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I'm blogging live from the Burgh for the first time. I have one word to say "IKEA." Love it. We really need one in Arkansas. It is the Walmart of the home furnishing industry. Everything is super chic. The only downer is that everything is do-it-yourself. So after all of the shopping and color matching, etc. You have to pick up the items from the warehouse yourself, you have to lug it to and from your car yourself, and you have to put it together yourself. You don't think of any of this as your perusing the showroom floor for the perfect desk to match your perfect bed. Needless to say after 4 days of putting tables and chairs together I was dog tired. I was so glad that we arranged to have some of the items delivered to my apartment. And right now I have to give a shout out to my mother for being such a trooper throughout all of this. She carried boxes, chauffered me around, and helped me clean from the moment we got off the plane, until the moment she left. Thanks to my Dad too for helping me on the financial end. Love you Daddy!. Pittsburgh is definitley a working class city. Everyone here is so blue collar. It reminds me of Brazil in a way. All of the neighborhoods have names and different identities. It's nothing like Little Rock at all. It is a little redneck of course. West Virginia is right around the corner. I'm meeting my cohorts for the first time today. We are supposed to meet up at someone's house for pizza and beer. Sorry Curtis, but I'm going to have some pizza, but I'll skip on the beer. I've got to stay ontop of my fitness. Pitt cannot be another Wellesley. I refuse to gain needless pounds. I've been running everyday and when that gym opens guess what I'll be doing::working out of course. Hung out with Tim and Natalie last night. I predict that they will be engaged within the next year. I need to go to a black wedding. I need to reaffirm my belief that some dark knight is waiting for me around the next bend. Anyway that's all for now. I'll update you when classes start. Paz.

Moving to the Burgh!

So tomorrow is the day. I'm finally breaking free from Little Rock. I'm moving to the Burgh to start a new journey in life. My father just had a talk with me, or rather he was talking at me. "Are you sure you want to spend 6 years of your life working in Pittsburgh? That's a lot of time. And you're going to be stuck doing one thing. And...blah blah blah." I tried to tune him out. He's just mad that he's not coming to help me unpack. Parents. I dont' understand mine. They want you to go out and be successful in life, but they don't want to help you get there or they try to discourage you from everything. They want me to stay here in Little Rock and go to law school and be a lawyer and live that lawyer lifestyle. I don't mind the law, but I do mind them being overly involved in my life. He can't help me find a man in Little Rock. He can't help me get my dream job. He can't help me get the education that I want to get. So why on earth does he think that I should stay in Little Rock, a city who's tagline should be "Where dreams come to die." Because that's what's been happening my whole year here. My dreams have seemed to have disappeared. Stiffled under the choking heat of racism, sexism, and the fucking sun, cause it's hot as hell in LR in August. I can't deal. I've been here a year. And hell yeah! I dont' want to come back. Not until I have my shit together. Not until I know exactly what I want to do and how I want to do it. Maki was right, once your parents see that they no longer control every aspect of your life, they try to find ways to insert themselves into whatever tiny crevice exists in your life. Then they want to rip it wide open and tell you how your life isn't shit. How you could do better. How Little Rock can help you...no it can't not right now. I need to be where people appreciate me and my abilities and Pittsburgh does so that's where I'm going. End of fucking story.

NBA Ref Screws the Suns!

As some of you may know, I am a born-again NBA fan. I converted to the Phoenix Suns during the second game of the Suns/Spurs series. Diaw, Stoudemire, Nash, Bell, Barbosa, my starting line-up. Anyway. If any of you followed the series you might have noticed how dirty the Spurs (not Tony because Tony is very BFF with my Diaw) played throughout the whole series. Freggin' Bill Bowen and freggin' Manu Genobli can kiss my Sun. And who can forget Robert Horry (Spurs) who thought that he was playing a football game when out of nowhere and for no reason tackles Steve Nash. Stoudemire and Diaw were suspended after that game after they left the bench to check on Nash. The Suns got screwed by David Stern and the NBA's stupid rules, and it doesn't stop there. Apparently Tim "Dirty Ref" Donaghy, one of the Ref's in the series, was betting on the games that he was refereeing. A big no no. He's going to lose his job and he might even do some time (see here). So not only did the Suns get screwed by Stern, but they were getting screwed by the Ref's too. And this was a really tight series. We are talking 1 and 2 point games. I love me some TP, but I freggin' hate the Spurs and this further proves that somebody was out to get the Suns. But I'm not worrying. The Suns' theme for next year is as my favorite would say "revanche."

Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans

New Orleans was awsome. For the first time in more than 365 days I met up with some of my closest friends. Me, Maki, Surayyah, Deanna, and Kassidy kicked it hard at the 2007 Essence Fesitival in New Orleans. Got to give a shoutout to Kassidy for hosting us and driving us back and forth from Algiers to the "French Quarters" more than twice a day. Essence was beautiful, I hadn't seen so many black people together in one place in a long time. And the brothers, so many, so handsome, so Chocolate City (not MIT). And I've got to give another shout out to DeAnna and her mother for getting us backstage to meet so many stars. Thank you Mama Evans! We met Common, Anthony Mackie (drunkard), Lyfe Jennings, and Dr. Cornel West. This was my 5th trip to New Orleans. I fell in love with the place when I was 8. My mother went to a Law Librarian's conference and she took me and my father. I was dazzled by the beads and the street performers. I couldn't believe that what I was experiencing was actually "America." I love that about New Orleans it seems so foreign at times, but then the South comes out and your like this is part of my culture too. In many ways New Orleans and the South in general reminds me of a Latin America. The poverty, the music, the ability of it's dwellers to find happiness in any situation makes it seem like New Orleans was misplaced. Like it should really be in Cuba or Brazil. The city is clearly still recovering. We were reminded of this when even the 24 hour Wal-Mart no longer stayed open for a full 24 hours. The trolly no longer ran through the Garden District. And the city was full of empty/semi abandoned buildings. I wonder what New Orleans will look like in 20 years, or even if it will exist. I know what it means to miss New Orleans, and it would be sorely missed if it were gone. Enough of the sentimental stuff, Kassidy almost...almost convenced me to get a fleur-de-lis tatoo. Almost. But as I imagined how cool it would have been to have one, I thought about the next few weeks that I would be spending with my parents and all the crap I would have gotten. So I'll wait. If I still want it in 6 months then I'll do it.

The Phoenix Suns...Vive la France!

Ok so a couple of weeks ago I started watching basketball again. I used to love it, but like a lot of fairweather fans like myself, I stopped watching ball when the Michael stopped playing for the Bulls. Yeah so it's been a minute, so at the gym I found myself drawn to the game. Or rather that's all I could watch since I was stuck on the treadmill and Curtis wouldn't let me off. Anyway the Phoenix Suns were playing at the time and they were amazing to watch. I mean they had heart. I never liked playing team sports, but I love watching them. I'm always amazed that people can trust each other enough to work in a group with such ease. Anyway they were playing San Antonio (boooooooo Texas sucks) and they lost, but I found my new team. Something to look forward to in the fall. In the process I also found Boris Diaw (see the photo above). He was imported to the U.S. for my viewing pleasure....I wish. He was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks and traded to Phoenix for Little Rock Central's very own, Joe Johnson. He is so hot and he's best friends with Tony Parker, which made watching Phoenix play even more dramatic. He's classy, articulate, zexy, and French (Franco-senegalese). Makes me wish I had stuck with French, c'est la vie. Anyway had to post this pic of him to share.

Free 99

Ok so it's been a while. Quite a while since I've started this blog. So much in my lif has changed since then. I've started working out again and I've lost 19 lbs so far. Only 26 more until I reach my goal. I'm on this new health kick and I've got a trainer, Curtis "the Spartan" White. This man has the body of a Greek God and the social life of geek. I told him I would be missing some training sessions due to two trips that I'll be making this summer (one to Pitt to find a place to live, and one to New Orleans). When I mentioned NOLA he shook his head in disgust "Is that for that festival (Essence)?" ::Sigh:: At least he's nice to look at.

The Beginning

Bem-vindo ao meu blog, sou Gringa by birth, yet black by the grace of God. These are the musings of a Negra in a post-modern, post-cold war, post-9/11 America. I'm trying to navigate through the a 21st century mess of racism and sexism with the 20th century tools of my forefathers, distrust and paranoia. I'm trying to overcome these things and judge people as individuals but its difficult partly because of my own failings and because of the failings of others. I'm trying and I'll eventually get there.