And Mother's Day Starts My Vacation.......

Yesterday was Mother's Day. It was the first Mother's Day that I have spent without my mom. It made me think back to last year. Mother's Day Weekend 2010 was when I realized that my mom was sicker than she was telling me she was. A month later she was gone. I didn't know how yesterday was going to affect me….but I woke up and was fine. I had plans on watching church service (my favorite church UStreams), going to the cemetery to place flowers at my mother's grave and then going to eat dinner with my Granny. This is NOT how the day went.


Missed church altogether because I overslept. That didn't bother me too much because I have been really stressed and tired lately. This was my body's way of telling me to take better care of myself. Got woken out of my sleep by my grandmother telling me that she wasn't feeling well and that she might have a stomach virus. She said that she still wanted me to come and eat because she cooked dinner. Now I love my granny to death, but she out of all people knows that I have a VERY sensitive system and if I breathe the air of a virus, I am likely to get sick. I immediately went to take a cod liver oil pill, a multivitamin and drink a glass of orange juice (like that was going to anything for a stomach virus….but I prayed about it). In the midst of me getting ready for the day, my brother starts blowing up my phone. This immediately starts me off on the wrong foot. Anytime we are set to anything together, he start blowing my phone up. "Where you at?" "You ready?" "How long until you get ready?" "What time you leaving?" Well, if you would get calling and texting me fiddy-leven times, MAYBE I could get some shit done. Whenever I feel rushed, my blood pressure goes up a bit. Then my grandmother calls back (an hour and a half after I spoke with her the first time) mad as hell that I'm not already down there (regardless that it takes almost an hour to get there) and cussed me out saying that she was going to the doctor.……hangs up in my face and everything. Now this was not the way that the day was supposed to happen. In an hour and a half I am exhausted as hell. So I got back in the bed. My mind went, "skip the dinner, skip the cemetery, get back in the PJs and watch a Madea movie." And that's what I TRIED to do. Then my brother calls again (for the fiddy-thirteenth time) saying that my granny was at the ER. 8 hours later, the diagnosis is that she let her blood sugar get too low and got dehydrated. My guess is that Mother's Day really did take it's toll on her because she was missing my mom too. Glad Granny is okay. Though she didn't make it easy on any doctor or nurse. She had one nurse thinking she was feeble!! My granny is the most active old person I've ever met! She stayed a whole lot longer than was necessary because she wouldn't let those people do their jobs. If my expression could talk, everyone got an "Are you f***ing serious?!" look. But a lot of things have to change from today forward.

I don't feel like anyone in my immediate family respects my time, my feelings, my life, or my sanity. I love them and I know that this has been a rough almost year…..but we gotta get back down to some order in some form or fashion. I can't DO everything. I can't BE everywhere. I spent all day, as I have spent the majority of the last year looking out for everyone else's needs. I don't even get a thank you. Just "it's what you were supposed to do" or "what else were you going to be doing." I have prayed about it because I don't want to just leave them high and dry….but I do need a little peace. I need to be free from drama for more than a few hours at a time. I need for everything to calm down. Every issue is NOT a DefCon 5 situation! So my phone has been off and in my underwear drawer all day. In case of a real emergency, they have the boo thing's number and I know they won't call that for any minor stuff. I'm on strike.

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It's Time Out For Fake Revolutionaries

Last night while I was watching an episode of Mob Wives (…what? Like you've never watched programming that has dropped your IQ a point or two.), I got a Twitter alert that Obama was going to address the nation. I looked at the clock (9:35 P.M. local time) and was immediately nervous. Then Twitter broke the news first…..they finally killed Osama Bin Laden. IT TOOK LONG ENOUGH!!! I chuckled at the irony that the announcement was made on the 8th anniversary of George W's "Mission Accomplished" speech. Twitter is always a crazy place to be when things like this happen. You get celebrations, amateur political commentary, and jokes. I must say that I love the jokes the most.

What I don't particularly care for is the faction of Twitter I love to call "fake revolutionaries." These people are never happy when it comes to anything about the government, politics, social culture……ANYTHING. However I noticed that they never seem to surface until there is something that creates a buzz. These are just a few of the quotes that were taken from my timeline:

"Osama is dead. Police brutality finally has no reason to exist."

"Yay, Osama is dead. Who needs health care? #missionaccomplished"

"Now the US public education system will prepare our children for the global job market since Bin Laden is dead. o_0"

"I hope people know that just because they got Bin Laden doesn't mean terrorism is over."

Well…..thanks for killing my elation that the military achieved a 10 year old mission. Forgive me for being glued to the TV because there is a little bit of justice right now for some 9/11 families. The thing that kills me is that out of those 4 things that were said above, three of them only need a little bit of community and national activism. I don't see these people out there doing anything of relevance except complaining. Is that what social networking has become? A place to gripe and complain. I guess folks figure that as long as they are actively complaining that they don't have to do any of the ground work ourselves. It's time out for fake revolutionaries. Be about the change that you seek. Actively work for those things. Mad about police brutality. Do something about it. Mad about health care? Lobby your congressmen. Worried about public education? Volunteer in your local schools, join the PTA, and do us all a favor and actually raise your children. The point is stop hiding behind the computer screen…..no one really hears you.

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What Could You Possibly Know About Sports, Little Woman?

(Forgive my image, I thought it was hilarious….and proved my point all at the same time.)


One of my biggest pet peeves is being dismissed. By this I mean having my thoughts or opinions cast off because the person hearing them thinks that I don't know what I'm talking about. What really bothers me is when men do it. Most of the time, it has an air of "Aww, how cute! It's a woman talking about ______." Anyone who knows anything about me knows that I am a football junkie. I eat, sleep and breathe NFL football (and NCAA football for the sole purpose of NFL scouting). I watch SportsCenter and NFL Total Access religiously. I also follow several teams on the Bleacher Report (link). Bottom line, I know my stuff.

Let's face it, most of my sports related conversations are with men because a lot women just aren't into sports (or they love basketball…which makes it worse). So the problem always comes when I'm talking about sports with men. No matter what I say men look at me like "what could you possibly know about sports, little woman?" This irritates me to no end!! Then not only do they question my sports knowledge, they start talking down to me like I'm a child. Being the person that I am, I never back down from a challenge. I just go there with them until they are blue in the face. What I've found out from these encounters is that there are two types of men.

1. A LOT of men that pretend to be football fans. They would rather discredit me as a woman than let me continue to chop their balls off while I kill them with my superior knowledge. These are the men that watch a few episodes of Sports Center so that they can be considered one of guys but don't know anymore than what Skip Bayless, Chris Berman and Mel Kiper told them. Deep down inside they are embarrassed that a woman knows more than them. These men make me laugh because I love to sniff out a fraud.
2. Male sports fans are generally sexist. Point blank. Period. These are the easiest to win over though. A woman with extensive sports knowledge is considered to be somewhat of a unicorn. Our purpose is generally served by making their lives hell when they are watching the game and making the best pre-game snacks (sorry ladies…..that's what some of us do *shrugs*). After 30 minutes of blank stares, I will have new male friend.

Boo Thang loves my love of football and stimulates my sports mind all the time. That I am thankful for….or he would have to go…..

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