Ladylee's Four Things Tag!!!

What in the world?????

I've been tagged!!!!

Tayari Jones, my faaaaavvvooooriiittte author, tagged me…

Humph…

Tayari, you should have sent the first 100 pages of your manuscript for the next book along with this tag…

I would’ve been much obliged! Really, that would have made me REALLLY happy!!!!

However, I will try my hand at this…


FOUR JOBS I'VE HAD:


Termite Chemist: A research chemist postdoctoral position I held in New Orleans. Oh how glorious it was to smash up those evil little termites and the woods they hate/love and extract them… Took awhile to get use to bugs, but hey, it was a nice paycheck!!!

I never saw an actual termite queen (pictured above). All I know, if I'm remember correctly, is that she could live up to thirty years, and laid 2000 eggs a day... Geez, I remember thinking, Old girl know she was doing some serious twerking! (LOL)

Carpet finishing Chemist: A co-op position I had with Amoco when I was an 19-year-old junior in college. A $524.00 paycheck every two weeks, back in 1988: YOU COULD NOT TELL ME I WASN’T RICH, RICH, RIIIIICCCH!! I would be living under a freakin' bridge if I had to live off that now!! (This is the job where I learned the following rule: Do not wear your good clothes to work! Labcoats don’t stop everything…)

Pesticides Chemist: My current job… **Crickets** Y-A-W-N! The only thing keeping me awake is watching out for management’s love of messing with me, trying their best to stick a foot up my ass. But oh, what a glorious paycheck… Keeps the bills paid! GLORY!

POSTAL WORKER: back when I was 17, I had what was called a casual employee position. Now THAT’s when I understood the whole “Why” behind postal workers snapping and shooting up the place. Drama plus monotony spells trouble!!


FOUR MOVIES I’VE WATCHED OVER AND OVER:

First and Foremost:

The Color Purple… Now you know every black person in America over the age of thirty knows this movie word for word! Favorite lines: "You told Harpo ta beat me!" "Dear God..." , "I'se married now!" and "Don't you mess with that mailbox".




Coal Miner’s Daughter: This is one of my all time favorites. I first saw it when I was 8 years old at the Roosevelt Highway drive-in movies in College Park… I’ve been hooked every since!! I sit down and watch it everytime it comes on, and it is another movie that I know word for word!





What’s Love Got to do with it: I was just looking at this yesterday at work… Me and Cowgirl Cre know those dance routines back and forth! Angela Bassett should have gotten the Oscar for that role. She was cheated!



Set it Off: Got caught watching this at work a couple of weeks ago… Management walked up on me, but I was sitting there working on some boring paperwork… But I have decided to just, um… not watch it at work… Makes me feel, uh, I don’t know, violent… and I don’t want to lose my good gubment job!! Me and Lady Tee wanted to rob a bank after seeing this! It was that getting shot and killed part that stopped us cold! LOL!


FOUR PLACES I’VE LIVED: I’m a true ATLien at heart. I’ve lived all over Atlanta!

Eastside!: Decatur and Lithonia

Westside!: Smyrna (in Cobb County, near Marietta)

Southside!: COLLEGE PARK: what, you didn’t know??

Could never afford the Northside!!

New Orleans :( I lived in a boarding house in Kenner near the airport for 5 weeks and I lived in New Orleans East the remainder of my time there. I lived there for 2 years and 9 months of my life… This was one of the WORST chapters of my life!!! ~sigh~. When I left in 2001, it was like Moses and them leaving Egypt for the promised land! It hurt my heart to see that doggone hurricaine hit the place, though.

FOUR TV SHOWS I LOVE: I like any show dealing with a straight up crime being commited and/or any analysis of a person’s or crime’s backstory (I like to know “why” you are crazy and “why” some craziness jumped off!)


Law and Order: I love that “Duum-Duum” sound. It makes me all giddy! I also like it when the announcer says "In the criminal justice system..." But you better catch it from the start, or you'll be lost as all get out!

Cold Case: I love those flashbacks! And there is always a twist to the murder mystery!


City Confidential: A nice show on the A&E channel, where a city is profiled (it’s origin, etc.) and then a murder that occurred there is heavily detailed from start to finish… oh, I just LOVE that!

Dateline: Yeah, it comes on 100 times a week, but I still love it…


One more: IRON CHEF on Food Network… A Japenese show… The host thinks he's the best thing since water and dirt.... He's such a freakin' diva... Something kind of bizarre, though, yet exciting about 2 gourmet chefs competing to see who can make the best dishes from the “theme ingredient” in an hour (Last night was a cheese battle)… I wish they would have some black folks on there!! I would love to see a Soul food battle!


FOUR PLACES I’VE VACATIONED:

I haven’t vacationed as an adult. Yeah, I’ve been to a slew of conferences, and I have had a tendency to get out and explore while I am at those conferences, but as far as just going somewhere to chill on my own dime and time? Nope. (Reminder to self: I GOTTA take a vacation!)

So with that said, as a child:

I’ve been to Disney World twice.

Jacksonville Florida and Pensacola Florida… for some reason, my Mama liked these places… Close to GA and cheap… she liked that!

FOUR OF MY FAVORITE DISHES:



Gumbo: I picked up this bad habit in New Orleans. I like it chock FULL of sausage, chicken, snow crabs (I couldn’t get down with the blue crabs) and shrimp!! Oh yeah, it’s especially good if it is hot and spicy!!!

