Curious QOTD: Whats in a handshake???

One thing I can't stand is to shake somebody's hand and get a weak handshake in return! Whats with that? To me, IMHO, it shows weakness in that person and most people who have giving me that hold their hand out limply handshake I always look at them sideways and I am always right about them. Typically, they are sneaky, shady, underhanded AND passive while they do their bullshit.  Gimme somebody to work with who has a STROOONG  handshake and although they may too be full of shit, they AT LEAST have some character and integrity about themselves and at the VERY LEAST, the appearance of such! Don't just lose your self respect in a shitty handshake!

Whats your stance on handshakes? Is it a sign of someone's personality, ethics and integrity??

Letterman - Farewell Tribute to Great Moments in Presidential Speeches

*wipes tears* I can't take NOOOO MORESSSSSSSS!!!!

You cant be winking ALLLL Willy Nilly and whatnot!!!

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Beyoncé - Single Ladies SPOOF (Barack Obama)

I am trying to decide if this is sacrilegious? *stifles a giggle* Is it ok to laugh?

$160 for 5 cups of coffee....

Yanno, I had started a blog about how smooth life has been these last few weeks. How the semester is going so far, the book situation, MiniMe doings  and blah, blah, blah....

Then my mail alerts kept popping up with notices from the bank.  Apparently, JC Penny decided to wait 2 weeks to post a 12 dollar debit. Now I check my balance pretty faithfully and would have sworn TWICE that it had posted, but apparently not. Well, me being the no cash carrier that I am, always stop and get a cup of coffee in the morning.  I knew I had enough for the coffee I had purchased.

apparently not.

Now, what kills me abou this bank in particular is that they will always post the bigger debit first and charge you for the smaller amounts after the first one puts you in the red. If they had debited the coffee charges FIRST I would have only had ONE overdraft fee instead of FIVE.

So thats how I have paid 160 bucks for 5 cups of coffee.  I really don' t think banks are made for poor people who have to live off of their last 10 bucks for a week.

I soooooooo didn't need this distraction right now with me starting a new and what is going to be a rather difficult-cant-have-any-distractions kind of semester and I am trying my best to just LET IT GO AND LET GOD.

Our Black Camelot

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

IS THIS NOT THE BEST SONG FOR THE FIRST DANCE????

*wipes tears*

I know I shouldn't be laffin at my baby but.....

Look at her, flailing all about! LMAOOO She is in the liturgical dancers at her school called the Munckins Praise Dancers.

100_1155.JPG

DMX Adopts Pink Prison Wardrobe - Hip-Hop Media Training

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/hiphopmediatraining/47509/dmx-adopts-pink-prison-wardrobe/
I remember reading about this in one of my criminal justice classes. The color pink is apparently makes the inmates more calmer and that Arizona warden in particular has been successful for reducing violence in his prison.

Ya can't exactly be acting all MANNISH with PINK drawers on now huh? LMAOO

Me and My goofy family! LMBO

My aunt was in town for a few days from California.

Lookit what I found! LOLOLOL

I found my high school classmates.... *sighssss*

 
Ok, so someone sent me the link to my high school alumni website on Facebook. You know,  after all those years, all of the insecurities I felt from high school have resurfaced?

Wowwwwwwwwwwwwww

I was the one who was picked on.

Incessantly.

I don't remember much from high school. I think I blocked it all out. For me, it is probably in the top 5 of the worse times in my life.

I was the nerd.

I was the big goofy.

I was the one with no friends. My mom wouldn't allow me to hang with anyone from school. I believe I mentioned before, about the not knowing my phone number policy.  To my mother, all of the girls was a slut and streetwalker.

I was the one with the most unfashionable clothes everrr. My mother bought all of my clothes 2 or 3 sizes too big so as to not show my shape. When i say too big, I mean, I can pull down all pants without unbuttoning or unzipping them.

No insults were too severe.  Every insult was worth feeling like the shit for my classmates.

and i retreated. and for that, I was picked on and taunted even more.

I was the girl with PROBLEMS.

Every time I tried to reach out and make friends it would either backfire or they quickly kept their distance.

I was the one that they would befriend long enough to find out about me and then they would go tell everyone and they had more material to pick on me with.

I was the one the girls would keep their distance from because I was their biggest insecurity:

the tide turning and them being picked on too.

I didnt know that at the time, but I recognize it now as an adult. I am very wary of possibly reopening that wound, but would sure love to get out and meet with folks.

$932.80.... (where are my fellow college students???)

....is the amount my paralegal books cost for the first 5 of 9 classes! *deadddddddddd*

For shits and giggles I added all the books to my University online bookstore cart and that is the total for USED books!

I have been searching online for the books to be cheaper textbooks.

I think the profs get a commission from the publishers.

SERIOUSLY.

