The Prodigal Sun

Watching a train wreck in slow motion...

Have you ever had to watch one of your close friends date someone you knew was bad for them... but tried to be supportive because they were 'in love' with this person? I have been trying... and trying to be supportive for the past year of one of my female friends relationships... but I just can't do it anymore.

From the moment they met a year ago, they have not gone through a single solitary week without a ridiculous dramatic screaming match argument. For real, they can't go 7 days without yelling and screaming like they are on Jerry Springer... WHAT THE FUKK ARE YOU ARGUING ABOUT IN THE FIRST WEEK? WHY ARE YOU STILL DATING IF YOU FIGHT LIKE THAT THE FIRST WEEK? They argue about everything from serious stuff to chicken... no, really, one fight was literally about chicken.

But for some odd reason, she pursued a relationship with this dude. A couple of months later... she moves out of state to be with this dude. No job, no apartment... goes and lives with this dude she can't get through a week without screaming at. No, really. I didn't get it either. I advised her against it. I said just get a job first... get your own place... date for a minute. What's the rush? But, she did it anyway.

As the months pass, the fights continue... she is kicked out a few times, because after all, it was HIS place, not hers or theirs. One time it was so extreme she called one of our mutual friends to come get her because she was locked out and walking in the pouring rain with no where to go. And despite all this... I tried to be supportive. When she called I would try to be impartial. Its her life, she has to make her own conclusions. So I never pushed for her to leave him or interfered with their relationship at all.

She was told that she could not be friends with any of her exes, two of which are our close friends. She complied, and called and told both that she was in a relationship and can't talk or associate with them anymore... then dude got upset with her and told her that she wasn't supposed to call them... she was supposed to just ignore them and not talk to them at all. So despite her compliance and cutting off good friends, the manner in which she did it was still wrong, so it STILL led to an argument.

I get semi-monthly calls to say 'it's over'... some of them tearful... some are mid argument and I can hear dude in the background screaming at her, and her screaming back at him in my ear... and now I am to the point where, I know that no matter what I say, or how upset she is, that after a few hours and her blood cools, she will go back and try to work it out. So... we kinda have a routine. She calls upset talking about its over, dude comes up screaming... I say, why don't you handle that there and call me later... usually I don't hear anything from her for days and I have to call and check on her. And she is like... oh yeah, I am good, and explains that they worked it out and how their problem is communication, or miscommunication... or how they have come to some new understanding... or how they are going to get counseling... or how they are only going to send each other text messages when they are upset so that the arguments don't escalate into screaming matches... there is always some new fandangled approach. (Does this sound ludicrous to any of you too?)

If you have been married 35 years... ok... I would get it. Do what you need to do to stay together. You have a serious time investment. But... after barely a year, when you were fighting like this from the jump? FIGHTING IS THE RELATIONSHIP! What are you fighting to save?

And when I tell ya'll... this is only the surface shyt... I am not even getting into some other shyt that makes my blood boil. Before ya'll ask, no she has never been beaten... so while this seems so battered wife syndrome... she is not battered. (altho abuse can be mental, and that is definitely the case here...) 

During the past 8 months she has been living with him, she got a new great job. And just this month, they moved into a new apartment with BOTH of them on the lease... The last time I was with them, an argument broke out and she ended up crying herself to sleep in the living room with us, while he slept soundly in the master suite. Well... at least she wasn't outside in the rain.

I don't want my friend to feel like she can't come to me. But at this point... I can't fake supportive anymore. It's like watching a friend get hit by a train in slow motion. You see her on the track, and you see the train coming... but despite your screaming and yelling, she doesn't move. Until she realizes her own value and self worth, the train doesn't exist to her. She will not see the train.

I can only pray that she will come to her senses... and see it before it's too late.

The Debates and Head of Skate

After watching the debates last night, I was left with a knot in my stomach. I felt like Barack did well, but he could have shut McCain down, and didn't.

