What up folks? Me, just chillin, trying to stay warm and dry. The weather outside is really not that cold or at least it wasn't when I last was out there. But then that was about five hours ago so I'm sure it's changed now. It's just been kinda windy and rainy all day. When I was outside waiting for the bus from work, it was hard to stay in one place because of how hard the wind was blowing. Haven't had wind like that in Charlotte that I know of for years. Seems like it used to get like that a lot when I was at UNC-Charlotte and in 2004 before a blizzard where we had to be off work for a week, it was so windy that the wind knocked down power transformers and trees and such. That was crazy.
I did work beside someone new today for a little while. She's not new to the job though, I've just never worked beside her. She's an older lady, probably in her late thirties. She's supposed to be married and have four kids which I don't doubt that she does. She just has an interesting tendency to flurt with all the guys at the job, especially in our department. I don't know if she does this to garner attention or to play with us or both but I will say this. Guys only like for you to play with their attention so much until playtime is over. She should know this so if dudes holler, she shouldn't be surprised. There's a story about that pertaining to her but I'll tell you later cause I seem to be going off on tangents.
The reason I say she might do this to garner attention is that she was telling me today she's had an overweight problem all her life. We were talking about steak and how much we love it and she said that she can't eat beef so much anymore because her body has a hard time digesting it. She said she used to weigh 280 pounds and she was tired all the time and sick and so she had to have weight loss surgery which made her loose 101 pounds. Even in the process of the surgery, she said her heartbeat sped up and her blood pressure rose with any sudden movement she made. She's a strong woman and I didn't really like her at first because the only thing she'd ever really said to me before we started working together was negative. But it was actually a pretty good conversation today. She told me about this place called Omaha Steaks in Columbus, Ohio that delivers steaks and beef to your door on dry ice and you cook it yourself. I'm thinking that might be a plan for the Super Bowl. We'll see though.
I watched the Davidson Wildcats play the Duke Blue Devils today. I watched some of it hoping Stephen Curry would get off but it was Duke's game all the way. Stephen Curry I'm sure some of you know is the leading scorer in college basketball right now averaging thirty points a game for the Davidson Wildcats. I don't know how many points he had tonight but I saw him drop thirty-seven against North Carolina State and like forty against West Virginia. If I must say he's the truth. Also his dad Dell Curry played for the Charlotte Hornets most of his career and now is working with the Charlotte Bobcats. He'll probably stay four years just for the hell of it, then be absolutely straight when he gets out of school cause he'll get better. Davidson College is right up the road here about thirty minutes outside of Charlotte, so I guess they're representing the QC in a way. He's exciting to see though.
Today was kinda different at work I guess as far as days at that job go. The workload of course was no different. The lady making the long straps that I use for the chest strap aparatus that I put together all day still seems to be unsure of what she's doing. She's an Asian lady and she can see. You go figure. Not that I'm trying to be an ass-hole but a blind person might be able to do that job faster and this is a workshop for the blind. She's been on the machine for at least a week and everyday. If I was on the machine, and I'm just speculating but if I or another blind person were on the machine and it was taking us as long to learn our job, they'd have been moved us off that job. She can see and maybe her being Asian and the department supervisor being Asian are connected to each other or maybe they're not. I'm just saying, damn. That's just the way I feel right now at this point.
So to say the least, it was another slow day. I had to keep running back and forth to the bathroom to kill time and hope she had more made but usually to no avail.
Aight folks, guess I'll bounce on that note. I've rambled a lot. Got to go get something to eat and get ready to go to bed and go to work in the morning. You all have a good night and a wonderfull day tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will be nicer so my mood will be better but I doubt it. Take care and God bless. Peace!

What up folks? Me, just chillin as usual. I know that that's very generic, but I just couldn't come up with another way to describe my mood. It's about thirteen till twelve which means in about thirteen minutes I will have completed another day in 2009. I'm still here, I'm not dead yet. Congratulations! I'm going to try to take advantage of more days this year. No, that's not just another over-rated New Year's resolution request, it's something I plan to do. I guess it's a goal I plan on trying to reach. Notice I didn't say, everyday. I just said I would try to take advantage of more days. These years go by so fast and it seems the older I get, the faster the days go. So, I want to enjoy them.
It was just another normal day in 09. I guess we're at that point of the year where I'm still getting used to the fact that it's a new year but I know it's not New Year's Day anymore. It was one of those cold dreary rainy days. As I believed I mentioned earlier in my entries, my mother died when I was ten and it was one of those kinds of days. Since then, I often feel like something terrible is going to happen or has already happened that day and I just don't know about it yet. That's how I felt that whole day through school, on the way to my grandmother's house, which was where I learned the news.
Nothing terrible happened today though thank God. I missed work again because as I sat waiting on my cousin to arrive two things started happening. One, my hemroids started bothering me and two I realized I had a lot around here I had to do today. So that's what I did. I got a lot of writing done, I got a lot of research done, I went to the laundrymat here in the neighborhood which was kinda weird cause I've never had to do it before. Previously we've done our laundry here in the apartment but I think our washing machine is at its end so me and my cousin went to the laundrymat. It cost me like six dollars to wash and dry five loads of clothes. That's not bad. It was done pretty quickly too like an hour and a half for everything. I guess I liked it all right. It will be a stretch for me to say that I'm willing to go down there by myself yet, but it's not as bad as I thought it would be. It was mighty cold out there though. But you do what you gotta do.
Aight folks, I've rambled a lot so I guess now's my time to bounce. I do have to go to work tomorrow cause DC's coming up next week. Wow, life is good. God is good. Thank you. Peace peeps and God bless.

