Blacksploitation

I'm not sure if I spelled that right, but I just watched a movie called 'Badassss Cinema.' It was a documentary on the "blacksploitation" movies in the 70s. I never really knew the background of movies like Shaft, Superfly, and Foxy Brown, but now I do. Hollywood was not making any money on their movies, and it was a very political time for black people in general (it always is). So a director decided to make a movie about black people for black people. It was called 'Sweet Sweetback's Sad Song' or something like that. It was pretty political/racy but it got a ton of black people to go to the theaters.

Once the producers and directors realized they had a market, everyone started producing these films where black people could fight back against the police, not die at the end, and become the hero. It was a great time, for a while.

Then the NAACP stepped in and decided that they didn't like these movies because they were too stereotypical (pimps, hos and drugs were prevalent) and that people shouldn't make them. That pretty much put the kibash (?) on those movies.

In this documentary, they interviewed Quentin Tarantino, Samuel L. Jackson, Pam Grier, Fred Williamson (hottie!), and Gloria Hendry. I now have several of these movies on my Netflix ('Coffy', 'Black Mama, White Mama', 'Superfly' and 'Black Caesar' )and I can't wait to see them. The one movie that seemed so cheesy was 'Blacula.' I didn't add that one.

One more thing about movies: I hate how anytime someone needs a girl for a part, they use Dakota Fanning. I wish they would use Olive from 'Little Miss Sunshine.' She is awesome. Great movie, by the way.

Superbowl Pressure

Is it possible to have peer pressure from your parents?

I talked to my dad on Thursday morning and he asked me if I was all set for the Superbowl. I told him that the Ravens weren't in it, so I wasn't going. He said, 'Well, you should go anyway. There are two black coaches for the first time in Superbowl history, and it would be a nice experience. You never know when that will happen again.' I told him that I didn't have money and it's really too late to start planning now without paying an arm and a leg. He said 'You have free lodging. You really should go.' I said 'Ok, Daddy, if you buy the tickets, I'll be more than happy to go with you.' He laughed and said he didn't want to spend that kind of money for the Superbowl and it's not his dream.

Way to make a girl feel torn, Daddy.

I'm still not going, but he's right. This may never happen again in my lifetime. I think this may turn into a regret one day. "I coulda been somebody. I coulda been a contender."-Marlon Brando

If I wasn't so lazy, I would add a picture of Marlon Brando in 'On the Waterfront', but I am. I don't really like Marlon Brando, but 'On the Waterfront' is a great flick. Rent it and stay awake.

Crowns are the new black

Here's a picture of me after I caught the carnation that the red and yellow knight threw at me when we went to Medieval Times for Ryan's brother's bday party.

I yelled really loudly 'Go red and yellow knight!!' when everyone was quiet. I can yell really loud, and he came back and threw the carnation to me. I bent over and caught it. All the boys in the group were congratulating me afterwards. I told them that I may not be able to make the great catch at Birthday Baseball, but I can sure catch a flower when it's thrown to me. Sometimes I'm such a girl.

It's Friday...

I am so tired. It's 16 degrees outside, and I do not want to get out of my housecoat. Brr....

I guess I'll go warm up the car, but I really don't want to. Waaahhh..

I have to stay a little late because I have some stuff to do with 4 people on second shift and they get there at 4:30, but I'll suck it up.

I'll be so glad when I am driving home today. I need to use a vacation day.

Orientation Today

I have two new teacher orientation sessions. The first one is in 15 minutes. It takes me about 15 to get to the school, so I'll be a few minutes late. There's always someone who's late, so why not me? Why not today?
They are providing dinner, which I think is awesome because I had to skip lunch. Boo..

Tomorrow there is another session and I hope it's only an hour or so long. I have had a very busy week and I'm ready to chill.

Movie night tonight: Little Miss Sunshine
The only problem is Ryan has class until 10, so who knows what time he will get back to his house, and I hope I can stay awake for the movie. I really want to see it, so I'm going to try to keep my eyelids open.

I'm a little nervous to meet the other teachers. I'm excited to meet the other teachers too. I hope they can share some of their knowledge with me. Classes starts Feb. 12 and I'll be teaching Mondays and Wednesdays. I forget what time the class starts (I think 6). I guess I'll find out tonight for sure.

Yesterday's Funny or Not

I went out Saturday night to Medieval Times and afterwards we all went to the Pine for some beers/drinks. I bought several Tom Collins' and they were really strong. I never yakked, but I was definitely not sober.

