Della Lives!!!! For Now At Least........

So my goal of blogging once a week seems to not be happening like I wanted......but here I go anyway.  Lots has happened in the last few weeks.  I just re-read my last blog, so I'll start off where I left off.  So I was ranting and raving about me turning the Portland job down because of the crappy relocation package....so I got a phone call about 3 days later.  It was the manager saying she had been in communication with the HR department to try to negotiate the best possible offer for me because they really thought I would be an asset.  Ok....so I'm getting kinda excited, waiting to be shocked and amazed by some amazing offer.  And she tells me that they will reimburse me for one weeks stay at an hotel until I find an apartment........wait, did I hear this correctly?  You want me to pay for a week in a hotel, save my receipts then get paid eventually?  This is what you come back with?? Comical. Moving on lol.

So for New Years I went to Miami to visit Brandy.  The weather was no less than 77/78 everyday we were there.  The pic below was us in all of our sexy glory New Year's Eve night.



New Year's Eve

Life is but a beach chair...



So while I was in Miami one of Columbus' Groupon's was for a 6 week boot camp.  So I blogged back in the fall about the healthier changes I had been making in regards to eating better.  So far I have lost 15 pounds, so I think it's time to incorporate some healthy exercise into the mix.  So the end of next month I'm starting boot camp twice a week for 6 weeks.  My only concern is my hair......I might just be pony-tailing it up for a while.

And to address the title of this blog, last week Della decided her time was up.  I turn on my laptop to get this weird error message.  It was a blank screen with an error message, wouldn't even load windows to let me start in safe mode or anything.  So from my phone I googled what the error message meant and it means that your hard drive isn't recognized, it pretty much died on you.  Thank god I have an external drive and back it up weekly.  Anyway I just chalked it up as an L since I've had Della since 2005, I figured I got my money's worth.  I texted my tech friend who said I could either invest in a new hard drive or just get a new laptop all together since its a dinosaur (his words, not mine).  So I figure the latter made since being I've had it damn near 6 years.  I just gave up, turned it off, mourned my loss and went about my business.  4 hours later before bed, I just wanted to turn it on just to see...and bam, now it works again.  My fingers are crossed that Della hangs in there till tax time, if you see any good laptop deals, shoot them my way!

Last week Dr. Cornel West was speaking at OSU in honor of the upcoming MLK holiday.  I posted on my facebook profile about the upcoming speak and got mixed responses from friends.  Some who said they heard him speak before, and they had no idea what he was talking about, etc.  So I went into it with rather indifferent expectations.  How happily shocked I was that it wasn't the case.  What a powerful message he delivered, about Dr. King's legacy.  He was articulate, funny and moving.  I took some rather sporadic notes, a few of which I will share.....  Even though I may have to read one of his books with a pocket dictionary as well, I have every intention of picking up one of his books.  I hope his writings are just as powerful.

Dr. Cornel West

So just some highlights from his talk:

- We should be lifting other's as we climb

- A comparison and contrasting of Black vs. White Leaders

- How African Americans have been taught to hate themselves for 400 years

- Why are there no modern day MLK's among us?? Because no one wants to die to get the message 
   across.  People get killed for speaking the unpopular truth.  So if you are going to make a stand, don't do it
   alone.  It's all nice and forward thinking till they start shooting....

- The pathology of the poor vs. the pathology of greed.  Whenever we speak of poor people as a whole, we
   speak of the pathology of their circumstance and how their mind frame got themselves into their current 
   state.  But when we speak of greed, such as the economic collapse of wall street, all you hear about is how
   more regulation is needed.

- 4 billion a month spent on war in Iraq and 4 billion a year spent on education

- Why are we well-adjusted to injustice?

- The oval office as a golden cage.  One can not truly be free to do what they want and know is right even as
   president

Ill let you know my book selection and maybe so overall messages I took away from it.  It may take a while for me to get thru one of his books, but I'm determined!

Don't forget to take my quiz to the left.  How you feeling about your new astrological sign?? I'm not a Cancer anymore? I'm not really into horoscopes in general, but a Gemini sounds far from the type of person I am...a Cancer I will still claim to be.  Womp Womp to all those who got the wrong sign tatted on em. On another note, Miguel's song Sure Thing is on heavy rotation currently.  I posted the poor excuse of an Usher video remake below, but I still like the song.

Until next time!