Yeah, I honestly do believe it's cruel to keep birds encaged or any other living creature created by the Creator. I'm not going to get on a religious tip because everyone believes something different but I will say this everything that is here is meant to be here and I just don't believe that anything or anyone should be caged. I chuckle a little as I write this and think a little about how some comedians in the past year have joked about the encaged tiger in San Francisco that bit humans who sought to get in the cage with the tiger and take pictures for their own amusement. Then what's worse, everyone got mad at the tiger, not the people who decided this would be a genius thing to do. Animals have feelings too. That's only my opinion though.

What up folks? Me, just been chillin. The notice at the beginning of the journal homepage tells me that I posted one week ago but honestly I thought it had been longer than that. Anyway, I'm here. Happy New Year to everyone! I sure plan for it to be a great 2009 for myself. I've got a couple of irons in the fire and now it's time to light a spark. Today is definitely a special day in it's own way. It's January 5, 2009 and as of today I have been working at Lions Services Incorporated of Charlotte, NC for five years. Wow!! I'm just never able to stop being amazed at how life flips around sometimes. Things that you definitely thought would not take place, certain crossroads you thought you'd never travel or if you had to wouldn't have to travel so long just end up coming full circle. I worked at Lions Services for six weeks in the summer of 1996 which was the summer I turned sixteen. My first ever job! Matter of fact I had to work half days and I couldn't operate any machines because I was only fifteen. I quit the day I turned sixteen so I could go back to school with a little money in my pocket. That was when the shop was on Brevard Street and was much smaller. This was before they moved to North Tryon Street. I never thought I would work there again. I mean to me it was a summer job when I was in high school. Now I'm back there and been there five years strong and what do you know I'm still not working a machine. Of course I didn't go to work today. January happens to be a three-pay-period month and as a result us Suplementary Disability Income recipients have to take time off to avoid making too much money and losing our check and benefits. Ain't that some shit? Government offers you a little change to encourage you not to work. Anyway so I used today as one of them days. So I spent time with the lady before she went back up the road to the Chapel Hill area. We brought 2009 in together which hopefully means a good omen for us this year. God knows last year was up and bottoms. No different than any other relationship I guess but I just try and hope for the best. We brought in the New Year at Hams on Franklin Street sipping Grey Goose Vodka and sipping champagne and watched the Tar Heels basketball team crush the Wolf Pack of the University of Nevada. I must say it was one of the best New Year's Eve's I'd ever had. So yeah, we're looking for better days. I've got to write more now since deadlines for my grad-school application and package are fast approaching. Of course you know my cousin's been staying with us since September to try and get on his feet. Its taken a minute, but he says he's moving in to the new spot Saturday morning. I'm still on that "I'll believe it when I see it" tip, but it looks like it might happen this time. We'll see. My Panthers are coming off one of their best regular seasons ending up at 12-4 and they begin playoff competition this weekend against the Arizona Cardinals. The last time the Panthers went to the playoffs, I remember it being a pretty good year for me and everytime they go they usually get to at least the NFC championship game. I think they've got a good chance to play in the Super Bowl again. Matter of fact, they were in the Super Bowl the winter of 2004, my first winter working at the shop. Hmm. What I tell you? Crossroads coming in full circle. I must say it's got me a little motivated and excited. We'll see what happens. Aight folks, on that note time for me to bounce. Unfortunately I can't take the whole week off though God knows I wish I could. Nope, gotta get in here tomorrow and put these chest straps together for the cantene bags and maybe because they've had a new person over sewing the material for me last week and of course she was kinda slow, who knows I'll probably have to bag up some cantene bags. Nonetheless, gotta go in tomorrow. So I'll do my best to make it worth something. It's a new year, time for me to show some new sides of myself to myself. Maybe they aren't new, just haven't seen them in a while. Peace peeps and God bless.

Well, the thing that comes to my mind first is my new cell phone. My lady just got me the new cell phone from Vorizon that's supposed to allow blind and visually impaired people to read text messages, check missed calls, caller ID and all kinds of other items, bassically put us more on a level plaing field with the rest of the world as far as this new cell phone technology is concerned. I am having the toughest time learning to work the thing but the more I learn the more I enjoy it. It was cool though because the phone is like $130 and I think because of the rebate she got it for like $30. So she saved herself $100 which she ended up taking me out to dinner with. So yeah, I love bargains and I probably always will, even after I make my first million.

