Welcome to DCCCCCCC.....

That damn Mambo Sauce song is stuck in my noggin, and I. HATE. GOGO. However, it is catchy, and even though I'm in the farthest back of the backwoods of Southern Maryland, I'm doing well. I'm getting better at the photography part of my job, which is what worried me the most, but I've finally gotten used to this high powered piece of business and starting to take some great pics for the paper.

The apartment, you ask? Well, it's smaller than a video girl's waistline, but since it's just me in there, it works. I have a junior bedroom, which doesn't make for much space, but hopefully there won't be much use for it except to sleep and *ahem*....The kitchen is small, but it's official, with help from my big sis who sent a microwave and a whole dinette set that's so freakin boss, I'm afraid to take it out of the box, LOL...My living area is emptier than Miss Teen South Carolina's head, but hopefully I'll be able to get some furniture in there and make it a nice chill area ASAP.

Y'all, I'd never in a million years thought I would miss Wilmington, Delaware, but I miss the city environment. As much as I wanted to get away from the city atmosphere, this place is not ideal for a young black male at all. However, since DC is only an hour drive, once I get my brakes in order (I know, Agent Ness, I know), a few trips to Chocolate City will most definitely be in order.

I'm scared to find a scale tomorrow. That's ALL you need to know. Sadly, I know I'm overreacting since it's only been two weeks away from exercise, but I need to find that groove and that routine so I can keep doing what I've been doing.

I had a dream Monday night that Chrisette Michele and I got to know each other in the Biblical sense. I never dream about celebrities, so that was odd...but oh, so wonderful.

And one last thing? Y'all suck for not commenting on the previous entry. That is all.

Songs in the key of Chris, Part I

I know I owe you guys an update on life after Delaware, but I promise once there's something to write about, lol, it will come. For right now, I want to break down one of my favorite slow jams ever, one of the few songs that can pretty much render me speechless as I think deeply about the kind of love being vocalized in this song. That song is "Let Me Down Easy" by the Isley Brothers from their 1976 album "Harvest for the World." If you've ever had a chance to listen to it, the melody will straight knock you cold, but the lyrics and pre-Mr. Biggs Ron Isley at his best singing these lyrics make it even better;

Is love behind me?
Though I need you to satisfy me
Destiny will prove to divide me
For you're a part of me
I feel the love within you
Your beauty lies deep within you
Touching me when you feel the need to
Become as one with me

The first verse is supposed to set a pretty good tone for the song, and this one does just that. Ron is letting this woman know that she indeed drives him crazy in a good way, but he's worried about what the future is going to bring. He's ultimately asking if she's too good be to true.


So let me down easy
If ever you were to leave
My love, let me down easy
For all I know is you

And there's the message in the chorus. If we break up, please let me down easy, because I don't want to be a total wreck for the rest of my life. This love was so good that while I hate to lose it, it definitely lets me know that a great love is possible and real.

Take you for granted?
That could never, never be
An advantage
All this love, and free from demanding
You have always felt the need to be pleased
And you stay close beside me
Though our minds are free for deciding
The life to lead and desiring
To see what they can see

All this love and free from demanding, we KNOW what that is. While they are together, they are still free to explore what's out there, but they end up coming back to each other, because they have this bond, could be physical, could be emotional, that transcends whatever momentary thrill they might find in someone else. Romantic swinging I prefer to call it, lol.

Oooh!
Let me down easy
If ever you were to leave
My love, let me down easy
Ooohhh...

Ah! Spending time, time with you
Counting the days of my life
Oh, hoping that, that with me
You will stay

He's in deep now. This woman has made him feel so good inside and out that he's counting down the days of life and wishing/hoping/praying that she isn't going anywhere.

So let me down easy
If ever you were to leave
My love, let me down easy
For all I know is you

Being around you
Lovely things I feel are about you
Being strong until I'm without you
For you're the strength in me
And you give me inspiration
Realizing that it has taken
More love and more love makin'
To fulfill my every need

She's his everything, period point blank. I definitely feel like this song is one of those signs where you just know that the person you're with can make you feel so strongly, not just about them, not just that you are with them, but that you feel strongly about the very thought of them. And you just hope and pray that this person reciprocates the feelings.

