NL Exposed

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I am a huge Washington Wizards fan. I’m sure you all know that. So when I got the chance to meet my husband, Caron Butler and his team mate, Brendan Haywood, I jumped at it. The Washington Area Auto Show came to the Washington Convention Center the Wednesday in Jan. I have always like going to the auto show, because I love cars. Of course, I do not own one, but that’s ok. Anyway, while at work, I decided to look up the website for the show to see which celebrities were going to be there. On Wednesday, Rick Flair and Torri Wilson were there along with a couple Washington Redskins football players. “Nope, not for me”, I thought as I scrolled down. Thursday’s list of celebrities, however, did spark some interest. On the list there was Caron Butler and Brendan Haywood, along with fellow Wizards player, Andray Blatche. Now, I actually have Andray’s autograph. I got it the same day that I got Gilbert Arenas (husband number 2). So I was not concern about getting his autograph again.  But I knew for sure I had to get Caron’s.

I was at work when I saw this, and went to tell a supervisor that I was going to get his autograph. It was actually funny. When I got to work that morning, I suggested to that same supervisor that we get Caron to come talk to our participants over the summer. While growing up, Caron was locked for a number of months, 15 I believe, and turned his whole life around. Once you think about it, it really is an inspiring story. A story that I believe inner city youth should hear and would appreciate it. Rodney, my supervisor, told me that he thought it was a good idea, so now I am in the process of trying to get Caron to come talk to our participates, but back to the story.

On Thursday, I was so excited, but part of me was a little scared. This actually is normal for me, to be excited about something and in the same minute worry that I may not get what I am excited about. Once work was over, I headed home and went to change my clothes. It was actually just my shirt, and to re-do my hair, but whatever. Then I headed over to the car show. There were so many cars, that I was in awe. I know what I want for my birthday. Who cares that it actually cost $575,000? I surely don’t. Now I know I won’t get the Rolls Royce Phantom Drop Coupe Convertible, but that’s alright.

I stood in line, talking on the phone to my friend, India, and waited. The line was actually really long, but I got up there quickly. 1st it was Brendan. When I got to him, I showed him my autograph book. He took it and we went through the siggys that I have. I have signatures from, Juan Dixon (Husband number 3) Jerry Stackhouse, Steve Blake, Coach Karl Dobbs (from GWU), White Chocolate (who was featured on MTV’s Magic Johnson “Who’s Got Game,” ESPN’s Block Party and Street Ball, and NBA TV’s broadcast of EBC Rucker Park basketball games.) Former Baltimore Ravens linebacker, and current 49ers linebacker, Dennis Haley. Also included are current Washington Wizards players, Andray Blatche, Roger Mason Jr. former Wizards player Mike Hall (who lives, or use to live across the street from me.) Of course there is Gilbert Arenas’s autograph in there too.

Brendan went through every autograph and finally signed it. I have to commend him though. He didn’t know this, but by him taking the time out and talking to me, he actually helped me calm down and prepared me to see Caron, who was sitting right next to him. I will admit that I was still nervous, but realized that I shouldn’t be afraid. Finally after receiving two autographs from Brendan, one in my book and the other on a picture of him that was provided, I went to see Caron. I think I died and went to Heaven when he smiled at me. I was so scared. I got him to sign my book, and his picture, then did the unthinkable. I asked him to take a picture with me. HE TOUCHED ME! OMG, I am getting excited just thinking about us posing for the picture. All in all it was actually a great day!

Well, NL Exposed is still here, but I am primarily blogging at my newly redone blog at Let’s Be Pirates. Please do check it out.

I thought about this early in the morning. Well… actually I think that the actual idea came to me a while ago, but it’s taken me a little longer than expected to get it together. Here I am! I’ve always loved giving advice. It has a lot more to do with the fact that I do want to be a psychologist. It’s more concerning I love helping people.