Fried Chicken: I am a southern girl! Yeah, I only eat it once every 2 weeks on the average, but I gotta have it on my list!

Key Lime Pie: So good… I’ve found a couple of markets that make it just the way I like it! And I haven’t had any allll year… Imagine that!

Last but not least: Anything Stir fried…. For some reason, I get a kick out of chopping up fresh veggies and sitr-frying them in hot olive oil with all kinds of Thai seasonings and Hot peppers!
Make a pot of rosemary and parsley jasmine rice or a pot of rice noodles and it's ON!!

FOUR SITES I VISIT DAILY:

First and Foremost: Serenity23… I LOVE Serenity’s site, man!! I lovingly call it Serenity23's Sundown Gospel...Some folks need their morning cup of coffee… I NEEDS Serenity’s wisdom at the beginning of the day or I’m shaking like a crackhead!! I’ve even talked to the Almighty Serenity once on the phone (I was so nervous)… And we email and IM a lot, and that’s a good thang!!

Tayari Jones’ blog: My most favorite author on the planet! She has a REAL blog, not this free blogger craziness. I bet she paid for hers! (LOL) It’s more of a literary blog, but she will trip out and rant every once in a blue moon. (This is when we see the ATLien in her, you see.). I read it religiously. I get good writing advice there, and I can keep up with her every move! LOL!

Sharon (Just Write Now)… Sharon is like a nurse or something... I hit Sharon up when I need my fully loaded epidermic shot of self-love, self-esteem, joy, rationale, hoo-rah, encouragement, heart, love for family… all things positive, doggonit… She doesn’t post much, but when I am feeling down, I go read a couple of her posts, and just pretend it's fresh and new. (Plus I see something new everytime I read them!) Her posts are like the best and most expensive cuts of meat- they give me that “itis”. I have to go and digest them before I even think to tip-toe over to her comment section and post a comment… But, I would be very happy if she could post more… *hint, hint*

DJ Diva (DJ Clean Spirit)…she’s been a bit missing in action lately, but I love her rants and raves… Our love for all things musical is what drew me to her blog in the first place. She knows her politics too… I even got a chance to talk to her on the phone (*Ladylee letting out a screech* I was a bit nervous talking to her too!). She peeped some serious knowledge that night. And I am loving her transformation into the fabulous DJ Clean Spirit!! You go, girl…

And Oh yeah… SBS in full, Full Effect… (P(L), N, and SC- I am down for ya'll...) Really though… Don’t think I forgot about ya!!

Honorable Mentions: er' body on my Blogroll (and oh yeah, Brandon Massey, Prince of Black horror fiction, glad to hear from you and see that your blog is back!!)

FOUR UNDERRATED TOPICS: couldn’t think of anything while I was working on this, so I asked my neighbor Hen-Dog, who came over to rip some CDs on my laptop, to chime in on this… He quickly rattled off the following topics...So this is from “Mr. Black Empowerment” himself…

Voting issues
Blacks in politics
Black businesses
Black Empowerment

Alright… yeah!!

**Ladylee pumping fist in the air**

*Ladylee walking away quickly and moving on to the next topic*


FOUR OVERRATED TOPICS: Alright, I got this one…

Stars and their love lives: I could care less what Brad and Angelina are doing! And why am I suppose to be all up in Denzel’s business… Gee, I hate shows like Entertainment tonight which feed on these folks personal business!! I think I would pay more attention if one of those stars would be so kind as to drop some bread on my mortgage or something!


Hip-Hop: Hip hop is terrible right now… I don't listen to regular radio... I am an classic oldies fan. Could someone please fade this thing to black and transport me back to the days of Run D.M.C., Whodini, The Fat Boys, Old LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys, MC Lyte, Roxanne Shante, old Queen Latifah, UTFO, old Dougie Fresh and the get Fresh crew???? Oh God, it hurts too bad to think about it!!!

*Ladylee shedding a tear*

Natalee Holloway: I wrote a post entitled 100 days… Still Missing, that got linked on some weird Muslim site, giving me upwards of 200 hits a day (whoa!). They were a bunch of lurkers though... Only a couple of comments... I talked a bit about twerking, and that is not an everyday term (so I know people of a different ethnicity were a bit, um, confused). That post was a mini rant about friendship and how her homegirls watched her go get her drunk behind in a car in the middle of the night with three dudes... (Is that a train whistle I hear in the distance? Humph!)

Yo, no disrespect, but she’s been gone since last May and I am still seeing stories on her. Personally, I think her parents should run up on those boys in Aruba and do what Celie said in The Color Purple: "Sit around and whop their asses"… because they probably got away with murder, you know. Those boys must be going crazy inside...Me personally, I wouldn't want such a thang on my conscience...

American Idol… Frankly, I am tired of this show… I don’t get interested until they get down to the final 5 or 6 people who can actually hold a tune… I think I would be more happy if they reran some of Fantasia, Ruben, and Kelly’s best performances… Go figure...

Four Bloggers that I'm TAGGING: don't worry, just make a list... you don't have to get all detailed like me... Ya'll know I'm long winded!!!

1. Serenity23

2. Superstar Dr. Nic ("N" search of that ecstasy!)

3. Sharon (Just Write Now!)

4. Khalli 88, the Sneaker King!

Alright, that's all folks... hope you got a little out of the tiny, tiny glimpse I just gave of me, the Infamous Ladylee :)