Rest In Peace, Congressman John Lewis (1940-2020)

Wordless Wednesday: Spicy Shrimp and Yellow Rice

Friday Freestyles. The Food-for-Thought Edition

Friday!!!

And it is Payday.

I am always happy for another Pay Day. Always.

Spontaneous Rant. You know, I don't even think I took time to imagine anything for a few minutes this morning like I usually do when I get paid. If you have noticed, I have a tendency to spend a few moments blowing my check in my mind on something interesting. But today there was none of that. I just paid my bills. Not in the mood for deep imagination today. Not when it is month FIVE of quarantining, and teleworking from home. And I am still not sure when we are going back to work. The whole "volunteer voluntarily" to come back... well, they can kick a sack of rocks with that one. My convos with coworkers who have worked a few days out of this whole time have revealed that no more than 5% of people are doing this "voluntarily volunteer" thing. So I am not the only one who is like... bump that.

And we get emails, albeit sparingly, about who will be at work for receiving service on some equipment....

I don't even answer.

Humph.

I may or may not be wrong for that. But I have been with my current job for 19 years. I have sacrificed- gone in on the weekends, worked extra long hours, been talked to and treated any kind of way... and I have decided right now, for once in my life, especially during these obscure and dire times, to put myself first. To make sure I put my own life first. Period.

Well... enough of that Friday mini-rant, food for thought.

But it is just what's clouding my mind now. There's a hint of guilt for not going in. But the proverbial wall of guilt is one foot tall. So I force myself to step over that sh**.

(Excuse my language)

Quote of the Week. Speaking of guilt, my pastor gave a good sermon on dealing with guilt. I got some good notes, and I need to go back and watch the sermon again. But one quote struck me, for its simplicity mostly:

Guilt is the strongest robber of personal peace.

Ain't' that the truth, tho?

He went on to discuss ways of rooting a guilty conscience out of your life. There were about 10 things (I only caught 8 for some reason. Hence the reason I need to go back and watch the sermon again), but one of the points was to write your feelings about your situation down on paper (basically, journal about it), and then just tear it up. It's seen as a symbolic gesture.

But I read a book a few years ago about scientific studies related to this. In a nutshell, it was determined that it is important to write all your feelings out, as it is a confession of sorts. And what I found to be most interesting is that it has a profound physiological affect on the body, where it boosts the immune system. Now, that is something good to know.

Anyway, I think about that a lot. I journal much, especially during these confusing COVID times, and I have journalled anyway all of my life, since it is extremely rare for me to express my feelings to friends and the like.

But I do agree with the statement of guilt being a robber of peace. Where there is guilt, there is a lack of peace of mind.

Hmm.

Book of the Week. So last week, I think I talked about Brit Bennett's book, The Vanishing Half. I decided to look her up, and see whatever else she has written. So this week, I listened to the audible version of the one other book she has written, The Mothers.

Now, I must admit... I enjoyed this book MUCH more than The Vanishing Half. My book club folks didn't really enjoy The Vanishing Half. The ending was... meh. And I myself enjoyed the writing style (I read more for style than anything else)... but I found myself thinking, where is this going?

Not so with The Mothers. I liked it more. The Mothers refers to the Mothers of a church. I think this more relates to the traditional black church. Anyway, it is a story about some folks who are members of the church, but the book gets over into their personal lives and secret places. And the Mothers give commentary on what they think is going on with said congregants.

You know how church gossip goes. Humph.

And it's one of the reasons I don't like traditional church. I am a church member, but I ain't the one you gonna see at any extracurricular church functions. NO MA'AM. And that's just me. I am very private, and I don't need no one speculating or getting into my business and vice versa.  And I am a difficult personality (I have promised myself that I will stop saying that about myself, but it is what it is), and I'm an introvert, so this can become a problem with "church people" real quick. I just find that the older I get, the more I just want to be ME. So this book made me think of all of that.

So this book was a deep dive into ALL of those types of issues. It was a fantastic listen, and one of the few books that, upon listening to the audible version, that I wished I would have sat down and read the hardback. It was that good of a book indeed. I would suggest it to my book club, but they are finicky. They didn't care much for The Vanishing Half, so they may not read another book by Ms. Bennett for a minute.