I have used amazon.com before, and usually I can strike up upon a pretty good deal, but this time I am having issues because those fool ass sellers aren't putting the editions they are selling.  First time I bought a book from Amazon I gleefully purchased my textbook for what I thought was the low low and damn if it wasn't an older edition.  Now, before you tell me to just buy the older edition, I can't. Not for any law or criminal justice books because it is all about current issues being applied to ever changing laws.

*sighssssssss*

Now I saw how much they were last fall, but I thought I would be able to do what I always do and find them much CHEAPER. No such luck this time. No way in the figgety and shiggedy HEYALL can I afford to pay 110 for a USED book.


...and I am talking about going to law school. Those books run in the THOUSANDS!  I have been on various other so called half price textbook sites and the prices aren't looking much better, because by time I pay for shipping I am right back where I started from.


If anyone (particularly students) know of any guaranteed places to find used CURRENT EDITION textbooks FOR CHEAP can ya let me know????

I am gonna check out the library too.

Damn Catholic School!!!!!!!!!!!

Rating:	★
Category:	Other

Closed on me today. Just cuz its a funky minus 7 degrees! MiniMe is thrilled as shit!

ok, question for mommies!!!! (or teachers)

Anybody here know a good yet SIMPLE science fair project for a kindergartner????

Global Warming eh????

Rating:	★
Category:	Other

We are expecting another 2-5 inches. We have already gotten about 8 inches over the weekend. Now, typically, I couldn't give 2 rat's asses about some snow. BUT, My daughters *WONDERRRRRRRFUL* Catholic school, well ALL Catholic schools here in Chicago are INFAMOUS for closing for bad weather. Chicago Public Schools NEVER close. NEVERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR lmao

Why you ask??? Well, the public school's teachers and staff are REQUIRED to live in the city which makes traveling to work in a city that hustles and bustles with the plowing at the wee hours of the morning, meaning, they are able to get to work.

Catholic schools on the other hand, those teachers can live anywhere they damn well please, so if a blizzard hits (as is expected tonight) the wonderful cushy little suburbs they are living in do not respond to the bad weather quickly enough for them to make it to work so they call off! Which means the schools closes.

I am out of paid time off.

Let us all bow our heads in prayer...

A Late QOTD: Why am I soooo SPOOKY?

I always make light of the fact and fun of myself that I am spooked to death at the prospect of  dating a man.  People always say that I should be more forward when it comes to dealing with the opposite sex.  More so, that I should approach a man first.

Soooooooo not gonna happen.

For me, approaching a man is the equivalent of saying here, take me nowwww I am desperate.

So then, I have the stare downs happening when I am on the bus or train. I look, he looks, I look away. LMAOOO I look again, he looks, I look away. And I wonder, how many opportunities am I passing up cuz of my irrational??? fear of not approaching a man first.

So then, lets say he does speak first. I will speak back. we may then hold a conversation and then he will offer me his number and then I am like ummmmm noooooooooo, I aint calling you, but.... you can call me. LOLOLOLOL

So then they think I am playing games. and I am not. They just don't know the fear they (men) hold over me. I mean, it is like pulling teeth. I really do feel sorry for them. LOLOLOL Some try, but one hint of the smell of bullshit and i am OUT!

For every brick they take down, I put up three. Seriously. A man would have to have the patience of Job just to make it to first base.

Seriously.

Sooo, I try the upfront approach. I am a firm believer in laying all the cards on the table face up.  *here* this is what you are dealing with.

You have no idea how many times I am accused of playing games, but really???

I am painfully shy, especially when dealing with the opposite sex.  I don't believe in calling a man. I won't chase a man. I will especially drop a mofo with the quickness when I hear "just call me later" continuously. Whats with that anywaysss?? Why I always gotta keep calling you? A man isn't coming to my house, I have a child present and protecting my image in the eyes of my daughter and showing a good example is of the upmost importance. When I say I am not sleeping with you that is what I mean. Not until I know you better. Thats not unreasonable is it??

Then men say I am unapproachable.  That i always look so serious.  Like I have an attitude. and if you step to me wrong, you gonna see that attitude. *sighsss* I can't help my size. I know it is intimidating for most, and for the rest, they think I am an easy mark. pfffffft

So my question for you dear friends is how do I get past my fear of men without compromising the VERY old fashioned values that I hold dear and without running for those ever loving hillssssss???

She Conned Me Again... All of you with boys say YAY!!!

Every time I say I am not gonna braid her hair again, the MIniME begs and begs and after I do it, I swearssssss I ain't gonna braid it anymoressssssss. She takes me to hell and back!!!

WRAPPED IN MY APRON STRINGS... (Stolen from Lala)

I was reading THoney's blog about the whole being single and childless at a certain age. Then Supa made the comment about the difference there is between blacks and whites when it comes to planning for children which brought  to mind this blog from Lala (go by and say hi!!)

