Back in Business

I haven't posted in forever. I definitely need to get back on my game. It's the end of a school year, and those who know about academia know that it's the end of most of the excitement. My office is empty - hasn't been that way in...hmmm, ever! It's been a good year, I must say. My first job - success. I'm looking forward to the beginning of next year already. This summer should be interesting, to say the least. What will Wake and Winston be like without all the students? Probably quite boring, lol. But I'll try to enjoy myself, have some fun, get some things done. I definitely will get back on my blogging.

I've been having a lot of conversations of late with graduating seniors. It brings back a lot of memories, to say the least. The main thing I've been telling them is that things change when they leave, but not always in the ways they might expect. As I saw myself when I left school, you will be surprised who you keep in contact with, and what you think about your time spent. Those you thought would be your best friends may fall by the wayside, and people you never considered as close friends may come closer to your heart. It's crazy.

Well...that's it for now. May be an abrupt ending, but that's a blog for you, lol. More to come.

We Plan, God Laughs

It's funny how we as humans are so consumed with making plans. We think about every possibility possible, contemplate scenario after scenario, until we've laid out calculated and detailed plans about what we want to do, and how we want to do it. And we prepare oursevles for these "eventualities."

And then, everything falls apart.

Our carefully laid plans are carelessly dismantled, like someone using a blender to shred a business plan. We realize that we couldn't have been less prepared if we had not made any plans at all. In fact, we probably wouldn't have been less prepared had we planned for the most outrageous, unlikely scenario possible.

Despite this, do we stop planning? No. We continue to do that which, in the end, in most circumstances, proves to be a waste of time. Why? Because it's in our nature. We do not feel secure unless we plan. It is one of our attempts to control our fate, our destiny.

Do I try to plan? Yes. Does it work? Maybe 15% of the time. And that's being generous. Will I stop planning? Probably not.

Such is life.

H-Town Rundown

So some random stuff out here in H-Town...I went to this club last night, Bam Bou. It was Latoya Luckett's birthday, and MIMS was in the building pushing his new album, as well as Estelle and Vince Young. Estelle didn't sing though, I was a little dissapointed, I really wanted to hear her rip it. I went with my homegirl Stephanie. It was a cool time, the club was nice but the architech needed to rethink some of his or her designs.This is the 2nd picture we've taken together on the same website, ironically (I remember taking this one Steph!! hahaha!). Cool times.

Went up to the Galleria mall today too, tried to do some shopping. Didn't really succeed, kinda mad about that. I did however see the funniest book I've ever seen in my life. It's called How to Live With a Huge Penis: Advice, Meditations and Wisdom for Men Who Have Too Much. I thought it was hilarious. You be the judge thoug, I suppose.
Quick shoutout to my friend Charlotte...she saw this street sign in DC and sent me the pic. Boricua!!

Last Night

It's the last night in New Orleans. I must say I've eaten some good food the whole time I've been here. Fried catfish, shrimp (skrimps), po' boys. Tonight I had some alligator sausage (the bomb!!) and jambalaya, crawfish ettoufette...so good. I love the food down here. Tomorrow morning it's on to H-Town. I'm definitely gonna be eatin' steak all day, lol. Since we're leaving at 6am, I think I'll head to sleep soon. More to come.

Let Us Break Bread Together

Ate at this dope restaurant today - Remoulade - in New Orleans, it's on Bourbon. I hat a combo fried basket - fried catfish, oysters, and shrimp. It was good, except they didn't have any hot sauce (other than Tobasco, which for anyone who eats hot sauce knows isn't hot sauce). Hit the streets after that...saw some strippers (in the street, not in the strip club), some street walkers, some TNA...NOLA is crazy. Whatever. Bout to hit them sheets. Holla in the morning.

PS- Oh yeah, doesn't this bread from the restaurant look like the original communion bread? Hahahahaha!

At the Hornets' Game in New Orleans

We were mad far up in the stands. I felt like I was climbing Mt. Everest. One false step and it was over...Shout out to Wake's Gospel Choir for doing their thing with the National Anthem.

Road Trippin' with Wake's Gospel Choir

I hate riding on buses. I'm too tall and I can never get comfortable. We've been driving now for about 12 or 13 hours, we're maybe 45min from New Orleans, the first destination. I'm so ready to get off this bus, lol. It's ok thought, anything for the students. Tonight they're singing the National Anthem at the Hornet's game, should be a good time. After that, hit the streets of NOLA! More to come...

