below is a snippet of the conversation that took place during the editing process…

Ogre boss reclines in her easy chair. Her office door is ajar so she can conveniently bark orders at random to cringing staff in the newsroom.

Ogre boss: Hey Jackie!

Jackie: (Holding her arms around herself to somehow visibly shield herself from the verbal assault sure to ignite…) Yes…

Ogre boss: When you pray “The Prayer of Jabez,” do you pray for a new boss?

She cackles and snorts similar to the Wicked Witch of the West in “The Wizard of Oz.”

I say nothing…what was there to say…I know what I felt like saying…I won’t say because some of y’all think it’s not appropriate for Christians to curse…(Good thing, you’re not with me 24/7.)

Six months later, she fired me…Good riddance I say….And I moved on to a better situation in every way…suffering taught me that God can protect me – even from people who don’t like me because I’m a Christian, cuter, younger and even more talented – bitter, you say?…naw…really though, it’s all good…

And the truth is, the best writers have suffered through some thing…. How else can you write something that moves people? I could go on, but eh, I don’t feel like it…

So what has suffering taught you? Marinate on that…AND post comments on that..please…

I will add this…my absolute fave verse in the Bible…

All things (GOOD & BAD things that happen) work together for GOOD for THOSE who love Him and are called according to HIS purpose. Romans 8:28

God can bring good out of suffering…

P.S. I’m sure that Nelson Mandela suffered terribly while he was in jail for 27 years, but I’m sure that the same internal fortitude he developed in jail as a result led him to being the first elected president of South Africa…Yes, I plan to see the new movie “Invictus.”

Hello World!!!

I don’t have much to say today, but I did want to highlight a few random thoughts that have been roaming in my head…

1. Congratulations to President Obama for championing health care reform legislation that has been passed in the House and is now an issue for the Senate…I have made health care a matter of nearly daily prayer as I think that every U.S. citizen should have access to affordable health care…And I still thank God that within my lifetime, I have literally seen a black president of this great country with my own eyes… (Shout to my inauguration travel crew!!! I can’t believe we did that nearly a year ago…) To God be the glory, great things He has done…

2. Perseverance is …. taking the written exam for a driver’s license 950 times!!! A woman in South Korea has been taking the written exam nearly daily since April 2005 to get her license…She spent more than $4200 in application fees to take the test…Apparently, she needs the license for her vegetable-selling business…Her next goal is to actually pass the driving test…God bless her and her perseverance!!!

3. Why do I find myself a bit skeptical about Rihanna having a “tell-all” interview with Diane Sawyer about the now infamous incident with Chris Brown? Maybe it’s the fact that she is releasing an album soon that has me thinking this is part of some sort of “marketing and promotion” plan or maybe it’s her new rooster- like hairstyle that has me agitated…Ahh, I know that’s not nice, but….

4. What do you think of Ms. O’s decision to remove Bebe Winans from the lineup on her upcoming “karaoke challenge” show? Apparently, she removed him from the show after bloggers and Bebe’s ex-wife spoke out on what appeared to be a double standard by Oprah. She took a strong stance against domestic violence when the Rihanna Chris Brown incident erupted, but Bebe has also been accused of domestic violence…He will appear in court regarding this allegation on Jan. 20.

5. Have you read “Act Like Lady, Think Like A Man: What Men Really Think About Love, Relationships, Intimacy and Commitment” by Steve Harvey yet? I think I mentioned this book in a previous post, but several of my friends have told me this book has managed to cross their path without even searching for the book… (Even one of my white girlfriends has talked about the book.) One of the ladies at my church put a copy of the book right in my hands…I liked the book, but many bloggers have criticized Harvey because they don’t think a man who has been married and divorced several times should have much to say about romantic relationships….At any rate, he has been able to parlay the book’s success into a regular spot on “Good Morning America.” Also, Steve and his wife Majorie are featured on the December issue of ESSENCE magazine…I intend to buy a copy…

6. And what’s up with the black serial killer in Cleveland? For all of the challenges that we have faced in this country from slavery to driving while black, black people haven’t been the ones to commit mass murders…First the D.C. sniper and now this…things are changing and it’s not looking good…

7. And finally, am I the only one who is feeling a little sad about losing that extra hour of daylight at the end of the day…Seasonal affective disorder is real…

Any thoughts?

very cute if i say so myself...and i do:)

Hello World!!!

