I Know a Place..

Hello World...

If you're old school like me, the title will make you start snapping ya fingaz and singing "ain't nobody cryin'".  If you don't get it, sorry you were born around the wrong people. LOL! (music is life!)

The definition of a Bar Mitzvah (Hebrew: בר מצוה‎) and Bat Mitzvah (Hebrew: בת מצוה‎) are Jewish coming of age rituals. According to Jewish law, when Jewish boys reach 13, they become responsible for their actions and become a Bar Mitzvah (plural: B'nai Mitzvah). The age for girls is 12. In addition to being considered responsible for their actions from a religious perspective, B'nai mitzvah may be counted towards a minyan (prayer quorum) and may lead prayer and other religious services in the family and the community. The age of B'nai Mitzvah was selected because it roughly coincides with physical puberty.^[1] Prior to a child reaching Bar or Bat Mitzvah, the child's parents hold the responsibility for the child's actions.

I just witnessed the passage of two young boys crossing into manhood!  Similar to the jewish tradition of Bar/Bat Mitzvah but different in the specifics of age and in the name.  The age they are being recognized is "14" and this event has been coined "Black"Mitzvah based on I Corinthians 13:11 and this was the first of hopefully many events.  You see this event was researched and created by a mother that has raised children in an area and with a generation that has been doomed to failure.  Clayton County and young black boys and girls of the 2000s (respectively).  She took her faith and beliefs in God and in Him making a way out of no way and is raising her kids and her entire community to believe in the positivity of it all.  Young Joseph Foster is a lucky young man.

One cliche that rings true is "birds of a feather flock together" and Mrs Foster became friends with another mom that is determined to raise all 4 of her young men to be assets to society by example and by surrounding them with the right village people.  My friend Lin Marie Perkins is a wonder.  I met her through a mutual friend and she is part of a positive group of folks that express themselves via song and poetry.  I've met soooooo many other folks even through her that will be (at some point) a HUGE help in my career change. (Amazing! God is something else) I digress.  One of the two young men that crossed over tonight is her youngest son, Alex Perkins.  Sir Alex is what I call him..birthday a day after mine (Go young ram!), Sir because of an outing my homette Lin, Alex and I did to the Georgia Renaissance Festival one year. (Great times!) 

My title for this blog is in reference to the question that is normally asked in some way, shape, form or fashion in reference to where our good kids have gone and my answer is I know a place...it's the House of God.  It's the Village of those that can be trusted to raise your kids when you can't be there.  It's the Christ Gang that gives kids an alternative to what the world has to offer as an example of what a God fearing individual should look like and act like.  I can truly say, with ALL honesty when I first received the invitation I saw the title of the event and thought "what type of throwed (yes throwed) together ish is this going to be?" but I went because I KNOW Lin and i know how serious she is about life for herself AND her family so this must be legit!  After hearing the speaker Rev Phillip Mitchell speak to the young men in the room as well as the two youngsters being inducted, I felt a renewal in my spirit for the generation that will be leading the world in a few years.  I will definitely renew my prayer life to pray for our children.  As an aunt, I feel the need to protect and Lord help me and the unborn kid if i EVER have one of my own.  I left that place knowing that there is indeed a place and a chance for other places to be "born" into existence to help save the babies.  *Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow!*

As I end this blog, I share this video of my homette Lin singing a Mother's tribute to her son Alex Perkins...Regina Belle's "If I Could".

Congrats to young Joseph Foster and young Alex Perkins...you are now young men!

Never Settle For...

Hello World...

I hope your day went well and that your night is going even better.  :-)  So I'd actually thought about this blog a few days ago but life happened and I forgot about it until my blog where I ended up stressing to my bretheren and sisters to never settle.  So that's the title of this blog. 

