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I know I’m way late. But I was a bit busy. In fact I didn’t even see the finale of “Catching Kelce” at the time it aired a few weeks ago. I had to have my mom DVR it for me and I watched it several days later. For those of you that don’t know, “Catching Kelce” was a dating show patterned after the “Bachelor” where Kansas City Chiefs tight end looked for love from a group of fifty starry eyed NFL wife hopefuls. I thought about trying out for the show myself but I am far too old. Yes, I looked into it.

I’ll skip right to the end. He picked a young woman from Kentucky named Maya Benberry. I was glad that he picked Maya because she is Black or at least mixed or something. I always cheer on Black people regardless of the contest. It could be the Olympics, a pageant, pro sports, political election or game shows. Before you label me a racist keep in mind that Black women are the least likely demographic to get married. And if you’ve ever watched “The Bachelor” you know that the Black women rarely even make the qualifying round. I’m a Black woman so I support Black people especially women. And regardless of race, if I was a betting woman I would always put my money on the long shot. Black girls are the long shot in everything.

So I’m really glad to see a handsome prosperous bachelor choosing a Black woman but I kind of wish he hadn’t picked that one. Maya was actually one of my least favorite people on the show and even from the field of Black women on the show I think he could have chosen better. I hope Travis is happy because I love him but I just don’t see it. But hind sight is 20/20 and I think she was his favorite from the start. The heart wants what the heart wants I suppose.

My favorite contestant on “Catching Kelce” was Cee Cee from Michigan. I thought she was super cute with a bubbly personality. She was light hearted, funny and didn’t seem to take the show too seriously. But I will say that the idea of Cee Cee and Travis operating as a couple gave me pause. If you are familiar with Travis you know that a pairing between him and a somewhat vapid party girl that enjoys drinking whose friends refer to her as “the Reckless One” may not be the best help mate from an athlete that was once described as having character flaws. Nonetheless Cee Cee was the greatest and I wish her well in life.

I was also fond of Avery. I saw a lot of myself in her. Avery has a reserved personality and was a bit mysterious. I think that Avery is an old fashioned woman that expects a man to earn her love, attention and affection even if you are an NFL star. She didn’t compete heavily with the other women for Travis nor did she dangle her body in front of him like Christmas ornament. I can tell that Avery wants to take her time in order to get to know a man.

People these days like instant validation. They don’t want to take the time to search a person’s mind and heart. The focus is usually sexual gratification, personal validation or ownership. That’s why romance is rare in these modern times. I don’t believe you can ever really fall in love with a person without learning their mind, heart and soul. Intimacy takes time but most don’t want to invest the time. Even Travis said that Avery was a lot of work because of her somewhat aloof personality. But maybe he was right. She might just not been that into him.

The two girls left standing at the finale in Kansas City were Maya and Veronica. They were two of the most competitive and assertive women on the show. They also both have huge boobs. The lovely blonde Veronica from New Jersey was the runner up. I liked Veronica. She seemed like fun and I think she would have been a good pick for Travis. I’m not concerned for her in the least. I’ll bet she ends up marrying one of the Philadelphia Eagles. She would probably like that better anyway.

Anyway, congratulations to Travis and Maya. I hope the two of them get married and turn the wedding into an E! channel special. I will be sure to tune in. But if it doesn’t work out I hope that there will be a “Catching Kelce II”. I know how difficult it can be to date in Kansas City. I understand Travis. So if there is a “Catching Kelce II” I hope they relax the age restrictions.

It’s all over now and for that I am grateful.  The nearly two year presidential campaign has finally come to an end and America elected the flesh and blood version of a cartoon villain as our new president.  I honestly didn’t think that was going to happen and I still don’t understand why it happened.  But I’ve accepted the results and I’m content to sit back and watch the downward spiral.  I honestly hope that Trump won’t be as horrible as what he promised to be during his campaign.  I think the best we can hope for now is that Trump will be completely incompetent and does nothing.  At least that way he can’t make anything worse.