McCain said over and over 'What Senator Obama doesn't get'... or 'just doesn't understand' so many times it was ridiculous, and Barack kept taking the high road and not addressing that shyt. It could have been a simple as saying, 'But what Senator McCain doesn't understand is that even if we shut down all 18 billion in discretionary spending, giving a tax break for 300 billion to the wealthiest like the big wigs on wallstreet would leave us with a 282 billion dollar whole bigger than the one we have now AND worse financial issues on wallstreet... Senator McCain just doesnt get that'... I mean, shyt like that could have SHUT HIM DOWWWWWN! And there were a zillion other opportunities for Barack to do the same thing, and put more nails in McCains coffin. He has to break this shyt down for the dumbest of dumb... and stop trying to illustrate his Harvard intellect... we've GOT that. You are smart! Now relate to the Punksatawny Community College drop out. But Barack kept espousing these long drawn out intellectual answers and that will NOT resonate with Dumb Azz Middle America... they will respond to McCain and his emotional responses, REGARDLESS of his lacking intellect.

We have two more debates... and I am hoping that people will advise him to break it down more and make it less verbose. This race should NOT be close, and it is... so Barack needs to change it up.

And he will because he is going to win. I am just putting that out into the universe. Barack Obama WILL be the next president. Barack Obama WILL be the next president. Barack Obama WILL be the next president. Nom-yo-ho-ren-gyeh-kyoh...  Nom-yo-ho-ren-gyeh-kyoh...  Nom-yo-ho-ren-gyeh-kyoooooooh...

Anyway, I saw the funniest video today. Its a Sarah Palin skit called... 'Head of Skate'. But while it is really funny, it is sadly a very real possibility if Barack doesn't start shutting McCain down... ENJOY!

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

WAAAAAAAAAKE UP!!!

The state of our country scares the shyt out of me. I have said this before, and I will say it again. America is living on past glory, and if we don't do something DRASTIC soon, we will become a third world country. Gas and food is becoming unaffordable... people are losing their homes and defaulting in record numbers, and now wall street is buckling...

The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, a major financial firm that has been around since BEFORE the Civil War... and the sale of Merryl Lynch to Bank of America on the same day is serious sign of our country's dire financial status. These companies survived world wars, natural disasters, 9/11...

But what they can't survive is DUMB AZZ SMALL TOWN AMERICA!

Thats right! I said it. Middle America is STUPID!

Everyone is pandering to the small town Americans, and really, I think that THEY are the ones to blame for the decline of America. And I am going to tell you why...

They elect people based on their perceived character rather than their position or actions on issues that affect the entire country's well-being. (Actions ILLUSTRATE character... not a stupid speech!)

Middle Americans are racist and ignorant. They think its ok to say that they are ignorant because they are from a small town. Its a license to say racist or offensive things... 

Middle Americans bought into this stupid war against Terrorism. (How do you fight a CONCEPT?! Wars are fought against defined opponents. Not an idea... not a single person like Bin Laden... And there is supposed to be a clearly defined metrix for success... without which, the war NEVER ends.) Middle America bought into the whole idea that if you don't support the war, we must hate America.

Small town americans idolize this 1950's white picket fence mentality which even THEY fail to live up to it. (Sarah Palin with her teen-aged pregnant unmarried daughter...) This 'common sense values' bullshyt is forcing our government to legislate based on religious beliefs when our country was built on the DIVISION between church and state.

Our focus SHOULD be on things that prepare us for the future. Our focus should have been on being green DECADES ago, or regulating our financial industry to prevent things like we are experiencing now. But NO... we are arguing irrelevant issues like... gay marriage. Who cares if two women/men want to get hitched? WHY IS THAT A NATIONAL ISSUE TRUMPING OUR ECONOMY? TRUMPING A SENSELESS WAR? TRUMPING ISSUES THAT WILL KEEP US RELEVANT IN A GLOBAL ECONOMY? I will tell you why, because small town America IS STUPID!

I know what you are thinking... middle America may be stupid but what does that have to do with the failure of our financial system... And to you guys... I have just one thing to say...

MIDDLE AMERICANS ELECTED GEORGE W. BUSH!

TWICE!!!