The funny thing is that on church on Sunday, we were short a few ushers, so I promised that I would be there. I don't know how much you know about ushers, but they have to stand until the pastor starts his sermon. Luckily my church is a pretty short one, so maybe we stand for 45 minutes. Well, halfway through the standing part, I felt like I was going to yak. I was getting really hot, and I didn't know what to do. So, I'm standing there, feeling so sick, and then I had to get out of there. I walked to the water fountain and drank about a gallon of water. HA!!HA!! I don't drink a lot of water, so it was probably more like 16 oz. Then I walked back in to stand for another 20 minutes or so.

What if I threw up at church? That would have been the worst. The parishoners would say 'How are you doing?' and I would say 'I'm still drunk.' I'm really glad it wasn't communion Sunday. I never would've made it to the end of the service.

Snow

It snowed for the first time yesterday. Oh joy. Luckily I had my window scraper ready and my warm coat was just waiting for me to pull it out of the closet. The schools are opening two hours late today, but since I'm up and my car is warmed up, I'll make it to work at regular time.

I'm going to be swamped at work this week and I'm not looking forward to it. Crazy Erin is supposed to come over today for our book club gathering. She invited her friend Phillip to be a part of this group and he is the slowest reader ever. Well, I'm not sure if he's a slow reader, but he's "so busy" that he doesn't have time to read the books. I've read about 4 or 5 books to his one, so it's hard to discuss a book when it's been so long, but I'll hang out anyway. We're discussing Water for Elephants. I didn't like it at all.

The Colts finally made it to the Superbowl. I'm not very excited about it, but the cool thing is that two black coaches will be coaching in the Superbowl for the first time ever. Since the Bears coach, Lovie Smith, won his game first, he's the first black coach in the Superbowl. Dungy is second. That's still really cool, and I'm so happy for both of them.

I went shopping on Friday and I was looking for shoes, but ended up getting a few dresses. I wore one on Saturday night when Ryan's friends and I went to Medieval Times. I yelled really loudly for the red and yellow night when everyone else was quiet, and the knight threw me a carnation. I made the best grab ever (even in my dress!). That was really cool. I had a fun-filled weekend, and I decided that I will wear dresses more often (on weekends). It's ok that I only have one pair of shoes to go with them, but what do I care? hee hee. I think I can work it.

Training and the Conspiracy

I got back last night from training in New Jersey for my job. I think I get a raise since I took the training course, but I'll keep you updated on that. Because I was gone for three days, I had a ton of work to do today, and now I think I'm caught up. I even stayed a little late today to make sure all my ducks are in a row, and I think they are. But..because I stayed late, I'm exhausted. That plus driving 4 hours last night after a grueling day of thinking doesn't help much. But..I can relax now, so I'm happy.

I got a letter stating that laptops from a former company of mine were stolen from the consulting office, and may have included information such as my SSN and my name. So..they are offering me a year free of Equifax Watch Gold. I had to call to make sure this was legit because the first thing on the paperwork is my SSN. Go figure. I called and everything is ok. I guess it will be good that I have this angel watching over my credit, but I get my credit report yearly and I inspect it so I'm not that worried about it. Plus, I'm all about checking my bank accounts, so so far I'm pretty safe. But, it's nice to have somebody else keeping tabs on me.

I'm tired. I'll check up on you guys at some point.

The Ravens Lost

What a depressing morning.
I went to the Knotty Pine and watched the game. It was packed. It was so packed, I couldn't sit in my regular seat at the bar. I think that's why we lost. None of the regulars were in their seats. I like uniformity, I like a schedule, I like things that are the same.

No one even scored a touchdown last night. It was a field goal battle, and we lost.

I am not going to Miami and now I have to find something to do for the Superbowl. I'm sure it will be a repeat of all the other years where I get drunk and don't even remember who was playing until the next day. Another football season, almost over.

Now, I'm off to church. Maybe I should've gone last week and thing would have been different. *sigh*

The Heartbreaker

Some say I'm a heartbreaker (yes, mostly YB and Spacebrain). I'm SO not. I don't even go on dates with people. How can I break so many hearts when I don't even know people that well. I have a lot of acquaintances that I call friends, but I would never even think of calling them in the middle of the night when I'm stuck on the road without a car jack or drunk and need a ride home.