Song of the Week. This has been such a slow music week for me, so nothing just jumps out at me. But right now, I am doing a TON of writing, and certain songs relate to whatever I am writing. One I was talking about with a member on my reading team is "Affair" by Cherrelle.



That is a GOOD song. As a matter of fact, the Affair album, released in 1986, is one of my all time favorite albums. It is early Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis production work, pre-Janet Jackson. I think that is why I like it so much.

But, the first line of the novella I've been working on since late February is...

Monique use to get all bent out of shape about cheating on her husband.
But not anymore.

HMMMMMM... Wonder what that's all about?

LOL.

I don't care to write long form, but I do so from time to time because I can cull short stories from a longer work. And I have counted some ten short stories. One of my writing instructors once said to our class about me that "LadyLee has this wonderful skill of writing long form and carving short stories out of that long story."

That made me feel good, that someone recognizes this immense talent and skill of mine. And it is something that I have been believing about myself for the longest.

And we should feel positive things about ourselves.

On purpose. As much as possible.

This was a LONG post, laced with some food-for-thought, wasn't it. That is what I get for not posting all week.

It has been quite helpful. Wonderfully cathartic as always. This has been a true snapshot of my mental.

And I declare it at the same time has boosted my immune system.

I declare it!

LOL

Favorite Meal - Shrimp Pasta

Wear Your Masks!

Right now, with all this going back and forth about whether making it a requirement to wear masks, it is best just to have some masks. I have the surgical ones and the cloth ones that I can insert some paper towels or a piece of HVAC cloth (my preference).

But a young lady has taken to making masks a fashion statement.

Oh yes. That is fly. Some LV, baby. And it has some native American appeal, don't you think? It is wonderful, indeed a sight to behold.

But tell me something...

How in the world is anyone suppose to breathe through all that leather???

Because that ain't cloth.

We can't all be that fashionable.

Better to be safe. Do yourself a favor... do us ALL a favor, and wear your masks!

Friday Freestyles

Man oh man, it is Friday.

I don't even know what day this is quarantine. Everybody is just like "screw it", anyway. We stop counting days now. This is the beginning of month #5. I think. I am ready to go back to work. They have disinfected the place after 2 people were COVID positive. It is still on a volunteer basis.

This Oldgirl ain't volunteering for NUTHIN. I am ready to go back to work when I get an official email, something on paper and documented, of an exact date to return. Not gonna be in a building with a bunch of people on a volunteer basis.

When I can get paycheck at home and teleworking. HUMPH.

It sucks, but oh well.

I don't know what they gonna do about all this. We need LEADERSHIP. Everything is beginning to feel like a campaign rally right now. Bump that. Solve this problem!

Speaking of leadership. Y'all need to come get my governor. Ugh.

Tell me... what is he doing? He sued the Mayor of Atlanta over the mask mandate she put in place.

Sir, stop it. You know what EVERYBODY is thinking, don't you?

Mind you, there are several mayors all over the state of Georgia who have instituted mask mandates.

But he decides to sue my mayor Keisha.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

My Mayor bust out with an Audre Lorde quote on him.

"I AM DELIBERATE AND AFRAID OF NOTHING."

Translation---> I have 0 f**** to give, so bring it on, bro.

You know we all siting down here thinking the same thing.

Sir... you were not even smart enough to cover that up by suing EVERY mayor in Georgia. But you picked that one. Yes, ok.

Your slip is showing, sir.

This may not matter because ALL the major grocery stores have slapped mask mandates into place. I don't blame them.
Stop all this foolishness.

That's all I got to say about that.

Movie of the week. Fatal Affair...

This movie was okay. If you have seen one affair-gone-tragic movie, you have seen them all. Each has a little different twist to it, but that's about it. This one, sadly, stuck close to the same ol' formula. I watched it on Thursday night, and it was good to crochet to, I suppose.  But it's not anything I will watch again. Typical Netflix fare. It would've made a great Lifetime movie.