What up folks? Me, just chillin, happy as hell! The Carolina Panthers beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on a Monday night on national television in Charlotte. They remain undefeated at home as they end up beating the Buccaneers 38-23. Our lovely, wonderfull quarterback Jake Delhome ended up throwing two interceptions and things looked bleak at first. But they had a running game tonight that was unlike anything apparently anyone has seen in NFL history. The commontators on ESPN informed us that it was the first time in the over eighty year history of the NFL that two running backs who were teammates, (in this case Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams) rushed for over 100 yards and averaged more than seven yards per carry. The Panthers had over 300 yards rushing and almost 500 total yards. Impressive! I enjoyed watching the game and yes, I did something I don't normally do on Monday night football games, I stayed up and watched the whole game. I'm proud to be a Panthers fan right now. They could've rolled over and died when they kept trading touchdowns in the early part of the third quarter, but they just kept moving until they eventually pulled away. Congratulations cats!!!
Now the Panthers with that win take over soul possession of the NFC South. They still have to win out and hope Tampa Bay looses to win the division. Next up the Panthers have Denver in Charlotte, then they go to New Jersey to play the New York Giants, then they go to New Orleans to finish out the regular season. The Buccs have Atlanta next week, then the Chargers, then the Raiders. I predict they win two out of three of those games, which means the Panthers need to win all three to have home field advantage throughout the playoffs and first place in the NFC. Good luck guys!!!
Today was an all right day at work. I didn't see my friend, the one I told you about but I talked to her a little while later. She's still wrapped up in some guy and wants to cut him off but doesn't know how. She'll figure it out, I'm just watching the story. More about that later. They did put my friend Anne back beside me today which was cool. She had a Christmas party this past weekend which I was supposed to go to but I couldn't make it due to transportation issues. I believe she was still a little mad at me and others who didn't show but I'm the only one that called her last night to personally appologize for not coming. After a while, she settled down and we had a good time as usual. Then I just found out that we get paid three times in January which means we have to take days off starting on the fifteenth of this month. I won't have many days since I took some days off earlier here, so I won't start taking off till probably January 9. Also it was declared that the first unofficial official trip of my "Bucket List" is going to be Washington, DC for the Martin Luther King parade and the day after the inauguration of this nation's first black President. We probably won't make the inauguration, but the parade and the partying will definitely be in effect. Shortly after that, we're going to the Great American Smokeout in May. This is an event that apparently takes place in Atlanta for one day in a certain park where people just chill, smoke, drink and listen to music and you have to stay in the park. I've never heard of this event but I'm sure it will be an interesting experience. I'm still trying to fit Vegas and Miami and the Caribana Festival in Toronto onto my list but I guess I won't know exactly when that will take place till I start seeing more money. Until then, here I come DC and Atlanta!!!
Well folks, gotta run. I feel like going uptown and celebrating this major victory but I have to work in the morning because I have bigger fish to fry in 09. So I'll just go to sleep and get ready for another day at the shop. Hopefully I can find a way to make these weeks before DC worthwhile, then my trip will be even more special. Aight folks, take care and God bless. Peace!

I'd have to say the economic depression that we are now experiencing sticks out to me. I have never before experienced anything like it. I heard just this last week that the economic depression has been in the making since the last of 2006. I can agree because in March, 2006 I had managed to save up more money than ever before in my young lifetime. After that, things went steadily downhill. I believe that the economic depression was officially declared in October of this year. I guess that's when everyone rich finally started feeling the difference. Me and all of the ones in my circle, we felt it long before October, 2008. The climax of this event was driving around Charlotte and not only were gas prices outrageous but none of the gas stations had any gas. The second-most memoraable event even similar, um, Hurricane Katrina back in 2005.

