Plans? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Plans!

Thanksgiving was pretty darn cool. We didn't do what we were supposed to do at just about any part of the day, but we made the best of it.

Wednesday, I drove back to Atlanta, after spending the early part of the week at Jameil's crib in Gainesville. The plan was to leave a few hours before her, so I could come clean up my place and get my car registration situation handled. I left about 11:30 when she went to class and was making my way up I 75 when one of my tires blew out on the highway. I was about a mile from the nearest exit, so I rolled on 3 wheels and made it to safety. Long story short, I had to get two new tires at the Wal Mart in Cordele, Ga and my 3 hour head start on Jameil was gone. She met me at the tire shop, and then we headed to my crib. I didn't get a chance to clean up or go to the grocery store, but it was all good. The only place in the area that was open when we got home, was Applebee's, so we got some burgers and some beer and came back to the crib. Didn't work out like I planned it, but no harm, no foul.

Thanksgiving, we were supposed to get up with one of Jameil's friends in the area for dinner. Let me backtrack on this one for a minute. We were invited like 2 months ago, but as the time drew near, there were no details emerging. I kinda felt like it wasn't gonna happen, but I'm a natural pessimist anyway. As Tuesday came by and we still didn't have details, I annoyed Jameil into calling the friend to make sure that it was still gonna happen. She was supposed to send an email with all the details and addresses, etc... Wednesday came, no email. Thursday came... no email. I was like forget it. Let's just go for self. So, we did. We went to Boston Market and got our own Thanksgiving dinner. Chicken, creamed spinach, mashed potatoes, sweet potato souffle, green beans, cornbread and an apple pie. We brought it back to the house and ate it with the bottles of wine that we had bought to bring with us to the non existent Thanksgiving dinner. (Incidentally, Jam got a text message around 3 telling us to come eat. By that time, I wasn't trying to go anymore.) It was probably better that it was just the two of us anyway.

Later that night, we were gonna go to Lenox Mall to watch the lighting of the Macy's Christmas tree. It's nothing like the Rockefeller Center tree, but it's pretty big for Atlanta. It started at 7. The plan was to leave at 6. Well, laziness set in and Jam was taking FOREVER to finish washing her hair, so next thing you know it was 6:45. We still went out there, and possibly could have made it to see the lighting, but there were a bunch of people there and it would have taken forever to get out of the parking lot, for 5 minutes, then turn around and leave. Instead, we went to an alternate destination. I found this while Jam was twisting her hair up. I kept it as a surprise. I can never keep a surprise from Jam. Either I spill the beans, or she figures it out. But this time, I managed to hold it in. We drove downtown to Centennial Olympic park. The whole time she's trying to figure out what we are gonna do. It was so cute, she was like a kid on Christmas morning.

What did we do? We went ice skating!!! Or should I say, Jameil went ice skating. I didn't manage to make it off the railing. Yeah, I'm too old and too uncoordinated to be busting my tail. I felt like I was gonna fall at any and every moment. It was not a good look. I got some pictures of Jam skating around the rink that I'll upload when I get a new USB cord for my camera. I somehow managed to break it. Anyway, after we left the rink, we walked around the park, taking pictures of ourselves in front of the big tree and the other holiday decorations. We are so cute! You should see the pictures. LOL

Anyway, so like I said, pretty much nothing went according to plan, but it was great nonetheless. I've been with Jam for 6 straight days and have managed not to annoy her to tears yet. 3 more days!!! We are supposed to hit up the GA Aquarium at some point this weekend, maybe hang out with one of my friends that wants to take me out for my birthday. I'm not even gonna make any plans though. You see how that's been working out for me.

Happy Birthday To Me

Where's my presents?!?! If you got my number, I better get at least a text from you!!! If not, hit up my comment section and show some love for the brilliance that is Rashan Jamal!!! Don't trip; It's my birthday. I'm allowed to be self indulgent for at least one day, right? If you don't wanna do that, then leave your funniest old man joke in the comments. At 5:38 PM, I will officially be 34 years old. I came along way from the little baby in the picture, huh?

The Obnoxious Vacation Post

You feel that? That's the palpable feeling of relief emanating from me. Why, you ask? CUZ I'M ON VACATION!!!!

No more stinkin work for me for 9 days (okay, I'm counting the weekends, but you get my point.) No more work for the rest of the month. I get to enjoy my birthday on Tuesday, Thanksgiving on Thursday and the rest of my time relaxing and doing nadadamthing. I can sleep as long as I want. I can veg out for the whole day if I like. No forcing myself to go to sleep so I can be semi capable at work. Do you hear me? I'M ON VACATION!!!

No real plans to speak of as of yet, but I'm starting it off by going to Florida for a few days. Then I think Jam is gonna come up here when her classes are over. Either way, its cool. You know why? CUZ I'M ON VACATION!!!

You may or may not see posts from me in the beginning of the week, since internet service is sporadic down at Jameil's, but if you don't hear from me, have a great week. I'm sure I will... CUZ I'M ON VACATION!!!