But what I liked about it was seeing Omar Epps and Nia Long on screen. They are a throwback to the 90s.  That made it worth watching. I will give it a grade of a C.

Song of the Week. "Inside my Love" by Minnie Ripperton


That is a good song that comes up in my Spotify weekly playlist. Loved-ed it! So calm, so soothing. I wish we had pure singers like her still. Ugh.

That is it for my freestyle Fridays. Man, I am thankful for living another day... and in these times, I always end that every morning with...

LITERALLY.

On purpose!

Have a great weekend.

And please practice your social distancing and wear your masks.

Twelve Tuesday Thoughts

Ten... no TWELVE thoughts on a Tuesday!!

1. I cannot stand commercials, on tv or radio, etc., that have people snoring in them. Drives me crazy.

2. What I'm reading right now: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett.

Well, what I'm listening to right now. Thank goodness for audible.

I'm only one-third of the way through the book, but man oh man... it is FANTASTIC. The level of writing is off the charts!

3. I have decided to spend 30 minutes on each room of my house for the remainder of July. I started with the Laundry room today, and it looks great!

4. I am struggling with reading an hour a day. New requirement attached to that: it has to be something that is interesting and holds my attention.

5. I was looking around on my Hulu app and came across The Color Purple!

That movie is 35 years old, and it is still timeless. I cannot believe how well shot it is. Now I can look at it all day!

6. New crochet project well underway, ya'll!

7. Song I love right now. "Confused" by Tevin Campbell.



8. I am ordering a lot of Amazon right now, frankly more than I care to admit. What's interesting now is that the amazon deliveryman doesn't ring the doorbell, but just leaves the packages on my front porch, sometimes all in the open. I don't know it is there until I look out the front window. Do they not understand that I live in the 'hood? Hide that package behind the porch banister... doggonit.

9. I had some shrimp aguachile for dinner. Well, my bootleg version.

That's a pic from the internet. Mine didn't look that nice.

It is cerviche dish, which mean you do not cook your seafood, but let the lime or lemon juice cook it. The hell with that. I boiled my shrimp first.

10. I cannot believe we are almost halfway through July. Ugh. This is day uh... like 120, something like that.

11. My workplace is CLOSED, due to two people testing positive for the COVID-19. So we are shut down until further notice. Man, this is why I paid no attention to that "volunteer to come up to work" BS. I got stuff to do, but I ain't volunteering to do NUTHIN, when I can sit at home and still collect a paycheck. No sir. No ma'am.

12. And now they gotta sanitize the building and do all this contact tracing and figure out who was up there on specific days. This is one less Oldgirl they do not have to worry about tracing. I been at the house!

That is it for my Tuesday Thoughts!

Wordless Wednesdays

Guilty Pleasures

I am writing a lot, and I try to make sure my characters are vastly different than me when it comes to their favorite things they like to do, eat, and drink, etc.

So a friend of mine loves Seltzer waters, and her favorite one is the Bubly brand. I think they are a Pepsi product.

I bought some, and I am hooked.

I think I have tried 5 different types. I like the peach flavor...

But I REALLY like the cherry and watermelon flavors.

I am not a big soda drinker- I may have one soda a year, if that - but I can drink these. They have 0 calories and no added sweeteners. I love how I can smell and taste the flavor at the same time. Not sure how they pull that off. They are cheap enough, especially for me, someone who prefers water, with an 8-pack going for $4.99, and my local Publix sometimes has them on a two for one special.

So they are suppose to be my character's drink of choice, but now they are mine!

Happy 4th of July 2020!

Be safe out there...

Friday Freestyles

It is Friday!

I WISH it was PAYDAY.

But it isn't.

BUT it is a federal holiday, which means, I don't have to go to work. Or, these days, it means I don't have to walk to the dining room table and turn on my laptop and check my emails and attend meetings and webinars... Sigh.

So this doesn't feel like a holiday. I will make myself some ribs and potato salad tomorrow and see how that works out. But oh well.