I often mention who many people do not know much about me. That is mainly because I choose not to tell people things that they can use against me in the future. I really don’t have a lot to talk about, so I’ve decided that from this point on my blog will be ran sort of like an advice column. In order for this to work, you, the readers, will have to help. It’s nothing really, just PM me on the forums with a question or a situation that you may need some input for and I will try to help you out.

I am not Dr. Phil and the questions you all send me do NOT have to be serious. I know a lot of you often question me about my husbands or other things I may have said or done, now is your chance to ask me.  You do not have to include your name but if you choose to, I will not post them. (I mean seriously, I know who you are right?)

From time to time I will revert back to my normal posts and talk about things that are happening in my life. So until that update, get those questions in!

16 hours. I slept 16 hours. It’s the most I’ve ever slept. EVER.

This week was hectic. I was getting 5 hours or less of sleep each night. I had a 2 hour long pinning ceremony to go to, three club meetings, two essays, three tests to study for, two lab reports, 56 calculus problems I had to redo, and 30 reading entries. And some other random work in between. Thick, black, circles formed under my eyes. In class, I munched on Starburst to keep myself awake.

Anyways, the point is, by Thursday, I was out of it. When I got home, I jumped on my bed and slept and slept and slept. 16 hours later, here I am writing up this post. After I click the publish button, I’ll proceed to doing my government homework or something.

Shall I sum Homecoming up in one word? Alright… let’s try AMAGZING! I had so much fun this past weekend. It was CRAZY. Though I do not attend Howard University, here in Washington DC, I was once a member of the marching band there. So basically, their homecoming is my homecoming. Howard’s Homecoming is the BIGGEST event period. Seriously, just ask Ludacris

“then jump in the car and just ride for hours. Makin sure I don’t miss the homecomin at Howard, Hawaii to D.C. it’s plenty women to see..”

And if you don’t believe Ludacris, then I’m sorry for ya. This weekend was great. It all started on Thursday when two of my best friends came into town. Michael came from Detroit and Chris came from Atlanta. They both got here about 12pm. Mike came to see me, and I ended up hanging with him for a couple of hours. After Mike left my house, I got my hair done. India came over and we headed to the mall. Of course, I had no money whatsoever. I ended up taking back a shirt I bought a couple of weeks ago so that I didn’t have to ask my mother for any money. (Which I did on Friday night) I got home Thursday night and had to get dress. Chris and Mike wanted to take me out to a club. I think Thursday night’s experience wasn’t the best. The place we went was really crowded and hot. The DJ wasn’t playing any good music, OK… allow me to take that statement back, the music was good, but it wasn’t the greatest. Once we left that place (about 20 mins. into being there), we went on the hunt of other places to party on a Thursday night. Of course we found none. After giving up, we all got a bit hungry and went to get a jumbo slice of pizza. Wanna see what a Jumbo Slice looks like… here ya go . They dropped me off at home and I went to sleep!

Friday, I stayed in bed most of the day. I didn’t get home until 3am on Thursday, so I was dead tired. But as much as I wanted to stay in bed all of Friday, I couldn’t. We were planning on going to another club. Love But before I could even think to get ready for the club, I had to make a surprise appearance at a friend’s Birthday Dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Let’s just say I will never go to the Cheesecake Factory again. The food was OK. I got a Chicken Caesar Salad (something that I just began eating a couple of months ago) but the price of the food was close to $508 for 15 people. Now I know that is a lot of people, and the cost of it wasn’t the worse part. The worse part was that when it came time to pay the bill, everyone “forgot” what they got. I wasn’t not going to stay until they got that together, I had to be home and ready by 10:30pm and it was pushing 9:30.

Once I got home, and got dressed, we headed to the club. It was fantastic. Though Mike complained the whole time. He went out and got a tattoo earlier in the day and because there were so many people there, they were bumping up against the tattoo. My feet were hurting in the heels, so I took them off. Besides Mike’s complaining and the amount of people there, I had a good time.