They elected a president based on his views on same sex marriage... despite the horrible first four years. Because of THEM, we were subject to 8 years of bad government, both in the top office and in legislation where republicans had control for many of those years.

AND NOW they are humoring this ridiculous McCain, Palin ticket... Someone who says 'I don't know' more than my four year old nephew, and a mayor of east bumble cookie Alaska, who clowns Barrack's community service prior to his federal government tenure, but talks about how she ran a city in Alaska like it's REAL experience... as if its even remotely relevant...

Middle Americans are like sheep. They blindly follow whatever the Republicans say without question. So many contradictions and false statements have come out of the Republican candidates that its amazing to me that they are nearly tied with the Democrats in the polls...

What scares me about this whole financial situation is that it is the result of Dumb Ass George Bush who was elected by Dumb Ass Middle America. And the very possibility of it happening again with McCain almost makes me want to move to Canada.

But I can't. Becuase despite its flaws, I still believe this is the BEST country in the world. I love my home and I want it to STAY on top. I don't want to live anywhere else in the world (until I retire or something... but that is more about living in the tropics like a king than the nation itself... but I digress)

Middle America needs to accept that THIS IS NO LONGER 1950's AMERICA! This is a NEW AMERICA. One that is diverse, and changing... If we want to stay at the top of the heap, we have to WORK and EVOLVE with the rest of the world. And we can't do that stuck in the past.

Middle America... I beg you... please...

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE UP!!!

Before it's too late...

If it walks like a corny bootleg cripple foot queen...

Remember that post, Entertainment Drama, where I said I was in a theater production that was going up soon? I am not anymore.

More Drama... To sum up a long story... the theater production I was a part of was canceled... 3 weeks to opening date, after I endured FOUR MONTHS of drama. The writer/producer (whom I will call the cripple-foot queen) of the production decided that we (the actors) were not ready and it was our fault because we were not stepping up our game.

Now if this was indeed true, and we were at fault, I would have accepted the criticism and called it a day. But the situation we were in, was because of him. Among MANY other ludicrous things he did, he switched directors THREE times, and the last switch was two weeks ago, only 5 weeks before opening. And the new director changed up all the staging, so we basically had to re-learn the entire show.

I am drained. There were so many ghetto negroidian things going on that I don't even have the energy to recount them all. I cussed out the cripple-foot queen via email (because if I called or saw him in person, it would have gotten ugly) and I released it. I let it go. I can't deal with the negativity. It didn't work out, oh well... on to the next thing. If I think about my wasted time for the past 4 months I am liable to flip the fukk out and catch a case. So I will take it as a learning experience. I felt like this production and the cripple-foot queen were corny and bootleg from the start, but I second guessed myself.

If it walks like a corny bootleg cripple-foot queen, and talks like a corny bootleg cripple-foot queen... then it is a corny bootleg cripple-foot queen. I learned to trust my instincts.

In other news...
I have been thinking about my guest room issues... I still want to be able to put up my people if they come visit for a weekend or something... but I don't want it to be taken for granted. So, I have decided to change my guestroom into an office. I figure if there is no visible bed in there, it changes the energy of the room. And if I am really using it as an office, I will feel less guilt saying 'hell no' when people ask me to stay for extended periods. Check out this desk that I found. Its a desk with a hideaway bed.... what do you think? I love the function of it... but I am not sold on the design... if you guys know of anything similar, but better looking design-wise... holla at me.

         

Keeping me in check

My life has been a rollercoaster lately. I am working on five web projects simultaneously. With the deadlines approaching... I dont have time to think much less blog. But I am just really glad to have all of this web design business. This entrepreneur shyt was KICKIN MY AZZ the past few months and I was REALLY struggling for a minute to pay my bills and sometimes, unsuccessfully. But... things are going well.

In fact, congratulations are in order. Your boy Prodigal Sun just won a Salsa contest sponsored by Heineken at this club on this past Saturday. My girl Latin Diva and I won first place, aaaaand an all expense trip to Miami next week to attend the Latin Billboard Awards, and VIP access to a bunch of afterparties. Before ya'll start clowning me like some of my boys started to... NO, it was not some 'Dance with Me' Vanessa Williams & Chayanne type deal where you wear formal costumes and numbers on your backs. That is not the type of salsa I do. I do club style salsa. And we turned it out.

