Thanksgiving 2006

So I took my annual trip to Virginia Beach for Thanksgiving to see my grandparents. Getting out of NYC was insane, as we left around 3 something and it took forever to get out of Staten Island, that we made it to NJ around 5. Which didn't bode well, since we had a seven hour trip ahead of us. Luckily, I was the one driving first and I wanted to get us there as quick as possible. So I was doing pretty much between 65 and 80 mph all the way there. And actually was proud of myself that I did the entire trip in six hours. I was over the rain though which made the trip horrible in certain parts of the road trip. However we get to Virginia at a decent time. We settle in and get to sleep around 1AM. The clocks are set, my mom has to get up early to help my grandmother cook and I have to get up to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade as I've done since I was a kid.

So I got up at a little bit before 9. Got a cup of coffee, sat in the kitchen. Talked to my grandmother and watched the parade and ate breakfast. Dinner came late around 5:30. We sat down for a huge dinner, which I had seconds of and completely pass out for 2 hours after consuming. It was that serious. I missed my grandmother's cooking and how it sits with me and I passed out with a smile on my face. I was sated. I woke up like around 9 something, because my phone was going off. I had text messages of well wishes and a few missed calls. I returned them all and sat down and watched tv with the family and discussed Black Friday plans. Then we all go to sleep with a game plan to takle one of the craziests shopping days of the year.

Black Friday: Our first stop was Toys 'R Us, which was a mad house. I got a few new ornaments for my tree and saw this ill new Star Wars TIE Fighter, which I was feining for, but decided not to get it because I have no room in my apartment for it. We then head to this store called Commonwealth, which is a really popular boutique store apparently and in limited spots. They've got exclusive pieces, limited edition sneakers and one of the few places you can by BBC (Billionaire Boys Club) clothes. The clothes were cool, but I was very upset with Pharrell. I love his music and I loved his clothes, but they were ridiculously over-priced. Like $360 for a hoodie, $125 for a polo shirt, and $92 for a t-shirt. I was outraged because I wanted to get a few BBC pieces, but not anymore. I can't support that. I don't know what skateboarders he hangs out with, but they must be making 6 figures. We leave and head to the mall. We get up and go to the mall here in The VB. It was not as crowded as I thought, because we got there kinda late in the afternoon after I guess many people have completed their shopping. So we walked around. We checked out a few stores and I eyed some things that I wanted and informed my mom about them. I picked up a few things for other people and then headed to Abercrombie and Fitch. My sister and I were having fun in the store and I was trying on some jeans and apparently I was a hit in the store, because all the sales associates were trying to help me. My mom believed that some of them were attracted to me. I didn't see any of that. We float around the mall a few more times and we eventually leave. We head out to the 24 hour Wal-Mart next, which is a southern staple and hang out spot for the young kids of the VB. That was fun, because I got a few more things that I wanted and we eventually headed back home.

Saturday came and we headed back to the mall to go take pictures with Santa. My sister apparently realised that she had never taken a picture with Santa while she was growing up. So me, her and my little cousin took a picture with Santa. They came out cute. Take a look!

We were supposed to go to the movies, but we all couldn't decide on a movie, so we headed to a Blockbuster to rent a few movies, made popcorn and cookies and just chilled tonight.

The next day we packed up in the morning and headed back to NYC without too much of an issue. I can only imagine what Christmas is going to look like.

Excuse me my brotha....

So when I was trying to get my picture blown up for the Light & Love event at Kinkos, I went to get a snack before I met up with Travis. On my way to meet him, this guy approaches me. Here's how the conversation went:

Guy: "Yo my brotha, I mean no disrespect...I need to take this drug test, but I smoke weed. So I was wondering, if I paid you $5 dollars, would part with some of your urine?"

Me: "Ummmm.....excuse me?!"

Guy: "Yo I know this sounds mad crazy, but I need this job. Wendy's is hiring right now, but they want me to take this drug test."

Me: "Ummmm...excuse me?!"

Guy: "C'mon, I know you did fucked up things in your life. Think of this as giving back to your community. To your fellow brotha."

Me: "I am sorry did you say you wanted my urine? And you are willing to pay me for it?!"

Guy: "Yeah. I know. I know this sounds insane, but we can make this really quick. All you got to do is pee in this..."

Me: "Is that an empty Visine bottle?!"

Guy: "Yeah. All you got to do is go into one of those bathrooms in this bookstore and fill it up for me. No crazy stuff or anything like that. C'mon do me that favor bruh."

Me: "Okay. No. I think I need to be on my way and you need to really consider your options. Wendy's is not that serious. Good luck, but I can't help you. Bruh."

And what's the lesson that we've learned here...if anyone asks for your urine. Run. Don't talk about it. Just run. Screaming if need be to alert others.

Light & Love

Tonight I went to an event called Light & Love. It was a charity event to raise funds for the American Breast Cancer Society. The event was purely about the talented people that make up this city in the form of poety, prose and music. I was invited to this event a week ago, when I accompanied to Travis to an introductory night to Real Momentum. Real Momentum is an adult education class. It's really all I know of it. I know that it's designed to help you be the best person you can be through workshops and interactive learning with other people. From what I hear it's a tremendous accomplishment when you attend the workshops. Anyway....I was invited by Stephen, one of the guys who recently took the workshop with Travis. Through the introduction night, pretty much everyone found out that I am artist. Stephen approached me afterwards and asked if I would do him a favor and do an artist rendition of Light & Love. I told him it might be difficult given that I was only going to get a week to do this and plus he had to see it to see if he liked what I would do. He turned to me and told me that he didn't have to see it, "I trust you.", he said. And with that, I took the challenge and this is what I came up with.


This is my rendition of Light & Love and it was greatly received tonight. I was pleased with the way it came out, because it's totally different than what I normally do (which is comic book art). So this was a departure for me. As scared as I was to do it, I came up with the concept pretty quickly, but when it came time to color it, I wanted to do something different. So I used some filters in Photoshop to give it that painted look.

When everyone saw it tonight, they had asked if I painted it. Of course I told them I didn't, but I wanted it to appear that way. And plus the matte paper I printed it on helped alot. Other than that, I was really proud I did this and have been thinking about doing more like it.

The Xbox 360

So today was one of the best days of my life, because I finally got my Xbox 360. I love this machine so much! It's a totally different video game console than I have ever owned. It's like a multi-media center that accesses everything in my life. I also got the highly anticipated game, Gears of War, which is one of the best games of 2006. This is game is so fuckin' hot! This was a crazy ass purchase, because I haven't spent this much money on something like this in a long time, but I love it. I love it so much. I got a few more games with it, Burnout: Revenge, Final Fantasy 11 Online, and I got this ill-assed Gears of War faceplate for the system too.

Let the nerdcore-ness begin!