Saturday morning… I got home from Love at about 4am and went to sleep. But my sleep didn’t last long. I got a wake up call from Chris at about 9:30am telling me to be ready in about 30 mins. Because my hair was messed up, I had to do it again. I got it done, got dressed and we made our way up to Howard (which is about a 10 min. drive from my house) The parade was going on. I even saw my Alma Mata, Dunbar Senior High school. I thought I was going to get emotional when I heard the band playing. Reason being, the band was doing the chant that I made up in 2001. I was so happy, yet felt it was time for them to get a new chant. My legacy. Something to remember me by!

Inside the Band building (Fine Arts), I received hugs and kisses from my friends who I hadn’t seen in months. It was so wonderful. We went to the game (Howard University Bison VS. North Carolina A&T Aggies) and surprisingly Howard’s football team won. I was downright shocked. After the game, the bands battled and then the drummers. This is where things get a bit… weird.

When I was just a wee lad… OK I was actually in the 9th grade, I met someone who I hold near and dear to my heart. His name is Keith. Keith is my 1st love. Him and I have known each other for a long time, but we are no longer together, though I still love him and he still loves me. Seeing him (and this happens each time I see him), I can’t help but get butterflies. I don’t really know why, I’m pretty sure I am over him, but… it happens. At 1st I was a bit to scared to even make my way over to where he was. (Keith marches for A&Ts marching band), but finally I did and I saw him. Love is crazy.

I got home about 8pm that night (Saturday) and decided that instead of going out and hanging with Mike or Chris, I was going to go to bed. I was tired from the weekend’s activities and needed a good amount of sleep.

Hey Guys!

Welcome to my first NL Exposed blog post. And, I thought that while I was here, I’d pluck a site that the “Awesome Ashley” showed me. It’s called “Free Rice” and it’s really cool place. Pretty much it will give you words, and you’ll tell them it’s definition. From then, it will donate 10 grains of rice to poor people in other countries for each word you get right.

It will also adjust to your vocab level, by what you get right, and what you get wrong. So, you learn from it, help people, and it kind of makes you feel good about it. :) I love to expand the limitations of my vocabulary, so I find it a lot of fun being able to do that, while helping people, and so far, I’ve doanted 750 Grains of rice so far, and hundreds more every couple of minutes.

Start the fun at www.freerice.com.  

I think I became temporarily certifiable this weekend…

It all started on Saturday. We had a nice morning, but it was “spoiled” by the fact that we had to drive to Columbia to have dinner at Steven’s sister’s house (it’s his grandaddy’s birthday). I HATE getting together with his immediate family; there’s a lot of tension there, even now.

Dinner went pretty well, with no feelings hurt. At a quarter to eight everyone started heading for the door, and we were all set to follow. But somebody said something (I don’t remember what), and we ended up staying until a quarter to eleven,
just us, his sister, and brother-in-law. We hashed out a lot of the hurt, at least as much as we can without me completely ruining any relationship that might ever be built there. They learned some things about us that they hadn’t “seen”, and found “reassuring”. Whatever that means.

Anyway…the major bone of contention there has always been the issue over college. My primary goal in life is to be a stay at home mom someday. Steven had no idea what he wanted to do. As of right now, he works in a warehouse, and I work part time at a Christian Academy. Whatever they think, I DO want him to go back to school. I just didn’t want him to go until he knew what he wanted from it. After all, that’s what made him drop out in the first place!

Well, he figured it out Saturday night. We’ve been volunteering with Children’s Church and the puppet ministry there, and Steven discovered that he really has a heart for kids. I feel good about serving in a place that needs it so badly, but HE really feels called to it…that’s his specific ministry, and it’s wonderful to see his face light up as much as the kids’ do when they get together.

He also loves art. One of the things he dislikes the most about his family is the fact that they aren’t supportive of his talents, and so he’s never told any of them that he wanted to go to art school.

His sister actually pointed out the solution…she said, “dude, you love kids. You feel called to work with them. You love art. You want to go to art school. Why aren’t you studying to be an art teacher???”

It was one of those “Duh!” moments. You could see the lightbulb come on as the thought registered. I’m just thrilled that he finally has something he’s passionate about to work toward.