Anyway, we get flown down to Miami to hang out for a couple days, soak up some sun, and hobknob with latin celebrities. Hell... I could be chillin with J-Lo and Marc Anthony. Maybe even Beyonce, now that she has her spanish songs out... who knows? But your boy was on CLOUD 9! Everything was going so well... my business was booming, I won a free trip to Miami for doing something I love to do anyway...

Then this morning... the universe GUT PUNCHED MY AZZ!!! I looked out my window to see if I needed an umbrella to go to the gym, and I noticed something was missing downstairs on the curb. MY FUKKING CAR!!! I knew where I parked it... and it was not there. It wasn't stolen... NYC had towed my car. Parking tickets... I contested them online, but apparently they have no record of me contesting my tickets, and they took my fukkin' car.

Apparently when they didnt see that I contested my tickets, they went into judgement, which basically means that they double the tickets... So tickets that started out totalling only 200 became 400, which was over the 350 dollar limit where they'll tow your car. Then... they charge you $300 for the tow. So to get your car back, you have to pay $750 for tickets that, only two weeks ago were 200 bucks.

NYC government is getting over. This shyt is a rip off. Just when I thought I was getting things under control, I have to come up with almost 800 dollars out of nowhere... otherwise they charge you daily for storage, and if you dont come get your car, they auction it.

I was pissed as hell... but I am calming down. Partly because I am venting now, and partly because I realize that this is the universe's way of keeping me in check. I can never become to comfortable, and too complacent. My business is going well, and I won a free trip, but this incident brought me right back down to earth. Shyt happens, both good and bad... but the lesson is... if you want to maintain your sanity, you cant get too wrapped up in either extreme.

So, I am grounded again. I got the memo universe. I still say fukk the NYC government and their shady practices though.

A Black Man's Pride

Its been a minute since I have blogged. I had something weighing heavy on my mind but I wasn't sure if it would be too heavy to share, or too long to read for a blog... but decided to share it anyway. If you came looking for humor, you can bounce now and come back tomorrow or the next day...

The other day, as I walked to the subway station on 145th street, I couldn't help but notice a loud spectacle. A tall young brotha with an afro, in a hoodie and jeans was having a loud argument with two women. He was probably about 6'4", and clearly much larger than them, but he was backed up against the wall as the two women yelled and screamed in his face at the top of their lungs. What made me stop in my tracks wasn't so much the argument, but that there were FOUR policemen (three men and a woman) standing maybe four feet away watching and looking ready to intervene.

I stopped because I knew where this was headed if it wasn't played out carefully. The tall brother began to yell back, which caused more yelling by the women. Seeming frustrated and exacerbated, the tall brother yelled, 'I didn't disrespect any of ya'll, get out of my face', pushed his way past the women and started walking away from the dispute past the police.

I thought to myself, good, remove yourself from the situation, bruh. That is the best move. The police are WAITING for you to fukk up. As I turned to leave, the only black officer of the bunch stepped in front of the tall young man who was still yelling as he walked away, and within a blink of an eye, it had now become a tussle with the four officers.

Basically, the officer said something about calming down and stop yelling, and the dude didn't acquiesce fast enough and the officer grabbed his arm. The dude reacted by shrugging off the officer and still trying to walk away and the four police swarmed him. This all happened in like five seconds.

It went down hill from there. The brother was now yelling, "What?!! I didn't do nothing! What are ya'll arresting me for?! I didn't do nothing!", and wouldn't surrender as they tried to push him against the wall and cuff him. All three male officers got involved as the female officer blocked the women and played crowd control. Two grabbed his arms, the third pulled his legs from under him, and he fell forward, hitting his head and scraping his face along the concrete wall on his way down.

As I witnessed the scene, my stomach was churning. A crowd had gathered and we are all randomly screaming, What did he do? He didn't do anything! This is bullshyt! The female cop is looking at us with a look of understanding, trying to calm the crowd, but not turning to the cops and saying, CALM DOWN! THIS ISN'T NECESSARY! And NOW, the women who were screaming at the tall young man were pleading 'Please, let him go! He didn't do anything!' But by then it was too late.