Hey!!! What up folks? Me, just at the crib chillin waiting for the Oakland Raiders to play the San Diego Chargers on Thursday night football. I've been playing this football pool for the past four weeks or so with my cousin and we've come close to winning each time but not close enough. This week they're playing another pool which is worth like $2000 but I couldn't manage to get my picks in on time so I'm out this week. It's like my cousin and two other people playing. I hope one of them gets it.
So it was my cousin's birthday on Tuesday and I thought we were going to start celebrating on the weekend but we started celebrated right on Tuesday. We had some E&J and Christian Brothers which is along the same lines. I know that I can't really drink either of them cause they both make me unbelievably sick but because of the birthday festivities and the fact that that was all there was to drink, I had a couple of glasses. Needless to say, I've been laid out of work with a terrible hang-over the past two days. It's cool though, I'll be back at work tomorrow a brand new man. I feel the hang-over is gone and I hadn't hardly had anything to drink today but a couple of beers. It's not cool with my lady though. She's still a little mad at me because she was trying to get in touch with me last night when I was sleep at my friend's hotel room and didn't hear the phone ring. Then I told her I had missed the last two days and she started talking about how there were 20,000 more lay-offs in the U.S. this week and how desperate people are because so many are out of work. Then she proceeded to say that I have a problem whether I see it that way or not but she can't deal with someone not going to work everyday and she doesn't feel like that's too much to ask. I can't say I much blame her. I don't know what really to say. I've had other jobs and those jobs in no way make me feel like this job. She says all it seems like I want to do is have fun, I feel like the job makes people like that, believing that the only thing that you can truly control and the only thing that matters is a good time. The only way to truly understand that though is to be there yourself and she's not so she never will I guess. Such is life.
To tell you the truth, I stopped giving a fuck about the job a long time ago. I mean, I'll go back tomorrow and keep taking it week by week making an effort to show up everyday but no more will I beat myself up about missing a day or two. I've worked five days a week everyday in that place and what the fuck does it get me? Just enough money to pay my bills and if I want to have a little something to look forward to a little money to do that and that's it. You can't save from that job and move to another city, you can't be promoted or transferred with that job to somewhere else and you can't save up enough from that job to start your own business or another career unless you're willing to work there twenty years. I keep telling people this and like I said I don't expect them to understand but damn! That's where I'm coming from. I'm not going to quit cause I don't quit anything, but if I party too much and miss a day or party during the week and miss two days, no I don't really care and I refuse to beat myself up about it anymore. It is what it is. Aight folks, on that note guess I'll bounce. It's now eight o'clock and I believe game-time so I gotta start my weekend football watching. Hope the rest of your evenings are relaxing and enjoyable and I'll talk to you soon. Peace peeps and God bless.

There was a show that used to come on NBC's Saturday morning line-up for kids along with Saved by the Bell called California Dreams. I used to really love that show and watched it religiously for the two or three years it was on. It was about a group of high school kids that lived in LA and formed a band called the California Dreams. They had a wonderfull theme song for the show which they wrote together as a band and they did gigs all over town and in shows and such in school. After senior year, they all went their separate ways to different colleges and whatnot and the lead singer was getting ready to sign a record deal and was going to end up anywhere. He wanted to take the band with him and remain performing but the other band members decided that it was just a thing they were doing in school and didn't want to make a career out of it so they split. That was one of the saddest last shows ever, right up there with the last episode of Fresh Prince of Bell Air. I'm going to keep trying to find the series on DVD, but until then all I have is memories. Great show!

It hasn't really ever effected me personally that I know of. I took an Aids test earlier this year and it showed up negative which made me breathe a sigh of relief to say the least. I don't think I have any close friends and family members that have or have been effected by the disease. However, reading this Writer's Block entry and thinking, I remember my uncle saying something to me the summer before I went to high school at the school for the blind. We were talking about Arthur Ashe, who as most of you know like other entertainers and athletes and important people died of Aids. I asked my uncle what he thought about that and he said, it's real sad. Aids has taken out a lot of our leaders. It's also taken out millions of other Americans, just because they didn't know. That school year in my music class we met an incredible singer and musician who had been diagnosed with Aids. I just kept thinking, man he's going to die soon. So it is important to research it, be aware of it as humanly possible and then try ourselves to avoid it. That's what I try to do.

What up folks? Fellow livejournal people? Before you say it, I'm just going to go ahead and say it for you. Wow!!! Been a long time since we've heard from you! Where the hell have you been? What the hell have you been doing? Well, I've been living, to be honest with you. You know, just trying to enjoy life a little. I've been partying my ass off for one thing, too many to count in the last couple of months or so. Football season has been very fun. I've been broke, but I've had fun. So with all of my partying, I've made very little time to post. I wanted to start a change in that routine today so here I am.
Not only has a lot changed with my current living situation in the last two months, (which I'm sure some of you are already aware of, the ones that aren't I'll catch you up later) but as a result a lot has changed in my relationship. I'm not going to say a whole lot about that yet until I've had a chance to really analyze it but I will say that my changes that I'm going through and her finishing her Masters have come together to put sort of a strain on the relationship. It's cool though and it's really no different than what other relationships go through. I'm not really worried about it cause me and my lady are very smart people who are in tune with each other so we'll work it out. Or not. Who the fuck knows anymore? I just feel very confident that we will.
Meanwhile, I've met someone at the job. I never thought I would meet someone in that place that I would have so much in common with. I never thought I would develop such a connection with someone at Lions Services. Guess you don't know what life's going to throw your way sometimes huh. Now she's not another girl friend or anything like that. I just think that we both were brought to each other's worlds for a reason and there's a lot we can learn from each other. My lady knows about her so she doesn't feel like she's being replaced and that's bassically that.
I realize that there are a lot of things not necessarily that I have been doing to slow my process but more things I haven't been doing. One of those things is writing. I've still been writing poems so I'm proud of that but if I'm going to be a writer or a writing professor, I've got to do more. So starting this first day of December in the year 2008, I wanted to post if only to do that. I have finished another play and I'll post it some day soon. Only some will read it cause it'll be in a particular community that I would like to get more involved in. But if anyone wants to read it and offer constructive criticism, just let a brother know. Aight peeps, I'm going to go now. Thanks for letting me vent with you for a second. I do promise to post about these certain changes in my life in the future but for now that's all you get. I'll let you hang for a minute. Until next time, God bless and peace.