Just ready for all this to be over. Because 2020 so far has been... *blank stare*

The second half of the year is upon us!! My goodness, I wish we could just skip the next 6 months and hit 2021 already. I am ready to holler Happy New Year! But alas, that's not going to happen. I think right now, the way everything is going, we all need to just make it to next year, ALIVE.

I just pray that the rest of the year that we level up.

Level up, y'all! That means that we literally get our sh*t together. Take what is going on seriously! Get a plan! Wear a mask, socially distance, something! I don't know the solutions. All I can do is pray, and right now, prayer is everything.

But on a good note, I finally scored some cheap hand sanitizer and wipes.

So maybe things are looking up. Who knows.

And I have to admit, I am SHOCKED that all this confederate statue controversy is going on.  Sorry ya'll we got other ish to worry about, like this covid. Yes, if they can come down, then they come down. But Lord have mercy, can we get this virus mess under control.

Besides, I like how this one statue is being reconsidered...

Yeah... shine a light on the statues.

Song of the Week. I haven't been listening to much music lately. There has been more mindless TV and a good bit of writing. But there is one song that I have had on repeat much of the week. "Playing your game" by Barry White.



How long has Barry White been gone from us? Looking around on Wikipedia, I see that he died in 2003. So he's been gone 17 years?!?!?!? 17 years! Wow, that's a long time ago.

But I love that song. So lush. I think that song was made with his Orchestra. I just miss really good music like that. Sigh.

I don't have much of anything to write about right now. I'm just sitting around waiting... and waiting.. for all this to be done.

On a positive note. Really hoping our country will have some "Come to Jesus" moment.

On purpose.

Ten Thursday Thoughts

10 Thoughts! On a Thursday!!

1. So I actually sat down and counted up the days that we have been quarantined/working from home. And it has been 107 days. 107 days! Oh my goodness.

2. The weather in the ATL has been a bit jarring as of late. In the morning, it's bright and sunny. But in the afternoon, it will suddenly get super dark outside, and the torrential rains come. It is quite unnerving.

3. It's being reported that confirmed cases of Covid-19 have skyrocketed, and that it is due to activity during Memorial Day weekend. We passed the 50,000 daily case mark today.

4. With that said, I wonder what will be the fallout from the upcoming 4th of July holiday weekend?

5. I spent Easter alone. I spent Memorial Day alone. And I will spend 4th of July alone. And I am okay with admitting that I am ok with that. That is just the introvert in me. Just imagine if I was an extrovert. Not sure if I would be able to take it.

6. I have had more than enough time to examine myself, and I am okay around 99.87% of my day. The other 0.13% of the time, I am teary-eyed. That amounts to around a couple of minutes of my day, so that is okay. Just keep pushing forward is what I tell myself during those times.

7. The whole idealogy of "American Exceptionalism" is pretty much in the toilet right now when it comes to our handling of the pandemic. You know it's bad when Europe bans travel from the United States. Even they can see we're mucking this thing up.

8. I actually bought some ribs to cook for the holiday. Not much, though. Only 1/2 slab of Kansas cut ribs and 1/3 slab of baby back ribs. I was thinking about making a crab boil, but I will save my crabs for another day. I may also make some potato salad. Haven't had any since Easter.

9. I actually made a goal earlier this year to read for an hour a day. I failed miserably at that. So, I am just going to make that a July goal. I feel I need to just sit and be quiet and focus on something besides the phone, radio, or television. It seems to help my mental in some way. And the longer this goes on, I realize I really appreciate moments of pure quiet, save for the tweeting birds outside my window.

10. This picture right here completely unnerves me.

I have to be honest. I am not really ready for my waiter to be covered down like this. Mind you, he is still breathing the air of the patrons. Hmmm. I personally don't plan to sit down in a restaurant until 2021. And I may not fly until 2022. That's the goal.

That is it for my Ten Thursday Thoughts. Tomorrow is my federal holiday off from work, so let the festivities begin! Woo-hoo!!

Have a happy and safe 4th. Please wear your masks, and do your best to socially distance!

Wordless Wednesday: Attempting an Omelette