I heart the Olympics

This week I’ve been practicing being a housewife. And believe me, I could seriously get used to this. My days consist of waking up just enough to wish the gf a good and productive day before she goes to work. Then I roll over and go back to sleep. Around 7:30 I move from the bed to the couch where I take a nap until 9:30 or 10. Once I’m awake, I find something to eat and try to find an internet signal in the house (not having much luck). I’ve also been packing my clothes, books and other assorted stuff since I’m going home at the end of the week. Fortunately, I didn’t bring as much stuff with me as I thought I did so it hasn’t been very hard to pack.

The only problem with being a housewife that I can foresee is not having any money. It sucks that I’m unemployed right now and I don’t have any funds. It means that I have all this free time, and nothing to do. Yesterday, I cooked salmon, pork chops and pasta. Not because we needed it, but because I was bored and I cook when I’m bored.

Being poor and unemployed this week leaves me lots of time to watch the Olympics. And let me tell you, I am obsessed!

I don’t think I’ve ever watched the Olympics. I don’t remember Athens at all, and the only thing I remember about the 1996 games is that they were held in Atlanta. I may have seen bits and pieces of the games, but nothing on the scale that I’ve watched and been involved for the past few days.

I think I have watched every beach volleyball match that Misty May and Kerrie Walsh AND Rogers and Dalhouser have played, I’ve watched synchro diving (men and women) , I’ve screamed and cringed with every fall, slip, and stick of men’s and ladies’ gymnastics. I’ve watched every stroke of swimming that Phelps, Lochte, Hoff, Couglin, Peirsol and crew have swam. I’ve watched rowing and water polo and basketball. I’ve watched the opening ceremony over and over and I am so crunk about everything! The Olympics’ are so cool.

I love watching these athletes do their thing. The human body amazes me. Not only that, but the control, discipline, and extremely hard work that I know it takes to get to their level of perfection leaves me in awe. These people are my heroes. They make me want to learn how to swim and start running again and just plain ol’ get into shape. I want some muscles to show off

Oh, and does it make me unpatriotic if I want the Chinese to win? I mean, I love May and Walsh, and I love Raj and Jonathan and Justin (my fave American male gymnasts) and I cry for Alisa and Nastia and Shaun (my girls) whenever they fall, I love the American swimmers and I’m really excited every time they win. But for everything else, I’m rooting for the Chinese! They seem so prepared and so posed for success. Say what you want about Communism, but those Chinese athletes seem to truly believe in their country. They are not winning just for themselves. They are winning for all 1.3 billon Chinese. And for me, it is so cool to see the underdog win, even if it means that the Americans lose.

The worst thing about watching the Olympics on TV is the announcers. They suck. These are the most pessimistic people. No matter how well someone performs, it doesn’t matter if they have broken world records, beaten their personal best times, it doesn’t matter. These announcers are going to find the nit-picky mistakes (and jinx the athletes!!!!) that even the judges are not going to deduct. And they ask the dumbest questions. “Hey Phelps, what were you thinking when you were in the pool winning your millionth gold medal?” I just want him to say, well, stupid announcer lady, I was thinking about how I shouldn’t f*ck this up because then I could kiss my endorsements goodbye.” I mean, seriously, we know what the hell he’s thinking about. Winning, bitch, that’s what he’s thinking about!

Olympic commercials have been entertaining as well. Visa and Coke have pulled out all the stops. GO WORLD!!

Good commercials are the best for ADD folks like me. I love NOTHING more than really compelling, emotional commercials. These are better than Superbowl commercials. They are thinking man commericials, not stupid funny. My favorites are the GE ecomagination and the colorful and musical United commercials and the LeBron James-Yao Ming coke commercial. Oh, and the Audi commercial, so unexpected!

And other times, I watch commercials and cock my head to the side, squint my eyes and wonder what the hell they were trying to say. I finally saw the famed McCain commercial that was supposed to be so offensive to Obama. The McCain campaign finally cut the parts with Brittany and Paris (smart boy) but still I was left thinking that the commercial makes Obama look good. McCain’s objections to Obama are not presented in a coherent and logical argument, and it made McCain look like someone’s senile grandpa and solidified Obama’s rockstar status.

On a completely different note, I helped my sister move into her dorm room yesterday. It made me so sad. Her school didn’t put its best foot forward. They had construction going on (and that is NOT what you want freshmen to see), the cable wasn’t working, the Welcome committees weren’t very welcoming (or very informative or helpful, for that matter), and my poor baby sister was not happy. She was really disappointed that such a prestigious school could botch things so badly. And I have to agree with her, I was so not impressed. By the end of the night she’d already had one crying spell and threatened to transfer, so hopefully the school will get itself together so that she can start enjoying her college experience.

 

My sister is the smartest person I know

My sister Michaele is really the smartest person I know, and I know some really smart people. She’s going to college this fall and I’m so excited and really really sad.  Who’s going to play with me while she’s at college?!?!?

This chick applied to some of the most prestigious historically black universities and colleges in the country and purposefully stuck her nose up at and refused to apply to a couple of really good North Carolina “white” schools and my alma mater because as she said matter of factly, “she had no intention of going.” LOL! I know, ballsy, right?

