My New York Sh*t . . .

After everyone I know seems to love Grey's Anatomy I watched it for the first time last week. I love Shonda Rhimes for her Black Star Power but I can't say I loved the show . . .
What I did love was the opening scene in the show that followed. The whole 'Six Degrees of Separation' was soo predictable and not well done but they got five stars for the opening scene being shot in Union Square, my summer home! I was so excited to see a place I recognized in the show and even more pumped for my return to the city the next day.

Getting there Friday evening was a BITCH. There was traffic from DC all the way to NY. The highlight of the ride by far was this 6'3 guy in high school we met in the McDonalds we stopped at. Informing us that he had a cousin who called himself Diyonce' and him Solange, I promptly told him I already had Beyonce on lock.

Once we finally made it, I was so proud of myself for driving in the city the first time.I made my way up the Westside Highway and hit 125th. Dinner that night with my cousins was such a homecoming to why I LOVE NEW YORK CITAYY!

We hit Native, this trendy little restaurant around the block from my cousin's apartment on 117th. I had big plans for the next day: shopping!!!!!!! Staying with my cousin who graduated from Howard a few years back was her cousin on her dad's side, B. Martell!

Just graduating from Morehouse and now getting his masters in magazine journalism from NYU, you know all we were talking was magazines! And fashion. He was the winner of 'The Farnsworth Bentley Award' at school and proud of it. I got Nakisha and my cousin Shani these cute Howard shirts which he taught me was a henly.Who knew?

Just before laying down on my air mattress in the living room I see a mouse run under the door and go in my cousins hall closet. SHE DOESNT DO MICE and freaks out!!!

As she tells the landlord the next morning and waits for the exterminator after we grab breakfast at Amy Ruth's, me and B hit NYC to do some shopping.

Nothing like a weekend in the city!!! That night we hit 40/40 which was WACK but not trying to spend a lot of money it was where we ended up.

Sunday morning got my plans pushed back and made me miss a meeting but so worth it b/c I got to my big magazine sis! me and Nakisha grabbed some starbucks and caught up and I dragged B along since they had so much in common.

being back in the city got me re-inspired to reach out to all my contacts and set myself up for a good gig out of school. And it also hit my pocket kind of hard but homecoming is on its way:)!!!

I had a ball in NY . . .heading to Richmond this weekend to visit family with my cousin Jen (Common's green-eyed girl:) . . . .and back to NY next weekend to celebrate my girl Zenitra's Birthday in a big way!

Traveling Queen

Seat Taken . . .

Someone I admire and respect told me some advice that I really need to take right now: Everybody doesn't deserve a front row seat in your life.

It's so very true and something hard for somebody like me to do. I mean I'm the same girl who tells the random chic in the grocery store about my most embarrassing childhood moments. . .yes my jumper skirt really did come up over my head on the playground and my holey draws were showing. No, I still haven't forgiven my momma.
It's hard to swallow, but not everybody wants to see you succeed . . .and that includes some people you spend time with everyday.
I have found that out the hard way over the last few days. People who try and slide in comments about my accomplishments when I know I work my ass off. People not knowing how to channel there feelings so they just hate.
I saw a episode of Making the Band 3 today (part of that senioritis thing:) and Betty Wright said some real stuff: It takes Sunshine and Water for flowers to grow. You cant have all Sunlight or the ground will be burnt. So with my frustration and hurt feelings, Im cleaning house.
I'm taking my therapist's advice and am kicking some folks to the back of the bus. To my haters, your front row seat in my life has been officially revoked. To my lovers, thanks for always cheering and evening screaming encore when I know I sucked.

Queen

*Make sure the folks in your front row deserve their seat!

I got the itis!

tis true. The itis has set in. And Im not talking that feeling of satisfaction after some collard greens, cornbread, catfish, mac and cheese, yams type of feeling when you cant hardly stand up and that itis kicks in that just rocks u to sleep.
Im talking Senioritis. And in a major way.
I know its bad. Im not even a full month into the school year and I already feel myself slacking on the school work. But in all honesty,I really could care less. Im a lot more concerned about getting hired after graduation than actually graduating. That means Cover2Cover and staying on the radar of my contacts trumps reading ahead in MOB and Finance.