What up folks? It's me again from the land of those who live. I haven't been posting in a while, or at least not really because I've been living a little. My cousin's still here awaiting his father's decision to let him move into his grandmother's house next door to his brother. Last weekend was his exes birthday, and celebrate we did. We bought two half-gallons of liquor and drank at least a gallon. I'm just now recovering fully from this weekend's events. I think this last partying binge caused me my first sinus headache, which I'm here to say, that shit ain't no joke. I called in sick yesterday and today I managed to make it a half-day before I had to say fuck it and go back to the crib. Once I got home, I popped a couple of Goodies Powder packs and took an hour and a half nap, I was straight. I don't feel the sinus pressure anymore and I ate me a hardy dinner of cube steak, green beans and potato salad, which means I'm getting my appetite back. Boy, I was fucked up. Now I'm chillin, especially these next two weekends. This upcoming weekend is my lady's birthday and she'll be coming down to Charlotte for a long fall break weekend. We're planning on going to the state fair in Raleigh, which has become an anual tradition for us since like 2004, and her parents are taking her out for her birthday dinner on Saturday night. Next weekend, I'm going to Chapel Hill to visit and she got us tickets to the North Carolina-Boston College game. I've never been to a major college football game. I mean in high school we used to go to North Carolina A&T's homecoming game cause my uncle and his mother and father and a lot of people on that side of the family graduated from North Carolina A&T. But North Carolina A&T is not considered major college football around these parts. A&T is an HBCU, (historically black college or university for those who aren't aware) and they're in a different division and everything. My lady's all excited because Carolina's winning this year and they're ranked in the Top 25 for the first time in like seven years. She's talking if they go to a bowl game and he game's on the east coast, driving to the game. I'm definitely with that. That's a new experience for both of us.
Besides my partying, I have been doing a little writing. I'm still planning on applying for grad-school doing playwriting or poetry or both if I go to Queens. Yesterday, I finished the second draft of my third play "Family Tithes" or at least that's the interim title of the play at this time. I'm going to put the play on LJ on the Creativewriter Community as soon as my dumb computer-illiterate ass learns how to send something as a link. It's not that long of a play though, just over twenty pages, so it will be a short little something, something to read for those of you who get to see it. The others, I guess you'll have to earn a look-see or wait till it's produced on Broadway. What can I say, some are lucky, some aren't. All right folks, just wanted to drop a line and let you know I'm still alive. I predict you'll hear a lot more from me in the next couple of weeks. The next party weekend is not till the end of the month when we have the state-wide bowling tournament here in Charlotte. If I can, I'll let you know how that goes. We'll see how the ball bounces. Peace peeps.

Well, to be honest, I've never really watched Saturday Night Live. I mean it's been on some Saturdays when I've been around and mostly it was watching me instead of me watching it. I have heard though that many people have come from Saturday Night Live that went on to have great careers. I didn't even know that Chevy Chase was on Saturday Night Live, but I knew that Eddie Murphy was on the show as a young comedian just starting out and in my opinion, he did some of his best work when he was younger. If I had to pick, I'd say Eddie Murphy, but then as I said I'm biased.

I don't usually like to get into religious discussions with a lot of people. This is mainly because everyone's faith is different as well as their opinions on religion. I've lived in North Carolina all of my life which is one of the "Bible Belt," states in this great nation and most people's take on religion in this part of the country stems from what they were taught as kids. In some circles, it's wrong to even question what you were told, which is starting to change with my generation. That being said, I think that church and state should have some kind of balance. It's a little difficult to say that church and state can go hand and hand in this country because not everyone in this country believes the same thing. They have the right to believe what they believe as well as I do and neither one of us should try to enforce our beliefs on the other person. Everyone should have the choice to their own faith, even down to parents and kids because just because you're someone's parent or child doesn't mean that both of you think exactly the same. On the other side of that, I don't think that people talk enough in this society which brings about a lot of the ignorance, fear and anger that plagues the many different groups in this melting pot culture. I would love to believe that church and state going hand and hand would provoke more discussion and hopefully more change. However, once people believe what they believe, it's hard for some to even see the other person's point of view which makes the whole thing meaningless. So yeah, as long as I believe what I believe and you believe what you believe, and we're not fighting each other to make each other think differently, we should be able to have freedom to our own faith.