So for me
Let me down easy
If ever you were to leave
My love, let me down easy
If ever you were to leave
My love, let me down
Oh, easy
If ever you were to leave
My lo-ove, let me down, let me down, let me down
Easy, baby
Oh-ho! Let me down, hey, down, down, down, down
Easy
Hey, if ever, if ever, ever, ever you were to leave me

What this song means to me is the hope that once I get myself together physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, one day I'll find a woman that while my world won't stop if she leaves, I want her around anyway. I always can visualize the same old scenario whenever I play this song. Me and *gulp* her....chilling together on the balcony/terrace/patio at night with the stars and a crescent moon, her curled up in my lap, playing with my hair or running a hand up and down my chest and this song randomly comes on, and the dialogue goes something like this;

Chris: this song reminds me of you
Her: why, babe?
Chris: well, if you got tired of me and wanted out, I'd hope I'd at least get a kiss goodbye.
Her: *sucks teeth and giggles softly* you're too much. I'm not going anywhere. Are you trying to get rid of me?
Chris: no, not at all. I'm just realistic that nothing lasts forever. I love you, I love being with you, but if we ever were to split, I'd hope there would be no negativity between us. No cussing, fussing, fighting, stuff like that.
Her: No, that wouldn't happen. But why think about breaking up when I'm still here, where I want to be? Don't think too far ahead, honey. Live in the now. And now is us.
Chris: *sighs* you're too good to me *kisses her on the forehead*
Her: I know. It's a gift.

A leap and a 150-mile drive of faith....

By this time Wednesday, I'll be loading up my car with all of my possessions and hitting the highway to jump-start my career and hopefully my life in a different locale. As much as I felt in limbo of living at home for two and a half months after my campus lease had ended, this level of uncertainty I'm facing is unrivaled by anything I've ever dealt with before. Not my first day at DSU, not my first plane ride, nothing. The only certainty is I am an employed sports writer. The rest remains to be seen.

I've always been the safe, or what some people prefer to call the scared one. I've rarely done anything in life that didn't include a guarantee or an assurance and if I couldn't get that, then I didn't follow through. Taking chances never was something I did, and the rare times I did, something always happened to steer me from taking chances again. However, I realize I can't run forever. At 26, I need to learn how to handle pressure, deal with drastic situations, form a plan to get out of said situations and learn from my mistakes. After all, that's what life is supposed to be about; live and learn, not live in fear.

The uncertainty I speak of in this case is finding a place to live within a week of getting down there, getting over the shock of getting a job two months after finishing school and getting down to business, and of course, being on my own. This particular area I'm moving to is a county that's about the same size as my hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, but drastically less black. Although DC is 55 miles away, I still have to adjust to my surroundings and wonder how to not cry myself to sleep from loneliness my first month there. Worries, worries and more worries.

Yet, I'm still going through with it all because I need to. I need to get out of my comfort zone so I can learn and a grow as a person, to see there's more to the world than the First State (and as small as that state is, there really is more to the world) and start the career that I've always wanted.

It's definitely a case of fear of the unknown with me. Like I said, if I couldn't at least have an idea of what would happen, I wouldn't do it. Now, I have to give things a shot. Otherwise I'll never advance myself, and I'll still be sitting at home wondering "what if?" And I've wondered long enough. Wish me luck, and hopefully I'll have some internet capabilities soon, wherever I end up living.

Karrine Steffans and the Gulf of Male/Female relations

It's rare that I get serious on The Post Game Show, but when I do, I like to think it's beneficial to my faithful readers (the six or seven that are here, lol), as well as myself. I saw a blurb about Black America's favorite madame, Karrine Steffans, working on her next published work. She's calling it the Vixen Manual, and she says it'll be designed to teach women how to think more like men in order to keep their relationships going sans emotion.

Now while it's laughable to some that a woman with as much dirty laundry as Karrine continues sell books and things of that nature, I personally feel like we've created this monster. The we I speak of? My male compatriots. Our need to be dominant and wanted and desired has come back to bite us in the ass courtesy of a woman who is most famous for blowing male members and now is attempting to blow minds.

Whether the latter ever happens remains to be seen. However, as trashy, promiscuous, professional victim-like, trifling and shameless her actions maybe in our eyes, she's achieved some measure of victory for herself and other women who get trapped by dudes flashing material things to get the attention of the fairer sex, that victory being that we're talking about her. And if we're smart, we'll re-evaluate our attitudes and our actions towards women before more women like Karrine Steffans and Carmen Bryan (Nas' BM and sidepiece to Jay-Z and Allen Iverson) are emboldened to put cats on blast for their discrepancies.