Just last night instead of doing my finance homework, I made a list of the top 5 magazines I'd love to land at after graduation:
5) Marie Claire
4) Jane
3) Elle
2) Giant
1) Essence (how'd you guess?:)

And in class instead of trying to concentrate on what my professor with the thickest Nigerian accent I have ever encountered was saying, I gave up and was reading "Black Girl in Paris" for a book club I'm in. Which got me even more off task as I daydreamed of a European excursion I've promised myself for next summer. Brunch on the Seine . . . watching the sunset at Big Ben . . . Shopping . . ..shopping . . .shopping . . ..

And it doesn't end there.I was more concerned with what I was wearing to class today trying to impress my stylish crush than actually making sure my work was done. What the hell is wrong with me? (yes, I did look cute:) Instead of studying, I'm blogging. And in place of getting it all together this weekend, Im heading to NY.

So senioritis has def set in. And I think it actually agrees with me. . .

Chow:)

Ode to Shani O

Look at Shani hard
at work
As I cheese away like
putting out a daily is a joke

Oh, how I heart thee with the O in the middle
So much that I sing this
ode while playing my fiddle

We became fast friends
through that quirkeness
we have
So glad we were in
Communications Law
and not Math


Look at Shani O as she sleeps away
For her and Arion must rest if I am to have a place to stay

Shani O, it was thee that made me want a blog
It was thee that made
me want to tackle
the L.A. smog


This Ode is for a friend
who took the time to
teach me InDesign
A friend who appears in this picture when I'm not so fine





Cheers to You
The Rancho CucaMonga Fiend
Much Ado from a wanna be Queen

Im Conceited . . . I got a reason (I promise:)

Anybody else out there completely LOVE Jill Scott and still jam to the second CD like it's B'day?

okay, greaat! But it has nothing to do with this post:) I just wanted to break the ice first but I gotta put it out there . . .I think I'm pretty fly.
I know I was Debbie Downer in the last post but a good night's sleep can cure a lot of things. It took some of the soreness out of my leg. Let the check from my 'job' slide into my account. And let me get my mind right and realize how blessed I am.

Justification of Conceit
Unlike Remi Ma (who I think has few reasons to be conceited), though I think I'm kinda cute, Im feeling myself on some stuff so much deeper then skin deep.


Exhibit A.First off there is my article in the new Upscale. It's a 500 word piece on birth control that I lucked up on freelancing this summer! Getting the assignment really made me realize I should be going harder on my freelance grind. Aliya, one of my new mentors, lives off of freelancing. After seeing her cover story on Tracee Ellis Ross in 'Vibe Vixen,' reading her stuff for years only to find out she is young and one of the coolest people ever Im conceited b/c Im about to get up on freelance game too! (cheap plug: She, Miss Aliya S. King, will be at our Cover2Cover panel on October 19) There's stories we can tell at 21 that a 35 year old will completely miss!


Exhibit B.
The new ESSENCE is finally here! And yes I am published inside. Rome wasn't built in a day and I am proud of my first time being published in ESSENCE and any magazine that big so dont laugh when you see it. Size doesn't matter:) I worked hard on the Check It column -pg 92. Me and the other interns also worked hard on writing the new power generation package. I did Dr. Nana-Hawa pg 208 and Tyra pg 210



THIS WAS SUPPOSE
TO BE A PIC OF LUDA
I TOOK BUT BLOGGER
IS ACTING UP!!!! Exhibit C. If you are my friend on Myspace you know Ludacris is one of the people I plan to meet. Though I still haven't come face to face I came damn near close last night when he performed at LOVE. Yes, he was very sexy and the new 'do has finally grown on me. Too bad the people next to me had no type of sense and insisted on pushing when there was no where to go.

Exhibit D. Though the newspaper sometimes (ok a lot of the time) stresses me out, I love writing the editorials. I am especially proud of my one in yesterday's paper about that Hampton Institue. It was even better because a girl from my church who is senior in high school and her mom who is a grad from the medical school came were here and I had a great time showing them around yesterday and she insisted on buying me lunch and my first ESSENCE with my byline!

Exhibt E. I may not be the smartest girl in the world, but I have had the good sense to surround myself with phenomenal people. So next year even if I dont get my dream job when I graduate - I have great folks like my buddy Nakisha who just started her first job, a FABULOUS gig at instyle.com (yes, do check for her stuff) and my cousin who just got a promotion at Deloitte and who's Harlem apartment was my second home this summer as she works hard to expand her floral design passion to her fulltime job, who will let me muich (sp.)! That's the best reason of all to be conceited when you have great people to call friends:)

So let me go do something with this head of mine and find a Cure for Senioritis QUICK b/c it has settled in. . . .Read: going shopping in Georgetown with my Project Runway buddy. I HEART MICHAEL!!!!!!!!