The struggle went on for about 5 or 10 minutes. The tall young man was strong as a bull and would not submit. He was adamant about his obvious innocence. He put his hands up right away as if to say, I AM NOT ARMED! But he resisted getting against the wall as the cops pushed and shoved at him. He resisted putting his hands down to be cuffed. He resisted being shoved into the police car.

In my head I was thinking... dude, just relax. Fall back and this will be over in a minute and you can go about your business. I know you got pride dude, but let it go for a minute and 'cooperate'.

Then I heard myself... and I thought, 'wow, did I just say that?' Why should he have to sacrifice his pride to appease the officers when he didn't commit any crime? He was trying to walk away. Why do we as Black men always have to sacrifice our manhood and humble ourselves to pacify police officers who are harassing us? And why am I so brainwashed to believe that we should have to bow down in order to get by? I felt like the house Negro telling the field slaves not to revolt because 'we got it good here.' I felt like an old southern black man telling his younger northern relative not to sass a white person in the Pre-Civil Rights south.

He didn't do anything wrong. And when the situation didn't create enough reason for the officers to use their handcuffs, they created one because he didn't bow down to them.

Through out our entire experience in this country, Black men aren't allowed to have pride. In pre-Civil Rights Jim Crow times, Black men had to humble themselves to all white people. They had to respond with 'yes, sir' or 'no, sir' when a white child called a grown man 'boy'. We were trained to stay in our place, and to never buck up. Just the thought of looking at a white woman funny was enough reason to justify the gruesome murder of 14 year old Emmet Till. I won't even get into the atrocities of slavery... some of ya'll are too young to remember Roots... but I remember it. I wasn't even 5 years old, but I remember a man being whipped because he would not allow his white master to change his name from Kunta, his African name, to Toby. I couldn't understand it then...  but I do now.

The only difference in the treatment of Black men today is the absence of legal lynching. But then, I am not even sure about that when I think about Sean Bell or Amadou Diallo. They were both unarmed Black men who'd committed no crime, but were shot a ridiculous number of times... and the men who shot them have walked away unscathed (or probably will). Doesn't seem too different from the past to me.

As I stood there watching, I felt as helpless as the young man in handcuffs. We all argued in his defense... until they drove off with him in their cruiser. I stood there free... but still feeling imprisoned, knowing that this could have easily happened to me or any other proud Black man. Black men have been robbed of their Pride and Manhood from the moment the first slave was captured and put on a slave ship. And we are still fighting to regain it til this day.

Times may have changed, but so much remains the same. The color we fear is no longer only white, it now includes the blue color of the police uniform. When a cop car pulls up behind us in our cars... we tense up. I know I do, and every brother reading this does too. We know we aren't doing anything wrong, but we still get nervous. If we see cops on the streets and the cops looks at us, we look away, hoping not to fit some random 'description.' That mentality Black men had back in the day of humbling themselves just to get along is still alive and well today. Hell, even I am guilty of it. An educated black man with advanced degrees. I realize that when cops see me, they see another crime waiting to happen, regardless of my education, or my clear record.

Witnessing this incident made me sick to my stomach. I know that this young Black man was not guilty of any crime. His only offense was having pride. And for a Black man in this country... having pride is a crime. It always has been... and until we all realize that this is an issue and wake up and do something about it other than accepting it... it always will be.

Stinky Gym People

I know its only March, but I am trying to get a jump on my abs this summer by hitting the gym hard now, so I dont have to kill myself in April when all the Johnny Come Lately's come and crowd the gym up trying to lose 50 pounds in a week.

Those of you who are my blog veterans (all three of you... including my brother...lol) you know that I have blogged about some annoying experiences at the gym. The elderly naked white men that love to walk around the locker room... the annoyingly-loud overly-amped gym rats who scream out their count of every rep, or every third line of the hip hop/rock song they are listening to... and the funky stinky sweaty foreign man who doesn't use deodorant or wipe off the machines when he's done with it.

