Butterflies

Ok, I lied.

I know I wrote in the last post that I would pub the stories I had before I left for vacation... Well, I leave in two days, so clearly I was fooling myself. I just don’t have time. My best friend and her family and I are setting sail for the Western Caribbean this weekend, and as much as I love posting, it’s just not gonna happen. LOL

The plan is to have plenty of pics and lots of funny and hopefully interesting stories to tell. My girl’s fam is a riot, as is she, so I know it’s gonna be a blast. She called me this morning, now I’m in such a state of anticipation, it’s crazy. My stomach is doing flip-flops. and I kinda feel like I’m about to jump out of my skin! That’s how amped I am!


Mr. K and I haven’t been apart this long, and I know I’m going to miss him like crazy; I do a little already, and I haven’t even gone yet!! But, it’s all good. It’s been four years since my last REAL vacation (where I had to use a passport!), and I am LOOOOOOONNNNNGGGGG overdue!! A sista needs this kind of getaway to really get away for a little while, experience a serious change of scenery (and what could be better than the Caribbean????!!?!?!) and really relax, recharge my batteries, and gain greater perspective in my life.

Because when I get back, it will be time to clean house...literally, lol!

So shout outs in the blogosphere, well wishes to all in blogworld, blogville, blogcity, blogtown, and much love to the peeps at blog high.

See ya when I see yuuuuuuhhhhhhh!!!

Brush With The Law

Hmmm…where do I begin?

Since I am already up (at the butt-ass crack of dawn), I figured I might as well pull my little blog offerings together and get around to posting some stuff. This spring---the last 4 weeks of it in particular---have been quite hectic. Between visiting with one out of town college friend and hosting another, I have been on the go here, there, and damn near seems like everywhere.

While I have definitely enjoyed the visits and so forth, it has been quite tiring, and that was evidenced by the fact that I unintentionally fell asleep on my friend who was staying with me one night while she was here after saying I was going to take a quick nap then we’d go out. Yeah. I made up for it, of course, but yo, a sista was simply wiped out!

Needless to say, things have calmed down a bit, but are still on the move b/c I’ll be on a cruise the last week of this month w/my best friend and her family, and there is still much preparation to be done. So, I am in the process of running around doing that.

So let me tell you why I’m up so damn early…

There is some kind of event going on in the park behind my building, and signs have been up since like, Friday, maybe Thursday even, to let people know not to park on specific streets today.

Well, Mr. K had a play date with a friend of mine’s felines and so we did that on Friday. Usually, when I see those signs, I go ahead and park accordingly just so I don’t have to deal with moving the car again. But since I had Mr. K w/me and he’s quite heavy to schlep about in that carrier, I decided to park close so we wouldn’t have far to go.

That was Friday. Saturday is hustling and bustling around my neighborhood anyway, considering that it’s a really nice day out and folks are having their bbq’s and are all over the place, hanging out chilling or driving around. I had my own laundry list of things to do (including the laundry, which I am VERY proud to say I washed 99 percent of everything I’d planned to…woo hoo!), but didn’t make my way out of the apt until like 5 o’clock.

By the time I got home, it was about 8:30 pm, going on 9 o’clock, and I was hungry and exhausted and had bags. So instead of moving my car, like I normally would have, I headed home, grabbed a bite to eat, watched a movie and made a couple phone calls. Needless to say, I’d forgotten all about the signs as I fell into what has been my usual, as of late, food-drunken state and was out like a light at that point.

I woke up around 3:30 am or so to put on pj’s and get back in the bed. Mr. K was up playing around, and took what felt like a small chunk of flesh out of my knee. I was not such a happy camper at that point, I might add. After I readjusted and got settled in, I was snapped to reality with the realization that I still hadn’t moved the car. By this time, it’s 4:30 am, and I decide to make my way out to handle my business once it’s lighter out. I rationalized against 7 am b/c for whatever reason it just seemed too late to me, and settled on 6 am.

I was out of bed at like, 5:30, just starting to throw on some clothes when the buzzer rang. At first I didn’t believe it was for our apt, but it continued to ring, building up in length and intensity. It’s 5:30 in the fucking morning, and I’m like, who the FUCK is ringing our bell this early?????!!!!

Nearly stepping on and tripping over Mr. K to get to the intercom, clearly agitated didn’t even begin to describe how I felt at that point. There have been a few instances when our buzzer would ring for bullshit reasons, sometimes at odd hours. Occasionally, it’s an error on someone’s part, but the latest and greatest incident was some dude trying to get into our building on what was obviously some lie. He didn’t speak to me, but was telling his bullshit story to a guy who, I guess lives in the building, who made it clear that he should move on. The guy was saying some stuff about trying to see his relatives, but they were sleeping. And this was at 1 o’clock in the morning!

So, half asleep still and fueled by the subconscious agitation and frustration of such events, I yelled Who is it into the intercom. No response. (Side note: our intercom has been acting a little crazy lately, and it has been difficult to hear people and to be heard, etc.) The fuck? Now, I’m really heated. And I yell louder this time. The answer really surprised me.