What up folks? Me, I'm just up early on a Sunday morning four-and-a-half hours before the football games start. This is the most aggavating time of the weekend for me, especially this time a year. Not only do I have to wait for the football games at one o'clock, but I have no beer here at the house and I have to wait till twelve to get that cause that's when they start selling it in stores in North Carolina. I also have no trees to spark up right now so I guess I'm just writing to bassically kill time till the games come on. But hey, maybe this is more productive than drinking and smoking my Sunday away. I know one thing's for certain, writing feels a lot better than smoking and drinking and sleeping.
My search and push towards grad-school continues. I'm looking at NYU, which has one of the top playwriting programs in the country. They are very selective and the application deadline is due earlier than the others schools I'm looking at. That's my front-runner of course seeing as how it's right in the middle of Manhattan which is where I've longed to live for the past five years.
That's one side of the coin. The other side of it is that I don't really know if it would be smart to go to New York in the midst of this economic recession. There's a reason why I couldn't get up there in 2006 and the most tangible reason I can think of has something to do with money, or the lack thereof. I would have to go up to New York, get affiliated with the Commission for the Blind up there and find a job. God knows how long that could take. My uncle suggests that I wait to go to New York when I have some substantial finances about me. He's probably dead on with that because it's hella expensive up there, one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in. I was in such a rush to get to New York while I was still in my twenties to be in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the city. Like I said, there's a reason why it looks like that won't happen and the older I get, it wouldn't be such a bad idea to go up there when I have a job or I'm more established. So I'm looking at Queens University right here in the Queen City. I looked at the program and it looks like exactly what I want to do. It's a low-residency program, which means I could still keep my job and go to school which would give me something else to do. The application is do on March 15, which would give me plenty of time to get a package of work together. I want to do playwriting as my main concentration because I want to be back in the theatre, but I could also apply for poetry or creative fiction like short stories, novels and the like. NYU's application is do on February 1 and I have to have a bigger package of work prepared in a shorter amount of time and if I'm doing playwriting, I can only do playwriting. Hmm. The other schools are Ohio University in Athens, Ohio which has a pretty good playwriting program and Brooklyn College which I still have yet to look at the information on that. Who knows, I go to Queens down here and take these two years for this program and just bide my time at the shop, I can graduate and make some connections to get a teaching job at a university in New York. Maybe I'll be more prepared in two years. Sometimes I swear I don't know about this life.
On that note, I guess I'm going to go because I really don't have anything else to say. Like I said, I'm just really writing to kill time. I have to finish rewriting this one play and send it to my lady. She's a schoolteacher, so she's giving me homework assignments to make sure I stay on track for school. That's at least what it feels like. It's one of those things you hate, but you appreciate it. So I need to get on that. Hope everyone has a good Sunday and enjoy the games today. Go Panthers!! Peace.

What up folks? I'm back after a week and some change according to the little notice on my livejournal home page. There's no excuse for that and I appologize for making you wait so long to hear what's been going on with me. Maybe I can explain though. My cousin has broken up with his girl friend and he's trying to get an apartment in the neighborhood. The apartment next door to me to be exact since the lady that was staying there moved out this summer. He doesn't have the security deposit or anything right now so he's been staying with me the last two weeks to get his money up and get the security deposit together. Now whether he has the security deposit yet or not I have no idea but he says he's staying with another friend this up-coming week to give me and my cousin a break and then he'll be ready to move in the week after. We'll see what happens. It's been pretty cool though with him staying here, he's one of my favorite people in the world. We've seen each other through a lot in our days of partying and just living the fast life. The only problem is that wih him being here and us having so much fun, sometimes it's hard to get on these keys and get some writing done. That's something I have to keep under control myself though. I am in no way saying that it's his fault. I think I like partying too much sometimes. But then I guess there's something that distracts all of us and we have to just do our best to keep these things under control.
So like I said, I've been hanging out with cuzzo for the last two weeks. We've been having a great deal of fun. At the beginning of the week I was kinda upset though because my aunt called me and said that she'd gotten a call from the apartment manager about his concern with loud music and lots of traffic coming to my apartment. Now I don't really believe that there's been a lot of traffic here, no more than the people that usually come by. I guess they're just coming by more since my cousin's here. But I have to remember that I'm living on a block full of old ladies wo have nothing better to do than watch everything that goes on over here and talk about it. I was mad because nobody came to me and told me they were bothered by goings on here, they told the manager and his punk ass told my aunt who is like my mother. I'm a grown ass man and the last time I checked the check for my rent in this piece of shit place came from my account, from my money that I earn from working everyday. If he or any other of these nosey neighbors around here have a problem with me, I need people to come to me and tell me directly, not go to my mother like I'm some kind of child. And what's worse is I wasn't even here last weekend, which apparently is when someone said something. I went to Chapel Hill to visit my lady. So I'm just like, fuck that shit.
Well it's the end of September damn near and I'm getting adjusted to football season which is in week four this Sunday. As far as college, it's been upset week. USC lost to Oregon State on a Thursday night in Corvallis, Oregon, the Florida Gators lost to SEC rival Mississippi Rebels and Georgia lost to Alabama. The Oklahoma Sooners were in a battle with TCU but I think they won so they'll probably be Number One in this week's poll. I was just watching Sports Center and they had Alabama picked to be Number Two this week and somehow they had the Missouri Tigers moving up from Number Four to Number Three. I don't know how that could happen since Missouri had the week off, but college football's fucked up anyway because there's no playoff system. So, whatever on that.
I can't wait for the NFL games tomorrow. The Panthers have a divisional game against the Atlanta Falcons. They need to try to win all of their divisional games which would automatically put them in the playoffs, but the NFC South looks pretty good this season. I found out this week that I'm not going to Detroit to hang out with the Lions. My boy said he couldn't find a ticket for under $200, but with the recession and gas being what it is, I could've told him that. It's all good though because that may mean that I'll be able to get a suite uptown to watch the Panthers in the playoffs and Vegas will be better cause I should be able to save a little money in four months. So I'll just be looking forward to Vegas in January.
All right folks, think I'm going to burn up off of here. I've got some writing to do and things like that. If you missed me, I'm back and hopefully I won't be gone so long next time. Peace peeps and God bless.

