The Young & The Restless

Another monday, another sleepless Sunday night! By the time my sleep aid kicked in it was almost 3am, nevermind the fact that I took it after 10pm. I thought that I would be exhausted after spending all of Saturday with a dozen or so students trampling through the streets of New York.

That was pretty much the highlight of my weekend, I took a group of students on a tour of The Big City. We toured Ground Zero, Chinatown, The Village, The Empire State Building, had lunch at the 40/40 Club and then shopped until about 9pm. I had a ball and it seems as if they did to, because at 9am yesterday morning, I got my first "When are we going back?" texts.

Well Fall has officially arrived, what does that mean? It's time to pull out the jackets, light sweaters an put the open-toe shoes away. Seriously, if I see someone is flip-flops or some sort of tie up sandals, I may have a fit. By now, everyone should have rearranged their closets and put their summer best away. But what happens when the temperature hits 75 degrees and above? You wear a long sleeve shirt or something with a jackets; no need to go rummaging through your clothes pulling out your hottest backless piece.

The eggheads will call it global warming when we have an ususually warm Fall day. They will cite the Environmental Protection Agency's latest bulletin on the issue verbatim. However, as kids we called it something different. We called those days when we walked homefrom school sweating, dragging our sweatshirts or jackets behind us something else. We called it Indian Summer. What happened to Indian Summer? When did people get so smart and start changing the names on things we labeled as kids?

When did robbing the cradle become statutory rape? When did tattle-telling become snitching? When did VD get so many other names? When did the Duke of the school become a gang? When did black folks stop hanging pictures of Dr. King in the living room? Didn't you think he was a dead uncle as a kid? When did making 12 songs, 11 of them having guest features classify being an album? I remember using two cassette tapes to dub a Public Enemy album because it had 27 songs on it. When did getting credit in your daughter's name become fraud? When did selling out become job security?

In this world of flux, there's only one constant, Teef is always gonna be Teef! I've been the same since Tracey gave birth to me at 8:14pm on August 5th, 1978!

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Not Trying To Be The Man, I'm Simply Just A Man

I've been sleeping three hours here, four hours there, waking and staying up at obscene times of the night. Then, actually working for at least a few hours each day, if that's what you want to call my job. I didn't sit down at a computer until late in the afternoon yesterday, so I was unable to send my daily e-mail to help you get over that Hump yesterday. So, hopefully it wasn't too high to get over and you landed on your feet one day closer to the weekend.

Somehow I ended up watching "America's Next Top Model" last night and I found myself wondering, when is this show going to end? It's getting extremly comical and cartoonish, but I guess women need something to low off steam after dealing with men hitting on them all day. I stomached all I could of that mess before turning to "Dancing With The Stars" and realizing that I was in the Wednesday night twilight zone! Television sucks on Wednesday night! I tried watching "Kidnapped", but 15 minutes in, I was watching eyelids.

I've been up since 4:48 am, mostly staring at the ceiling and listening to the sounds of the early morning commuters and I started thinking,is this really my life? A year ago this time, I wouldhave never dreamed in a million years that I'll be living in West Trenton, my mom would be married to a white man and my girlfriend of six years engaged to a dude she met 7 or 8 months ago.

Yeah, that kind of threw me for a loop, we were together for the better part of six years and breakup, a few months later you tell me that you're engaged. Damn, that girl rebounds better than Dennis Rodman. Yet, I get cussed out for asking questions about the dude. I get fussed out because I said I wanted to know who she was marrying so soon? I get all of the, "if you really cared you would've done this, that & the third..." I get accused of cheating throughout our entire relationship (It ain't cheating until you get caught!)

See, I looked at myself as doing the right thing when I came to the realization that I was neer going to marry this woman. When after those six years, I started closing in on 30 and knew that I didn't want to spend the rest of my life with her. I figured that it was best, even though we had been through so much together, even though we had all of those years, all we had was all of those years. I could've easily stayed with her, let her fade further and further away until she found herself completely on the outside of my life. But, I thought I was doing the right thing, I thought I was being an, "All true Man" like Alexander O'Neal.

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We Started Out Like Bobby & Whitney...

A few months ago when Kimora Lee & Russell Simmons announced they were getting a divorce, I said that my faith in love was dwindling, and that faith in marriage was almost non-existent. However, I said that as long as Will & Jada Pinkett-Smith, and Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston stayed married, there was always a glimmer of hope. Well smack me and call me Suzy! Whitney has done gone and filed for divorce!

Now, everyone is going to be quick to point fingers at Bobby, but we all saw "Being Boby Brown", Bobby seems like a very easy going guy, who loves to have fun and the very crackish Whitney seemed like she didn't want him having any fun without her inclusion. People are saying that Bobby's living with Superhead or Whitney's dating a pastor, but how about we try this, they just fell out of love?

They are not staying together any longer for the naysayers or for their daughter, which surprises me. How many couples stayed together simply on the strength of the kids? They must figure, she's screwed up anyway, a divorce ain't gonna send her over the edge. Don't act like you don't remember those pictures from Myspace.

What does this say about marriage? Don't give me that "it was doomed from the start" look either! Back in '92 everyone gave their union six months or the rest of Bobby's career, but he gave himself a second life a few years back and their love held them together for almost 15 years. I too thought it was a sham at first, but maybe they did really love each other, maybe they were right for one another? You know the old saying, "the family that gets on together, belongs together". So, maybe we should blame whoever convinced Whitney that crack truly is wack for their demise, or maybe Cupid's arrow was supposed to hit someone else when they hooked up and he's just getting around to correcting his error.

Who makes out the most from this mess? The media? The gossips? Nope, Bobby! Whitney's going to owe him alimony until the day he dies! He gets to get his freak on legally now, doesn't have to worry about raising Bobbi Kris little ugly self or being married to a lesbian crackhead anymore. Bobby's on his way back to the top of the R&B charts, wait a minute, I was reaching.

I guess Will & Jada are all we have now to hold the candle for black love, I would say Ashford & Simpson, but any man who wears that much eyeliner has some explaining to do!

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