Live and Let Live

So when I wake up this morning my thoughts gravitate towards the idea of anger and irritation. Not that I am angry or irritated this morning, but I was just thinking about it. I am definitely someone who isn't prone to getting extremely angry - it takes a lot to get me mad. But I do let myself get irritated or bothered by little things quite often. It's actually pretty oppressive, if you think about it. See, if you're anything like I am, when any small thing is wrong with you (i.e. you're sad, angry, frustrated, blah blah), you don't seem to function correctly. That emotion consumes you, to the point where you have to do something about it just so you can get your equilibrium back. that's oppression. The feelings are in control, they are upsetting the natural balance of your life. So my solution? Stop getting so irritated by things that probably don't matter any in the long run! Particularly if it's a small irritation. Unless you are going to (justifiably) get steaming mad about it, just full of rage because the injustice done to you was so magnificent that you simply cannot ignore it....let it go. Brush it off. Laugh. Get over it, or yourself. Or both. But most importantly....let it go. The hardest part (for me) is letting it go, moving beyond the frustration. I tend to hold on to feelings for a long time. I don't want to, I just find it hard to let them go. But I need to work on that, and I suggest you do to. If you can manage it, you can free yourself to enjoy your life. Life is definitely too short to get caught up in ridiculousness. This rings so much truer with people. If you have friends who can sometimes irritate the hell out of you (and I mean small things, not huge, relationship-ender things), just try to remember that you love that person and move past whatever it is. If it helps, think about the fact that you definitely annoy that person too, at some point. That's what friends are for. You thank yourself in the end, when you realize all the lost time you've gained back. So try it. Live...and let live.

Mind on Food

I'm definitely lacking thoughts right now. At least I'm lacking thoughts that I want to write about. I missed the entire weekend of blogging. What can I say, I'm not perfect, lol. I'm watching Iron Chef...great show. I'm trying to up my cooking skills even more. I feel like I'm in a rut with cooking. I do a lot of the same recipes over and over. I need to expand. I think I'm going to start going to Whole Foods at least once a month and going all out on a meal, something just mad crazy. I did seafood-stuffed Tilapia the other day, it turned out really well. I'm trying to get away from pastas as much, for some reason, unless I can find some interesting pasta dishes. Let me know if you have some good recipes I should try. I swear, one day I'm going to open a restaurant, lol.

Until tomorrow.

Secret Cookie Giver

So someone sent me some cookies yesterday, lol. As in, how you might send someone flowers but cookies instead. I came into my office and there was a box of custom cookies with a bow and everything, note included. It wasn't anything romantic, the note just said "Keep your head up, Jonathan!" The note was not signed. It's a mystery...I've been trying to figure out who it could be. No success thus far. But I'm happy. I was having a bad day, and that definitely made me feel better. Trying to enjoy life as much as possible. This definitely helps. :-)

William Rast

So I got my new GQ the other day. It's a must have. Not the issue, the magazine in general. It's one of the books I live my life by, a guide of sorts. Mainly for fashion and styles, but it also has good info for general lifestyle tips. They have some of the flyest gear ever...too bad at this point in my life I can afford maybe .7% of it, lol. One day. Anyways, my dude Justin Timberlake (ha, my dude, like I ate dinner with that man last night or something) has a nice line of clothing, William Rast. It's crazy. One day I'll be able to afford that too. But check the threads. It's definitely time for me to get a new suit.