So this morning, as soon as I got to work, I was running around getting things done. Some days I'm inspired to buckle down, and other days I'm not. Today was a buckle down day. hee hee.

I saw a coworker, Kenny, sitting at his little desk area (he has a desk/computer in the warehouse, so it's an open area). He checks the internet and I don't know what else. I asked him if he had to work on Saturday. A lot of the people in production are working this weekend. He said "Yes," then he got all serious and said "why?" looking at me with hopeful eyes. I don't know for a fact that he had hopeful eyes, but I got really nervous about the way he was looking at me. I kind of shuffled around, maybe looked down (I never know what my face is doing, but YB tells me that my face makes a lot of expressions), and then said 'Uh..I..was just...wondering. Perhaps casual conversation..I know a lot of people are coming in, and I thought you might be one of them..I don't know.' Then he looked at his computer, and was like 'oh.' HA!!HA!! Then we started talking about wearing purple tomorrow for our Purple Rain day, or whatever else we talked about.

I think my laughing at the end when I retold the story makes people think I'm mean, but I was not trying to find out if he had plans. I was just being curious and nosy. Maybe that's my problem. I'm too curious, nosy and friendly. hee hee. Oh well. Kenny did email me a couple times today, and I think he's nice, but I'm taken. Guys have different thoughts going on in their heads than I do. I don't have deep thoughts. I'm a surface thinker.

Bathroom Pictures

I took a few pictures of my newly painted bathroom for your enjoyment.

I'm Hongry!

I have three pork chops in the refrigerator. I ate lunch, but all I can think about are those porkchops.

So, I rushed home, got out my Joy of Cooking cookbook, and I'm making "Kentucky Fried Pork Chops" I mixed the seasonings together, coated the pork chops, rubbed it in, got the skillet ready with the oil, and then I read -LET MARINATE FOR 30-60 MINUTES. What a bummer.

Now I sit and wait. I'm supposed to be going to happy hour in a bit, and I want/need to take a shower. Should I cook first and shower second, or shower while I'm waiting and risk smelling like pork chops at the bar? Hmmm..I think I can wait 5 more minutes.

Time to heat my oil so it's ready. I'm pretty sure I'll be burning my tongue in about 10 minutes. Happy Pork Chop Friday!!

Tickle Me Peachy

Have you ever been tickled so much you start crying?

The other day I was at Ryan's house and he started tickling me. Sometimes he does that, and I can keep enough control to stop him. Well, the other day, he and MHS were sitting there and he started tickling me. He wouldn't stop either. I was screaming, 'Stop. Stop.' Then I yelled 'I can't take it anymore!!!' and I don't know how he knew, but he said 'Are you crying?' I got up from a laying down position and had to wipe my eyes. I was really embarrassed because MHS totally saw me. Then I just started laughing. The way I said I can't take it anymore cracked me up.

I saw a television special once that said something about tickling doesn't trigger a happy response. You laugh, but it's really not funny. I so believe that special. I'm not happy about being tickled-unless I'm naked (bawka!). HA!!HA!!

My Resolutions

I don't have a good New Years resolution this year, but I guess it's to have more people over.
I am always such a Nervous Nelly when it comes to inviting people to my house, so I hardly ever do. After New Years Eve, I decided that people usually have a good time at my house, so that's one of my resolutions.

My other resolution is to speak up more about things I want, need, etc..I am a pretty laid back person and I let a lot of things fall through the cracks because I'm such a lazybones and could care less about a lot of things. If I speak up, things will change for the better.

My past resolutions (that I remember) have gone something like this:

Guilt Free
No Regrets
If it doesn't make me happy, I'm not doing it.
Take time to relax

So, this year, my mantra is 'If I don't like it, I need to say so.'
Welcome to 2007!

And I'm Sick

I hope this doesn't mean I'll have a cold through all of '07. That would suck.

Happy New Year!!

I had people over at my house for New Years, and I think it went rather well. I might have had 15 people. I'm too tired to count right now. I had light appetizers (mini eggrolls, chips and salsa and some turkey and cheese wraps), plenty of Miller Lite, champagne, and party hats/whistles/champagne flutes.

We played this cool DVD game called Riff. It was kind of hard because it's a music trivia game, and I'm not the best when it comes to music. We were going to play catchphrase, but it was 11:15 by the time we got started, so we didn't end up playing.

Anyway, just want to wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2007. Make the most of it!