*The context of this blog is in referencing to settling for less.  Dictionary.com states: settle for, to be satisfied with: to settle for less.*
I thought about it because of an AM radio station/talk show I listen to online out of Houston daily from 10 to about 4pm KCOH 1430am and one show that airs from 11 to 3p is hosted by Wash Allen, who has been on the airwaves for years and years AND who has managed musical artists like Bobby Womack and the O'Jays in their early years.  I found that out yesterday! How cool is that??  Ok so he has this segment called "Confessions" where people can either call in or write in about a certain life situation and they want advice.  So then he has a following (and now i'm one of them) called "the soothsayers" that call in and give advice and some of them throw in a few jabs from time to time but mostly give advice.  So one day this guy wrote in and said he'd been married for 5 years and had fallen out of love with his wife, that he was no longer "in love" with her.  He said she was a good person but he wasn't into her anymore.  And immediately I thought about some of the young married (and i mean like my age young) that I see out and about and the husband is having a ball and enjoying himself and the wife is sitting there like a bump on the wall OR the marriages where the wife is a social butterfly and the husband is the wet rag on every occasion.  I thought about the friends that I know that got married due to pregnancy and are now either divorced or heading in that direction.  I thought about me and my early age marriage and how I thought that I needed to get married at a certain age and just marry whomever I was dating and when we finally did the do, we didn't need to because our relationship was really shitty and I still married him , I settled and i was miserable!

So when the soothsayers started calling in, a lot of them were advising him to stay with her because she loved him and if he loved her once, he'd fall in love again and, to add cayenne to your eye, he'd need somebody to take care of him when he got old.  I heard this one dude compare the situation to his own parents saying how they had their problems, his dad cheated, had outside kids but his mom stayed there like a trooper and he needed her to take care of him.  I'm sitting there with my mouth open thinking "what type of damn example is that to set for your kids? my mom and dad didn't have a faithful relationship but hey mom stuck around and that's the kind of relationship to have." Are you shitting me????  Listen to me and listen well...NEVER SETTLE!  Don't get with somebody because they fit a checklist you have if you don't have that connection, the emotions, if they don't put a smile on your face when you think of them or when they enter the room...stop and do both of you a favor and move on.  I had a friend of mine to suggest that I go out with a "great guy" she knows...right..so she then tells me he is not african american and that I should broaden my horizons and I should basically force myself to be attracted to someone that I'm not.  And I was like, hey i salute love to ALL that find love with whomever they find it with but I know what i like and then she says "he has money"...are you shitting me? You actually think that a man's money will make me jump in a relationship and I'm not attracted to them? Wow!  So we laughed it off but that really got under my skin, i shrugged it off to the fact that she didn't really really know me in that area.  So it made me flashback to a relationship I had with this guy i met in school in Houston. He was an engineer major and he was working for a company in his field, nice looking (to me) but I chose to look over some other stuff that I knew I didn't really like.  I LOVE a good smelling man..cologne is an aphrodisiac...he didn't wear cologne. (strike one)  For the most part, I like to keep a neat home but I most definitely keep my dirty clothes in the hamper and wash once a week..this dude used to throw his dirty socks on the side of my bed.  I figured that out when all of a sudden my room started smelling like a locker room.  I told him about it and he thought it was funny. (strike 2) So then a birthday came (and this was pre-throwing my own parties) and I had to tell him/remind him to take me to dinner. (strike 3)  You see I once again settled...this relationship was AFTER my shitty marriage and you'd think I learned my lesson. Nope.  Now, the "settlers" would say, he's going to make a lot of money, who cares if he doesn't wear cologne, who cares if he doesn't think to put his dirty socks in the hamper, who cares if he doesn't remember your birthday..just remind him of all of that and be happy with the money.  One concept that I have about marriage is to be attracted to my husband and want to be around him. *hey i'm just saying*  You do you, I'll do me.

So to ALL of the settlers...enjoy your mediocre existence..shopping sprees and all..it's a shame you have that emptiness that you use money to fill instead of the emotional connection you long from a mate.  To my single friends, don't settle.  If it ain't what you want, if your skin crawls instead of tingles that's a sign.

If you haven't gotten the message yet...NEVER SETTLE!!!!!

Words that don't exist...

Hello World...

