Over The Past Few Weeks

What's been going on? I've been doing a lot lately. Last Thursday (May 27th), I attended my aunt's graduation from the University of Redlands. She's now a Masters Degree recipient. Woo-hoo! Last night, I joined her in her continued celebration at Club Orchid in LA. It was cool...a bit of an older crowd but whatever. My uncle was there but left before I got there. Who leaves before midnight??? Lol. I had a good time and to make it even better, my girls, Kenya and LaJoi, joined me. Kenya lives in the D.C. area so I don't get to see her everyday which made me even MORE excited to be with her. She's having a birthday party today at her mom's house. It's a luau and I am not dressed according to the occasion. I just don't own any luau attire...go figure.

On a more serious note, I'm really confessing and believing for a financial breakthrough. I'm just keeping God's word in my mouth about the situation. I'm exercising my faith. For Kenya's birthday, I was told to give her cash but I'm gonna have to go the gift card direction. That's something I can do right now.

As for the job market, I'm still anticipating the summer internship with my mom's accountant. She hasn't updated me about it but I know she will. She says it takes a while before she'll hear back from the government...they're providing the funds. I have faith about it.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was AWESOME! No, I'm not a mother...but my mom is. Lol. Anyway, we woke up early for the 8:30am service at our church (Full Harvest International) followed by dinner at the Grand Lux Cafe. Man, waiting for a table was TERRIBLE!!! We waited for about an hour...no joke. We joined my godmother and her mom while at the restaurant and my godmother picked up the check. What a blessing right? We weren't expecting that. Anyway, we had a GREAT time. This is the first Mother's Day in YEARS that I didn't buy my mom a gift. There's a reason behind that and that is, she always gets upset when either my sister or I spend money on her and instead of arguing over that, I figured, let's have a good day and I won't buy nothing. I'll just get her a good birthday gift...in June...or a Father's Day gift. She plays the role of both mom and dad so why not?

After dinner, we came back home, changed our clothes, went grocery shopping, then visited my mom's stepmother...Grandma Joyce. We stayed with her for a couple of hours talking about EVERYTHING. Which reminds me, I have to do some research for her in regards to modifying her mortgage. It seems like EVERYBODY is trying to modify their mortgage.

Well, that was my Mother's Day. I hope yours was as fun as mine! I was just elated to see that my mom had a good day...which she keeps reciting over and over.

Summer Internship

It's MAY!!! My sister (Raychel) had a birthday on the 3rd and she turned 22. She said she had a good day and I really feel like she did...besides the fact that my dad pimped her into getting him lunch and he was short $34 on his grocery bill, which she picked up of course. Shouldn't that have been a role reversal on HER birthday? Lol. I guess.

As for me, my mom's long-time accountant, Jackie Folk, is going to allow me to intern with her this summer...AND IT'S PAID! Yay! It's actually an opportunity I need and want. It will give me an opportunity to get my feet wet with the accounting profession so other doors may open up for me in the near future.

Other than that, I'm still studying and getting my life in order. I have a test tomorrow. Pray for me!

Conflicted Feelings

IT'S THE LAST DAY OF APRIL!!! Man, time is flying! I stopped to meditate about the Head Blogger position with Alicia Keys because I have been conflicted about whether or not it's something for me. It's a position that I would LOVE simply because I love to blog BUT I kinda feel like I'm led to stay in the Los Angeles area (even though I would LOVE to live in a different city, in a different state). As a matter of fact, New York is where I dream to live! Now, let me tell you why. I'm working to build my nonprofit and I've already started working on the College Prep Seminar at the church. I don't want to leave that dream high and dry. The Lord is already putting things into place to make that a realization and it's geared toward inner city kids in LOS ANGELES. For those of you who didn't know, I'm want to start a nonprofit organization geared towards getting more African-American youth into prominent colleges & universities. Something like a college prep mentorship.

