Lucky 23: Birthday Edition: 1 to 5

So I see the candles going on the cake, one by one. And I'm counting in my head while I watch the candle holder count out loud. We are in unison as the number get higher and higher. Twenty-three. A half year wiser than the year before (I only start to grow 6 months into a new birthday). I mean whose to say I shouldn't take this year and take something from it. It's not the catchy numbers you see on birthday balloons, or on cards in glitter (21, 30, 50), but the number to still means something to me. Five years since I started voting, two years since I legally sipped on White Zif, ten year anniversary since I started putting pen to paper and mind to paper, and this time last year my father was alive and well. My lucky 23. 

1: We are what we eat: For the 23rd year in a row, food has won it's battle against me. Kinda like Me:0 Food: 23.9 (have to include how much I annoyed my mother for food for the first 9 months. Always hungry). Healthy meals just don't fill me! And I'm hearing it's all about shrinking the stomach and portion control, but it's going in one ear and out the other. But instead of punctuation marks or other symbols that they show on the cartoon version of someone who isn't listening, just imagine winglets going through the ears. Because that's what I'm doing. Food Food Food! It's the old age story that actually doesn't get old because it stays as young as 23.

2: Hip-Hop is not dead: This statement is a lot stronger than people are admitting. Not only is it not dead because the possibilities are endless with talent to match, but it's not dead because then that means it's over for Hip-Hop forever. Forever? Fore ever ever? Fore ever ever? Impossible. Working closer to the industry this year than last, I realized Hip-Hop is not dead. Maybe in a slumber/hibernation period. Or maybe it's lost and we can find it on some stomping ground for a measly $10 cover charge. Me and Hip-Hop were born around the same time, and I can't imagine setting up for it's funeral. The Immortal Genre.

3: Putting the ass in procrastination: We always here "The time is now". But the time isn't now because  the time clock started before you even started the sentence. Before now, way before now. No matter how strong the drive, sometimes it's just not easy to start going. Fear of the unknown comes into play, and that is not always an easy Xanax to swallow. It was only until this year that I realized, there will never be a "right time". There will always be something in the way or you putting something in the way to make excuses for immobility. "The time was the last birthday"

4: "I do.........n't really know": I have been anti-marriage (on a personal level, not nationwide, picket-sign level) for years. My reasoning was always for the bias, male centered, borderline discriminating traditions of marriage. But I just don't know anymore about me being the marriage nazi. It was fun while it lasted, but now I think I am re-evaluating the thought process. I still stand fully behind my reasonings, but I've started to wonder what I am doing for the movement (feminism) by not getting married. Whatever it is, it's not as much as I could be doing by making my own standard. The new age wife.

5: Politics:Either stand on the soap box or hide under it: With current events and politics it's important to either present a point with evidence or have nothing to say at all. The middle ground of semi-knowledge is useless. Knowing nothing or little to nothing is actually more creditible than attempting to pass your vague point off as anything. Some people dont follow politics. But some people follow it wherever it goes, wearing a blind fold and feeling only the braile of pop culture news. And then I hear "That's just my opinion", "According to my experience", etc etc. You are 1 of billions who think things. You thinking is irrelevant, but you knowing? Now you have my attention.

During and After: Post Grad Life of an Undergrad Writer

Disclaimer:This is not my ode to college. Read it as if the speech you would say at your mother's 50th birthday. It's not like shes dead, but you still talk of her greatness with hopes of her longevity. But if it were the last words she heard, you would want them to hold power. Its the 3-month birthday of my last day of class. As I read the statuses of frustrated students, prepared to be unprepared for finals - I ponder. My active student life has passed but not passed on. My college years have left but left me with everything. Setting aside all of the bureaucracy attached with universities and colleges, at the root and the crux is the student experience. (The swagger of a college kid is still in me as I just used my pocket dictionary to check on the spelling of bureaucracy. I use my pocket thesaurus to check on the meaning of everything else but I'll write about that later). Being a student becomes a lifestyle, sooner than later for some. (For me, later than sooner). It is so easy to embrace once you've discovered it, like a really creamy piece of strawberry cheesecake. Like a man, you fall in love with the difficulty of it all. The feeling of doing your absolute most, becomes difficult to ignore like a stray hair in the face. Enough with the comparisons because college deserves to be defined as and in of itself. When the chaos turns into sweet victory, the reward will last 3months and beyond. I'm writing this piece to set the mood. With this passion for education and support for structured learning, I write about the stain college has left on my mind/self/heart. College is not for everyone, but everyone deserves college. "Maybe you are the next Lil’ Wayne, but probably not, in which case you need to stay in school", said President Obama to the revolting youth. Why be Lil' Wayne when you can be Written and Reported by Wayne (ha! writes the bias journalist). College, for however many years you choose to study with whichever major you choose to explore, can bring someone a glowing nuance....if you let it. If you loosen the grip on control, and take a rest lean on the column of understanding. Like I wrote before this is not my "Dear College" letter, its more like a "Hey What's Up College" post-it on the cover of my "After College" Book.