What up folks? I know my subjects are kind of lame right now, that's I guess because I'm experiencing a creative melt-down or something like that. I have to keep writing though and I guess it doesn't matter if my subjects suck or not but then I guess I'm a bit of a perfectionist.
Well, the weekend's over and I guess it's time for work again. Not quite though, I still have a little less than six hours of the weekend left in which time I'll be sleep hopefully for most of that. I ended up having a great weekend and I didn't spend a bunch of money. I had an invvestment meeting today. I'm part of a club, where we all go in and put twenty-five dollars a month into the stock market. We have shares in Bank of America, Duke Energy, Sirius Satelite which I don't know how the merger will affect that stock and we bought beginning stock in a company that doesn't exist yet, he's still waiting on other investors or something like that. I don't really understand it fully, but I figure while I'm still young, I should get involved in stuff like this. Maybe I'll actually have some substantial money when I fifty, like twenty years from now. So we were supposed to have a meeting today but only two people showed up and we just sat and ate and talked and drank beer. I was over my boy Donald's crib since last night. I went over there to watch the Ohio State-USC game, which ended up being a blow-out. I hadn't chilled with Donald in a long time. He's doing well though. He's one of the blind folk in Charlotte that I guess you can say is well-off. He owns a business with his wife and his wife's a RN so they do pretty well. He's modest though and cool as hell. He's always giving me ways to save and flip money. That's why I like going over to his house, makes me feel like I can actually have some shit like him some day. We watched the Panthers game together today and we're supposed to get together for more games this season.
After that I came home and my cousin who I guess has officially left his woman is setting up to move over here this week. He gave me a new love seat and a big TV that looks like it's forty-two inches. I wonder what my roommate will say when he sees the new furniture. So looks like the fall is shaping up to be very interesting. My cousin stayed with us for a while back in 2003 when we first moved over here and now in 08 he's moving over here. Guess life's one big circle when you really break it down. Everything turns around and around.
So back to the cycle. I feel pretty good though, the weekend's over and I stil got a little money in my pocket for the week. Got to get my grind on to put more money in there. My boy just gave me another savings tip which I plan on using a little later as I gain my finances again. Back to work tomorrow, back to making money. On a side note, I've really got to shave my face in the morning. I hate facial hair and this shit is aggravating the hell out of me. Yeah, I know that was random and weird, but I had to say something. All right, peeps, let me go and try to get some sleep. Hope everyone makes it through this Monday alive and well. Peace.