Up until this point, all of my complaints have been with men. The women are always nice, polite and sweet. And they make the gym a prettier place. And my favorite thing is that they always smell good. When they pass, its always like a fresh wind in spring. And it counters the funk of the men.

So when this small petite woman stepped up on the treadmill beside me, I thought nothing of it... UNTIL the stench wafted in my nostrils. At first, I was like... what is that smell... something smells like PEE... and then I realized... IT WAS COMING FROM HER!!! And it was strong!

If I could just stand her stench for ten minutes, I would be fine. I couldnt let this stinky woman stand between me and my six pack this summer.

So my strategy was to stop breathing through my mouth, turn my head away to breathe less of her stench and to try not to scrunch my face the whole time. But then I noticed that when people walked by, they were scrunching their faces in the yukk face... THEN LOOKING AT ME!!! LIKE I WAS THE STINKY PEE POT!

I mean, it was logical since it was just her and I in the area of the stench. And her being the tiny petite pretty woman, she got the benefit of the doubt. Then my strategy went to pot. After holding my breath for a minute, I had to gasp for air, and got a mouth full of pissy air... and chocked and almost fell off the machine. That was when I decided to go back downstairs and finish elsewhere. I mean, I might have been able take the stench for a little while but I couldnt take being looked at like I smelled like pee when I know I smelled like Thierry Mugler's Angel Men... besides, I think I threw up a little in my mouth. Ilk.

So I left... finishing my work out downstairs. And I learned a valuable lesson.

STINKY GYM PEOPLE COME IN ALL SHAPES AND SIZES!

But never let that stand in the way of a work out... If you encounter unbearable funk, don't try to be a hero.

Just move.

(Stinky Pee Lady earned a beat down I.O.U. for not wiping herself completely after using the bathroom though... thats just nasty.)

Low Expectations, Less Disappointment

I came across an interesting forum topic... it was about common courtesy. The person who started the topic was upset with people who didn't respond to his messages. He felt that people who ignored emails were rude and lacked home training, and that the polite thing would be to at least respond to say 'no, thank you' even if you weren't interested.

My take on that whole thing was... first, only a loser would get upset about someone not responding to their messages. Anyone with a degree of self esteem wouldn't care if an anonymous stranger replied to their message. I take a lack of response as THE response... not interested. And I keep it moving. But... I couldnt call dude a loser. That would have REALLY been impolite. So I said...

"Yes, its kinda impolite to ignore a personal message. And no one likes to be ignored, BUT you have unrealistic expectations. If I walk down a NY city block and say good morning to ten people, I guarantee you that 7 of that 10 would look at me like I was crazy, totally ignore me, or look behind themselves to see if I was talking to someone else. And MAYBE 3 of the ten would just smile and say good morning back. Face to face interaction is more personal than anonymous net messages. So if you can't expect polite responses in person, how can you expect them on the net? If you dont expect much of people, you can never be disappointed."

Everyone seemed to agree in the subsequent comments, and I went about my life.

Later on that day, I got so heated with one of my friends that I asked to do ONE simple thing and they didnt do it. This is someone I really go out of my way for, OVER AND OVER... but they fukked up this one simple thing. Now, I know that this person is not malicious and meant well... they intended to do it, I am sure... but just didnt do it when I asked, thus fukking it all up.

Part of me is like GOTT DAYUM IT! As much as I go out of my way for you, you can't do this one simple thing like I asked you?!?! WHATTHAFUKK!!  It makes me want to stop going out of my way and say fukk it!

The other part of me is like... dayum... do I have unrealistic expectations? Is it wrong to expect everyone to think like me when it comes to friendship? If I go out of my way for my friends, and look out for my friends, is it wrong to expect the same in return?

I dont want to become the type of person who only does things for people who do for him. Its not the type of person my mom raised me to be. But should I have to lower my expectations even with good friends? I dont know... what do you guys think? Should we always depend on ourselves so we know what to expect, and keep our expectations low of those around us to prevent disappointment? Random people on the net is one thing... but people that are a part of our lives, what is realistic, and what is not?

