Did He Get What He Deserved?

Do you live in NYC?

Do you travel on the subway?
Have you ever used HopStop?

How does this tool work, well you go to the Website and click on directions. There you will enter the starting address and the destination address. Selections can be made for the time of day of travel, because that will determine the estimated travel time, language, and transportation mode. Click on "get directions" – and bingo the information appears very similar to MapQuest.

There was an article in the Black Entrepreneurs Magazine about young entrepreneurs and there was the story on Hopstop and its
co-founder. Chinedu Echeruo, a 33 year-old, Nigerian-born man created his company four years ago. Since then the company has expanded to other cities such as Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Boston. Chinedu’s expectation is to provide travel information for the 10 largest cities. The site has handled more than a million travel requests.

He is a Harvard Business School Graduate and has an extensive background in finance from Wall Street. In a NYTimes article the only revenue was from ad banner on the site. Chinedu hoped that one day one of the larger search engines would buy his idea.

Let us hope things worked in his favor.

Love on the 6 Uptown

6/26/2008
(sometimes I write what my heart feels)

Love has never felt this way
I can’t stop I always
Knew I would write and
I tried really I did but never
Like this it’s like a plant
Blooming- to write and read
My thoughts to others is the
Greatest feeling ever I can
Pick up a pen and write
Anywhere and about anything
This is truly amazing and
I feel like I have finally tapped
Into my God given talent- to share
My powerful words with the world
When I look back I can’t imagine
That I have gone so long
Without writing. This is how
I speak; this is what I do and now i
Will allow it to do me
It can do whatever it wants
I am here for the ride-I
Feel it is my duty to
Handled this shit-because
It comes naturally
Speaking I write when the words
Touch the paper I fell my energy
Release when I say the words
I hear and feel them
In my bones- I can do this
Whenever wherever, a crying baby
No matter- one day
She too will read me I
Will be magnificent and
The little baby girl will have
To read about me in the books
And when I say the part about
The 6 train and how she was sitting
On her Daddy’s lap and
How he pointed to her
Uncle Jerry on the phone and she said
His name- that damn phone was how
You little girl stopped crying a river
Every little girl with an Uncle Jerry
will think I was sitting across from
Them on that number 6 train to Pelham
Yes I lived where you live this is for us- you
Where so cute with your
Pony on top of your head
At least while the phone
Was in your hand- see with ease my
Words are finally able to sing and
That they will do to the hills of Beverly
And the streets of Harlem well maybe
Not Beverly - she will
Act like my words are not
Not important- oh shit
They took the phone
You know what that means
Lovely lovely is screaming screaming
Just like I will do one day you and
You will hear me speak
I promise. This feels too good to stop
I hadn’t lifted my pen since I sat down
Yup just writing and thinking how
People let talents go to waste
I wasn’t just didn’t
Know how to start and now
I will never stop
Why the fuck should
I
(feel the rush- that how I feel when I write)

Just Read

Chloe went to tell Lena the truth. Cliff sleeping with Robert who is now Roberta and that her pictures were destroyed because her camera fell into water or maybe the truth was nothing and she could work the case until Lena gave up. Lena would pay her and she could still fuck Cliff.

Chloe walked in to Lena’s apartment, took off her shoes stood in front of the mirror. She smoothed her skirt, propped her breast and turned into the foyer. She seen Lena was sprawled across the sofa crying. Immediately she thought Cliff told her about them, so she stood there frozen, ready to take defense and tell on Cliff. But Lena stood up with her arms opened wide to hug Chloe. Lena's eyes were so puffy with bags on the top and bottom they were almost shut; she had a long trail of snot running into her mouth. Chloe opened her arms and held her. Lena cried so hard Chloe’s body shook and the snot smeared all over her shoulder and chest. When Chloe asked her what happened, between the sops she blurted out "H- I- V, I got it" and sucked down a huge gasp of air. Her body shook as she let her arms go from Chloe and wrapped them around her stomach dropped the white paper.

Chloe pushed her back and Lena just kept walking toward her until she Chloe pushed her on the the sofa. Chloe stood up and wanted to run out of the apartment but her legs wouldn’t move. With her tear filled eyes she looked at Lena who was emptied out every tear she could hold. Chloe didn’t move. Chloe’s tears streamed down her face like a flowing river nonstop; her mind replayed the times she had been with Cliff and Roberta. Her bottom lip shook so much as saliva seeped out from the corners of her tiny mouth. She didn’t feel for Lena only for herself. She was scared for her life. She picked up the white paper off the floor that held power and stared. She wanted to find a something wrong with the information like Lena’s name spelled wrong or her date of birth- something to make this go away.