Okay, obnoxious moment is over. Time to hit the highway. Peace Out!!!

The Best Blog Post...EVER!!!

Not really, but have you noticed that everything is the best thing ever? Or how every little occurrence is historic? Or how people make up meaningless records when writing about insignificant things. I hate that. Hyperbole gets on my nerves. As a former English major, I understand the purpose of it, but the overuse of exaggeration is so annoying. In fact it's the most annoying thing EVER!!! (see what I did there? That's hyperbole!) It's my own fault for having Yahoo!! as my homepage. Their so called news headlines are nothing but sensationalism. I just happen to like their search engine better than Google. (Since Google owns Blogger, do you think they will try to edit this post? LOL) But their news and entertainment, even their sports headlines reek of misleading, overblown headlines. I mean, really do I really care if the NFL has never had an 11-10 game? No, but even if I did, it's a stretch to call it historic. I'm sure there's never been a game that ended 300 - 2 either. Now, that would be historic. And to say that the latest James Bond movie had a record breaking box office performance... for Bond films: that is not a real record. There is no entry in the Guiness Book of Records for this category. If there was, then I'm sure that Breakin 2 would hold the record for best box office for a movie featuring a bunch of ghey looking dudes spinning on their heads while pretending to be hip hop. (See what I did there? I made up a fake record! LOL) And to say that Samuel Jackson is the biggest box office draw... EVER is patently ridiculous. Dude was barely in Star Wars. And he is in every other movie ever made. (See, more hyperbole!) How you gonna count that for his total? Stop exaggerating. When is the last time you went to see a movie because Samuel L was in it? Deep Blue Sea? Unbreakable? (Yes, I know you are gonna say Soul Man, but for the purposes of this joke, just forget about that one. LOL)

So, in conclusion... STOP WITH THE HYPERBOLE! It's not the best week ever! It's not the most historic non event ever! Those are not real statistics and records! You are getting on my nerves with all that and that's no exaggeration. You know what? If you can't beat em, join them. I'm gonna start making stuff up too. Here goes nothing...

This is the first time in my blog that I've linked to Wiki Answers! That's historic.

This post marks the 511th consecutive blog post that I've used the word "the." That's a record for bloggers named Rashan that live in the Atlanta Metro area and have a birthdate of 11/25/1974! (don't really click. I just linked right back to myself - LOL)

Ellipses are the best... form... of... punctuation...ever!

THIS IS THE BEST BLOG POST...EVER!!!

Therapy

I had a breakthrough earlier this week. I finally understand why I am the way that I am. I get it from my mama…and my father. I learned this during my therapy session (sleep therapy that is)…

Perhaps, if I felt that something was wrong with me, I could have realized this earlier, but darn it, I like me. I feel like if you have a problem with me, that’s your problem. So, no… therapy is not an option for me. That’s what my blog is for. Or that’s what my amazing coping abilities are for. Or my avoidance… wait, that’s probably not a healthy response. But as I was saying, my breakthrough came to me in a dream. The details of the dream escape me. I don’t even remember my parents making a guest appearance, but the general theme was blaring in its clarity: I am my parents’ child. Physically, there’s no doubting that. You can see elements of both my mother and my father in my visage, my mannerisms, my thought process. This is a little deeper than chromosomal traits. The way that I am is like they way they were. Let me give you a couple examples.

I love my family. Really, I do. But I’m not the call all the time type of person. I easily can go a month without calling and checking on people. It’s not that I don’t I want to know what they are up to, it’s just I feel like if they have something to tell me they will. Consequently, I play the black sheep role. I’m not complaining, its only temporary and it’s of my own doing, but I realized that may just be a learned behavior. My father used to do this same thing. We would go months without hearing a word from him, then when we visited him in the summer, it was like Father’s Knows Best up in there. I always wondered how a man could virtually forget about his children when they weren’t around, and be a loving parental unit when they were around. I vowed to myself that when I became a father I wouldn’t be like that. My convictions about that are very strong, so no worries about me failing that way. I guess, however, I failed to see how I do that with other people though and how it relates to him. Here’s another example…

When I get in a relationship, I give it my all, sometimes to the detriment of other previously established relationships. I know this about myself: my girl will take precedence over my friends. On its own, that’s a good thing. A real friend should understand that. During my previous long periods of singletude, I’ve warned friends, when I get a girlfriend, I’m gonna disappear for a minute. However, I tend to take things to the extreme. For example, I hung out with a friend last night that I hadn’t seen in 4 months. Now, not all of that was because I’m boo’ed up, but I haven’t even wanted to hang out with anyone else since me and Jam started dating. I got a call last week from my mom. The message went something like this… “Just because you all in love, don’t forget about your mother, and grandmother etc.” That brought certain memories back because my mother did the same thing back in the day. I remember when I was in high school, my mom was engaged to a man that had a daughter that was about a year older than me. She spent way more time with her fiancé and his daughter that she did with me and my siblings. She once forgot to come home to take me somewhere, because she was with them. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t care cuz I got to do whatever I wanted without interference, but I have to wonder: Is that where I get it from? I’m sure if my mother would vehemently disagree were she ever to come across my blog, but I think that’s where I subconsciously learned it.