I am very upset with many of my fellow Americans for allowing this to happen.  I have had to put in some emotional work in order to accept that my beautiful country has decided to destroy itself.  In the days leading up to and following the election I spent quite a bit of time reading people’s comments on social media about the election.  I’ve since deactivated my Facebook account.  I don’t have the emotional fortitude to take all of that in all this talk about Donald Trump.  I felt myself changing and the changes were not positive.  I don’t want to be an untrusting, angry person but that’s where I was headed.

Writing has always been cathartic for me.  After I finish writing this I am done talking about Donald Trump and this election.  Onward and upward.  But please indulge me and read this list of people that I have a problem with because of Election 2016.

The Blacks

Black Americans, or “the Blacks” as Trump likes to call us, overwhelmingly supported Hillary Clinton.  I’m proud of that.  The ones that I have a problem with are the ones that can vote and chose not to because they thought the two candidates were too similar.  I feel like Donald Trump made this a pretty easy choice for Black Americans.  He was endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan for goodness sakes.  If Black people were still confused about who to vote for after learning that I don’t know what to tell them.  If you’re a Black American and in doubt about a candidate vote against the person that is endorsed by the Klan.  DUUUHHHH!

I also suspect that there are a lot of Black men that were not comfortable supporting a woman in a role that does not involve cooking, nurturing or being a bimbo.

Women (Particularly White)

I don’t ever want to hear another word from American feminists (White women do most of the feminist griping in this country).  I don’t want to hear about how women make less than what men make for the same work.  I don’t want to hear about how the U.S. needs government sponsored maternity leave or how American companies need to be more family friendly.  These morons had the opportunity to elect a smart, dignified woman to the presidency but instead they decided to elect a man that has a history of abusing women.  Pardon my language but **** these h@#$.  They don’t deserve anything better than what they already have.

The Upper Midwest

Donald Trump is no champion for American labor or manufacturing.  Donald Trump has hired illegal immigrants to work in his casinos.  His products that are sold at Macy’s are all made overseas.  The steel that is used in his construction projects comes from China not Pennsylvania.  He became a household name in the early 2000s for firing people on his reality show.  But that didn’t stop the rust belt from voting for him on Tuesday.

Just as the American auto industry is trying to recover the idiots of the Rust Belt those idiots vote for the party that is vehemently anti union and collective bargaining.  I have always tried to support American workers by buy American cars.  But if the autoworkers don’t give a damn neither do I.  My next car might be a BMW.  I hope they enjoy working for minimum wage.

The State of Missouri

Missouri has been my home since 1998.  It took some getting use to but I have grown to like the place.  My problem with Missouri has more to do with the Senate race than the presidential one.  We have a Senator named Roy Blunt that ran for re election.  He’s been a senator for about a generation.

Some of you may remember a few years ago that an unpleasant incident occurred between two young men, one an officer and one a civilian in a town called Ferguson.  The officer shot and killed the civilian which ignited a race riot in the town.  I live in Missouri and I never saw Roy Blunt make a statement on the news about the initial incident or the subsequent riots.  I checked his website and social media pages and he made no comment.

How in the hell are you a Senator with a race riot going on near on of the major cities in your state and the country and you have nothing to say?  Did he realize what was going on?  I hear Blunt doesn’t even live in Missouri.  Did he not care about the situation?  It seems that way to me.  Or maybe Roy Blunt is just that lazy.  Regardless, the people of Missouri heartily voted to let Roy Blunt maintain his position as senator.  I saw him on the news thanking the voters for their support.

Sanders Supporters

These people need to let go.  It’s like they have a fatal attraction to Bernie Sanders or something.  They would like to think that Sanders would have beaten Trump.  I don’t think he would have come as close to winning as Clinton did.  Bernie Sander is not as great as his supporters think he is.  To me Bernie Sanders has a lot in common with Trump.  They both made big promises without giving details as to how they were going to them a reality.  Free college is as realistic as Donald Trump’s wall that will be built on the southern border and funded by Mexico.  IT IS NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN!