Happy Wednesday! I struggled whether to write about this topic, but since it has been the talk of town in the A since last week I decided to throw my two cents in the bucket as well…

So most black people across the nation have heard of the illustrious black institutions of the Atlanta University Center  (AUC) that have produced some of the nation’s greatest black leaders. It is pretty much one of the crown jewels of this city. Such notables including Dr. Martin Luther King and Maynard Jackson, Atlanta’s first black mayor, attended Morehouse College. Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children’s Defense Fund, and Alice Walker, author of “The Color Purple,” attended Spelman College. James Weldon Johnson, author of the Negro national anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and Marva Collins, famed educator, attended Atlanta University and Clark College, respectively,  now known as Clark Atlanta University. And this is just a cursory list for brevity’s sake.

But since last week one of the AUC’s schools, Morehouse College, has not been in the news for its positive contributions to the nation’s brain trust. Rather it has been the news for its new dress code.  According to an article in the “The Atlanta Journal-Constitution” below are the parameters of the new dress code.

The policy details 11 expectations of students, including:

* no caps, do-rags and/or hoods in classrooms, the cafeteria, or other indoor venues

* no sun glasses worn in class or at formal programs

* no jeans at major programs, as well as no sagging pants on campus

* no clothing with derogatory or lewd messages either in words or pictures

* no wearing of clothing usually worn by women (dresses, tops, tunics, purses, pumps, etc.) on the Morehouse campus or at college-sponsored events.

Students that violate the new rules risk academic suspension.

Let me address the issues that have folk up in arms: sagging pants and cross dressing. Here in the A, lawmakers have been grappling with the saggy pants issues for the past couple of years or so. They believe this fashion statement is disrespectful and even promotes a certain thug or criminal mentality.  So this issue is nothing new.

And the other issue is cross dressing….and just for the record I am not looking for this post to be a discussion on gay rights. But apparently, many of the Morehouse College students are dressing in clothing typically associated with women’s attire to class and other campus-associated events.

So since this is my blog, I guess I need to go ahead and state my opinion. I don’t like sagging pants. I have been known to walk up to teenage boys on the street and pull up their pants without their permission. I imagine I have gotten away with this because I’m cute, haha. On one occasion, I asked this dude was his little behind cold as I could practically see it as his pants sagged way under his butt cheeks. And it was cold outside…I know he was cold and there was no way he could deny it. In fact, his boy who was was him had to smile when I told him so. In church on Sunday, one of the speakers offered to buy some belts for Christmas for some of the boys in the congregation who may not have the financial means to buy belts. It was a joke but he wasn’t joking…

Now on to the cross dressing…One of my mottos is “do you.” And I imagine that is what many of these students are thinking when they wear women’s attire on campus. All that aside, is that attire really appropriate in class?  When I was in college, it was hard enough to focus on the instructor and the coursework without any distractions. You cannot tell me that wearing women’s attire to class as a young man is not distracting to the other students. Now, I heard that some of the students believe they should be allowed to wear whatever they want as they are paying for their education. I understand that train of thought up until a certain point. I often missed days in a row of class (sorry mom and dad!) in college using that same principle. I thought since I’m paying for class I can show up when I want to…But at the same time, it would have been arrogant and maybe even delusional for me to assume the professor would give me the same attention as was given to the other students as I clearly did not respect the teacher’s time enough to show up for class.