I was given permission to steal this blog a loooooooooong time ago on 360 so I am assuming that that permission is still standing!!! LOLOL (SHE DONE DISAPPEARED ON US PFFFT)

Sooo, without much further ado, Lala's Wrapped in my Arpon Stringsss....

CLICK PLAY:

Apron Strings - Everything but the Girl

By the way...the above...IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE MOVIES!!!

There must be something in the water...

I mean...along with the flowers pregnant women are blossoming EVERYWHERE!!!

There are about seven women at my job who are walking and wobbling around, sporting that special "glow" that comes from being happy that you are bringing life into fruition...sporting the latest outfits that high fashion has to offer for the "expectant mother"...happy that they can FINALLY put their ETERNAL dieting to rest...for AT LEAST A YEAR!!!

And I have about six girlfriends who are walking around craving pickles, starch and chocolate and cursing folks out at the drop of a dime...complaining about the DAMN HEAT and asking me if I have any clothes I can give them...cause you know, I'm a big girl...I can assure you...there's NO SPECIAL GLOW GOING ON THERE!!!

Notice the difference between the two scenarios?

Now...all the women on my job are White...all of my friends are Black (yeah, just like in the show "Friends"...where everybody BITCHED because there were no Black friends...I don't know about you, but I have found that like tend to hang with like)...

That difference hit me today, when I was talking to my co-worker Alice, who is about five months pregnant...and I was congratulating her and joking saying that "I didn't want to come right out and ask if you were pregnant...because somebody asked me that one time...and by the way...I WASN'T PREGNANT...AND A BITCH WAS PISSED"...so I had gotten confirmation from other co-workers before I approached her to offer her my congratulations...

Alice was "tickled pink" LITERALLY by what I said...and her smile could have lit up the whole world...as she ate her SECOND Dove Bar of the day (Doctor's orders she laughed) in COMPLETE CONTENTMENT and gabbed about how her and her hubby were trying to wait before they spent MASSIVE amounts of money at the "Baby's Room"...and how all of the grandparents were OVER THE RAINBOW...already starting college funds for the future "President of the United States"...

And as I listened to her happiness today...my mind wander to my girlfriends...all single Black women...all who are struggling...all who ALREADY have children by males who aren't "carrying their load" so to speak...

And I felt so very fucking sad...

Because, when I think about it...I really haven't been friends with ANY WOMAN who has had children...where the gestation period was one of joy and happiness...and that includes my own Mama...

When we think about all that we lose as Black women out here struggling to make ends meet...I wonder do we ever think about that...

I have never known a woman who had a happy pregnancy, now don't get me wrong...they were HAPPY about the baby...but not happy about the personal situation they were in...Because they were too busy dealing with stress...

The stress of having ANOTHER baby with a man/husband who has NEVER acted right...I got one friend whose man did a disappering act that would have made even HOUDINI proud...and I mean...for the past five months...that nigga has been GHOST!!!

The stress of having ANOTHER mouth to feed, when the mouths that you already have to feed are RESENTFUL AS HELL (and by the way, the SHOULD BE...because every dollar you give to the new child..you take away from the ones that have been here)...

The stress of having that precarious balance beam called your "lifestyle"...totally upended because you moved to the suburbs to give your children a better life...but now that you're pregnant again...you have to move BACK TO THE HOOD...in with Mama...

The stress of dealing with Mama...who has NEVER had the opportunity to know what "empty nest syndrome" truly means...who raised her kids...helped you raise your kids...and now you want her to help you to raise SOME MORE????

The stress of dealing with bullshit jobs who really could give less than a flying fuck that you're pregnant...you're a C.N.A./L.P.N./Customer Service Rep./Cashier/Administrative Assitant WHATEVER...and your ass can be replaced at the drop of a dime...and your Manager/Supervisor/Satan dosen't mind letting you know it each chance they get...

The stress of knowing that you've been flying without a net for years...and NOW that you just found out you're pregnant...your transmission in your car...JUST WENT OUT!!!

Oh...and the stress from dealing with the stress...which means that you're probably also going to deal with hypertension and gestational diabetes, which means you have to be on bedrest for the last eight weeks...

And if you're thinking about signing up for Public Aid...

GOOD LUCK WITH THAT!!!

When I found out this weekend that my girlfriend Keisha was pregnant...YOU COULD HAVE KNOCKED ME OVER WITH A DAMN FEATHER...I mean, Keisha ALREADY has four children...who were raised by her Grandmama, who JUST PASSED (GOD BLESS HER SOUL)...so Keisha...REALLY don't know nothing about raising kids (raising hell, THAT'S A WHOLE DIFFERENT STORY)...

This is just a snippet of our conversation...

"Keisha...you JUST HAD A BABY by this man...who ain't been doing what he's suppose to?"...

