blessed

all i can say is...wow.

vegas was phenomenal
and the retreat this weekend was even better.

i wish i had time to say more, but...i suppose the one thing that sums it all up is, "i'm back."

peace & love

involuntary fast

gas pains are not fun.
they're even less fun when they wake you up precisely at 3 or 4 am each morning.

i've been looking out for the other requisite symptoms of "food poisoning", and i don't have them. just...a pain now and then.

stress seems to bother me. or the hint of solid food. and, strangely, i can't drink plain water.

this better not affect my vacation. furthermore, i don't wanna have to walk around vegas in clothes that don't fit 'cause i lost 15 lbs from not eating for two days.

i suppose it's just another one of those wonderful spontaneous detox rides my body likes to take me on every now & then.

~~~

...on an unrelated but no less important note, why is at&t charging me a $6+ "minimum use" charge on my home phone bill?

i also wish i could charge the goddamn postal service the $30 it cost me to stop payment on the irs check THEY lost in the mail.

grrr

mama needs a new pair of shoes...

i'm praying for a miracle in vegas.

winning a cool $1000 would be just right.

see, turns out i have 2 big bills to pay before i go, not just one.

plus my rent went up this month. i forgot that with this automatic withdrawal thing i'm essentially paying a month in advance, and my lease renews september 1st or august 31st or however the hell it works.

*groan*

i won't even talk about how i woke up in the middle of the night with some serious gas pain...i still don't know what the hell i ate. probably that nasty italian dressing from the salad bar yesterday.

i'm gonna try to stay positive & not let this get me down. i will get ahead.

money trail

i need a budget.

...that's all.

TKON

...aka the kingdom of niggadom

(this is why i luv oyin...lol)

i'll be with you in a moment...

i know it's relatively lame/cliche to write about how you don't feel like writing, but...

yeah.

actually, it's not that i don't feel like it. but a lot of what i'm transmitting right now is pretty esoteric and better understood by self, so i'm keeping things relatively close to the vest.

i'm pushing out obstacles and ushering in blessings...
there's movement in the air...
i'm excited about vegas (barely 2 weeks to go!)...
i'm obsessed over the idea of my new tattoo...and ideas for others after that...
work is still just something to babysit my person during the day...
my cat's been stalking a ladybug for the past couple of days...

and so on and so forth.

so...that's me at the moment. see you on the other side of the rainbow.

the other side of luxury

i thought it had to be too good to be true...

since i don't feel like writing...

go web surfing!

painted ladies (sorry abt the ads...might wanna disable pop ups)

susan miller's astrology zone

inked blog

mami wata (also check out the wikipedia entry)

african hip hop

recognize.

the universe starts by tossing a pebble or two at your window.
if you don't hear it, it might toss a brick & break the glass.
if that's not enough, you might find yourself up against a brick wall.

if you decide to just sit up against that wall and linger, it just might fall on you.

but it won't kill you.

it doesn't take much to hear god speaking. it doesn't have to be dogmatic or specific to any text. it doesn't have to be loud and proud like a multimillion dollar lottery prize.

it could be coming through your dreams.
your arguments with your mate.
the breeze that woke you up this morning.
or the butterfly lighting on your windowsill.

don't make the universe slam a brick wall down on you.
learn how to hear the pebbles.

fela anikulapo kuti

it was brought to my attention that we lost fela 9 years ago today.

if you don't already, you should really know about him.

wikipedia

african music.org

in case you don't feel like reading, you can just pick up a few of his cds and learn about him that way. the new one-disc/double album sets are a great way to build your collection without killing your wallet. (hint: if you're looking for "water no get enemy", it's on the expensive shit / he miss road disc)

an excuse to buy music. what more do you need?

viva la revolucion

i'm sure we won't know for some time just how bad things are for fidel (if that link asks for a log-in, click here instead). but any way you look at it, this is big.

i can understand cuban-americans and cubans themselves wanting a better standard of living. but i don't wanna see havana become "mini vegas" again. or even see a starbucks on every corner.

i fear these exiles--as they're called--don't understand the advantages to not being america's bitch. they've been softened by our glitter and gold.

of course, all i know is what i've read. given the opportunity, cuba is one of many places i would have liked to travel, but it's been difficult to get to the west coast, let alone the forbidden fruit just a few miles south of the good ol us of a.

at any rate, i know cuba has a higher literacy rate than we do, that their ppl have indiscriminate access (slow or no) to healthcare, and that while the ppl may be poor, they haven't seen fit to overthrow fidel or support u.s. efforts to do so in a way that's made our government successful. they also haven't seen fit to extradite assata shakur.

i wasn't alive to see haiti free herself in the midst of slavery. i was born a full decade or more after india, the nations of africa, and other third world countries gained their independence. not to mention missing the turmoil and black power surge of the 60s and early 70s.

seeing little cuba hold up in the face of uncle sam's bullying long after the cold war was frozen and buried is the only revolutionary example i have from my lifetime (cesar chavez & 'nem notwithstanding).

so, instead of wishing for his demise--yes, i heard a few folks on tv doing just that this morning--i'm going to pray that the cuban people maintain the good points and the spirit of the revolution while allowing for the basic freedoms and human rights we all deserve. i pray they stand fast and refuse to undo fidel's work for the promise of a ham in every oven & a buick in every driveway.

'cause in a generation or so, they may find that the price was far too high.

viva la revolucion.

(read more here)