The Librarian, the Chocolates, and Mary J. Blige

I like my workplace librarian, Regina, who we affectionately call "Aunt Reggie"...

She's always happy and full of glee. She works in the adjoining building, but comes over to visit us a few times a week. We can hear her as she walks our halls, the click of her heels fast and steady...

"Hey ya'll!"

"Hey Everybody!"

Yes, we can hear her coming from a mile away.

The click of her heels and her joyful greetings are our "signals", though. It is a cue to yell over to my cubicle mate, The Cowgirl Cre...

"Cre, here come Regina. Put up the chocolate!!"

I keep a "candy bucket" on my desk.



I am a sucker for the minature Dove chocolates. I bring them in and put them in the candy bucket because if I don't, I will eat them all, and I get sick if I eat too many sweets. So I save a few for myself, and put the rest in the candy bucket. The problem becomes that the chocolate disappears VERY fast.

One of the culprits is our friendly librarian Aunt Reggie. We struggle hard and fast to put away the chocolate Dove candies. I only sprinkle in 4 or 5 at a time amongst the peppermints, but that disappears fast, especially if Regina is around.

It is kind of like how, in the movie Friday, Chris Tucker and Ice Cube would put up their gold chains every time Devo rode up on his bike.

"Cre, here she come. Get the chocolate!!!"

We commence to digging out the 4 or 5 Dove chocolates buried amongst the peppermint candies. By the time she gets into our cubicle area, Cowgirl Cre and I have both turned back to whatever we're doing.

"Hey Cre, Hey LadyLee... How ya'll doing?"

"Fine," we reply in unison.

She proceeds to dig into the candy bowl. "You got any chocolate?"

"N'awl," I reply.

"Oh, okay."

Sometimes she catches us off guard, and gets all the chocolate. This is why we started the 4 or 5 chocolate limit in the first place.

One day she said something insane. . .

"LadyLee, I'ma bring in some chocolate."

Cowgirl Cre and I looked at each other and broke out laughing.

"No, for real... I'll bring in some."

We laughed harder. She walked away.

We didn't see her for a few days, but when I was working back in the lab one day, I heard her come in.

"Hi everybody, I'm looking for LadyLee? Has anybody seen her?"

I was sitting at a lab bench, making up some samples. I ducked down, and squinted hard, trying to hide from her. She is the fundraising queen, and I just knew she was about to come harp on me about making something for some special event, or at least coax me into attending some special presentation.

Some crazy coworker yelled "She's over there, Regina."

(Note to self: Make sure to go off on co-worker.)

I got up and walked over to her.

"I got something for you, LadyLee."



SHOCKING. All I could say was "Oooooooh! Ooooooooh!"

"Girl, I told you I was going to bring in some candy!"

And she surely did. She brought in the good stuff. I walked down the hall with the candy. I think 2 or 3 people hit me up for a few pieces while I was on the way to my desk.

So I put the good stuff in the candy bucket. And it was all gone in a matter of 2 or 3 days. I think I only had one piece myself. Regina came over looking for it, and was disappointed to see it all gone...

sigh...

But anyway, my Happy Librarian is taking a trip to New York this week, and whenever she goes on trips, she requests music (click here for the "the Librarian Mixtapes" ). She came over to my cubicle area a couple of weeks ago and requested some Mary J. Blige music. She has requested it before, but I never got around to it. It's always funny when she wants music, because she never simply asks for it...

She has to act it out.

"LadyLee, give me some of that 'What's the 411, hon?'"

She backs up and sings erratically, stomps her feet and flails her arms all about. It's a sight to see. Cowgirl Cre and I watch all of it unfold, then always give each other the *cricket* stare.

Well, I'm a huge Mary J. Blige fan, and I have most of her music on my laptop. So putting together a little sumthin' sumthin' was not a problem.

So... your wish has been granted, Aunt Reggine... Here's a triple CD playlist of Regina's MJB favorites.

Mary Mix #1

Leave a Message
Real Love
Love is all we Need
No One Else
Changes I've been going through
I'm the Only Woman
Mary Jane (All Night Long)
You Don't Have to Worry (Remix)
What's the 411?
Reminisce (Remix)
MJB the MVP
You Bring Me Joy
Searching
Be Happy
Let No Man Put Asunder


Mary Mix #2

A Dream
My Life
Your Child
Slow Down
Sweet Thing
Not Gonna Cry
I'm in Love
I don't want to do Anything Else
I never Wanna Live without You
Be with You
Our Love
Seven Days
Don't Go
Wake Up


Mary Mix #3

Reminisce
Beautiful (LADYLEE'S FAVORITE MJB SONG!!)
Be Happy
Share My World
Be Without You
You Remind Me
Take Me as I Am
Beautiful Ones
My Love
Love No Limit
I can Love You
I'm In Love
I'm Just Mary
Keep Your Head


Now, while she's in New York, she'll be picking up her 95 year old aunt, and they will be doing a bit of traveling together. I told her, her aunt is gonna be like "What the...?", if she play too much Mary...