F@#! the Police

I debated about whether I should title this blog the way I did, but in the end I wanted my blog to be an accurate reflection of my life as it is presently - my good, bad and otherwise. I HATE the police. They abuse authority. I have yet to come across a police officer who did what I really needed them to do at the time. They come when unsolicited, and when I actually could use a good office around, they come and harass (if they come at all). The source of my current frustration? I got a frikin' ticket last night. For NO reason. Now, I can say this in all honesty because of several reasons. 1) My driving record is far from stellar. I've had too many tickets in my day, and many of them I did deserve (although none I wanted, of course). I take responsibility for my actions - if I was speeding, and got caught, I got a ticket. That's fair. I know when I was clearly in the wrong, and when I was being wrongfully accused or being given no leniancy. 2) The situation in which the cops (yes, copS plural) gave me the ticket was fishy as hell. I checked my speed as I was passing the cop (which we all do, whether we're speeding or not), and I clearly saw the speedometer well below 40 (the posted limit was 35). Had the cop gave me a ticket for going 37 in a 35, I would have been pissed, but couldn't have really argued. The cop cited me for going 52 mph. How rediculous is that?? 52? Word? Furthermore, the policeman who stopped me was not the policemen who gave me the ticket. Why do you need to tag team an offender? There was another guy who was pulled over at the same time as I was - why was the same cop handling both cars?? The other cop (the one who pulled me over) was standing around doing nothing (and might I add, resting his hand on his gun while I spoke with the other police officer. Uneccesary. Especially after I clearly identified that I worked at Wake Forest University. Last time I checked, people who are going to attack cops don't work at private institutions of higher learning.) My theory - the cop needed to meet his quota for tickets, which is why his buddy pulled me over and let the other guy write the ticket. Of course I asked to see the radar, which the policeman happily obliged. Which of course read 52 mph. But how do I know that was actually my car? There is no way to prove that it was or wasn't. You can radar a car on a highway at any point during the day, and keep that speed on the radar to use against anyone. And as I said, I know I was not going 52. In a 35. At night, for no reason. I wasn't late anywhere. I had nowhere to be. Word? Why would I drive 17 miles over the speed limit with nothing to do? Again, had he said 37, 38, 40 even, I would probably just sucked it up. But when its that high, I know you're lying. And to top it all off, as I tried to reason with the man he naively said that if I went to court, the judge might listen to me and revoke the ticket. Raise your hand if you are a person of color (particularly a male, or a Black male) and you have EVER had a ticket revoked by a judge? I see no hands.

So as you can see, I'm pretty pissed. But of course, in the eyes of "the law," and society, when I step (if I step) into court in front of a judge, I'll be just another angry Black man who claims that he is being treated unfairly. This is why I have absolutely no faith in the justice system, and in the people who are supposed to be protecting and serving the public. F$#@ the police.

Love and Let Go

A thought occurred to me the other day, about relationships: one of the hardest things to deal with for ended or past relationships is accepting that your entire role in this person's life was to get them ready for someone else. The idea that people are in your life for seasons, which can be short or long, is a crazy idea, but true. This becomes particularly difficult to deal with I think when you were in a relationship where there may have been only one or two things (small or large) that were keeping the relationship from moving forward. Maybe this person had a bad habit you didn't really care for. Maybe they didn't express their emotions enough for you. While you were in the relationship, everything seemed to be in line except that one thing, and that one thing caused so many problems and arguments, to the point that eventually you and that person separated because of it. But you planted a seed. And away from you, that seed grew. You see the person with someone else later on, maybe weeks, months, years down the line...and you see that whatever issue you had with that person is no longer a factor. They "got it together." Whatever you disliked about them is now fixed, no longer an issue. And the only question you can ask yourself is, "why couldn't he or she get that right when they were with me?" You question yourself. "What was wrong with me?" "Was I enough?" "Why couldn't they do that for me?" But the truth of the matter (sometimes) is that it just might have taken that relationship with you to get that other person to the point where they could change, where they could better themselves. And maybe they weren't for you. It has nothing to do with you. But that can be one of the hardest things to accept.

I say let it go. Don't think of it as something that highlights deficiencies in you, think of it as something that you could do positive for someone else, some way you could help someone else grow into the best person they can be. You are not inadequate (and they are not a liar or a jerk for not being that person you wanted them to be when they were with you). Let it go. Be happy. Move on. I know it's easier said than done, but if you can do it, it can completely free you.

Back in the Saddle

Sometimes I really hate metaphors, particularly cliche ones, lol. But I, like most, use them anyway. I'm determined to get back into writing. It's beneficial in so many ways, especially for me. I also had a striking realization a couple weeks ago. I started having dreams in which I wrote entire songs...verses, chorus, bridges, all that...but when I woke up I couldn't remember any of them. If that isn't a clear sign that I need to get back to writing, I don't know what is. Also, I've struggled to pinpoint my passion for years now. In vain. Everyone always asked me what my passion was, what the one thing I loved doing was. I could never answer, because in my mind I had no passion. Stupid. Sometimes, most times, the things we need to see are right in front of us, practically gouging our eyes out because they are so close. I love music. Always have. Always will. That is the one thing I can say I consistently have loved my entire life. I feel like it's time I make moves to pursue my passion. So I'll start by writing. Making time for music in my life, aside from as background noise. One step. The journey of a thousand miles...