Don’t forget to vote!

No matter who’s side you’re on, you’ve gotta love the commercial currently running in Philly for candidate Joe Sestak. It’s genius. LOL

Lesson Learned

Every month, Tali 1 gets monthly tests on all of the work he has done in class over the course of the month. Now, you all know, my Tali 1 has been pretty much an A or B student since Kindergarten. In addition, he attends a very competitive school. The grading curve is as follows:

100-95   A

94-90    B

89-85    C

84 and under D

Anything under 80 is failing.

Yup. It’s like that. So after the first monthly tests came home, my son had two C’s. He had never gotten C’s and was very upset. I opened his test papers to see what he had gotten wrong. He had careless mistakes on his math and science tests. He lost points for putting a series of numbers in order from lowest to highest instead of reading the question and seeing it should have been ordered from highest to lowest. He lost points for skipping two entire questions altogether. He lost points for not answering the question that was asked specifically. He had been sloppy and careless.

We sat down with him and he clearly knew all of the answers to the questions. The problem? After being on top for so long, he entered 3rd grade thinking he already knew everything. After speaking with his teacher we found out that he finished all of the tests first and handed them in. His teacher felt the same way we did….he was rushing, not double checking his work and his grades were a result of carelessness, not a lack of knowledge.

We punished him by taking away all of his Pokemon cards and his Nintendo DS. He was devastated. As the monthly tests rolled around this month, we studied hard and reminded him to go slow, take his time and check his work.

Today he came home with this in his test folder:

I was so proud of him. When we talked about the lesson, I told him that if his very best was a D grade but he was trying as hard as he could, I would never be angry. I would get him all the help he needed to understand the work. However, when you are capable of getting A’s and B’s every single time….anything less is unacceptable.

One of my relatives told me my standards were too high and I laughed. We definitely have high standards because we know he can meet and exceed them. There are no mediocre or lazy folks in this house and he knows what we expect. You can call that tough, we call it love. Hell, why would you have average or sub standard dreams or expectations for your child? WHAT THE FUDGE?

Today, we celebrated with dinner and ice cream. Tali 1? He got his stuff back.

Open Letter to T.I.

Dear Mr. Harris…

May I call you T.I.? You were just sentenced to 11 months in jail after just getting out on weapons charges a few months ago.

Yes, I can acknowledge that everyone is human and makes mistakes because only God can judge someone, it’s not my role. However, I feel the need to address some of the aspects of your charges. When people get into rapping, they have dreams of making it big. Making lots of money and being adored by fans. You had all of this.

When I first heard you were driving around with a boatload of weapons in your car, I had to ask myself….WHAT THE FUDGE? Did you need money? Were you a secret arms dealer down there in Georgia? Didn’t you have anyone else that could have been your drop off, delivery person for the exchange? Did you really need to be in the parking lot selling guns with the mother of your children riding shotgun?

Now you’re headed back to jail as a result of you AND wour wife driving around in a car full of drugs and with drugs in your system while still on probation for your previous charges? *sigh* My first question is why are you two still able to maintain custody of your children? You do understand that parents should not be high and caring for kids on a daily basis right? Ecstasy, weed and driving? Really?

You sir, need to be thrown in jail for good. How many chances do you have to be given? Making a catchy song does not entitle you to be reckless, stupid and to endanger your kids. And for real, those guns you were selling? Who did you think was going to eventually end up owning them? How many kids in the ATL might end up shot because of your actions?

Then you want to be on PSA’s telling people to not make the mistakes you made? iCan’t

Nice guy or not, you are a danger to yourself, your family and others. You don’t deserve to be rich. You don’t deserve to be famous. I knew so many hustlers like you growing up in Brooklyn and they were certainly not anyone I would want my kids to listen to or idolize. You are nothing but a common street thug and a dumb one at that.

With all that you have been blessed with, you could do so much for so many. Instead, you are self destructing and taking your family down with you. Do some soul searching while you’re in the pokey and come out and help those kids that buy your records and look up to you. Stop destroying yourself and our community. DO BETTER.

Regards,

1969

HOT TOPIC: Co-Signing

Have you ever noticed that most people that comment on blogs tend to co-sign/cheerlead no matter what type of shenanigans are going on?

