Hurting the ones you love

Oooowee, yall. This just happened. My little brother got upset at me and my mother because we commented on his grades. The lil' booger nearly started to cry and he would not allow any of us to say a word during his mantra.

I am torn between being aggravated at his unwillingness to respond to criticism as the rest of the family does and saddened that I brought the boy to tears.

When he started to tear up I stood there with my heart in my stomach. I have not seen him be upset since we were very young. Especially not upset at me.

I think we worked it out, but I still feel as if I need to have my piece said. within it all. And he needs to learn how to respond better to criticism. Oh well, time shall tell I guess...

The Tradition of Atlanta Carnival

For the past 10 years my family and about 15 other friends and family members have made a pilgrimage to Stone Mountain GA where my Auntie Anne and Uncle Joe live. They have a beautiful house that houses 15-20 Trinidadians for five days during the Memorial Weekend.

Caribbean people are crazy. They love to eat, drink, dance, and shit talk. You need to have a real hard back to be around them, otherwise you might walk away feeling stripped of your dignity because someone "wined' up on ya real hard" or they tell ya that "your poompsy is no good". It is all in good fun.

Last night as the last leg of people arrived Auntie Anne decided it was time to bring out the tequila. Six shots later a conga line was formed followed by Club Trinidad in the living room. Curry filled stomachs rolled and sugar bottoms churned to the sound of "Island Music". And all of them were your resident drunken singers of the night. Crooning the words of each song making sure to be louder than their neighbor.

I stood on the sidelines with my camera capturing each moment. I can hear them right now talking about the night before intertwined with what will occur tonight. More "bachanal". LOL! God I love my family.

Simple Things in Life

Since I have been visiting my parents house I have gotten up every morning to take a jog, hop on the comp to send emails and facebook messages, then find a place to check out for the night. Such a cool and easy beginning to summer. But do you know what one of my most treasured times are for me?

Its around 10am when I just finished my workout. I grab a bowl of Oatmeal Crisp Cereal, a few grapes, and sit on the back porch that looks out on to the line of trees that cover our pond. This morning while sitting outside, soaking up the sun with my cool mixture of milk, granola, raisins and flakes I saw a leaf fall. It was bright green and next to perfect. I dont know why the image stood out so much to me, but I just thought it was beautiful. In that moment I said that I had to write about it, and find some amazing significance for my blog.

Well... I havent found it. And I have nothing profound to say except it was a beautiful moment that I am sure many other people around the world have experienced, but it was the first time I actually took the time to watch it. I look forward to tomorrow morning :)

Curves v. Rolls

In the middle of teaching me how to riff, somehow my girlfriend and I got into a conversation about her sides and back. Girl talk. Well, she showed me, what appeared to her to be, a roll. I said uh uh, that's curves sweety. She replies, well then whats the difference between curves and rolls.

So I asked my homeboy about it. He said that woman have rolls that are curves and its crazy that women obsess so much about their body. Men don't.

Thank God for black men. My homeboy is black, and him like all my other black brothers appreciate the Curves that us women have. They don't want a stick or anything that is flat. My opinion on curves v. rolls is that curves are the lovely bits of goodness that make us look amazing. That includes those love handles, cottage cheese, and flaps of skin. Rolls are the excessive mounds of fat that reveals the unhealthy qualities of a person. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

My Intern Group "A Team"

We finished the internship on Sunday. I am glad to no longer have to follow the objectives of my principle, work 12 hour days, and at times feel like "just another intern". But I miss my interns. They were all unique in their own ways and I love each and every one of them... for the most part. Their individuality colored our group so well and complemented the different dynamics that arise from having a group of 17 people. If I had to sum everyone up in a few words, my first attempt would look like this:

Brian - One of a kind
Heidi - Cloud 9
James - My lil gofer
Jordan - Resident partier
Aaron - Shandy Man
Sam - Want a random fact?
Josh - Perfect Gentleman
Travis - My lil piece of butterscotch
Eric - The white fox
Dennis - Smooth operator
Nick - Doing it all
Marti - Keepin' it real
Abigail - Everyone's Girl
Tina - Sweetness
Diana - The lil cuke
Andrea - Everyone's favorite cynic
Cassie - Do you see what I see?
Richelle - Ms. Vogue

I love you guys.

The National Anthem

I went on base for the first time in a full year. Going away from the military life and stepping back into it illuminates several things that I never noticed before. This is probably more obvious than I thought, but we had to stop our car in the middle of a round-about, with several cars following suite, because the national anthem was playing.

When I was on base all the time, I remember feeling proud and excited for whenever this happened. The feeling of pride came back again, but I also wondered if this was something that non-military folk ever get to experience. Americans dont get many opportunities to feel their nationality. Hearing the national anthem today took me there.