remember the time (or) aquemini reminisces

when you haven't heard from a person or seen them in years, but out of the blue something they've said comes to you - verbatim - as clearly as if they are speaking, i think it's safe to say theay've had an impact. the summer of my junior year in high school was so fresh it was surreal, and my homegirl can attest that we sometimes still think we just had the same dream....jomo and bro natural were two poets from brooklyn who performed solo and together - both ways equally as potent. one of their first pieces i ever hear was called "the ghetto is," where they used such memorable lines as: 1. " [the ghetto is] when mama made cornbread for a meal complete, wit' no milk, no eggs - just water and heat", " when hand-me-downs got handed back up, we drank sugarless kool-aid from margarine cups", "the ghetto is: 2 parts poverty, 2 parts black... and still producing flavor!"...chances are they'll never read this, but i wanted to share it anyway and give them a shout-out....indigo's a witness, those were good times...

...from where you come from

thank you spelman, for shifting my perspective. sometime last week, i had tea with a co-worker. she's a cool enough girl. we were talking and for one reason or another she mentioned a friend from college whom she never told she had a crush. said he was south african and she loved his accent and he was soooo cute. i'm like, okay, she diverse wit hers - that's cool. she starts runnin' it down like, "tall, dark, dirty blonde hair, bright blue eyes.".... i don't think we're in atlanta anymore, toto. it's a different world, for real. but i was glad that i automatically thought a black man. i'm glad i put we in the center. of course in retrospect i cannot be upset ( i can be annoyed, of course) because we have african descend everybody else. i remember an entire summer program dedicated to the study of the black british in london. it just caught me off guard.

i been picking up wedding planning guides and magazines and books and whatnot. (publishers get over like fat rats, man. one bridal magazine - ten dollars. needless to say i just read them at the library). i told my immediate family and trying to pull together my artistic resources. this is about to be design on a dime fo' real, but it will be fly nonetheless (that's the plan). i'm probably gonna bug jay like hell (no pun intended) before it's all over, but he's a trooper (again, none intended). the teeny pomp and tiny circumstance, i realize, is not the most important thing. what happens when the smoke clears is the real stuff, but i don't play dress up often so i think i'll indulge myself this time.

went to my first opera on friday (opera house within walking distance + free tickets from a co-worker who couldn't go = one fabulously free night out). it was almost as good as it was long. in french. a fairly mixed cast. great music, and not to take anything away from the leading lady (who did a very good job) but Dorothy Dandridge will forever be the quintessential CARMEN in my mind's eye....after the show, an acquaintance and i checked out this spot called "balanca's and balanca's pyro room." (guess i was feeling adventurous?) it was a little too smoky and too local for my taste; honestly, if the people inside weren't drinking/drunk, they wouldn't have been enjoying themselves either. and there was a five dollar cover ($5 more than i would usually spend), but there was value in it. before, when i would pass this spot walking home from work i would never go in -now, i know why.

i am soooo in love with lizz wright right now. her album, "dreaming wide awake" (i'm not sure if it's the latest one), is in heavy rotation in my space like no other. i described her sound on this album to a friend saying, "it's like norah jones meets anita baker," which i stand by but she's distinctly her own artist, without a doubt. i share this at the risk of being the only one who didn't know, but i got to cause she's so serious. here's just a whiff: "wake up, wake up little sparrow/ don't make your home out in the snow/ don't make your home out in the snow// little bird, don't you know? your friends flew south many months ago." now imagine an alto tone dipped in honey with acoustic guitar in the back....yep.

in honor of the shooter's return, i'mma close this livejournal like -

mood: pleased
music: "dreaming wide awake" [in my head, of course, this is a library you know]

it's been a long time, i shouldn't'a left you...

i didn't intend to go this long without checking in, but hey things happen. so let's see, what's been goin's'on: to quote whatever sports network says this, jay's visit was "the best week ever!"...i made a month on the job on september 8th - yes time does indeed fly. i'm finding a rhythm and getting comfortable. i think spelman and delta would be proud...bought my first piece(s) of furniture for the apartment. no, that was not supposed to happen this early in the plan, but they were used and a great deal (4 bar stools for less than one may cost). yeah, bar stools. grown-ass-woman-much?...hung out with a spelman sister last weekend (c/o '95). it was real cool; her boyfriend's a bruh (excellent)... went to a few clubs. it's not the atl or the jc/ny nightlife, but i'll keep looking... the flood took me by storm (honestly, no pun intended), as i'm sure it did everyone else. yet, i am so glad about the response in our community; it's unfortunate that it took for the others to turn their backs. the true test will be a year or so from now. it's like any other catastrophe. everyone shows up in the beginning, but you really need people around when something else is big news and you're still in devastation (i'll dedicate more to that later)... oh sisterfire! i nearly wept at the flyer. so bitter sweet, to have been a part and yet a part no longer. i wish i could reach out and touch it. i didn't cry at graduation, and i didn't cry very much throughout. but i tell you true, walking passed the women's center one summer afternoon, peering through the glass and for the first time perceiving those windows as a partition, something separating me instead of protecting and holding me inside - that was emotional...

so, being engaged is something that i have grown comfortable with, but something happened during that "best week ever!" that got us to talking a dates and moving forward (GULP). i'm excited, don't get me wrong; there's just something about having a date - seeing an end point - that makes things so much more real and it makes me so nervous. (in the best kind of way, but nervous nonetheless). jay has to move. where's the money for this coming from? where will it be? can all of the beautiful people who i want to witness this special occassion attend? can i really pull this off in less than a year? should i be worrying about bigger things than this (globally speaking)? i'm not going to worry myself prematurely. to top it all off, after this talk began, i suddenly started seeing all of this stuff like wedding episodes of sitcoms and this show called "bridezilla." do you believe that people put all of their wedding drama on television? lookin' crazy! i'm not beat about too many things, so i won't start now (okay ya'll, so help me hold to that statement)