Chloe backed herself out of the apartment shaking, holding her bottom lip between her teeth to ease the trembling. Her hands held onto the walls for support. She looked at the shiny chrome handle sticking out of Lena’s brown Gucci bag on the table. She could almost hear her heart beating. She squeezed her eyes shut and seen Lena’s brains dribble on the tan leather sofa waiting for Cliff or the nanny.

She walked home crying and praying to God, asking for help from her mother's angels, telling her father she will see him soon. In between, cursed Cliff, Roberta and Lena and wished them death. She arrived at her apartment to find Cliff in her bed. He stayed with her that night. They made love over and over until the sun rose.

This is excerpt is from a short story that I am working on....

Please leave your comments

I SMELL A FUNK IN HERE......

So much going on right now I am trying to keep up with everything. School for the first time is kicking my butt- in a good way for now. I love a challenge. I submitted a short story in my writing class which is always very interesting because we workshop our pieces- yup everyone critiques your fabulous writing. So this time I took a turn and did the forbidden. A sex scene. It's actually funny and interesting at the same time. Trying to take something and make it visible- that's not the tricky part but what I may think is normal or regular someone else may think I am a crazed person is where it can get difficult. I can't wait for the looks I may get on Monday. My class is also funny, people had good comments and critiques, but I think its most helpful when you have a suggestion to follow your critiques.

I wonder what my Prof thought when he read it probably not too much- I'm sure he probably seen his share of work. In class some stories are well versed and some has no real point or essence. Which is now making me read deeper to why did they chose to write this piece and etc. - It almost feels like I need to learn how to read again, because if not I lose interest in work that is good as a writer. I should be able to read anything and find the essence. I should not only look for the plots and other writing styles but why did they choose this particular thing to write about, but also the underlying of the message. When I hear someone trying to make a point or a reason out of nothing or everything it bothers me. Sometimes I have no true reason why I wrote a story- but for me it becomes me getting involved with the character. Also when I have time I need to really work on my grammar- a lot of the time I am so busy thinking in my head and typing that the grammar crap I don't see until I read it and honestly sometimes I read what I want to read the way I want to read it- so basically I don't even see it then. It takes away from my writing- Right now I want to read so bad but I have so many school books and papers I don't have the time to crawl up and dissect a novel instead I am read Chaucer- again this time I hope I get the gist of it!!!! thanks for letting me air out

Blessed Be Her.....

Bless it be
The woman who looks
deadly in her suit with
her high stilettos strutting
carrying her $1,000
handbag, $4,000 diamonds
with no flaws purtruding
from her lopes,her
perfectly round enhanced
breast with no bounce
her badunkadunk that
can balance a filled coffee cup, her
multicolored lacquered face

eyes

18 inches of yaky straight
Perfectly trimmed
Her body is perfect
Her suit is perfect
Her accessories perfectly
Accessorizing who she
Really is, after all
No one is perfect
So blessed be her

Suit hiding scars of her babies
Handbag with no money and used credit
Her diamonds a gift for the whippings
Her perfect breast that
Once sagged with milk for her 3 babies
Her badunkadunk he wanted rounder
The lacquer that covers her face
Her eyes, her eyesHer eyes hold her soul, her story, her pain

Her

Blessed be her….

Nine Years & Still Good

Today is our 9th year anniversary- Wow!! Where did the time go? It really seems like yesterday, well maybe not yesterday but definitely not 9 years. We had our ups and downs but these days the love has just been flowing. I can’t say when the change shifted but right now I can't complain about a thing in my love life- shit my entire life. I think this is where my maturity takes over- I learned and I'm learning everyday to accept what is- that's not to say I take the bs or settle for less but I accept what is- I can’t change it so why waste my precious energy trying to- instead I focus on the shit I like- enough of that for now.

Those who know me and my story can you imagine

I found my love and it feels good all over. We still call each other 3-4 times a day to inquire how the days are going and make silly jokes. This is what I love. At times we use each other for advice, to calm down or to listen. Yeah there are times we argue and hang up on each other too(I think it’s important to disagree) but at the end we shine through it all. I never knew what love was until now. 9 Years is some serious time and we will marry but not now- shit this feels too good, why change a good thing, but I'm sure we will.