What up folks? Me, just chilllin on a Saturday morning. I didn't realize it was after ten o'clock, I've been up since five. No, I don't normally get up that early on a Saturday, but coming from work yesterday after working all week I guess I was kinda tired. I went to sleep last night arond nine listening to college football on Sirius and slept virtually the entire night till about five or five-thirty. I think I'm well-rested, at least for the time being.
Yesterday was actually a very good day at work. That was probably the first time you've heard me say that and I'm not saying that it was the last but you won't hear that coming from me that often, at least not while I'm at Lions Services. It was one of the finer moments in there yesterday though. Can't remember if I told you about it or not but this week my department's been under the gun as far as production. It wasn't something we did, most likely someone screwed up somewhere between management and shipping where an entire order of hydration bags had to come back. They never made it to Seattle. I don't know why, I've heard different rumours about labels being on wrong or something of that nature. Anyway, bossman had a meeting with everyone in the department, almost a hundred people telling us we had to do eleven-hundred bags a day this week to get the order out by Friday. People were coming to work at six-thirty instead of seven-thirty, and leaving at five instead of four to get the order done. Well, we had the order done by three o'clock yesterday and he had another meeting with everyone saying how much he appreciated our hard work and team effort in getting the order done. He told us to be proud of ourselves that we pulled together and single-handedly saved the shop and to have a great weekend. Everyone started clapping and cheering, it was one of the first times that I really felt like a part of a team since I played sports in high school. I don't know if our department saved the shop or not, but sometimes that's what employees want to hear to get the morale back up cause it's been steadily spiraling downward. So yeah, that was one of the finer moments in that place. It gives us something to be happy about and feel appreciated for, even if it's small potatoes. I've only experienced that one other time in there that I can remember, when I worked in waistbands and we had to get an order out right before Christmas.
Well like I said, it's the weekend. Today is my cousin's twenty-ninth birthday and he's got music blasting from his computer so I'm listening with him. I'm supposed to be helping my other cousin move out of his house today or I think we're just moving things to storage. So we'll probably be drinking beers and moving things and chillin all day. He says he's moving over here to Royal Orleans. That should be fun having two batchelor cribs in the same complex and he's just signed on to me and my boy's "fuck it" list which is supposed to begin officially in 2009. These are all the things we want to do before some woman takes us away from batchelorhood. The first official trip's Vegas like I said before, but the first unofficial trip might be Detroit next month. We'll see how the ball bounces. Aight peeps, I'm going to bounce, but I wanted to drop a line and let folks know what's going on. Have a good weekend and God bless.

What up folks. It's me again, up late listening to music again. Just heard the new Young Jeezy, checked out some of the new Plies cd and getting ready to listen to LL in a minute. These are all rap cd's and they're all good ones, if you dig hip-hop that is. Me, I like all kinds of music. Hip-Hop is one of my favorite though, I guess that's because I can relate to a lot of aspects of it. I wouldn't say I'm hood to death, I wouldn't say I can't function in any other setting except the hood. I actually do fine in whatever setting or situation I'm in. Guess that's the actor in me. But I do have a bond with the old neighborhood, some sort of connection with it and it's people that I don't quite have anywhere or with anyone else. That's real talk. My lady recognizes that, in fact I think she recognized it long before I did. It's also one of the things about me that drives her crazy every which way. She can't really relate to it so I guess that makes her feel like it's something she isn't able to give me. It's all right though. I don't hink a significant other could ever fully relate to you, even if you were from the same walk of life. It's two different people so it's going to be different and conflicting opinions at times. She does try to understand that part of me as best as she can though. That's one of the things I love about her.
My day was so-so to say the least. Nothing eventfull at all happened today. It didn't really rain today, nothing like yesterday. Yesterday buckets poured from the sky for hours it seemed. It was kind of dreary and cloudy all day though, the air was very moist and it was only like seventy degrees today. That made it a long and boring day. Thank God it's Friday right?
The department in which I work at Lions Services has been put under the gun indefinitely but especially this week. Monday afternoon right before the two o'clock bell rings for break, he had a meeting with the entire department. Mind you, this is the most populous department in the plant. I guess almost a hundred people work over there. The department is so huge it takes up two sides of the shop.
Anyway, he bassically told us that we were in a hole right now, we as in the shop. We the workers weren't the ones who put us in the whole but since we're the workers, we have to bring the plant back up to par. We have to get 1100 bags done a day for this week. After that, we have to do a thousand a day. It's either this or the plant shuts down and we all will have to find something to do. Lots of the sighted folks have been staying and working till five all week. I can't say I really blame them. Bossman is paying overtime for that extra hour all week. Hell I'd stay if they asked me. But they haven't asked me and don't think they will seeing as how what I'm doing I'm actually ahead of the lady that's sewing my work. So I've been taking my ass home on the bus.
Well like I said, it's Friday, which also means pay day for me. I'll bet the check ain't really shit, is it ever? However not everyone in this country seems to be getting a check, so I guess I can't complain. All the same, I'm just glad to be here. I'm also glad I could talk to you now. Sometimes this shit is like therapy. All the time, it just gets me into the habit of writing again. All right folks, gotta bounce. Nature and sleep are starting to call me simultaneously. Peace peeps and have a good Friday.

Oh wow, this is an easy one, had to jump on this one right away. Simple, stop drinking and smoking cigarettes and cigars so much. Simple, not easy. I have cut back though, I don't really buy cigarettes anymore unless I'm at a place where I can't find my cigars. I like Wine Black and Milds and hey're almost exactly two dollars cheaper than a pack of Newports. Newports are the only cigarette I really like. As far as drinking, I started drinking more beer than liquor. I used to buy half-gallons of liquor for anywhere between forty and eighty dollars a pop. Now, I'll get two or three forty-ounce bottles, which runs me three or four dollars. I also try to limit my purchasing of drink and smokes to the weekend. Am I saving any money? I can't tell.