So I also threw in a gospel CD for dear ol' Auntie... .

So, that should keep you straight, Aunt Reggie!!!

Be safe... and have a nice Trip:)

Tag time and The Queens Mixtapes

This post is dedicated to my Book club sista (she know who she is)... she always be talking a bunch of crap. Why, just the other night, we had this convo at Viv's birthday bash...

"LadyLee, you coming out to such-n-such book event?"
"No."
"Come on Lee, you gotta come."
"Hell no!"
"I bet if Tayari was there you would come."
*Lee jumps up from chair and gets in book club sista's face*
"Yeah, I would be there. And I would know she's going to be there beforehand. You know why? Because she would have told me. What's it to YOU?"
*Lee kicking the Celie two-fanger point, daring her to say another word.*

We constantly have this convo. You got one more time to mess with me. One more time. One day, you gonna get your butt kicked. Keep talking trash, girlfriend, and see what happen.

Yeah. You know,haterade is not good for you, whether it's served hot or cold. Therefore, stop hating!!

I. am. such. a. jocker. I jock so hard. And not afraid to admit it!!

LOL.

You know, it is always good to get email from the Queen of Lurk City, Inc., a.k.a. Racer X, a.k.a. Miss Celie, a.k.a. Tayari Jones.

I got two... the first being, after inquiring about not understanding that she wanted mail...

"Lee, send me some mail."

She's at the Mac.Do.well Artists colony up in New Hampshire, doing some writing deep in the woods... I am realizing that this is something that these literary writers do from time to time- go off in seclusion somewhere and write until their hearts content. It kind of scared me when I saw some of the pictures of her studio up there. This place looks like something out of Friday the 13th. The first thing I thought was...

Be careful! Make sure you got your glock!

Second, she left something in one of my comment sections: "You've been tagged."

**Crickets**

I froze in my Nikes. I didn't know what to think, and was scared to hit up her blog to see what was up, because I knew it would be some CRAZINESS like

"Write a short story on this subject..."

That may have been simple enough, as I do have 3 or 4 short stories going right now. I sent her an email saying that I was busy (not an excuse... I am busy). But I went and looked at the details of the tag, and it ain't that hard.

But you know how longwinded I am. It's gonna take me a minute.

So this will play out over a couple of posts, I believe. Gotta break it up, ya know.

So here are the rules of the "8 things tag":
1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Now, this wouldn't be so hard if I hadn't done a "10 things about me" tag last month. So now, I have to come up with eight additional things. That is hard, because an Oldgirl just ain't that interesting.

Also, I don't know if I can tag eight people. I know who I WILL tag though: THE DJ DIVA. Why?Because she cries and moans and kicks rocks if she doesn't get tagged. For some reason, she likes getting tagged. Go figure.

I don't want to piss nobody off, so I may or may not tag 8 people. And as always, if I tag you, it is all optional.

So, I will work on that a bit everyday. You know I am longwinded and "special", so it may take 2 or 3 posts...

So back to the snail mail that I sent to the Queen...

I didn't know what to send her. I wrote a letter that started out with:

Dear Celie...
Here in Africa, we wake up every morning to a breakfast of fruit and porridge...

LOL! I've always wanted to do that. (You remember that from the movie The Color Purple, right?) I know when she read that she was like...

"W-wh-what?"

I also sent her some CD mixes. I believe I sent her 6, including some 80's pop and some slow mixes. I wanted to send her more, but I could see her thinking...

Ladylee. is. a. freaking. STALKER!.

And we can't have that, can we?? (Even though she probably think it already, LOL. Not a stalker, man. A hardcore jocker maybe, but definitely not a stalker!)

This is an odd gift to send. She is an IPOD fiend, and a CD is probably totally archaic to her. I told her to rip the songs she like, and give the CDs to her buddies.

So here are 3 of the CDs I made. I drew all over them, and sent them in colorful CD sleeves decorated with pictures of her nicknames: Racer X, Miss Celie, and the Queen...

Racer X beats (thought about making this a rap CD, but uh... I believe the Queen isn't a big fan of rap! Kept it safe with some old uptempo favorites.)