It seems that the Bernie supporters voted for Trump or supported the third of fourth party.  Well that worked out great didn’t it.  I bet most of the protesters that are storming the streets of major cities are frustrated Sanders supporters.  I have no sympathy for them.  They should have been smarter with their vote.

Christians

Christians got under my skin more than anyone.  One would think that Christians would have been outspoken against Trump’s angry message.  You would think Christians would have a problem with Trump’s supporters forcibly pushing protesters out of convention halls and beating those with those with opposing views.  I expected Christian men to stand for women after learning about the “Grab them by the pu$$!” remark.  But that doesn’t seem to be the case.  Christians seemed to be comfortable with all of that.

Donald Trump said that he has never asked for forgiveness because he has never done anything wrong.  While he tried to quote a Bible verse he said Two Corinthians instead of Second Corinthians.  This should have made it clear that Donald Trump was not one of their own but so many of them continued to support him and his unchristian ways anyway.

I followed several Christian pages on Facebook and I was blown away by their hypocrisy.  By 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning they had messages saying that we need to unite as a country.  We need to unite as Christians.  We need to put everything behind us and look forward.  Bull****!  Unity is not what America voted for on Tuesday.  These pages never said anything about unity during the election and I don’t believe they would have said it had Hillary won.

Another popular sentiment was “God is in control”.  This was popular among Black preachers, gospel singers and the like.  Well if you go out side and lay down on the double yellow line on the busiest street in your town God is in control but something bad is going to happen because of your stupidity.  Use the brains God gave you people.

Well that’s it.  I could go on but I’m tired of this whole thing and the word Trump drives me nuts.  I hope the first act of legislation that Congress passes after Trump is inaugurated is to change our national anthem to “Living on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi.  God bless you all.  God bless America.

I like Derrick Rose.  Not as much as I like Lebron.  I don’t have a crush on him at all.  And I’m not even a Chicago Bulls or New York Knicks fan.  I just like Derrick Rose.  He seems like a super cool guy to me.  He’s the type of cool that only a Black man can be.  That type of cool is often replicated but never quite duplicated.  He seems like the type of guy your cousin would bring to a family cook out and everyone instantly liked him.  If she stopped bringing him around everyone would ask “Whatever happened to your guy that you brought to the cook out?” for years to come.

He’s a Chicago neighborhood that grew up on the rough side of town and became the pride of the old neighborhood.  Derrick Rose always seemed natural and down to Earth to me.  He was just a simple Chicago boy turned basketball star; no more or less.

Derrick’s career seemed promising at the start but he suffered injury after injury.  Some of the injuries caused him to sit out entire or part of more than one season.  Poor Derrick Rose couldn’t get a break.  There was a time when I thought Rose my be the unluckiest man on the planet.  I felt bad for him and I wanted to see him come back and play well.

Rose was recently traded to the New York Knicks and I thought his career may have a chance to rebound.  But rape accusations from a former lover made him headline news for something other than his performance as an athlete.  I am terribly disappointed in Rose.

There is no real way for him to ever recover from this incident.  The parts of the story that are agreed upon by both parties make Derrick Rose look like complete garbage.  He claims that he thought he had consent to have sex with the woman because she sent him a text message.  I don’t remember what the text said but it did not say come over here and have sex with me.  It was something to the affect of “Sure, come by for a visit”.  And somehow Rose took that to mean that sex was a sure thing.  My advice for all men is to get verbal, objective confirmation of consent before having sex with a woman.

Rose and the woman accusing him of rape were not the only people involved in this sordid tale.  Two of Rose’s friends were in on the act too.  So superstar Rose and two of his flunkies went to this woman’s house with the intentions of all three of them having sex with her.  I didn’t think that was real.  Who does that xxxx?  Evidently Derrick Rose and his flunkies do.

Where’s the romance, intimacy, friendship, flirtation or sex appeal?  That is just trash!  One would think that Derrick Rose would have enough romantic offers that he wouldn’t need to share women.  His buddies may not get the attention that Derrick does but surely they could develop enough of a personality so they would have to split a bit of sex three ways.  Come on guys have some standards.  Where is your pride?