It was the police.

At that point I only tapped the buzzer to the door, and headed back to my room to finish getting dressed. I was going to head down this bitch and see for myself if the cops were really here. Dude sounded official, but in this day and age, can you really tell?

Mr. Policeman is still ringing the buzzer, not as loudly or as long this time, but still frequently. I grab my keys, my phone and two of my hair tie thingys and head out of the door, steaming as I went. But even as I gathered my things, and was feeling all big, bad and bothered, my heart raced and pounded in my chest and my hands were shaking.

Now, if I were my neighbor and heard all this commotion, I would so have been peering out of my peep hole to see what the hell was going on and who it was going on with at this point, lol!

Well, the cops heard me coming down the stairs (oh, and fortunately, I still had my contacts in---that’s another story), and were inside the building by this time. My heart was still doing the 100 meter dash and the long jump in back of my ribs, but the outside of me was a mixture of sleepiness and agitation with an unwashed face, unbrushed teeth and wild ass disheveled hair and rockin a Che Guevara t-shirt to boot.

Damn, that girl looks fierce!!!

As I made my way down the steps, Asian Cop said we were letting you know that you need to move your car before it gets towed, and I replied that that was what I was on my way to do. Hispanic Cop stood by the door.

Since my family did raise me right for the most part, I apologized for yelling into the intercom. Asian Cop said he figured I had trouble hearing him through the speaker. And yes, part of this was true. But I said, yeah, well, anyone can say they are the police. (Tone and voice adding and I ain’t just letting no motherfucka up in here!) He responded with, True.

So, we all headed out and I proceed to make my way to the car, which was about a short block away. Well, wouldn’t you know AC and HC pull up next to me in this big ass police paddy wagon and ask me if I want a ride to my car. I gave AC a look like, seriously, in that? Making a joke, I said are you sure that’s where you’re going to take me, and AC looked like he didn’t appreciate my humor. I did, though, and chuckled slightly to myself. I got in and said thanks.

They were obviously official and were pretty neutral in our dealing so far. With no reason to fear them or to continue to be suspicious, I hopped in. (I know, right! After all that.) I asked them if they let everyone know that their car’s about to be towed in situations like this, and I believe the answer was affirmative.

As rounded the corner on the west side of the park, I saw my baby looking so lonely all by herself, and I was glad to be getting out of NYPD Towing’s way. I had feared in my sleep that it would be towed, and that’s why I was actually up before the cops showed up. I think it was a warning to me, though, b/c I had had a dream about it.

I thanked Officers Hispanic and Asian again before exiting the vehicle, and was met with a gentle you have a good day, to which I responded with, ya’ll too, and got the fuck up outta there.

On my way back to the crib, I replayed the situation over and over in my mind. My suspicion of the NYPD amongst other factors really caused me to behave in a bit of a belligerent manner. I have only had a couple incidents with the police since I’ve lived in NYS, and was not at all pleased with how one cop out of a group of them behaved during a domestic dispute that I was not a part of, but was present in the home at the time of. He was talking to me like I was the one who fucking threw the chick down the stairs, and I didn’t appreciate it at all. That’s that good cop-bad cop bullshit.

In remembering that encounter, I was glad that they were men of color. Things might have actually been different had they been white. My attitude was quite stank and I made my distrust known from the get go, but they appeared to be neutral to that. Appeared to be. And I wondered if they were making mental notes and shit, especially now that they know the person attached to the license plate and where I live. I wondered if they thought I might be trouble at some point, and it would be best to remember who I am.

The more I thought about it, I thought that maybe with all that police interrogation and inference shit they learn that they quickly sized me up as harmless…as one who would rather avoid trouble than cause it, and who through and through was a law-abiding citizen.

And maybe in this situation, it would be the latter, but as we all know how crazy people are in NYC, if the scenario were different somehow, I might not be viewed that way. Some people raise their kids to respect the police, that cops are their friends and should be trusted. My parents even taught me that in a way. But then you see on the news how some of them are out shooting black men left and right with what appears to be little reason, how folks are violating women by impersonating them (and other officials), and you hear stories of how they arrest innocent bystanders on practically no cause and hold them for two days (happened to someone I know). And then there are times when they’ve been needed and were nowhere to be found. Who wouldn’t be suspicious and mistrustful???

Well, now that I’m back in the sanctity of my home, it just dawned on me that my roommate’s (and guest---another story for another day) must be wondering what the hell all the commotion was about and are curious to know what was going on. I don’t believe any of them EVER heard me sound like that, and then just head out the way I did. A zillion different things are probably running through their minds; I know mine would were I a witness to the situation.

Anyway…

I have a couple posts to make that I didn’t get a chance to put up before this one, but am going to date it accordingly. I also have a few stories to tell that I hadn’t had a chance to write out, but I will get to that before I leave for vaca.

I hope all is well out in blogworld!