- Queen of Luda's Red Light District

Wake Me Up . . .When September Ends

Jiggalo Jigg Jigg Alo Hey Charreah Yeah Are You Ready For What To Jig Jig What Jiggalo

WELLLL, my day sucked and I'm so broke so I just don't feel like no damn Jiggalo.

Sometimes even when all seems well you, what starts as a drop of rain turns into a storm. And when bad days do happen, why does it seem that the ones you love the most do what they can to make it a little worse? Ok.
I hate to sound like Ehore. See how bad the day is. Why cant I figure out how to spell Pooh's good friend?

Relax, Relate, Release (yes Im saying it in the Whitley Gilbert Voice. yes It makes me smile. a little)

So since I made the big production about Sumthin from Flavor of Love, Let's move on to Buckwild.

She really had me fooled. Talking all that mess than she scared to even live in a house with New York (who is in the Muther F*ckin House). But goes back to my theory. I should have seen it coming.

Her name was Becky.

Thanks for letting me take my mind off my troubles, though the throb in my leg reminds me how I got wiped out in soccer. How I got another parking ticket. Which reminds me to be thankful that I have a leg to hurt and a car to get a ticket on:) Though sometimes its hard.

Im in Love with a Rapper!

Yes. Yes. Thankfully along with my vocabulary and style, my taste in men has def grown up over the years. Tonight me, my bf and my cuzo hit the invite-only CBC black tie event at LOVE.
Though we pretended we were the daughters of big time senators, we were just three college girls with dumb luck that got us randomly handed passes at Eyebar earlier in the week. Beenie Man performed one of fav jams 'Girls Dem Suga' and the free drinks were lovely. But I digress . . .
So the passes were for Friday night and once we saw Common was performing we knew we had to go. After the excitement wore off the real dilemma came: I have NOTHING to wear!
After a hectic week, hard partying and lucking up on a great sale on a good dress for the night at 7:30 that night (gotta love Macy's), we finally got dressed and hit Okie Street.

Inside LOVE was exactly what a CBC invite-only black-tie event should be: old black men with their eyes bulging out of their head at all the pretty young girls like us and everyone pretending to be a baller and the real ballers being low key.
It was fun on the first floor seeing and being seen but the oldies but goodies can only get you so loose on a Friday night. So we grab drinks and head to the patio where we heard music made in the last ten years. This is where the party was. Where you needed to be if your 25 and still never been with anybody you think you would marry.
Heading to the performance floor it was inspiring to see so much black love in the room. . . and a lil frustrating that I had to return to Howard's pickings. From 30-something couples to Howard Trustee and Mayoral Candidate Marie Johns everybody was def cutting loose.

So now for my love for a rapper. My cousin was the big Common fan with me liking him but not die hard. We got as close to the stage as possible and waited. And waited. And waited some more. (it probably wasn't that long but when your feet hurt that bad you become delirious and time seems to stop) Then the opening act came out. She could was soo soulful and played the hell out of the guitar. (yes I still have a guitar. No, I still can't play) I really wanted to bust whoever the ignorant person who tried to boo her in the head with a bottle. Her last song confirmed she was indeed half black and half white as she poured her heart out about being bi-racial in a world that wants you to choose.

So then it was time for Common. Now I was excited, as I thought he was gorgeous in 'Fashion Rocks' with those freckles and that trench but I wasn't prepared to catch feelings. Common came out on this ball of energy jumping up and down singing 'Go'. In our Saturday Night Best we were right there screaming with him. He went to talk with the crowd, do all his hits.
He had me singing along from the heart: ohh you know you rock my world and . . .
Then I feel in love. He said he wanted to bring a girl up from the crowd and started serenaded her with all the freak songs. She was too up tight. She took the long walk back as he sent her back and bought another girl up who could hang. They put the red light on and he started doing 'Come Close to me Baaaby' You know my cousin was letting everybody know he was talking to her when he said 'Are your eyes still green girl?' Yes Common. Her's still are. But seeing that he was more than this conscious rapper and was actually a man and a sexual one at that, had me reconsidering my appreciation for Common.
Down off our high and trying to work our way out of that thick crowd, we hear Jamie Foxx singing live. I loved Ray and I loved Wanda . . .but Jamie need to leave the live singing alone. LOVE was so much fun and I think I am the newest contender for Common's biggest fan.

-Queen

*I would write more to officially bring in September but gotta get some sleep. Heading to the Howard/Hampton Game in the morning with the girls.