Derrick won his court case and he doesn’t have to pay his accuser the boat load of money she was demanding.  But his character and career are tarnished in my eyes.  When it comes to situations like this I figure you may not exactly be guilty of what you’re being accused of but you probably did something you had no business doing.

I will never see Rose as the super cool guy from Chicago who’s talent and dedication to his sport earned him fame and fortune.  From now on I will see him as a sexual deviant that despite being a grown man does not understand what it is to get consent from a woman for sex.  Now he’s just blechkk!  This latest trial of Derrick Rose makes me wonder if foolishness is the cause of his problems.  You blew it Derrick.

 

 

 

I have been very blessed recently.  Over the last six months I’ve been blessed with a new car and a new job.  I had been a little concerned over the last year or so because of my transportation needs.  My last car was a 2005 with about 140,000 miles on it and it had received a few very expensive repairs recently.  I knew that I would need a new car in the near future but I didn’t know how I could manage the payments while working as a server in a Mexican restaurant.

I received my first college degree in 1997.  I received my second in 2003.  I received a masters degree in 2012.  Despite my academic accomplishments I have held a string of low wage dead end jobs.  I struggled for years to get my foot in the door of a design or marketing career and failed.  But last month I got a job in marketing which utilizes my graphic design and writing skills.

It would take me way too long to explain how these blessings came into my life.  But I believe that God was in both situations and God’s timing put my in the right places at the right time in order to receive God’s favor.  A string of circumstances came together in order to change my life for the better.  There were times that I was afraid to make the step forward but I trusted in God and He provided for me.

As I have gotten older I have gained a great appreciation for time.  It’s very hard to even grasp the concept of time while you are young because you haven’t seen enough of it pass.  But as I live and I have more time behind me I see how God has had His hand on my life.

I am forty one years old and I will celebrate another birthday in February.  I have never married or had children.  I have a great deal of student loan debt and despite my recent career advancement I still don’t make a great deal of money.  Statistically speaking my life is half over and my child bearing years may be over.  But I have never been more excited about my future.  I am very encouraged right now to read my Bible and be in prayer.  I can’t wait to see what God is going to do next.

Night and day women and men across the world bravely serve the general public and suffer in order to make an honest living.  They meet people from every walk of life and every interaction is a story.  Some of the stories, like the individuals they meet are sweet, others are angering and some are just plain weird.  This is one of those stories.  This is a story from the W files.

I work at a Mexican restaurant that offers a Create Your Own Combo meal.  You get to choose two, three or four items from a specific list of dishes.  I served a table today and a woman asked for the Combo Two.  She said she wanted fish tacos and a bowl of soup.  I asked her if she meant the combo three.  She got frustrated and said she wanted the Combo Two.  I said, “OK, so you want one taco and a bowl of soup?”  She snottily replied, “Yeah whatever this is and pointed to the words fish taco on the menu.”

This customer had a Midwestern American accent which implies that she is a native English speaker.  She was an adult so I assume she completed her compulsory education.  But she didn’t seem to understand that an s on the end of a noun typically makes it plural which means more than one.  If you want more than one taco plus a bowl of soup I can not charge you for two items when you at least want three items. DUUUUUH!  Elementary school grammar was confusing for this woman.  Or perhaps pre school level math was her problem.  I’m unsure but the matter was resolved through my patience, diligence and customer service skills.  I’m a soldier.

The moral of this story is that grammar matters and words have meaning.  Grammar gives sentences meaning and makes language easier to understand.  Numbers also have meaning.  You can’t just say whatever the heck you want and expect someone that doesn’t know you from a hole in the ground to understand what you mean.  And please don’t talk down to the person that you confused with your ignorance as if there is something wrong with them because they don’t understand your personal version of the English language.  Apply some thought and critical thinking skills to your words and take responsibility for your communication skills.

Furthermore, attitude matters.  Everyone that has ever worked a customer service related job has stories about irritating and confused customers.  I really don’t mind giving a customer a extra attention.  It’s my job.  Heck, sometimes I need extra attention.  If the woman was not so snotty and arrogant there would not have been a real problem.  Mean, stupid and arrogant is a bad combination.

