Vacation '07: I love it when we're cruising together

So by now you've had time to read about the couple days leading up to the actual cruise. Now it's time to do a re-cap of what happened while we were on the boat. I won't be as long-winded with this post, I'll try to let the pictures talk a little (many of these pictures are courtesy of JAC).

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The morning of Jan. 1, 2007 not only meant the starting of a new year, but it meant the day that we debarked on our 4 day adventure on the ocean. Starting from Miami, we headed to Key West, Florida and then to Calica, Mexico.

Day 1 on the boat:


This is actually in Key West, but it's the best shot of the boat

We boarded the boat at around 2pm. There was a mixer for our travel group at 6pm so that was pretty much the only thing on our minds, aside from food. So when we got on the ship we immediately went upstairs to hit the buffet. That's how you start your cruise off right! With a buffet, some complimentary champagne, and lots of new people to watch. Beautiful!


How could I forget about the death drill before we left the Port of Miami? Notice how a certain person with a Ron Jeremy mustache is completely asleep during the drill? CLASSIC!

Day 2: Key West, Florida:

The highlights:

• Jet skiing
• Kace giving me that call to let me know she found a jet skiing spot in Key West (siced me!)
• Telling JAC I was gonna be up at 6am and off the boat ready to explore Key West with the ladies and getting up right around 10am or so.
• Watching Kacey gun that jet ski like she is a professional stunt-woman
• Trying to explain to JAC where the "towers" were when we we're jet skiing
• Trying to keep my swimming trunks from turning into a "thong-in-the-front" while jet skiing
• Having drinks and chit-chatting with everyone after we got off the jet skis
• Two words: Conch-Fritters. If you have been to Key West, you know what a conch shell is, and I hope you know what conch fritters are too!
• Jet skiing back to the place we rented the jet skis and running into BHill and his friend on their jet ski headed out. You know how you are on vacation and you're a part of the group and you bump into somebody else in your group somewhere and everyone's pumped? Imagine that in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida Keys. BHill even has pictures he took with his waterproof camera. I gotta get those and update this post.

If I had to pick any lowlights in Key West, it would have been getting compared to Swizz Beatz for the one-millionith time and Woo getting sick and not even making it off the boat that day. I needed my dogg with me!

Check out the pictures though:


I guess I can't be mad about the whole Swizz thing, huh?






Kace, me and JAC getting ready to head out.




That's me in the front. I probably look invisible considering how skinny I am.



Before we move on to day 3, I gotta give a shot-out to my man Dane who has one hell of a way of sleeping. If you put your headphones on, turn the volume up real loud, and tune out the TV in the background, you can get a little sound of what I was talking about at the end of my first post about this vacation.



Shot out to my Motorola Q for this footage! I hope Dane doesn't whoop my azz for this, but if something does happen to me, you can find the culprit HERE!

Day 3: Calica, Mexico:

Highlights:

• Stepping off the boat to a bright, sunny day. Not that it wasn't this case in Key West, but it just felt different
• The ride from the port to the ranch we went to for our ATV excursion. The van driver we had was off the hook. Dancing around and talking loud. He made the ride enjoyable though.
• All the Volkswagen Beetles on the road. WTF?
• The ATV excursion itself. We rode ATVs for a while, took a break and 3 black guys (including myself) and a Mexican played volleyball. How often do you see THAT!
• The swimming pool at the ranch. This is the only time on this trip that I was able to take a swim and boy oh boy was it relaxing!

Lowlights:

• Carnival runs out of bottled water right before I get off the boat. So I have to cop two Red Bulls to drink. We're in MEXICO! How do they run out of water on the boat when they know we're in MEXICO! I was heated
• Flipping over my ATV. I could have gotten hurt, but I didn't. Thank God! It was fun gunning that thing though. That is until I flipped it and had to propel myself off of it before I was crushed.
• Again, my man Woo did not make it out for the excursion. He went shopping instead. Got some bangin' gifts for his family though

Check out the pictures


For those of you who cared to notice, this IS NOT the same shirt from yesterday! LOL. Same hat though. LOL.


This is the PRE-FLIP shot they took. LOL.

The remainder of my pictures are going to be from the cruise ship. Mainly the dinners, the formal night, and other random shots. I'll just do captions for them. But before I do that, I'd like to show you a little video of my man Woo trying to hoop on the cruise. It's really nothing special but since he's the only person out there in jeans and New Balance trying to play basketball, I found it quite hilarious!



The rest of the flicks


Formal night started off pretty formal


I got all Gordon Gartrelle'd up


Fellas were looking smooth...


Ladies were looking beautiful...


Dinner was GREAT!


Then the liquor kicked in (LOL). Yes, I'm a bama, but it's vacation. "I'm partyin'!"


The fellas clean up well, I think.


What do you think?