She applied to Spelman College (accepted), Hampton University (accepted), Howard University (accepted), unfortunately financial aid for an out-of-state student at a private university is hard to come by. For some reason, being single mother of four, working as a school bus driver and teacher (where you get paid crap), does not qualify a student for the necessary loans, grants, etc to attend anything other than a public university. And even with a 4.0+ GPA, a host of clubs, service ventures, and other smart kid honors.

Well, Michaele got some local scholarships from different organizations and societies (totaling a substantial amount of money) but she still didn’t get enough to cover the cost of tuition for the first year, and FAFSA said that my mom and sister (yes, my 18 year old sister) should be able to contribute roughly $1500 and 1000 respectively.

Michaele works as a pharmacy tech at our local Kerr Drug, but she makes enough for gas, her phone, and the occasional shopping trip. Not enough to quickly come up with a G, and the same with my mom, I mean WTF?  Seriously, are they to go out back to the money tree in the back yard and shake something down.

So my mom and I have been worrying ourselves silly about how in the world were we going to pay for this girl to go to college. I mean, to me, the best case scenario was that we would get her through this first year by hook or crook, and she would then transfer to one of those in-state schools that she had previously stuck her nose up at.

Silly me for worrying. While my mom and I would sit for hours and think of ways to pay for Michaele’s schooling, this chick would go to the mall with her friends. She had the right idea and some outstanding faith, man.

This past Tuesday I got a call from Miss Thang and she reads me this letter from this organization that I’ve never heard of. They are basically paying for her entire undergraduate education!  In return she gets to do community service (which she would have done anyway), network with other students, live in the honors dorm, have summer employment opportunities, national & international travel opportunities, conferences, etc!

I am so excited and she is even more excited!  To her, this opportunity is a way to pay for school, but it is also a way to meet students, network with potential employers, differentiate herself on campus and leave her mark on the community (in her own words).  How cool is that!

Yay for me not to have to be a stripper to send my little sister to college!!!!!!

 

Don’t make these college mistakes

Dear Baby Sister,

Don’t repeat my mistakes.

My baby sister is on her way to college, and I hope that she has observed and listened to me talking about my missteps and my triumphs and has learned from them. But just in case, here’s a top ten list of the most memorable.

1. Have a job while in high school.

I started out working at one of the local grocery stores while I was a high school junior. The summer before my senior year I started working at a local government office. That year I worked two jobs while taking AP and Honors classes, but it wasn’t that big a deal since school wasn’t that hard.

It is so important for students to have some work experience before entering college. It teaches responsibility, true, but more importantly, it gives the student an idea of the kind of work environment and work they like (or not).

From the grocery store I learned that I like working around other people, and that I am good with customers and that work doesn’t feel so much like work if I have people to talk to.

From the local government agency, I learned that I can do basic office work with my eyes closed and that I like knowing what’s going on in my local community.

Lil’ sis is all good on this front. She worked with me in a restaurant 3 summers ago, realized she didn’t like working in a fancy restaurant and found her niche working in a pharmacy. (She knows soooo many people and all the drugs they are on, lol).

2. Be active in the school community

On this I don’t have to worry about baby sis. She’s a much better student and her extracurricular are way better than mine. I thought I was doing good to be in the National Classical League and French Clubs, the African-American Club and on staff of the yearbook and copy editor of the school newspaper. I was in clubs to meet people, socialize and get out of class.

This chick, (my sister) is in clubs because she’s smarter than mostly everyone in her school, which is why she is 26^th in a class of 236. (I taught her how to read, so I can brag a bit)

She’s in the African American Club (most of the black kids and some of the white ones, lol, were in it), Beta Club (that’s just for smart people), and the National Achievers Society (also just for smart people).

High school extracurricular activities I taught me how to work with others. I learned that I work best under strict deadlines; I learned that I’m not the strongest writer, but I can edit the hell out of other people’s work, and I learned that doing good in the community can and should be fun (thank you Ms. Murray and the shenanigans of the OHS JCL)

3. Pick a college that based on what it can give you.

I picked my college because I fell in love with it almost immediately upon arriving on campus. I loved the campus, the people, and the awesome girl power that was everywhere.

No one was able to provide me with a reasonable argument for choosing another school, but someone should have.

I chose my school with my heart and not my brain. This was a mistake. Don’t get me wrong, I loved lots of things about my school, but it wasn’t the most challenging academic environment. Granted, I wasn’t the most focused student, either.

4. Take advantage of college’s opportunities.

I did take classes at a neighboring larger university; I needed to get out of the cloistered walls of my tiny school. I didn’t make the best grades in those classes, but I loved every minute and I worked damn hard for that B and C.

At tiny college, I didn’t work very hard to secure the best internships, and I should have. I missed building a network that could have been helpful for me after college.

No one taught us about grants and fellowships that could have paid for study abroad. I didn’t think that I could afford to go, I didn’t do my own financial research into what funds were available and in the end, I didn’t go. I will regret that forever, even if I travel extensively as an adult.

But I did try to run track one year, now I know that I’ll never be an Olympic sprinter, but it was fun even though I thought my legs would fall off.