This has been a story from the W files.

 

 

 

Simone Biles is the gymnastics star of the 2016 Olympics.  She performed beautifully and is as cute as she can be.  The story of her road to Rio is an inspiring American dream that will bring tears to your eyes.  Simone deserves to be the belle of the ball.  But I absolutely love Gabby Douglas.  She is a mature champion that has represented our country well.

During the Olympic trials I could tell that Gabrielle had changed since the London Olympics.  She has matured and become a young woman as opposed to the bubbly, eager girl we met in 2012.  Gabby Douglas is reserved, poised and focused.  She carries herself like a sophisticated lady that is in Brazil to win medals, not entertain or be anyone’s pet.

Gabby Douglas is a refreshing change from many of the young women that are paraded in front of us and lauded as celebrities.  She is not a young woman that is on TV or in magazines for the purpose of arouse men.  She is not there to be funny or cute.  She is there to win.

There is something a little steely about Gabrielle Douglas this go round.  But I love it.  I see the same character in Russia’s Aliya Mustafina.  Aliya competed in the London Olympics and has probably completed her gymnastics career.  She and Gabby are not little little girls any more.  They are veteran champions with youthful, beautiful stalwart exteriors.  God bless them.

It seems that Gabby Douglas has been criticized during the Rio Olympics.  I don’t take Twitter jabs very seriously because I know that people will complain and find fault in anything.  The criticism of Gabby Douglas is rooted in sexism and racism.  American culture wants Black women to be clowns on some level.  Attractive young women are asked to be bimbos.  Black Americans prefer to put light skinned women with European features on a pedestal.  Gabby Douglas is none of that but still successful and there are some that hate it.

All I can say is watch out Simone Biles.  Today you are America’s sweetheart.  Enjoy it because you deserve it all the spoils of victory.  But I hope the fickle American public will be kind to you when you when you compete in Tokyo in 2020.

Here it comes.  Yet another blog posting that has been inspired by my hero and celebrity crush Cam Newton.  Those of you that follow Cam’s career know that he is a controversial figure for reasons that are beyond me.  Much of America dislikes Cameron.  He’s too cocky and loud and confident and flashy I suppose.  I love all of that about him.

At the end of last year’s football season some fans were up in arms that Cam had the nerve to leave a press conference after his team was defeated in the Super Bowl.  He was labeled disrespectful, rude, unprofessional and childish.  The PR team for the Carolina Panthers is surely using the off season to make Cam Newton more likeable to more NFL fans.  To be blunt they want him to be more likeable to White people.

The other day I ran across an article titled “Cam Newton is 27 but a 5-year-old in His Heart”.  I was instantly offended by this headline.  Cam Newton had a great season last year, went to the Super Bowl, was a Heisman Trophy winner, a number one draft pick and he’s a college graduate.  Cam is philanthropist, a TV personality and a fashion trend setter.  All of those are great accomplishments but a sports writer decided to compare him to a young child because he has an outgoing, playful personality.  I don’t understand why he can’t just be an adult with a youthful, loving spirit.  The article either intentionally or inadvertently presents Cameron as child like in order to make him unthreatening.

The headline was actually a quote from one of Cam’s team mates.  He probably didn’t mean anything demeaning by it and the reporter probably didn’t either.  But it’s a shame to me that in America Black men need to be made into some sort of clown in order to be liked by White people.  I don’t think that Black men should even seek to be liked or accepted by America.  They should seek respect and I believe that Cam deserves that.  He doesn’t deserve to be looked at as an overgrown child.

America has a very difficult time respecting it’s Black citizens.  Pro White racism is not built on the accomplishments of Whites but the degradation of non Whites, particularly Blacks.  Even when Blacks are accomplished there is a tendency for racists to try and tarnish their character or at least ignore their contributions and talents.  This is how White racism is kept alive.  ESPN should be ashamed of themselves for posting that article.  You would think a sports media company would have more respect for an athlete like Cam Newton.