Me and my new boyfriend Jake

I can’t even believe I did this.

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This week I’m at the APCA National Programming Conference in ATL where college and university student planning boards and student activities directors come to watch comedians, musicians, magicians, speakers, and (for lack of a better word) novelty acts showcase and then (hopefully) book them to appear at their schools throughout the year.

Well, there was this one booth near my agency’s booth that had all these exotic animals, an armadillo, a little monkey, a really cool bird, and Jake — just to name a few. I’ve always been frightened to death of anything slithery or creepy crawly, but some of the students from one of the schools were playing with it and taking photos and I let them gas me into putting it around my neck. I didn’t want to hold his head but the handler said that if I didn’t hold his head he’d bite me. I knew he was just rying to scare me, but why chance that, right? So I grabbed his neck.

Do snakes even have necks?

My friend Odyssey said right off the bat that I looked uncomfortable like “GET THIS THING THE HELL OFF OF ME” and he’s not wrong. ;) I tried to smile… I sent this to my mom’s cell phone and she actually got angry with me. “Why would you do this? Why would you send it to me? I’m deleting this. You better not send this to your father.

Sheesh, Ma… Chill. Well, my something new for this week has certainly been taken care of.

Get a life — Ice Skating

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So in my effort to obtain a life this year, I resolve to do at least one fun, out of the ordinary (for me) thing each week. I hope today’s outing wasn’t my first and last as I’m really bad with keeping resolutions…

This morning I went ice skating at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden Ice Rink. The urge hit me out of nowhere yesterday, which is crazy because I hadn’t been skating in at least 20 years — since my cousin Tanya and I used to skate at the ice rink in Old Bridge, NJ when we were kids. But it sounded like fun so I got up this morning, bundled up and headed downtown. Found a great parking space right in front of the Archives on Constitution and I went on in.

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When I went to rent my skates the guy in the booth (the only other Black person at the rink) said, “You better hold on to the railing.” Haha. Damn stereotypes! Just because I’m Black doesn’t mean I can’t ice skate — it means I can’t swim. Duh…

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Out on the ice it was kind of a rough at first. I took the skate booth guy’s advice and held on to the railing for my first few go-rounds. But then it started to come back to me… There was a little European girl skating circles around me, but that seemed about right ;) Little by little I moved further into the rink and after about 15 minutes or so I was doing pretty well if I do say so myself!

After about 45-50 mins. I was done so I walked around the sculpture garden for a bit, and then headed into the cafe for coffee and to warm up some. It was a really nice outing! Hopefully more life-getting to come. Please stay tuned and if you wanna come along for my next skating trip, just lemme know!

Marie Claire Magazine feels my pain

In keeping with my recent focus on my terrible dating history (I’m in the process of writing a new chunk of material on it) my friend Dana messaged me on Twitter about an online contest Marie Claire Magazine was holding. They’re looking for readers to submit their worst date stories, and then they’re going to select the best [worst] ones and feature them on their website.

She thought it was perfect for me. And I think maybe she was right. I’ve written about my worst date ever on this blog already, back in 2007. If you haven’t read my “The Worst Date Ever. Ever.” posts or if you need a refresher, you can read Pt. I here. And if you haven’t had enough, here is the conclusion. I submitted it to their site yesterday afternoon, and last nite they posted  this on their Twitter page:

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YAY! They liked it!!! Glad they could see the humor in my pain. Hopefully, I’ll be one of the top entries and my story will be published on their site… Although that would mean I had one of the worst dates ever in the COUNTRY. Is that an honor?

Maybe not, but it’s par for my life. Exhale…

WaPo reads this blog… Way cool! ;)

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So the WaPo Express Blog Log, picked up yesterday’s blog about my (ahem) ‘blunt’ psychic reading. That’s my quote up in the top left corner (that’s me in the spotlight… losing my religion. Literally. My Dad would freak if he knew I visited a psychic. Good thing he doesn’t read my blog)… Did you read it? If not, all you gotta do is scroll down a little bit. Haha… It’s kinda funny if I do say so myself. Thanks to Leon for letting me know about it. Since I don’t commute to anywhere besides my living room I don’t ever really see the Express.

My nephew is a genius

No really he is.

He’s a few days short of 15 months and he knows his alphabet AND numbers. And not just the song. He can recognize them all on sight, out of order. Don’t believe me? Check out the video for yourself. His mom has finally learned to turn him around in the tub when she tapes so he won’t hate her [as much] when he gets older… And while you can’t see his beautiful little face (click here for more Roman) , his AWESOME is on full display!!!

See, I TOLD you he was amazing… How can you not love this kid? I’m trying to get his parents to gift me his college fund. He’s so smart he’s not gonna need it… And I’ve got “parentheses” around my checking account balance. ;)

Artomatic ’09

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Me at Artomatic. Look at all the cool exhibits! Not sure cameras were allowed... Ooopsies!

If you live in the DC area and you haven’t been to Artomatic yet… forgive yourself. And then go! It’s at 55 M Street. Right at the Navy Yard Stop. It runs through July 6, but you should go early and often. No excuses. It’s free. And also there’s lot of awesome. 9 floors worth.

There’s visual art and performing arts, tattoos even… I went last Saturday because I was performing during the 9pm comedy block and I had a blast. I was running to another show so I didn’t have time to see much of the other artwork but I’m going back for sure. Maybe next time I’ll check to see if there’s a Nats game first (duh) or take the train. Actually I think I’ll be performing again on Friday nite. Hope to see you there.

Visit the Artomatic website for more info if you need it.