When rap turned the corner...

I'm pretty sure this video signifies the exact moment that hip-hop/rap made a left at Lame Court and gunned it down Ignorance Drive. Or as my friend Neal would say, "Ignunce" Drive. :-) I'm not going to lie, this was my jam back in the day. I was 23 when this song came out, and everyone I knew at the time used to have this playing in their cars as loud as possible. And sadly, every single club we went to on Friday and/or Saturday nights back then (white or black) would play this at least twice throughout the night. Every time the DJ would put this on, EVERYONE would run onto the dance floor. Yes, by everyone I am including myself. Very sad, looking back on it. Many times it was a fun game between me and my friends to determine which of us could figure out WHAT THE HECK Juvenile is saying for goodness sakes!!!! And it all just went down from here. Master P, with his none-rapping self would surface soon after this with "Make Em Say Uhh" and other such "ignorance" that I spent my parents' hard-earned money on.

Anyway, I give you, "Ha" by Juvenile. Oh and for those of you Weezy (Lil Wayne) lovers, and there are ridiculously too many of you out there, you can spot him at 3:32. Yuck. (Sorry)

Basically 3:15 and forward has always completely cracked me up. "You better run Forest, run Forest, Run!" LOL! (Trivia below the video)



Do you know where the now acceptable by Webster's term "bling" comes from? The same place all of the other crazy slang terms come from...some crazy-looking rappers with nothing better to do. The aforementioned Juvenile and "Cash Money Millionaires" had this very popular song in the late 90's. Yes...it was my jam as well...dang it!!! "Every time I come around your city BLING BLING"

Last weekend of summer

I've got a touch of insomnia right now. I started lying here reflecting on what I will miss about Summer when Autumn rolls in next week. I know that the signs of summer won't be completely gone for quite a while, and yes I reserve the right to interchangeably capitalize or lower case the names of the seasons as I see fit.

I love warm weather and long daylight hours to a fault. I always miss this once it begins to get bitter cold. I can never appreciate the beauty of summer until I'm looking back on it. How I will miss all of the pretty colors of summer. Makeup, wardrobe, plants...nothing pops quite like the colors of summer. You probably already know that I need blue skies and sun on my face to always be conscious of the endless possibilities of life. When the sky is gray and the air is cold, it's harder for me to stay in my "anointing" if you will. You'd think I was a plant.



I can't help but think about what the last few months of the year will bring. I usually get excited about this time of year. Halloween, Thanksgiving and even Christmas decor is everywhere. The kids and I had breakfast with my mom and dad last week at Cracker Barrel and my mom and I got in the holiday spirit just being surrounded by such beautiful ornaments and nice smelling candles. The oranges, browns, wintergreen, and chrysanthemum colored fabrics. The seasonal beverages such as warm apple cider and eggnog, and desserts such as pumpkin pie. This is the time of year that I always look forward to, and have for the past 33 years. So why do I feel slightly choked up about Summer leaving?

Part of it is just that I'll dearly miss the lazy, carefree days. Sitting out on the screen-in porch until 9pm, with complete, full on daylight the entire time. Dandelions and lightening bugs everywhere. These things keep me feeling young. I never feel too old to pick up as many dandelions as I can hold in my hands and blow as hard as I can. I always giggle to myself as the light, feathery florets drift to the ground. But this is only part of the reason.

Fall was rough on my family last year. We had a couple of major losses that knocked my immediate family off of our feet. It took me almost to Summer to get back to myself and feel some type of lease on life again. And here we are a couple of days away from Autumn. I'm not one to dwell on negative things, so I shouldn't start now. I think that this Fall will be one of the best yet. So many great things are still possible. I'm not just saying this because it sounds good either...I really believe that this year can still get better, even in the Fall. The hubby and I are going to take advantage of this last weekend of summer 2008. My parents will have the kids and we will be going to dinner and a movie hopefully.



Goodbye Summer. 'Til next year.

Looking Back 7 Years Ago...