I am all for being positive because it is hard to take a stand on something when you aren’t a real life friend. Hell, I have been known to go off when a comment rubs me the wrong way. #dontjudgemeIamaworkinprogress

However, when people actively ask for an opinion and they are clearly doing something wrong….the co-signing can be a bit much. In those situations, I tend to not reply at all. Why? Cause despite knowing the person from a blog….I DON’T KNOW THAT PERSON. I only know what they write and I can’t inject my two cents when I know that I would keep it ALL THE WAY REAL and not sugar coat my feelings on the matter.

However, when someone writes, “I just met this guy and after two weeks, he and I are moving in together. I let him drive my car and opened a joint checking account.” I get pissed off seeing the endless trail of commenters saying things like “YOU GO GIRL” “I knew you would find your true love.” “Does he have a brother in Chicago? Sounds like a keeper.”

**SIDE EYE**

Even though people blog about their lives, do they really want your opinions on personal matters? I struggle with this all the time. I want to tell some bloggers what I really feel but I know it’s none of my damn business. Just because they put stuff out there for you to read doesn’t mean they want to hear a strangers opinion on their life. If we are honest, not many want to hear anyone’s opinion about anything. Period.

How do you feel about co-signing? Do you comment positively even when you KNOW the situation is effed up because you don’t want to hurt the individuals feelings and you don’t want to get attacked by the rest of the folks on the blog?

Me? I would rather say nothing if I have nothing good to say. Otherwise, it looks like you are picking on the person when they are down even if you have the best intentions and feel like your comment could offer real advice.

How do you handle this?

1969 shares……….

1. I have never broken a bone. My brother on the other hand, has broken the same bone three times.

2. I am exceptionally knowledgeable about sports. (I got this one from Mr. 1969)  He said “You know more about  sports than 90% of my male friends”.

3. I love scrabble, trivial pursuit and am uber competitive when it comes to any type of game. I hate to lose.

4. My last meal would probably be a plate of buffalo wings and a slice of Juniors cheesecake or an All-American (Hot apple pie topped with Vanilla Haagen Dazs…shouts out to my BFF Crystal) with a Margarita on the rocks with salt.

5. Somewhere out there is a video of  me on a beach wearing nothing but a bikini and cowboy boots. Hey, I was three years old. Get your minds out of the gutter! Some things never change. LOL

6. In college, during an infamous road trip, I played a game of questions (which involved a lot of Bacardi) and it made me unable to smell that stuff for about 20 years. *shudders at the memory*

7. In the last six months, I have met Ving.Rh.ames, D.MC of R.un D.MC, Nate from Bo.ys II M.en and Stic.ky Fin.gaz from Onyx at my gym. Random right?

8. I missed my Dad’ s 60th Birthday party in Trinidad last Saturday. I was the only one of his kids that wasn’t there and I know he really missed having me there. I felt terrible but then a tiny part of me felt it was payback for all of the birthday’s he missed in my life. About 26 of them. *sigh* I need to do better.

9.  I made it my 41st birthday without having to dye my gray hair but the day is rapidly approaching.

10. I can actually draw. I cannot sing.

11. I just received a brochure for culinary school and I am seriously wondering if I could go to school during nights and weekends despite working full time and raising two kids.

12. After dreaming about being a chef for so long, Tali 1 saw the cooking brochure and said…”But mommy, if you go to cooking school, you won’t be home with us. Can’t you just cook food for us that we love at home and I will tell you how good it is?” *sigh* Dream deferred.

13.  I want to be Justin Beiber for Halloween but can’t find the wig!

14.  I am not loving my new job. I’m trying.

15.  You people are nosy. LOL

What Marriage is Really Like

The other night, Mr. 1969 and I had a disagreement. At first, it was a nice pleasant discussion but as things sometimes go….it got more heated.

As usual, he thought I was not being rational and I thought he was arguing just for the sake of arguing. Either way, I ended up walking away from the whole thing and going to bed. I guess I broke that “no going to bed angry” rule that all couples are supposed to adhere to.

The next morning he called me at work cracking up. Why? Cause he found this little note I left for him.

Fight over. Laughter and the ability to let shyt go always wins.