Is the key to happiness low expectations?

Photography 101

Photography may not be everyone's hobby, but how hard is it to take a decent picture? I mean, you look through the view finder, center the object and snap. It seems so simple to me. Yet, whenever I hand my camera off to anyone to snap a photo without giving them SPECIFIC instructions on what I want to see, they fukk it up every time.

Take this photo for example. Its a picture of me and my neice's at my youngest niece's bday party this Sunday. Looks great doesn't it.

Yeah, well this is the REAL picture that my brother took. Why do I need to look at all the stuff going on behind us? Why are we all down in the bottom of the frame? You can't even see all of my neice's cute little poodle skirts. (It was a 50's sock hop themed bday party at a roller rink.)

Or how about this picture here of me and the birthday girl. Why is my nieces head cut off on the side? How hard would it have been to take a step back and then snap the shot? uggghhhhh. My brother needs his azz beat for these shots. boooo to him.

 

Is taking a decent photo that difficult? Its like... I have rolls and rolls of film with wonderful shots of all my family and friends that I take. But EVERY shot with me in them is jacked up if I dont SPECIFICALLY tell the person what I want to see step by step... make sure its focused... make sure you get this or that in the photo... are we centered in the frame? ugghh... just look into the viewfinder. Its NOT that difficult. ugggghhh.

Anyway, here are a few more of the other shots from the party. It was a lot of fun. My niece and her friends all looked adorable. I even donned a pair of rollerskates myself and got my roll bounce on. It was fun. I havent skated in so long, I'd forgotten how much fun it was, and how good I was at it. I was skating backwards and doing tricks... it was fun as hell. I had all these little kids following me around to get me to teach them how to skate backwards... lol

Enjoy the photos... and remember... USE THE VIEWFINDER when you take pictures with other peoples cameras!

A Happy Holiday

I didn't grow up celebrating holidays because my mom was a JW (Jehovah's Witness). They say  'you can't miss something you never had', but going to school empty-handed in January when all the other kids had their new Transformers and He-Man toys did kinda suck.

I got tired of repeating 'I don't need toys at xmas cause I get presents all year round'... cause it was BULLSHYT!!! lol I had to beg and beg for new toys and it was never a bunch of new shyt like my friends at xmas time. One He-Man action figure here and there didnt compare to xmas. I used to wonder if being a JW was my moms excuse to NEVER buy us toys... like an elaborate savings plan or something...lol Not that I am bitter or anything... I was just a typical kid. You see your friends with new shyt, you want some too. I didnt care about high religious ideals when I was 7. I just wanted a Voltron with all five detachable cats. Is that so bad?

Since I moved out my senior year of high school, I haven't really done the JW thing. Not that there is anything wrong with it. I just have my own take on religion. But despite not being a JW anymore, I am still not big on holidays. It just didn't feel natural to me.

That is until kids were introduced. Not mine, yet... my nieces and nephew. I love my lil rugrats. I gotta hook them up at holiday time. Only one of my siblings is still a JW, but her husband isnt. And he insists on his kids having an xmas, so all my lil kiddies get presents on xmas. And my lil rugrats are NOT going to feel left out when the other kiddies have new toys.

And being the best uncle in the world... I had to hook up my babies. So, this year, uncle prodigal got them all bikes!!! And, of course, I was a hit.

 

These are my two nieces. I couldn't keep my nephew still long enough to get a picture of him on his tricycle(he's only 1 and a half). But I assure you that he loved it (for all of two seconds until he saw a two dollar ball or something...)

I never did get my Voltron with all five detachable cats. So I guess I will be salty this January still... but my babies won't. My lil rugrats will NEVER have to recite any rehearsed bullshyt azz line in January. They will be able to go to school happy just like the other kiddies. That is how it should be whether you celebate xmas or not. So if you dont celebrate it... GO BUY YOUR KIDS SOMETHING TO MAKE UP FOR IT!!!

Anyway... Happy Holidays everyone! (There was no real point to this post... just had to get that off of my chest... lol)