In college, I really only did enough to get by, and that was a mistake.

5. Work off-campus while in college.

My first and second years of college, I worked on-campus in a variety of offices from an academy dean to the athletic department. I came and went to work as I pleased, but usually I just hung out in my dorm room pretending to study.

That all changed when I got a job off-campus in a restaurant. Taking harder classes and working off-campus kind of happened at the same time. So I had to manage my time; get my school work done, work 20+ hours a week and have time for my active social life. I thrived under the pressure.

I truly believe that working off-campus made me a better student on-campus. And I further developed and improved my “soft” skills. I loved that job (most days) for three years.

6. Try everything.

I mean classes, not drugs, lol. You are in school to learn, so don’t get suckered into concentrating on just your major classes.

I took a lot of classes, mainly because I changed my major a lot. And the major that I did pick, I found by accident.

But I didn’t take any Women’s Studies classes; I had a complex or I was in denial or something I missed out though; I think I would have enjoyed learning about women. Hee, hee.

Lesson here is: You never know what you might like until you try. So try a lot and don’t make assumptions.

7. Stay in touch with your friends.

Your college friends are your last friends. I know that sucks, but it’s hard to find the time to make friends as an adult. After college I missed the hell out of my friends and I have spent many hours over the past few years finding and reconnecting with old friends from college. Luckily, I’ve found some of them.

In the adult world, I worked with people my parents’ age. It’s hard to party like a rockstar with your boss, although I have tried. Your college friends can be your salvation.

8. Learn how to network…soon.

After college, I worked a crap job for a year, and then I was unemployed for a month because I didn’t know how to network. Asking for help, asking for a referral, asking for an interview is not begging, it’s networking, learn how, now.

The year I worked a worked a crap job, I told an alumna from my school that I was coming to DC for an interview, and I didn’t have anywhere to stay. She let me sleep on her couch and she introduced me around Capitol Hill. I didn’t get the job, but I learned about people power, and the importance of networking.

9. Don’t be afraid to transfer to a different school.

I should have transferred. By the end of the first semester of the first year, I knew that my college wasn’t what I needed, but I waited until I had a couple of really horrible grades before I seriously considered leaving and by then it was too late.

My school laid the foundation that I needed, but I could have gotten an education better suited for me somewhere else.

10. Pay attention to life off-campus

In my hometown, there is a very large university and not too far down the road, there is another huge university. The students that go to these two schools and some of the professors and administration of these schools never leave the city limits. What a shame.

It is amazing to me that these schools recruit world-wide, they send thousands of kids abroad, their professors present at conferences everywhere, but many of them don’t know who their local government officials are and they don’t vote?!?!??!? That’s insanity.

The world starts outside your front door, so soak in everything from your local community to your global community. The WHOLE world is your oyster, don’t overlook any of it.

I hated the town where my college was, but I knew that city from the ghetto to the high rises. My friends and I explored every inch of it, we still hated it but we understood exactly why.

That town wasn’t all bad, that town had its good parts, and we found them all, lol. We went to gallery-hops and pub crawls and football games and regional fairs, we rode the drunken party bus wherever it took us. We visited other colleges, we traveled up and down the east coast. Road trip was my middle name.

My college experience was so much fun, but in retrospect, I totally wasted it. I hope my baby sis doesn’t do the same. I hope I’ve taught her well.

 

North Carolina’s votes are in…. and the winners mostly suck

I’m a little sad today. North Carolinians (myself included) finally had a chance to vote in our late as hell election on Tuesday. At first I wasn’t excited about voting, and I had no plans to work the polls, which I always do in the general election in November.

That is, until I got a phone call from my favorite precinct worker asking me to work with her. I love her and we have worked the polls together in the cold and rain, so it was a no brainer to work with her; especially since it’s May, warm and sunny.

Also this is my little sister’s first election and she has been so excited about the process and so motivated by the candidates. She asked me to go with her to help her pick candidates, which made me feel all warm and fuzzy since I have been dragging her to political events for the majority of her life

So, anyway, my excitement grew over the last week. I finally picked my candidates, and arranged to take a half a day from work so that I could volunteer. May 6^th I voted and I helped so many other people make a more informed decision and exercise their civic duty.

And today, May 9^th, I got around to seeing who actually won. And I am a bit disappointed. One of my candidates won (but that was inevitable). In the most important state-wide races, change did not occur in North Carolina. Granted, I am in the Bible Belt Former Confederate South and I shouldn’t be surprised that politics as usual will continue to play out here. But I was hoping that all that “change” that is supposed to be in the air would have at least touched down here. Not so much, however.

And I’m disappointed, for myself and for my sister, who really didn’t need my help… she knew most of the candidates that she wanted to vote for and they matched mine to the tee. (I am the best big sister ever and I have indoctrinated her, politically, since her birth.)

She was so excited about getting to vote for the first time, and what do I tell her now? Now that she can see that our votes didn’t get our people elected. I, of course, will continue to tell her to vote, but it definitely gets harder when it doesn’t seem to make a difference.

So today, I’m left asking; who the hell did all those Obama supporters vote for in the other races? They certainly didn’t vote for change.