As someone who has a reputation of being, in the words of Jameil, a "He-Man Woman-Hater," this is totally out of character for me to even try to understand why a woman who sold her body for profit has done so, let alone put the onus on my gender for her behavior. However, as I evolve and develop as a human being, I've learned that there are indeed two sides to every story. Men have ours (she's a snitch, a mad whore, she's out for money, etc.), and women have theirs. And it's simply this; offer us love and affection more than money and cars and maybe we won't be superficial and shallow beings. *Allows 15 minutes for those who know me to pick their jaws up off the floor and regain consciousness*

After 26 years of being a man, I can attest to it better than anybody else. We insecure. MAD insecure. A man who's about his business, professionally, socially or otherwise really doesn't have to resort to "oh, look at how much money I make, look at my ride, look at the jewels that'll blind you if you step too close, 'cause I'm that ni...negro!" Hey, the NAACP buried it, right? However, since most of us suffer from a strange inferiority complex with women, we go out of our way to envelope ourselves in materialistic and commercial trappings to project this image of being, well...a boss, hoping that it'll attract the prettiest women and have them fall under our spell so the drawers can be had.

Guarantee you that's what 100% of the rappers/singers/athletes/actors thought when the word about this dynamic server of fellatio nicknamed "Superhead" spread around the industry. "Damn, if I floss it right, I can get the Hoover treatment!" Not knowing that while she was being passed around like a joint, it started to sink in with her that this lifestyle sucks and that the same dudes that were tricking for her skills would dump her when someone badder and freakier came along (although since I've seen the vid with Mr. Marcus, I don't see how that can be possible.). She wised up, put dudes on blast, and now we have to deal with her being the Oprah Winfrey of jump-off land. This wouldn't happen if we as men as got wise to what real woman want; to be loved, adored and protected and treated like more than a pit stop for penis.

I know I'm not saying anything new, I'm just having a personal moment of clarity as to why there's such a tremendous gulf between men and women in terms of dealing with each other. We truly don't know how to talk to, treat or act around each other anymore. Men think women are all about the money, women think men don't know a damn thing about stepping to a woman so they do become all about the money, and as a result, our children are going to grow up hating each other and won't have the faintest idea why.

So what is going to take, in my opinion, for men and women to at least meet one another halfway? Hmmm....

Men have to start being honest all the time. We have it in us, we just choose not to use it because it's easier to deceive a woman into giving it up. Do what I do. Tell a girl that you've got a jonesin for some va-jay-jay. If she says no, that's fine. There maybe two or three girls who are down for the casual thing. If you really do care about a woman, you'll treat her as a woman and not as the J-O. The sooner we start treating the real decent women like real decent women, the less chances they become the atypical "Good girls gone bad," and the better chances we have of meeting a woman suitable to spend the rest of our lives with, have kids, and so on so on so forth.

Ladies, you have responsibilities in this as well. It sounds simple, but it definitely requires some effort. Hold us to a higher standard morally, mentally and emotionally. I'm not saying get with a dude on section 8 or living in his mama's basement. But if he is making a conscious effort to better himself, and he treats you right, respects you, makes you warm when he walks into the room, don't forsake that feeling for a wolf in Mercedes' clothing. Nine times out of 10 it ain't worth it.

So while Karrine Steffans is definitely milking her 15 minutes of fame for all it's worth, she'll end up contributing to a much larger discussion of how men and women treat each other and how it must change if we're ever going to be on the same page again. And no amount of book sales can make up for that accidental discovery.

King of the remixes....

Out of boredom today on my day off from freelancing, I was listening to a personal favorite, "In Those Jeans" by the homie Ginuwine, and I got to thinking..."could there be a food-related remix to this?" I answer my own question for my Blogger friends. Enjoy.

Smellin' good, tastin' right
Is there room
Anymore room on my plate
For those greens
nice and steamy like I like 'em
Is there room
Anymore room on my plate
For those greens
Tastin' good, plenty scrumptious
Is there room
Anymore room on my plate

God I was so hungry
Then I smelled the smell
And I could help but swallow hard (droolin')
You cooked these greens
Girl you cooked these greens
Made a dude wanna grub somethin' terrible!
I had to have
Have em for myself
Baby what's up with those greens
can I get a plate of those greens
They got that thunder
and It makes me wonder
how it feels to taste to those greens

Smellin' good, tastin' right
Is there room
Anymore room on my plate
For those greens
nice and steamy like I like 'em
Is there room
Anymore room on my plate
For those greens
Tastin' good, plenty scrumptious
Is there room
Anymore room on my plate

Smellin' good, tastin' right
can eat 'em all night
Baby DAMN those greens

Doesn't matter anytime
That you cook em they look fine
baby DAMN those greens

They the shit, they the bomb
all I wanna know is can I have a plate of those greens....