This semester one of my two classes is Business Writing and we speak often about proper grammar as well as sentence structure used in the business world.  Being raised by a grandmother that was very strict on proper grammar, my ears already hear it and, depending on who I'm having a conversation with, I will make a correction.  I was listening recently to some old school hip hop music from one of the artists that recently left us, Heavy D, his song "Girls they love me" and one of his lines made me cringe and I couldn't believe that we were bobbing our heads back in the day but hey we didn't know any better, right?  The line is "...sit back relax and conversate a bit...".  *sigh* Ok, I know it's sound cool but "conversate" is NOT a word.  The proper word is "converse or conversing" but I can see why Heav may have decided to add "ate" simply because it flowed better.  HOWEVER, I recently heard a Beyonce song (don't recall the title) and I heard her use it which saddened me because she is continuing with the promotion of grammar ignorance and unlike the played out cliche, ignorance is NOT bliss.  I hear the word thrown about during conversations when the air of "educated" is attempting to be presented.  To be honest, as a single lady when having a conversation with a possible suitor the main thing I look for is the ability to have one and then the words that are being used.  I'm not looking for someone to impress me with 150 point words in scrabble but someone that knows basic grammar rules and is comfortable in his skin.  So if you don't know whether you should say conversate or converse or you didn't even know "converse" existed just say "talk to" because that's what converse, conversing, conversation means.  Because when you make something up, I've just made up my mind to not call you or give you my number.

One more word I need to sneak in here is "irregardless".  People, people, people this is NOT a word!  The word "regardless" means to regard less or without regard; it's already a negative word so the prefix "ir" also adds a negative meaning.  So "irregardless" is without without regard.  Again, just stick with what you know. "regardless" is ALL you need to say. It's ALL good!!!

World...I just want everyone to know better, be educated on what is right and wrong.  My grandmother educated herself because back in her day a black woman wasn't supposed to go to school.  So she had to stop at the 3rd grade.  But she read her bible and newspapers and everything else she could.  She got her real estate license and also became a mid-wife.  Via DNA, I received her love for reading and her love for learning and for just doing and knowing better AND helping others.  I don't have the attitude of "i know this and you don't and i'm going to keep it that way" my attitude is "guess what i found out?" and then I'm sharing.

One website I want to suggest for daily grammar lessons and stories is http://www.businesswritingblog.com/.  You can sign up to receive daily information.   The blog touches on legal grammar versus public grammar and you can read comments from other readers of the blogs to see points of views being talked about on why something should be said or not said a certain way.  There is a blog up now that is a lesson on using jargon during a presentation/knowing your audience. Just a suggestion.

Ok world...I love ya'll from the bottom of my heart.  There are so many things out there that break my heart and are sad about the way people treat and react to others based on appearance.  Hey I was born with brown skin and kinky/curly hair but I shouldn't have to run down my educational background for you to not make assumptions about me.  Just like you don't act the others in the world that look similar to you, the same applies to me..

~Aries Rule~
*peace and blessings*

Blue Collar vs White Collar

Hellooooooo Nurse! I mean World..I had a yacko, wacko, dot flashback for a second..LOL

We have some work happening over here in our business park so the construction workers take breaks at certain times for breakfast and lunch and I seem to keep walking in the same time they do.  Yesterday on accident, yep today on purpose. *tee hee*  So at lunch, i look up and there's this Shemar Moore (criminal minds shemar) look-alike in line with his construction clothes on and an inner smile appeared. (never let 'em see you checkin' them out)  It's something about a hard working man that butters my parsnips and I'll tell you why.

So growing up in my family was interesting i learned some good and bad habits but the most important thing I learned by watching the men and women is that hard work and good work ethics pay off.  I didn't get a chance to meet my grandpa John Elliott nor his twin Thomas Elliott.  My grandpa died before his last child was born back in the 50s and his twin died in a drowning accident when they were teens but I saw and have benefited from his work ethics.  My family has a nice piece of acreage in our hometown and my granny Clara (Turknett) Elliott made sure it stayed kept up and fit for living.   She was the eldest of 10 and then had 10 of her own so taking care of others was her job, I kind of wish she'd used the same ethics towards her own health but that's another story/blog. 