Aside from those opinions, I also understand what it means to be “young and dumb.” When you are young and dumb, you rarely think of consequences, ramifications and implications…And to some degree, you shouldn’t…The Bible explains this principle perfectly…

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. I Corinthians 13:11

In my 36 years, I have made many a fashion statement being the proudly creative person that I am. I used the above picture because it was one of my fashion statements I guess…More than 10 years ago, I went to this club and saw this dude who looked like a pimp in his white Fedora-style hat and his wide-collared shirt. He was the business as the young folk say now…(I can’t believe I’m saying this ,but hey I am 36.) I thought to myself, “Why don’t I act like I’m one of his hoes?” So I asked this guy, who I didn’t know, if I could stage this pic with him where he was telling me to get his money. Remember that song “$itch Betta Have My Money?” That was the look I was going for…All of my girls who were with me thought I was hilarious and gutsy…It was a very cute picture…Aww, to be young and dumb…

And for the record, if I were 10 or so years younger, I would be rocking a red mohawk…I’m just sayin’. But that time has come and gone…

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven…Ecclesiastes 3:1

Any thoughts?

Hello World!!!

I must confess…As a single person, it is easy to get self-centered…after all, you pay bills for one, you eat with one, you wake up with one…so it only makes sense you wouldn’t be very much concerned with anyone – except me, myself & I…

But last week, as it rained, rained, rained and rained some more here in A, even I was forced to take a look around and survey the damage…People were getting into rowboats from their windows to escape rising water in their homes, folks were stranded in their cars  as they floated in the flood, people lost their businesses to the unforgiving currents and some even lost their lives…We may not have experienced floods comparing to Hurricane Katrina, but many were devastated nonetheless…

If you are anything like me, you are wondering why God allows these type of events to happen from time to time…there may be a clue in His word obviously…

He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Matthew 5:45

So according to that verse, good and bad happen to the good and bad…somehow, that doesn’t seem quite right, does it?…it seems to me like if you are a Christian, you should have a sort of a heavenly insurance policy when bad things are happening all around you…it would seem that if you are trying to stay in His will, then He should be willing to spare you and yours when natural disasters or even unnatural disasters happen…But I am mature enough in this Christian walk to know that, yes, sometimes due to your status as a Christian, God will protect in you in ways that other people who aren’t Christian do not know about…but I also know that God often allows circumstances to happen to Christians to increase their faith in him and his sovereignty…

Yes, God is the ultimate Father…every Christian believes that…and so if we believe that, do we also believe that like earthy fathers, our Heavenly Father must punish us from time to time…Some people don’t think so, but as much as I am a “God is Love” Christian, I cannot ignore stories like Noah in the Bible…last week, some of my Facebook friends were joking about needing an ark because it was raining so much…but as I read their status updates, I began to consider that Noah and his family needed the ark, because our Father was destroying the land by water due to the evilness of the people at that time. So was God punishing Atlanta last week for some sin…was God punishing the city of New Orleans for some sin…who can say…God allowed Noah to know that was the case, and I believe that because that story was included in the Bible, we have to consider its ramifications…

For some of those who were affected by the flood last week, it may have been simply a case of God allowing things to happen to everyone…we don’t always know why, but believers in God can be assured that He will see them through…And for some, if you believe in the story of Noah, it may have been an example of God’s punishment! Only those people who were affected can say for sure…

At any rate, those of us who were spared from the storm or from other natural disasters, do have a responsibility as well..at least according to the Bible, we must apply the Golden Rule…

‘Love your neighbor as yourself.  Matthew 22:39

For me that means, giving what I can when I can – that may mean opening up my wallet, giving clothing or food, offering a listening ear – and of course praying for those who were affected by the storms last week…

So to those who suffered in the storms last week, I offer my condolences, support and prayers…

Also, I hope the lyrics to this song, “I Can See Clearly Now” by Jimmy Cliff also encourage you…

I can see clearly now the rain is gone.
I can see all obstacles in my way.
Here is that rainbow I’ve been praying for.
It’s gonna be a bright (bright)
bright (bright) sunshiny day.
It’s gonna be a bright (bright)
bright (bright) sunshiny day.
It’s going to be a bright (bright)
bright (bright) sunshiny day.
Yeah, hey, it’s gonna be a bright (bright) bright (bright)
sunshiny day.