I never realized how much college was a rock and re-enforcer to me, until I walked out. I have yet to frame my diploma but it rests solo on my head board. Under shiny plastic that seems to call my name every time I leave the room. My story is like so many others that had an intense four year relationship with their academics. I left with so much more than I came in with. Post-grad life is filled with moments and revelations that act as a constant reminder of the past four years. The most simple of conversations bring the student out of me. I give so much credit to school, and after a point I feel like saying "I just want to credit my professor for that comment". If a stenographer recorded my conversations, I'd have to make sure that I added my own footnotes and bibliography. Yes, it is that serious. Finding myself as a feminist is a blog for a different blogosphere, but I know that I stand on concrete ground and college gave me that. It try to imagine what I would be like and what it would be like to be around me, had I not went to school. I know enough to know that I don't know anything at all, and I'm content with that. Because the student and the fighter share the same mind. Regardless of how far I go, I'll always footnote my college years- it completes the story.

"When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes" - Erasmus

Proposition H8

1.California's cities are the most popular (in population and popularity) cities in the United States catering to the lifestyles of gay parents and residents.With months left until the election, commercials in Cali sent messages denouncing gay rights and homosexuality as being harmful to children. Progressive California loves Arnold and Maria! California said hell no (or in this case Yes) to gay liberties on Election Day as Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transsexual or Queer African American activists were left feeling bittersweet.Its a sad transition for members of the LGBTQ community as well as anyone who hoped that civil rights would soon be passed out across the board in America. Caitlin MacRae describes it best in her Nerve.com article This Too Shall Pass,

"The majority gets freaked out when other people win the rights that they already enjoy as though rights are finite and show be stockpiled like so many cans of beans in case of a nuclear fallout." Is it the heterosexual privilege to legally love? Is it the Red filling in the California pie with the Blue crust that speaks? Is it the Christian step forward to a God fearing America? Nearly fifty percent of heterosexual couples get divorced. That's a lot of gay marriages that could have worked. As coalitions for gay rights Timberland their way through NYC (and yes, gay men do were boots too) I see more and more Facebook statuses asking California "What's up with that?". What's up with it is that our nation under God won't sit in the pews of a gay wedding. No politician will ever make it into office with pro-gay marriage sentiments. They can't even run for office and be gay, ask New Jersey.

Dear Repubulic of California,

Fear not- being gay is not contagious, but ignorance spreads faster than the speed of light.

Love B.Politics

The curtain falls for Alaska's maverick

With her ironed outfit three shades darker than her tear-filled light blue eyes, Palin walked on and off the stage in Arizona almost just as quick as she appeared on the Presidential scene. The future for Obama seems bright and difficult - yet attainable. Predicting his future seems senseless, since we will be lucky enough to live through it. Is it back to mooses and Carharts for Palin? Has this election made her a staple in politics? Will the country send paparazzi to Trigs first day at school, wondering "Aw! How will he do? Is he feeling better?" Will Bristol's delivery be front page news next to foreign affairs?

Though my anxiety to see the progression of our country is beyond measure, my interest is growing on whether Palin coverage will move from the Daily News to Star Magazine. Her persona has become so sensationalized, that beauty queens everywhere may be ready to take control over more things than their 10 minute talent portion. Creationism now has a pretty face. We won't forget it, as the curtain call on her performance was at 11PM last night, Election Day- no encores.