Grandma's Hood!

Gram's neighborhood at 176th and University Ave in the Bronx, today.

This is the library I told you about, Gram. It wasn't there when she grew up here.

Front door of Gram's building!

Her apartment is in between University and Andrews.

Gram's building!

Gram's school!

Gram, the school to the left is the new middle school.

University Ave.

176th

University Ave.

My Harlem Apartment!

My street! 141st.

My building. We half the left half of the building, my apartment is on the third and fourth floors.

Front door.

My bed and my super New York exposed brick wall!

Pictures of you guys. Gram, that mirror was your Dad's. I love it.

Kept me perfectly warm and dry during our snow storm.

My favorite tangible things, of and from you guys!

Girl's Gotta Do...

I've had enough of being Wicked Southern for now, and am going to focus my blogging here:

http://getitgirls.tumblr.com/

On everything that I think it means to be a great female.

NOLA, baby!!

For my sweet 16-year-old sister's birthday, the Q sisters spent a fabulous 48 hours in Nawlins.

Beignet Parazzi:

Our verdict: worth the hype.

Get It, Girls

The girl and the woman, in their new, individual unfolding, will only in passing be imitators of male behavior and misbehavior and repeaters of male professions. After the uncertainty of such transitions, it will become obvious that women were going through the abundance and variation of those (often ridiculous) disguises just so that they could purify their own essential nature and wash out the deforming influences of the other sex. Women, in whom life lingers and dwells more immediately, more fruitfully, and more confidently, must surely have become riper and more human in their depths than light, easygoing man, who is not pulled down beneath the surface of life by the weight of any bodily fruit and who, arrogant and hasty, undervalues what he thinks he loves. This humanity of woman, carried in her womb through all her suffering and humiliation, will come to light when she has stripped off the conventions of mere femaleness in the transformations of her outward status, and those men who do not yet feel it approaching will be astonished by it. Someday (and even now, especially in the countries of northern Europe, trustworthy signs are already speaking and shining), someday there will be girls and women whose name will no longer mean the mere opposite of the male, but something in itself, something that makes one think not of any complement and limit, but only life and reality: the female human being.

Ranier Maria Rilke

Letters to a Young Poet

You're Supposed to Hate your Boss, Right?

Or get annoyed with them, even occasionally? 

I can't apologize for being head over heels for mine,

who takes me to the Bahamas just because.

Love This Picture

Love this girl.

Photo cred to Erica.  Awesome shot, baby girl!!

Baby Sister Goes to Prom

Gorgeousness. Happinessness.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcakes

http://sweettreatsbakingblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/peanut-butter-cupcakes-with-chocolate.html

It Is So Good To Be Young

When you have amazing friends, you get emails like this:

And when you are 27 and without much responsibility, you can respond (within 15 seconds):

Ahhhh, so good!

So Jack and I hopped on a Greyhound (an experience in itself) and spent about 48 blissful, reckless, almost entirely awake, giggle-filled, spontaneous hours in New York.

Unfortunately, when I got home and wanted to share the experience, I realized my camera never left my bag...

So, we're gonna do this Hangover style.  I collected the relics of the weekend that survived, and we'll piece it together.

CVS bargain bin water bottle. Jackie ran into the Greyhound station 3 solid minutes before the bus left carrying 2 of these filled with gin and tonic. And limes. To make sure that the drinks had limes, Jack skipped dinner and forgot to print her bus tickets.  We managed to board the bus on time and the drinks made our ride entirely delightful.

One Blurry Cell Phone Photo: It appears to be Jackie and I, drinking some awesome and potent Sangria at  Dos Caminos.  This was just after we learned that the Rapture was a sham (forreal?!), after a psychic reading that proved Jackie had a good aura, after we ordered $90 worth of Mexican food that we'd try to shovel down in minutes/drag around the city all night in to-go boxes, and just before we realized that we had to be at a show in 24 minutes, before we'd run tipsy in the rain trying to get a cab to take us to the show.

Tickets and Playbill from Born Yesterday: Jackie's friend Phil produced the show and got us the tickets. Saturday at 8:00pm.
L'Express card: Amazing Le Burger at 3:00am on Saturday to welcome us to the City.
Holiday Inn room key: We slept there for a solid 4 hours of sleep from Saturday at 5am until 9. No shower curtain, felt like heaven after the Greyhound, unfriendly bellhop.
Ticket for the LIRR: When you have less than 48 hours in New York, you should definitely go out to Long Island... Obvi. Only to see the most worthy friends. Sunday at 9am.
MetroCard: With ten bucks still on it... A symbol of our genuine desire to be thrifty losing to our stronger impulse to take cabs...everywhere...

Sooo, no glossy pictures, but plenty to remember the weekend by.
It Is So Good To Be Young.

Young People Being Real About Being Gay in 2011

New York Times feature "Coming Out." 
Five LGBT American young people speak about the reactions of their friends, family, schools and churches to their being being gay.


"I just did it once.  And I just walked down the hallway with her, hand to hand. And everybody looked, everybody reacted. But I just like, I just didn't care...And now like, everybody flows wit it."

"It's nice to be different sometimes."
- Elsie, 17, Brooklyn

Holla atcha next generation.

Oh Hey, North Carolina

I Hear You.

Rock and Rock Explore the New Forward-Facing Camera on Rock's New Phone

"How does this thing work?"

Rock and I Dreamed of Being Able to Drive to the Holyoke Mall in 2000

We knew some Juniors and Seniors who had their licenses, and waited excitedly until I turned 16 so I could drive us in my parents' minivan an hour away to the mall with an 'Express.'

And in 2011, we frolick in London, a little further than an hour away.  Sans cars, avec pure joy, and even some maturity.

Mere, we drank these to celebrate your birthday. Not quite our drink of choice, but festive and regal.

Gram, we don't know these boys, they were all born in the 1990s, and they were fun so we took our picture with them and let them put Rock's license in their mouths. Nbd.

London, you're...well...Brilliant!