Any thoughts?

P.S. And you know that rainbows are Biblical, right?  This verse appears at the end of the Noah story…

Hello World!!!

For the past two weekends, I have been hanging out with the girls celebrating birthdays, popping bottles, donning funky platform shoes, eating appetizers and spending money…

And if you read a previous post on my financial state, you know that I am trying to “save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off.” (Clark Howard’s motto) Per my financial coach, I am curtailing my spending money to $100 a month for a while to help pay down some debt and add more to my savings…and it’s working…but $100 isn’t a lot of money it seems…And my eating out money is supposed to come from that $100 according to my financial coach…So when some friends and I decided to celebrate another friend’s birthday by taking her out to eat about a week ago, I made a game plan…And let me backtrack a little…these particular friends are fabulous and don’t mind spending a pretty penny and more on food, drinks and good times…So I made a game plan because with these friends, I’m liable to have more than my share of alcoholic beverages and then be mad the next day when I’m looking over the bill and wondering how I could have drank all of that cash the night before…

So the birthday girl, knowing my cheap nature, started off the dinner saying that she was contributing to the bill. Obviously, that was her way of saying, “I know you’re cheap, and I don’t want you to worry about paying for my meal because I want to eat and drink what I want…” And I appreciated that…(It is typically my friends’ policy to pay for the meal of the birthday girl we are celebrating.) But at the end of the night, some five to six hours later, as I was putting gas in my car at a deserted gas station and looking around for potential carjackers, I realized that I spent $20 more than what I budgeted for.  But hey I decided to chalk that one up to the game…You win some…You lose some…It could have been worse…

So Friday night, when I received a near midnight text that the girls and their men wanted to spend Saturday evening at the Hotel Palomar, I knew that it would be yet another temptation to go outside of my budget…But like a kid following the siren song of the Pied Piper, I went along…and we had fun…and the bill was nearly $500 when DKW and I left…

Before you get me wrong, this is not a criticism of my fabulous friends…If you have the money and want to spend it, that’s your business. But it does bring a larger question into focus…is there such a thing as a financial compatibility? Do you have to hang around people who have the same spending habits that you have? I enjoy having friends of various spending sensibilities. DKW and I are cheap…We get excited about coupons and free events…But I also enjoy hanging out with my fabulous friends when I want to spend literally and figuratively a night on the town…And the Hotel Palomar is a fabulous place to spend a summer evening…The beautiful lounge is atop the hotel. As I sipped my breakfast caipiriha, felt the breeze in my locks and gazed at the twinkling city lights, I almost felt like I was at the beach…(My financial coach and I agreed that I would not take any trips until at least December so I imagine I won’t see the beach again until next year, God willing…)

We have all heard that money issues can be the death of a marriage but what about your friendships? As I said, I think it’s possible to have friends of all types.

Any thoughts?

this is how I feel this morning...

Hello World!!!

I…HAVE…WRITERS’…BLOCK…

So I will post a few things I learned and observed over the weekend as I was out and about in the A…

1. If you are nice to a waiter or waitress at a restaurant, you may get invited back into the restaurant after the restaurant is closed to toss a few ones back with the staff…

2. If you go to Nordstrom at Phipps Plaza, you may get some great dish about “The Real Housewives of Atlanta.” (Psss…hang around the makeup counters…)

3. Although my father is a minister, none have ever tried to holla at me…but they are tryin’ to holla at some folk…

4. Some guys would rather text you for over an hour instead of just call you…

5. I still have the goods to get invited to come into a party for free

stop by here in Phipps to overhear good & juicy gossip...

while others are forced to pay their way in…

6. You can actually get fresh sushi at the mall…

7.  There are some women who have managed to get married twice in the span of time that it has taken you to find not even one husband…

8. Lights are out in downtown Decatur by 11 p.m. unless you find the one bar that is open until 4 a.m.

9. Hit *67 before making a phone call so that your number won’t show up on the caller ID.

10. I admire single parents, but I don’t want to be one…

How do I know that you love me...you text...