One thing she showed all of her kids (men especially) was to cook, clean, work hard!  All of my uncles (RIP uncle john thomas, uncle theodore "brother", uncle l.c.) could cook and I mean COOK, clean a house, take care of a kid by themselves and the majority of them were/are mechanics.  I didn't have to take my car to a mechanic shop until I was in my mid-twenties.  All are military vets and came out with degrees, certifications, $$ investments.  So guess what type of man catches my eye...yes that blue collar worker that also has that book sense to know how to take care of his family.  My one uncle (and i won't put his name out there but any immediate fam will know who i'm speaking of) that didn't take the "blue collar" route is sitting so pretty due to sensible $$ investments it's ridiculous.  He passed that on to his child and she's sitting pretty on her own recognizance.  Common sense/book sense is GREAT combination.  I digress...

So what I was saying is it's something about the man that can produce some stuff with his hands.  Change my oil and then throw some meat on the grill?? I got the sides babe, no worries.  and some here lemme rub your temples for you, relax daddy i gotcha.. *ahem* sorry got carried away.  LOL!!  It's a respect thing, really.  You respect what i (the woman) bring to the table and step to the table with your part and let's do this thang!  Now I'm not saying someone that is strictly white collar is a bad thing, I'm just telling you what floats my boat.  Because of my upbringing, it's abnormal to me when a man would immediately call AAA if I need my tire changed.  Hell, I know how to change a tire.  Unless the car has some crazy, complicated tire storage/removal system...i'm getting the jack and handling it.  One thing my uncles taught ALL of the ladies of the family is how to do the basics (check oil, check tire, change tire) and I thank ALL of them for that!

Blue Collar vs White Collar - based on the examples I've been shown by the men in my family..I'll take blue collar everytime.  Ladies, please do you and NEVER (men too), NEVER (are you listening) settle and NEVER let someone talk you into being with someone that you know you aren't feeling or connected to. NEVER live a miserable life...it's too short.  Ain't nothing like a good man!

*a moment of silence for Clara (Turknett) Elliott, John Elliott, Thomas Elliott, John Thomas Elliott, Theodore Elliott, Bennie Mae (Elliott) Hutchinson, Dr. Rev. LC Elliott.....from the bottom of my heart I thank you for your gifts into my life....thank you*

Welcome to my world and thank you for sharing...peace and blessings!
~Aries Rule~  ;-)

Go Go Gadget Fro: Another Update

Here is another Afro/Ovation Hair update.  I have been using the shampoo/conditioner/hair treatment consistently for a week.  I'm not sure if it's working working but it seems like my hair likes it.  For the most part, right now, my hair hasn't been too too thin so I'll be looking for length.  I'd originally said I was going to take pictures but I'm going to nix that idea, mainly because my shortness is in the back of my head in the middle and I'd have a hard time trying to get a camera back there while holding the hair up to show the length.

Ok. I'll add an update in a couple of days.

*peace and blessings*

Zoom....

Ok...Hello world!  :-)

I was on spring break last week, Ga State University was trying to look out for us and let us veg out during an off-peak week, which i initially complained about but as I was looking for a last minute plane ticket (shout out to priceline.com) I was grateful.  I am an Aries! Proud of it! My birthday is the first day of that sign, March 21st!  I have always known that there was something unique about me.  Quiet but I knew things, I learned that I had a great personality and loved to laugh.  And once I finally let myself enjoy the world, I was able to share my laughter with others.  I have met so many others like me, not all Aries but I won't hold it against them.  I start celebrating my birthday on March 1st (celebrating with my Pisces brethren/sisters) and then I stop at the end of my sign which is April 19th (or maybe 20th) so this week was the beginning of a celebration of sorts.  My original plan was to do a weekend trip to Houston and I had a SW Airlines ($136) round trip ticket in my grasp but then got a message about a promising music opportunity so I decided to stay.  No biggie, I really want to get into the world of background vocals (www.reverbnation.com/annissakelliott) so I was excited!  This also meant I could go to my homette's bridal shower and another event celebrating the beginning of a fabulous jewelry line (shout out to http://www.oliviavalentino.com/).  BUT at the last minute (Friday night), I found out that the studio session was cancelled.....you know i was looking retarded at my phone as I was having this text conversation.  So, this was my ONLY saturday off from my saturday morning class and my main reason for staying was now cancelled. Hmmmmmm...what to do, what to do....Enter priceline.com!  I HAD to getaway. Southwest Airlines "gotta getaway" prices are not GREAT for last minute flights and so price line was offering a flight with one stop/change planes in another state and then to my destination (shall remain nameless).  So I decided to do a bid, now the upside to bidding is that you get flights for a lesser price the downside is that the details of the plane ticket are unknown until your bid is excepted.  My bid was successful and I paid a little bit over $300 for a $700 ticket. I was happy with the price but not with my departure time.  HOWEVER I made the best of it...this is year 40 and I'm celebrating to the hilt! SO I left out Saturday evening, our flight was delayed but I had a 3 seat row to myself in the back right next to the restroom and our flight attendant gave us a pass on the $$ fee on cocktails....needless to say I was feeling real nice once we landed. (nope not telling where I landed).  Sooooo my weekend ended nicely, very very very nice indeed!! Positive vibes flowing thru the universe and all that!