Another thing I learned from my parents was avoidance. Or maybe a better word is repression. We don’t talk about stuff like hurt feelings and disappointments. Why confront when you can pretend it didn’t happen? Why bring up an issue when you can wait for it to disappear on its own? Jameil can’t stand this. I can’t say that I blame her, but that’s the way we were raised. Talk about good things, ignore the bad things. It works for us. I personally would rather be the family that is civil to each other than the family that screams, yells and feuds with each other. Don’t get me wrong, I know there’s a happy medium in between these two polar opposite positions. Maybe I’ll find it one day. I realize that I take this tactic with my friends too. I honestly can say that I don’t always tell my friend what I’m thinking. Scratch that, I never tell them what I’m feeling unless I cushion it in my trademark sarcasm. Is it any wonder that when I have something to say, it doesn’t get taken seriously?

So, with this in mind, over drinks at Eclipse Di Luna last night, I broke from my normal pattern. I laid out my issues with my friend. I told her why I haven’t been calling or answering. I confronted the possible hurt feelings; I unburdened myself for the betterment of our relationship. (Lest you think I’m being dramatic, it really only was like 3 sentences and matter of fact. I’m not an emotional type) I guess that dream affected me more than I initially thought. Let’s see if I can modify some of my other learned behaviors. Probably not! I like who I am. Thanks Mom and Dad!!! You guys are awesome!!!

Thursday Thirteen: 13 Areas In Which Blacks and Whites Can Find Common Ground

Its been well documented (by comedians) that black people and white people are different. While on the surface, this is true, there are certain areas in which we can find common ground. Here are thirteen of those. *disclaimer* - These are in no way meant to apply to all black people and all white people. I am fully aware that people have many divergent opinions*

1. Keeping up with the Joneses - Both whites and blacks have a problem with this one. Whether its buying a house that you can't afford, or driving the newest, biggest, gas guzzlingest SUV, both groups often spend beyond their means. You don't believe me? What do you think this Fed bailout is about? People make unwise financial decisions is not exclusive to one race.

2. Smoking - You might hate white people but if you go to smoke and you don't have a lighter, you gonna ask the redneck with the confederate flag on his hat for some fire. Or you may be scared of the big imposing black man, but you'll get over that fear if it means a nicotine fix.

3. Throwbacks/Vintage - Black people call it throwbacks. White people call it vintage. But either way, its an old style and both of us like to bring back the retro vibe. Everything goes in cycles.

4. Baby Got Back - This song speaks to both black and white people. Throw it on at a function and you'll see the dance floor become integrated like Congress just passed a resolution.

5. Scantily clad women - This is one is for men, mostly. We give each other that look when one of them passes by. Race doesn't matter when it comes to perving out.

6. Drinking - You want to improve race relations in this country? Get a bottle and some shot glasses. People don't discriminate when they are drunk. White people love to buy Negros drinks and we love to accept them. LOL

7. Oprah - Just look at her audience. It's like MLK's dream up in there. Whether or not they maintain that when her show is over is irrelevant. Oprah is the poster child for inclusiveness.

8. Reality TV - We do watch different kinds of shows. They like The Bachelor and we (not me) like Flavor of Love, but the premise is pretty much the same. And I think American Idol is pretty much watched by all.

9. Weed - See drinking above. People can get high with anyone. And they like to compete to see who has the best stuff.

10. Mexicans - Or should I say not liking Mexicans. Some people think that black people can't be racist. Yeah, right!!! You should hear how some of us talk about Mexicans. It's eerily similar to the Jim Crow vibe from back in the day. Neither black people or white people want to live around them. And we both want them to speak English!

11. Sporting Events - For 3 hours on Sundays, there is no black or white. Just (insert team colors here.) We will hoot and holler and cheer with complete strangers of another race like we've been best friends for years. Just watch out in the parking lot. Old rules apply as soon as you leave the stadium.

12. The Wire - I have never seen a so called "black" show, that so many white people love. The show simultaneously appealed to both races by showing complex characters, not just racial stereotypes and the writing was top notch.

13. Barack Obama - November 4th proved this one. LOL

What's The Topic Of Tomorrows Thursday Thirteen?

Take a look at tomorrows Thursday Thirteen list and try to guess the topic. Can you tell what these things have in common? I'll be back tomorrow with the actual topic and explanations, but for now, back to work! Peace!!!

1. Keeping up with the Joneses
2. Smoking
3. Throwbacks/Vintage
4. Baby Got Back
5. Scantily clad women
6. Drinking
7. Oprah
8. Reality TV
9. Weed
10. Mexicans
11. Sporting Events
12. The Wire
13. Barack Obama