So, I talked to the Lord about this position (because it's in New York) and I now understand that if I don't get it, it wasn't meant to be and if I do then it definitely was. Look at it this way, there are thousands of people applying for this position and if God shows ME favor enough to get the position, then that's clear as day! On the bright side, I could help out kids in New York. Oh, another thing I definitely NEED to consider is finding a church home. I don't want to leave my church home AT ALL!!! The word is way too awesome. But again, on the bright side, my bishop is on TV and he issues out CDs that I could listen to. So I can still hear what the Lord is giving him while sitting under a different ministry. There's a reasonable answer to everything.

I know I'm singing a different tune from an earlier blog but I really have to take a step back and look at the big picture and hear from God. Believe it or not, I'm really working it out with this blog. Thanks for listening.

America I Am

I know I'm bombarding you with posts today but I totally forgot to post about the "America I Am" exhibit at the California Science Center. Well, I first heard about it from Tavis Smiley himself. He came to my church to make an announcement about it and he also gave us 150 tickets so that we could participate in the festivities. You may be wondering what this exhibit is all about right? It's an exhibit that takes you through the journey of black history in America from slavery to the present. Some of the artifacts at the exhibit are awesome and they include: Martin Luther King Jr.'s actual jail cell from Birmingham, AL, doors from actual slave holding cells from Africa's west end, a Klu Klux Klan uniform, whips and shackles, and SO MUCH MORE. I left there feeling inspired, appalled, and blessed all at the same time. Hey (side note), have you ever noticed that the approximate 400 years of slavery is the same length of time that the children of Israel were in bondage in Egypt? Maybe there's something significant about the length of 400 years.

Anyway, If you have a chance, you MUST go and see this exhibit BEFORE NEXT WEEKEND (MAY 2ND). Here goes a few pictures (that I'm not supposed to have taken but just couldn't help myself) of some of the things I saw between my first and second visit to the exhibit.


This is for my cousin Aaron. The inception of Alpha Phi Alpha at Cornell University in 1906 with the signatures of the seven original members.


Now we all should know who this belonged to! My man, Mr. Purple Rain himself...PRINCE!


Martin Luther King Jr.'s jail cell all the way from Birmingham, AL.


Malcom X's diary and Quran

Now if you find this stuff amazing, you MUST go and see the exhibit because this barely scrapes the surface!

Jonaee's Baby Shower

So on Saturday (the 24th) I went to an old high school classmate's baby shower. This is her third child and I'm like, "WOW"! I don't have ANY children but I haven't even hit 25 yet...that's coming up in July...SCARY! I'm not married either! Anyway, I had tons of fun catching up with people I haven't seen in years! Check these out! That's me in the pink and the others are all friends from high school.





Looks fun right? Well it was! Her other two children are girls and this is finally her boy and her final child. I'm happy for her and she seems happy. She finally gets her boy on her final attempt...how great is that? :-)

Potential Internship

MAN, American General Life and Accident wants to bring me on as an Insurance Sales Agent or what not but I'm trying to break free from sales. Well, I haven't passed the background check or the credit check yet although I don't see passing those as an issue. Anyway, my main concern is whether or not this is for me...what I WANT to do. I'm just not sure. On the other hand, my mom's tax lady and friend is willing to let me intern with her. Isn't that great? It wouldn't be paid so that's a slight bummer. On the bright side, I could earn the hours I need to sit for the CPA exam and that should definitely open doors. Also, I'm still getting unemployment so everything should work out. :-)

Other than that, I've been given the green light to do a college prep seminar for the high school-aged, college bound members of my church (and whoever else wants to come). Another step towards my dream. YAAAAYYY!!! So exciting. My dilemma is whether or not I want to do a crash course and later on individual subject workshops or bump the crash course and just do the workshops. I've pretty much decided on the crash course route, after asking about a billion people. I figured it would give them a chance to get a bit of insight on everything and then they could attend the workshops in the areas they feel they need more help. Makes sense right?

Well, that's all for now...until next time.