It's so hard to believe that it's been 7 years since the horrific tragedy that immobilized this country. This morning, I arrived in the CNN parking lot around 8:40am. I had my car radio tuned in to The Bert Show on Q100 awaiting the touching tribute to 9/11 that they have done every year to commemorate and pay respect to all those affected. As I searched for a parking spot, I looked at the people walking by with their briefcases, laptop bags, blackberries, in rushed yet eager anticipation of starting another work day. I found a spot at about 8:43am. As I sat in the car on the upper deck of the CNN Center parking lot, I stared directly at my place of employment. It looks so massive from the upper parking deck at 14 stories high. I tried to imagine a building a little short of 10 TIMES taller than the CNN Center before me. Then I pictured two buildings of that size standing side by side. I definitely felt the sting in my eyes.

At 8:46am the Bert Show went completely silent for 60 seconds. It's really hard to be still and quiet and imagine what happened during this time 7 years ago. The people, just like the ones I walked by this morning, sitting at their computers, in line at Windows on the World ordering a coffee and a bagel, in an early meeting making plans to generate revenue for the company...within an instant, about 200 of these people were killed instantly by the impact of the first plane that hit the office tower. So were the people on the plane itself; I think often about how they actually saw their impending doom. What could those last moments have been like?

After the minute of silence was over, The Bert Show then plays the montage I mentioned above. It is the most touching, emotional thing you will ever hear. The montage is comprised of audio clips from 9/11 as the events actually unfolded. My hair stands up on the back of my neck EVERYTIME I hear DJ Bert Weiss say, "OMG, another plane just crashed into the damn building!!" This happened at 9:06am 7years ago. Fellow DJ Jeff Dahler immediately states "It's got to be some sort of terrorist thing!" He had no idea at the time how squarely on the head he hit this.

It's so easy to think on all those people who were at the Trade Center towers, at the Pentagon, and flying in those planes and dismissively say "Oh those poor people...God Bless them". I think most of us do this because we're human and can't bear the thought of what these people went through. The specific details that have come out over the past 7 years of what specific individuals trapped in the towers, on the ground, in the Pentagon and in those planes went through are so horrendous that it's still hard for me to mention on this blog; reading it was hard enough. I just sat in the car this morning and pictured teachers in classrooms not too far away from WTC towers quickly rounding up their students and running out of the door and down the street in an attempt to get as far away from Manhattan as possible. Parents evacuating office buildings and seeing little kids run by them, wondering if their kids were in that group or somewhere blocks away running through traffic to avoid only God knows what. One of the things that made 9/11 so harrowing was the fact that with each event that took place, you never knew what would happen next, and where. Landmarks, tall buildings, in major cities all over the country were being evacuated at the same time. When that US Air Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania, the panic seemed to increase even more across the nation...Pennsylvania?? That seemed so random at the time, and no place felt safe anymore.

Then there were all of the false, inaccurate reports that were going out. Somewhere between the Pentagon crash and the Pennsylvania crash occurring the FAA immediately grounded all commercial flights. Throughout the day there were reports of one or two planes that hadn't been accounted for yet. Reports of people hearing loud booms here and there. And for the first time since it's inception, CNN.com was COMPLETELY hosed and it was impossible to confirm or deny anything for a long time. It was impossible to reach friends and loved ones in New York and DC. The building I was working in at the time was blocks away from the Bank of America building, the tallest building in the Southeast US. Do you know that it is only HALF the height that the World Trade Center towers were? For those of you here in Atlanta who've never been to NY, stroll down to Midtown and stand out in front of the Bank of America tower and look up at it. Dizzying, huh? Imagine a tower twice as tall as this! So many rambling, roving recollections right now.

But the one thing that always stays with me almost every single day is the phone call that Kevin Cosgrove made from one of the floors where everyone was trapped in the World Trade Center. It's so helpless to listen to this and know his fate and that we can't do anything to save him. WARNING: The phone call ends with Kevin realizing that the building is caving in; the terror in his voice is almost unbearable.

Click here for Hot Air footage