This weekend we spend family time in the Pocono Mountain it was soothing for all of us. My honey, my children, his daughter and her friend went to the Poconos Mountain for the weekend. We rented a house that seemed more of a pool house than anything livable, but it was great! On the way up it were boys vs. girls on the drive- back and forth and forth and back on I-80 we raced. They won by only a hair (I was on his tail). We arrived the house was ranch style 1500 sq ft but the pool house was 2000 sq ft. We were deep deep in the hills of the hills; this was the first for all of us. It took 5.1 miles (my navigation) to get to the main road and even longer to the malls. It was good thing. I went grocery shopping before we left so our afternoon lunch was chicken kabobs, burgers, Italian sausages and hot dogs. I love my brain he said “we can eat there don’t cook”. A mother’s intuition – I bought lunch, dinner and breakfast. On Saturday we it either Gustov or Hanna and it rained and rained but it was glorious. The smell of fresh rain in the wood us citydwellers don't get much of that. So we ate bar-be-que(I cooked in the rain) and swam during the afternoon and went to the shopping outlet returned to the house had dinner time, swam again until 2 am and finished with dessert from Friendly's. We are having a great time together and with our families together-who can ask for anything more.....

Will He Be Able?

This morning during my commute to work I couldn't help but to overhear a conversation between a young man and a young girl. Both were in there early twenties- he would be turning 21 soon. It appeared that they attended high school together at sometime and knew some of the same people, like Mike who works in White Castles.

As you can imagine there are many conversations going on but this one sparked an interest for me; it may have been his voice or something or the way he was dressed in old tattered stylish clothing- He wore Air Force 1 sneakers that were old, jeans with holes in the bottom because they were once too big but now fit. A fitted baseball cap with stitching like puzzles pieces. That's not what important, but the fact that he wants to be a nurse or a doctor. I found it interesting – but then I began to think. Did he ever have a shot at his dream? He seemed torn about when he was going to go back to school, but the young lady offered advice "do it now to get it over wit".

Young guy "I know a lot of stuff about the medical field"

Young girl: "You gotta have the stomach for it"

Young guy: "I do – I helped with gunshot wounds and shit. I like that stuff"

Young girl: "I can't do that shit"

Young guy: "I'ma go back to school – they know I like it that is why I was helping"

(My guess is that he was doing an internship maybe- It doesn't sound like he completed high school, so how can he become a nurse or doctor?)

Instantly I felt compassion because I don't think he was ever given a shot or maybe he was. Who knows, but some people argue that everyone has the same opportunities, but that is not true. As a mother who whole heartily believes in my children, I know if I didn't provide the love, guidance, discipline then they couldn't live up to their fullest potential.

Then I starting thinking on a community level and then on race and what happen to that percentage of people who were never given the shot. You know the ones that I am talking about- drug users, alcoholics, the uneducated parents who don't offer support, love, discipline and guidance for their children. They are left out to dry.

Our communities & race as a whole continues to grow with no love, support, education, discipline and guidance.

How can we this change?

August 27 & 28

Here to my first week of my final semester. This has truly been a long time coming for me and it's almost hard to believe in December 2008 I will have a Bachelors of Arts in Creative Writing- Damn I love it- but I realized this is only part of my dream. I want to continue on for my MFA and then I want to be called Dr. Smith- that's right. I love to learn. I wish I could do this and get paid for it. Class began last Wednesday but everyday up to the day I felt as if I wasn't ready. I forced myself to see the light and the end, but it wasn't enough. I did have the focus I needed and was scared. It wasn't 7:30pm that I realized that I can do this. That night I realized I had three classes in my back pocket. I know within the next four months things may have to shake me up a little but I refuse to allow it to monopolize my mind. I want this so bad. I'm taking 3 classes two days a week, while holding a full-time job and a 24-hour job as a mother. Seems like a lot but it's really not my children are old to take care of the "little stuff"- as always I prepare what they need.

Here is to Obama, Obama, and Obama-

I watched the convention on and off – mainly on and Obama brought tears to my eyes. While I watched it with my children I imagined my mother who was a young girl when Dr. Martin Luther King spoke his I Have a Dream Speech which was the same exact date that Mr. Obama made his "Change will Come to Washington"- To be honest I had NO idea this was the same exact date in 1963.

I have to write more…