~the weekend...details lost in many blissful moments....~  *tee hee*

Ok the return flight *sigh* I had to sit right next to someone that was basically/literally squeezing into his seat AND he was tall, the guy behind me to the right coughed and talked and talked and coughed the entire time (i popped two chewable airborne tablets) and then I looked forward and the guy in the first seat on the right had taken his shoes off and was reading a book.  I don't know about anyone else but it gives me the heebie jeebies when i see people take their shoes off in public places. ewww! hey that's just me and guess what....this is my blog!  LOL!  EVEN with all of those minor issues...I had a great weekend, the front desk at my temporary abode allowed me to stay until 3p w/o additional charge and the weather was beautiful in the place that shall remain nameless.

The title of today's blog is "Zoom"....because that's what I did this weekend, I zoomed with a purpose.  My purpose, you ask? to live.  I refuse to die and not have lived.  ALL this month (and year), I will be zooming and celebrating with people around me that I have a positive vibe/connection with and I will be grateful and am grateful for the years I have spent on this earth learning myself and learning to love ALL of my actions and coming to grips with my consequences.  All i can say is "stuff" happens and to be happy you have to do what you do and do it well.  *tee hee*

p.s. holla at me if you wanna hit Vegas in August with the 10th Annual Hoodie Awards; the packages are on sale right now!  A black-tie weekend affair ending with a beach party that celebrates local businesses nationwide put on by Steve Harvey, sponsored by Ford and Kodak. (http://www.steveharvey.com/)

On that note.....  SHOUT OUT TO ALL OF MY FELLOW ARIES!!!!   *peace and blessings*

Blatant Disrespect...

Hello World....

I experienced and witnessed some of the most blatant disrespect yesterday morning.  I live in an area that is basically in the middle of a big neighborhood including an elementary school, therefore two school zones exist.  The first one is in front of the school, so for the most part everyone slows down to 25 like the flashing yellow lights signal us to do and then there is also normally a cop sitting there to tag the ones that don't.  Well yesterday I notice this car riding my bumper at the zone in front of the school and I'm thinking "look lady slow down, the kids are right here." Well we get past the school and traffic clears in the other lane and she speeds over and actually looks over at me like I was in the wrong AND the cop sitting there was too busy picking his teeth and he missed her speeding off.  Needless to say this woman drove all the way down the street and sped thru the other school zone.  Now here is where the disrespect comes from, my neighborhood is majority african-american this lady was not.  (read between the lines)  So immediately I'm a tad angry because her actions tell me that she felt like these little minority kids were not worth slowing down for as they use their little legs to scurry across the street to get an education.  This really pissed me off so I took a pic of her car to post on FB BUT i thought about it and decided to edit it to scrub out her license plate.  So the pic up top is the rude lady.  She really pissed me off because I hate that people like that exist.  It's one thing to be running late and wanting to speed through areas that are legal to speed through but to speed through a school zone in front of the school with the kids crossing and then actually give me a mean look for abiding by the rules is just blatant disrespect for the entire neighborhood.

With that being said....
*peace and blessings*