Thus enters the problem…as great as his being an art teacher will be, it won’t pay the bills and still allow me to stay home. I was fretting over what I could possibly do about it, when my co-worker (bless the woman!) told me about her daughter-in-law. She and my co-worker’s son live VERY comfortably in Atlanta, even though she only goes in to the office twice a month. She works from home the rest of the time, and loves it. Another coworker’s sister does the same here, except that she goes in for thirty minutes one time a week. They’re web designers/”Interactive Media Specialists”.

And so I was handed my own “duh!” moment…when it all just clicked. I play around with some of the programs and skill sets required there, and love them. So why not?

And that’s why, yesterday, I just squeezed my eyes shut and took a flying leap into the unknown. I applied for the Art Institute of Pittsburgh Online division. They have an insanely paced, super hard Interactive Media and Web Design program that will get me my BA in just 3 years. They’re painfully expensive, too, but because they are a federally accredited school, I can still apply for governmental financial aid, and since our income is painfully low, I SHOULD qualify for some decent grants.

Oh, but school wasn’t the only big change. See, I’ve always LOVED to sing. I mean, really loved it. To me, “Worship” involves participation, and that’s how I like to participate. Give me a good version of “Days of Elijah”, or a crowded sanctuary filled with the swell of voices and the stir of people coming to their feet when you hit that second chorus of “Let the Worshipers Arise”, and something inside of me just soars.

The only problem is that I have NO confidence in my ability to sing. None what-so-ever. Sometimes I have a passable voice, but most of the time I hate it. I can hear myself, and I don’t like what I hear, despite the protests of others who say I’m not bad.

Well, something changed Sunday morning. Maybe it was because I’d been so busy with Children’s Church that I hadn’t had that real fellowship in a while, or maybe it was the fact that they played all my favorite songs. I just know that suddenly, I wasn’t afraid to sing anymore. I actually let myself go, and just belted it out there. And you know what? Because I didn’t strain my voice trying to stay quiet, it actually sounded pretty dern good.

Once we finished singing, the music director made an announcement…the choir was recruiting and desperately needed new members. He said it didn’t matter if you were really good or not…he would teach us what we needed to know; we just had to have the passion for it. After the service, for whatever odd reason, I signed up. I, ME, who DOES NOT SING, joined the choir.

See, I told you I was certifiable…

Thursday I’m getting a $35,000 check. My uncle cosigned a student loan for me.

The amount of debt I’m in is getting multiplied by almost 10. Hip hip hooray for out of state fees.

By the time I graduate I’ll be over $70,000 in debt (at least I went to school basically for free for two years).

Oh well. I’m happy to be here despite that. I GOT OUT OF LOUISIANA

In other news, unless my boyfriend gets a new car soon, I don’t get to see him for three weeks. As excited as I am to finally be officially working at a Starbucks here, I’m sad about giving up my weekends, because that’s been my Brice time up until now.

I am… an outcast.

I live in the shadows, secretly observing what goes on. I am different from everyone and this is why I am an outcast. It seems as though, no matter how much I try to fit in, I can’t. Though I like some of the things you do, breathe the same way you do, I am an outcast. It becomes even more apparent when I am sitting back, reading what you have to say about a number of topics. How you speak of Britney Spears, but have yet to speak on The “Jena Six“. Today, I am an outcast who decided to wear black. To show my support for this very serious cause, but it seems as though the pleas of many goes upon deaf ears.

I am an outcast. I tried to do what you do, yet I was unable to succeed. Only a handful of people know the real me. One in which truly accepts me and for her I am grateful, but I am an outcast. I live in an overly sensitive society filled with very ignorant people. Those same people who look at me and call me ignorant. I choose to only speak on topics that relate to me, pushing me further and further away from the mainstream people. And even when someone as sweet as she, invites me “over” for a chat or two, I am lost amongst the confusion. Lost amongst a sea of people who sometimes do not know what to say or what to believe. People who are “too young” to fully grasp the concept of life. I am an outcast.