Any thoughts?

Up until I was in the sixth grade or so, I thought I wanted to be a librarian. Although I knew about the typical negative stereotypes  of librarians (old, white, spinster, donning cat-eye shaped glasses, hair tightly fashioned in a bun, etc.),  I was convinced that I wanted to become one. 

At the beginning of every summer during my childhood, my father brought the three of us to the public library in downtown College Park to get us enrolled in the summer library reading contest. Each of us received a sheet in which we had to write down the names of the books that we read throughout the summer. If you read a certain amount of books, you would receive prizes at the end of the summer. Although my brothers had to be cajoled into participating in these contests, I relished writing each and every title on my list. So when people asked me what I wanted to become as an adult, I thought the natural response was a librarian since reading was my absolute favorite thing to do. (Eating was a close second, ha, ha.) I wanted to be a writer too, but I didn’t know any writers so becoming a librarian seemed a more attainable choice.

Also, there was this one librarian at College Park Library who was so nice plus she didn’t look like the librarians I read about. She was tall, slender and black with long hair. She didn’t wear glasses, and she was reasonably fashionable. I figured if she could do it then I could do it. In fact, one summer just after I finished the fifth or sixth grade I volunteered to be her assistant at College Park Library. For a few hours each week, I helped her shelve books according to the Dewey Decimal System, read stories to little kids, haul books to various locations, organize the card catalogue system, etc. After that summer, I realized that the job of a librarian was a bit monotonous for me plus my new found discovery of boys didn’t help.

Since those days, I haven’t made an effort to have a “summer reading list” although reading is still my favorite pastime. A new study in the journal Psychological Science demonstrates that people’s brains actually process the actions in a book much like their brains process real life events. In other words, the same brain activity that occurs when one is in love is much like the brain activity that occurs when one is reading about being in love…it’s no wonder that romance novels are so popular with some people. (They are getting off on that stuff!) Anyway, this study just proves what I have experienced since I was a very young child. When I want to go somewhere, I just read a book.

In homage to the infamous “summer reading list,” I have decided to list some of my favorite books from my childhood. I wonder if some of these books are still popular.

1. Ludell and Willie by Brenda Scott Wilkinson. I think I must have read this book during my pre-teens. It is a tender romance story about two black teenagers in Waycross, Georgia in the 1950s. In this book, you can experience segregation and learn about big, thick juicy pickles that make you want to suck the juice out of them before chomping them. This book also made me want to marry a country boy. In fact, I often thought of this book when I dated this guy who is from Vidalia.

2. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret? by Judy Blume. I think Judy Blume books helped raise me. This is a must read for any young girl who has yet to experience her first period. Goodness, those days were so confusing, but books like this help out a lot…

3. The Ramona books by Beverly Cleary. I don’t remember what these books were about exactly. I just remember the heroine of these books was this little girl with a brown bob who was always getting in trouble.  It seemed like there was a ton of these books…

4. The Friends by Rosa Guy. This book is about a friendship between a black girl from the West Indies and a black girl from New York. It reminded me of my friendship with a girl who had just moved to Georgia from Jamaica.  In those days, my quest to find a best friend was as troublesome as my quest to find a mate is now. Maybe it will be resolved as it was then. All of a sudden, she just showed up, and she wasn’t like the best friend I had pictured in my mind. She was a couple of grades ahead of me and had an accent, but I felt I had known her forever…

5. Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly. This book is about a summer romance between a girl that is about to go to college and a high school star athlete who had once seemed unattainable. Apparently, Daly was in college when she wrote the story! If I ever visit Wisconsin, I must visit Fond du Lac where this story takes place.

6. The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank. This book is a heartbreaking story of a young Jewish girl and her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The family was forced to hide out in an attic for about two years. This precocious young woman recorded her insights during this unbelievably horrific crime against humanity. Anne ultimately died in a concentration camp.

7. Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene. Reading the above mentioned book gave me perspective on this book. This is  a story about a young girl’s crush on a German soldier, who escaped a POW camp. It is an unlikely story as the main character is Jewish. This girl ends up hiding the German soldier who ultimately slips away before their relationship is revealed.

So what are some of your favorite childhood books? Why? Do you have a “summer reading list” now? How is it going? Any suggestions for good reads?

Any thoughts?

P.S. I ran into that librarian in my early 20s. She was working at the public library in Buckhead. Surely, she must have retired by now…

There are no words…RIP MJ…August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009…

Hello World!!!

As I stated in my title, I don’t have a specific topic, but that’s okay…I think you will be entertained by the random collective of thoughts that have entered my mind lately…at the very least, you will feel sorry for me and perhaps leave a comment to make my day

1. Just to get it out of the way…What grade would you give President Obama on his first 100 days? Uh duh, if you compare him to our former president, that would be a high “A!” However, financial guru Clark Howard, who truly seems like a nice man, has criticized the Obama administration for its continuing involvement in bailing out GM. Yesterday, he asked his listeners what they want to happen with GM since we are now part owners of the company through our tax dollars…

2. Do y’all think the Craigslist killer’s fiancee had any idea that her man sought the erotic services of women on Craigslist not to mention what he did to them once they hooked up…To be fair, the medical student who had planned to get married in August hasn’t been convicted of the crime, but all of this has got me thinking…When you’re in a relationship with someone, can you really be completely fooled by that person…I mean you may not know that you’re man has a gambling problem for instance, but you wonder why he disappears so much…I briefly dated this old, married man in college…Of course, I was unaware that he was married and once I discovered that, it was over…But even before I discovered that, I could tell he was lying about his age…If you and your girl both sport Jheri curls in your high school prom picture, you were not born in the 7os….

3. A subscriber to this blog (yes, I actually have a few subscribers) said that she notices that black men (and she is black) don’t bother to hold the door open for her and other women while white men or men from other cultures do…she asked me to write about this phenomenon so I decided to pay attention and see if she had a point…I noticed that some men do and some men don’t, but I didn’t notice that one group was any more likely to hold the door open for me…what are your thoughts?

4. Would you think less of a Christian person if you saw him or her get tipsy at a party every now and then? Is it wrong for Christians to drink period? A little champagne never hurt anybody…

5. Should the “swine flu” be called the “Mexican flu” in deference to Jewish people and Muslims?

6. Is it possible to really fall in love more than once in your lifetime?

7. I will have an extended post about this next month, but in the meantime, what do you think of pre-marital sex for Christians? Is it really that bad? Is it just an antiquated Biblical notion clearly not meant for people who have waited well into their ’30s to get married…(Stop looking at me…)

8. Were y’all aware that Rev. Al and Warren Ballentine will be back on the radio in Atlanta as of today? However, their programs will now be broadcast on AM rather than FM…on 1380 WAOK to be exact…that’s good news! It’s soo not true that black people only want to listen to R&B all day long as a radio exec recently told me.

9. Is anyone else a fan of Lil Wayne? I know he seems crazy, but in some sort of impish way, he is cool to death…

10. Does size really matter? If your man presented you with a little bitty engagement ring, what would you do? This was a hot topic discussion among my girls a couple of weeks ago…I don’t have to have a huge rock, but semi-huge would suffice…I would rather have a nice house than a huge rock…But TRUST and BELIEVE, that does not mean I would be happy with a simple gold band…Would it be okay to go behind his back and exchange the stone if it was too small…Steve Harvey was talking about this topic as well…Have y’all read his book? What do you think?

Any thoughts?

P.S. Doesn’t Lil Wayne look like somebody’s baby boy desperately trying to be hard in this pic? Goodness, maybe I’m maternal after all…And I also included a video for his song with Babyface, “Get Too Comfortable.” Face can make anything sound good…