This Place Hotel- The Jacksons
The Kissing Game- Hi Five
Little Walter- Toni Tony Tone
Off on Your own- Al B. Sure!
Show it- Brownstone
Every Little thing you do - Soul for real
Comfort Zone - Vanessa Williams
Love Makes no Sense - Alexander O'Neal
If it Isn't Love - New Edition
Lover Girl - Teena Marie
Fake -Alexander O' Neal
Come into my Life -Joyce Simms
Encore - Cheryl Lynn
Sensitivity- Ralph Tresvant

Celie Music (something to inspire her during her Celie writers break blues... and some ish that make you wanna drink a little liquor!)


Keep your head up- Chaka Khan
You can make it through - Kris Styles
Keep on Moving - Soul II Soul
I am not my Hair -India.Arie
Girl - Destiny's Child
Take me as I am- Mary J Blige
Fruit of Life -Brownstone
Gypsy Woman - Crystal Waters
Fairy Tales - Anita Baker
Theme from Mahoghany - Diana Ross
Maybe- Three Degrees
Bang Bang - Nancy Sinatra


The Queen's Colony Mix (a hodge podge/mix bag of music for the Queen of Lurk City)


Let's stay Together- Tina Turner
Ascension (remix) - Maxwell
Just a Touch of Love
Sweetest Taboo- Sade
Everlasting Love -Chaka Khan
Baby I'm scared of you - Womack and Womack
Been So Long - Anita Baker
Divas Need Love too - Klymaxx
Seven Whole Days - Toni Braxton
Work to Do- Vanessa Williams
She's Strange- Cameo
I am you Melody - Norman Connors
Angel in Disguise- Brandy

Ha! I think that's enough to keep her busy while she's running around deep in the woods.

Stay tuned for that tag!

The Kat on Program.

Of course... not my cat Oscar-Tryone. Oscar doesn't care about programs. He just wants his food and water bowl kept full. He just wants for someone to rub him...

I am talking about "Kat", the Obi-Wan Kenobi of my book club.

Yeah, she's just like Obi Wan Kenobi, but she's a black female, slim with curly hair. She would never wear such a funky outfit, although I do believe she does stand like that... bold, ready and confident, ready to handle a thang or two...

She is always thinking about something, always on a self-improvement track, always seeking and searching to do better...

And I am down for that, man!!!

I am a Diva, and I need a STAFF, so the Kat has been added to my staff... She has written a little sumethin' for my blog, some food for thought. I've been thinking about how to go about posting it, so I'm trying to work that out... maybe her thoughts, followed by a little of my commentary on what it means to me... something like that.

So stay tuned for "Kat in the Korner" sometime this month...

Now, I like making music CDs for Kat because she jumps all around like it's Christmas or something each time I give her a set. For some reason, she LOVES my CDs. I think I've made somewhere between 15 and 20 CDs for her. She has a lot going on - she's a world class Diva Extraordinaire with things to do, places to go, and people to see.

I think the CDs give her a little solace... a little mental relaxation in these days of hustle and bustle.

So, I made 3 CDs, and I gave them to her at our bookclub's Financial Freedom class... of course she jumped around. Too funny...

And here are the song lists... Enjoy!

Slow Moving Kat V

The fifth in the series of Slow Moving Kat Quiet Storm CDs... Watch out, now!

Lately – Tyrese
My First Love – Avant/ K Wyatt
Sweet Lady – Tyrese
Beauty is Her Name – Dru Hill
Honey Molasses – Jill Scott
Any time, Any Place – Janet Jackson
Anxious – Ginuine
My place – Tweet
The Way – Jill Scott
Don’t let Go – En Vogue
Déjà vu – Dionne Warrick
The Secret Garden – Quincy Jones
Take Me as I am – Mary J. Blige
Don’t Leave me Girl – Blackstreet
Float on – The Floaters

The Dancing Kat

a grab bag of music to dance to...

This place Hotel – The Jacksons
The Kissing Game – High-Five
Little Walter – Tony, Tone, Toni
Off on Your On – Al B. Sure!
Every Little thing you do – Soul For Real
Comfort Zone – Vanessa Williams
Love Makes No Sense – Alexander O’Neal
If it Isn’t Love – New Edition
Lover Girl – Teena Marie
Fake – Alexander O’Neal
Come Into my Life – Joyce Sims
Encore (long version) – Cheryl Lynn
Wrap My Body Tight – Johnny Gill

Erykah Badu Mix CD

Rim Shot
On and On
… and On
Cleva
Kiss Me on my Neck
Sometimes
Why We Still Living
Would you Gonna Do?
Four Leaf Clover
Bag Lady
Rim Shot (Live)
On and On (Live)
Searchin’ (live)
Time’s a wastin’
Green Eyes