Greetings and Salutations. 

My daughter is infamous for staging her bedtime routine.  I usually tuck her in and read her a bedtime story. Then she does an academy award winning performance acting like she is down for the count, all snug in her own bed.  But whenever I come back to check on her shortly thereafter, she isn’t there.  I can usually find her buried under a pile of covers and a couple of pillows (trying to disguise her body print) in my bed.  This has been a losing battle for me.  I can’t break this girl from trying to sleep in what she has coined, the more comfortable bed.

Well last night, I think my remedy came in the form of a spider.  Apparently there was one in my bed, (ugh, I know I can hardly stand typing it without getting the jitters) and my poor baby must have laid on it because it bit her.  And she was pretty mad about it.  She didn’t cry but she was grossed out.  Actually, I was nervous that a side-affect to a spider bite was goofiness and delirium because as I rushed around the house trying to find numbers to nursing hotlines, etc., she was following me around pinching my arms while saying “bite, bite, bite, bite” pretending like she was a spider biting me. 

Then she started giggling and looking down at her wrist with her fist balled, which at first was confusing b/c the spider bit her in the lower abdomen area.  But then it dawned on me, this little girl is trying to see if she can throw a spidey web.  At that point, I decided she was more than okay, rubbed some peroxide on it (my mom’s remedy to everything,) placed the spider in a ziploc bag (just in case I woke up in the morning and my baby had 6 eyes, and we went back to bed (on the couch of course, I wasn’t getting back in that bed.  As my sister always says, “The first time, shame on you.  The second time, shame on me!”   

I gave her the information because I had met her friend at a wedding and she gave me the rundown on her background, so she sounded cool.  Now we will find out how cool she really is depending on whether or not my plan for getting a feature story pans out.  The funny thing is, she is probably saying the same thing about me.  I need to learn to be more aggressive when it comes to things like this.  I should have just interrogated her on the spot, i.e., who is the contact, what are they looking for, how did you get into it, do you think they would use someone like me, etc. etc.  But I never want to come off too intrusive, which is a complete oxymoron coming out of the mouth of a journalist.  

I figured if she could command the attention of a room full of behavior disordered preteens, then she should be able to stoop to the level of a house full of grown folks that are too trifling to clean up after themselves, right?   WRONG.    My mom informed one of the 4 adults (yes four, plus three kids) that we were having our property appraised and inquired whether they would mind moving there overflowing trash can away from our fence.  They have strategically leaned all of their crap along the outside our fence (the edge of our property line) instead of along their fence, so the stuff looks like ours instead of theirs. 

The lady told my mom, that they had no intention of moving the stuff but we could move it if we wanted to.  Now we pay somebody to keep our yard up, what makes you think we are going to come out and clean up your stuff (see how I just switched from third to second person.  When I get mad, I start acting like you are in the room and just start going off on you like you can hear me.  I’m gonna work on that.)

But I digress...

To make a long story short, the spouse (yep, still in the doghouse) anonymously called the code enforcer (let’s pray my neighbors don’t have this blog address) to report their property.  Well wouldn’t you know it.  I was getting dressed for work yesterday morning and peeped out the window and saw Five-oh parked in front of their pad.  Well, shortly thereafter a white male in a red pick-up truck parked in their driveway.  He knocked repeatedly….no answer.  Walked around the back of the property….no answer.  He started to jiggle the padlock on their gated fence.  That’s when I started thinking, I know they are looking at their window watching this man just like me.  Before I could get that complete thought out, he had went in his pocket, brought out some type of tool and SNAP….the lock was on the ground and the man was on their property.  It was so gangsta how he just gorilla'd his way in... What was even funnier was seeing that entire family pour out of the house like they were a swarm of roaches and someone had just flicked the light on. 

WHO TOOK THE RENT MONEY!   I KNOW THEM AIN'T KEYS I HEAR JINGLING! (inside joke for my sister)

I secretly backed away from the window and layed low, hoping they wouldn’t put 2 and 2 together and realize we dropped dime on them…teeheehee.  They deserve it though.  They have a dog in their back yard that has not been taken on a walk in 2 years.  I am not exaggerating.  Check him out in the middle of the winter.  I call this portrait….Pissed Off Panda (dog’s name is Panda)   I told y’all I was a serial camera snapper.

So I hope to have a event-filled weekend during Aug. 18-19.   It is the MO Black Expo.  I will be sure to give you all an insider’s look at all the vendors, entertainment, and a host of other events focused on the community, health, career, etc.  One of my favorites is the 100 Black Men Prostate Cancer Survivor’s & Awareness Walk.  I get a tingly feeling when I see hundreds of black men [or men in general] convening to promote a healthy lifestyle, b/c men do not go to the doctor unless they are seriously ill.  So it’s awesome to see a group of men get together as a community and promote this.  Hopefully one day we can have a walk, not of survivors but of preventers.  If you are interested in this event the details are:

100 Black Men Prostate Cancer Survivor's & Awareness Walk
August 18^th  7a – 11a Keener Plaza $10.00 to Register! 1.3 Mile Walk! All men 35+ get a Free PSA Blood Test at America’s Center! www.100blmstl.com 

Oh and one more thing!  I can’t wait for the fall TV season.  Of course it is for entertainment purposes only.  I try not to watch the tube too much b/c it basically cooks your brain and does a wonderful job of shifting your focus off of anything that is actually real in this life.  But nonetheless, this is my favourite time of year when it comes to television premiers.  I can’t wait for my favorites!  Here are mine what are yours:

Weeds (Showtime)

Dexter (Showtime)

The Office (NBC)

ER (NBC)

Heroes (NBC)

Prison Break (FOX)

Also, I think I will try to watch Law & Order SVU more frequently as well as 30 Rock.  I saw an episode of that last week and it was pretty good. 

Well, that’s all for now cybernistas.  I will come back at you with more local and national entertainment headlines and whatnot on my next post.  Don’t forget to hit my tagboard, sign my guestbook, or if you haven’t already subscribe to my journal and save me to your favorites.

Smooches!