"Girl," Keisha said taking a pull from her drink..."Shit happens, you just got to deal with it."...

WHAT IN THE HELL?

(I always had a REALLY sneaking suspicion that the MAIN reason Keisha got pregnant by this man, is because he's half greek with light green eyes...ergo, her child got that "good hair" and pretty eyes...)

WHAT KIND OF GHETTO ASS SHIT IS THAT?!?!

And I mean, her babies' daddy...OH, HE'S A REAL WINNER...I mean, truly, everytime I read the metro section of the newspaper, I expect to find a story about how this "independent pharmaceutical salesman" was found shot to death over in K-Town somewhere...

SIGH!!!

By the way...I won't tell you about THE OTHER KEISHA I know who is 17, a high school dropout...AND PREGNANT (yet, I will never forget the arguement I got into with her Aunt a couple of years ago, when I suggested that they put Keisha on some birth control, before she started bringing babies up in there that she can't take care of...BUT NO...I WAS WRONG...Now everybody wants to kick her out the damn house and call her a HO???!!!)

It's always been my assertion that in order to make the BEST possible future for your child...you have to do a bit of planning...

Planning on having the proper mate...

Planning on having the proper amount of education so that you can get the proper job...

Planning on having the proper amount of savings sacked away so that when you do the bullshit "Family Medical Leave Act"...you can actually BOND with your child, instead of worrying about if your electricity is going to get cut off in the next three months...

Hell...I even feel that you should PLAN on when you actually get pregnant (I WOULD DO WHATEVA IS NECESSARY TO ENSURE THAT I DON'T GIVE BIRTH TO A GEMINI)...and work VERY HARD WITH YOUR MATE TO MAKE THAT MOVE, RIGHT NOW BABY!!!

Oh...and that thing about planning...you actually have to make the plan...a reality...

SIGH!!!

So, I listened to my co-worker Alice today as she waxed poetically about becoming a mother, choosing the colors for the baby's nursery and the excitement that she felt every night when her hubby laid his head upon her stomach and talked to the baby...

And I was so happy for Alice...

And so very sad for my friends...

All of them...

MY Point in posting this is to say, there is nothing wrong with being single and childless. I would rather that that to be in the situation i am in as well as many others like me.  Although I wasn't married at the time, the plan was to get married, but Mister later on showed his true colors.  Although MiniMe WAS an oops, Mister hadn't had kids either and he was 36.   Sooo, its not like I went and got myself knocked up by someone who wasn't at least working with lifetime goals. I can say a whole lot of shit about Mister, but he has always worked 2 jobs (except now) the whole time we were together.

Ladiesssssssssss

Is there such a thing as a bra with straps around the neck? or am I just dreaming? I sooo want a mock halter dress with the neck strap thingy and cant dare go without a bra and a strapless bra my size is IMPOSSIBLE. It doesn't hold up squat. Any suggestions????

The official end of the holiday season is.....

Rating:	★
Category:	Other

The only thing worse than Christmas season in retail is the inventory that takes place immediately following.

Scanning starts at 5am!

pbbbbbbbbbttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt

*DROOLSSSSSSSS*

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

I am an amber WHORE.

i cant get rid of the clutter.... SQUALOR here I come!!!!

The dresser situation has gotten worse. the disease of the left dresser has now spread to the right.  The bedroom isn't all bad. just dont have much room left for the clothes.

This dirty nasty fan, I feel like nigga trash. Yuck!!!! Can I hose that shit down? Too much fucking pollution. AND i CAN'T keep the windows sills clean due to the leaky ass window. pffffffffffffffft
I don't know what to say about this. This is MY corner. I have 4 bags of trash out of this corner alone.  all the school papers are gone and lookit!!! And the damn vanity still sits in the box!



small, small, small.  kitchen to the left. bedroom to the right. thats it!!!




The couch is just a done deal. No matter how much I clean it, something ALWAYS remains on the couch.















Well, at least the kitchen is clean. Oh, and the side of the sink you see there?? RUST. not dirt.

Uncle Jay Explains: Year-end! 12-22-08

ROTFLMAO AND *WIPES TEARS*

All parents unite....

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

....there is a mass conspiracy.

All of the toy companies get together every year and think of new ways to make it next to impossible to get to the actual toys. all the plastic, twisties, strings, cardboard, and crap....

If I wanted to play with toys.....


shoot, I's tiiiiired now! LOLOLOL

pffffffffft

Rating:	★
Category:	Other

my daughter is pleased as pissy ass punch she brought that cupcake maker home.

Sorry Guyss...

Rating:	★
Category:	Other

I am having issues with outside lurkers reappearing constantly on some blogs and I have closed off many blogs. I am sorry for them popping back up in your Inbox.

A Queen Of The USA? Video - CBSNews.com

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=2661952n
Watch to the end. It is only 2 minutes. I love me some Andy Rooney.