I have to post the picture below because it's the only picture I have with Fool AKA Mike and TC in it (two people on the left):



Last but not least, I HAVE TO give a BIG shot-out to our travel planner, "Aunt Tricie". We (read, Woo) put her though some difficulties prior to the trip and she held us down like a real auntie would.



So we had to show her some love the last night of the trip and get her a bottle of authentic Mexican wine. Woo picked it up but we all presented it as a gift. She definitely deserved it.



I have so many favorite moments from this trip and I want to remember them all so here they are (LOL)...

• Jet skiing in Key West
• ATVing in Mexico
• Staying up late every night talking and walking around the ship
• Yelling "We're not even on the boat yet!" in Miami a million times!
• Laughing at Woo carrying around those silver balloons in Miami
• Yelling Dane's name and replying "YEAAAAHHHHHHHH!" like Lil Jon (Don't take that one out of context freaks!)
• Club Bed's food and partying with the ladies
• The late night talk we all had in Miami
• Dancing in the "Diamonds are Forever" club on the ship. Even when I got caught doing the chicken noodle soup dance! HA!
• Peach Bellini's and Kir Royales
• Dressing up for dinner
• Buying souvenirs for my family
• Seeing The Golden Girl's dad happy on the trip
• TC saying "I know Bone, Woo, ..." at the mixer the first night on the ship
• Beating the crap out of everyone on that basketball court (shot out to my teammates Woo and BHill who proved that's no "I" in "team" but there's definitely one in "winners")
• Fool's joke on the plane ride home:

  Fool: Ayo Bone, what does a gay horse eat?
  
  Me: [chuckling already] I dunno man...I know you got some -ish up your sleeve with this one
  
  Fool: [putting on his flaming gay voice] HEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYY!
  
  I then proceed to laugh so loud that everyone around us starts looking at me harshly. LOL. I can't help it, I'm corny like that.

• Just sitting back and enjoying Woo and his antics. The man is walking entertainment. I love it! If you don't enjoy this guy's company, then something is really wrong with YOU!
• Talking with the fellas about something other than women. We really do have some serious discussions, contrary to what people may think
• Dane and his professional talking. That man has a gift or a curse depending on your perspective
• The view off the back of the boat late at night, priceless. Only a shooting star could have made it better. Okay, okay, stop laughing!
• Getting lost going to dinner the first night on the ship
• The comedy show on the ship
• Getting on the plane to leave cold-azz Bodymore and heading to Florida!

They should have called this Napoleon Burgundy or Ron Dynamite

But I Blades of Glory makes sense...

"I see you still look like a 15 year-old girl, but NOT HOT!"



There is no doubt that after I go see Smokin' Aces, I will definitely be seeing this movie!

Being THE CHOSEN ONE Barack Obama

"I need you to hate, so I can use you for your energy"

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In the past few days I've had several conversations about Barack Obama. And of course, I've touched on him in one of my recent posts because he's a pretty hot topic right now in American politics. So here's a couple snippets I wanted to share from my convos about Barack. I really suggest reading each article before reading my comments so I don't sound like a raging maniac. LOL.

EXHIBIT #1

After reading this article entitled "Who does Barack Obama think he is?", I had some thoughts. Essentially, she uses Barack's extreme popularity right now to justify her stance that a woman could never receive the same acclaim, popularity, or political impetus at this point in her political career. She even gives examples of several woman in comparable positions to Barack at this point. But that was then, and...Well, you can read my thoughts in a second but I'll just say that the media is far stronger today than it was during the timeframes in which she references the female politicians in her articles. But I'll save all that for another post and just put my thoughts in the air real quick like:

Whoever wrote this #1 sounds like a serious feminist. #2 makes some good points nevertheless. But #3, it's not Barack's fault that he's been catapulted into extreme popularity. The man seems genuine and not seeking the spotlight. The media is firmly placing it on him and he is using it strategically but not excessively.

EXHIBIT #2:

After being asked about what's revealed in this article entitled " Obama to form panel to explore presidential bid", by a friend today, I had some thoughts (in addition to my thoughts from yesterday):

I think that Barack's announcement pretty much says he's going to run. It gives him the ability to start raising funds "under the radar". But most of all, I think it's a smart move because it shows that he is putting a lot of thought into his moves leading up to his announcement as to whether he'll run or not. By doing this, he can gauge public reaction as to what they think he's going to do while raising money just in case he does run and also using his knowledge combined with other people's knowledge (his panel) to assess whether or not he should run.

EXHIBIT #3

Last but not least, after my co-worker sent me this article entitled "Effect of Obama's Candor Remains to be Seen", I had some more thoughts. This one really took the cake though. It's not as scathing as the article in Exhibit #1, but the more I think about it, the more I am disappointed in the fact that people may be searching for a reason to use this man's sincerity against him.

What I don't get is that there has to be an effect because of his candor... A man can't come across as genuine, open, honest, and charismatic in the political world without being questioned. Whereas the effed up [dishonest] politicians come across effed up and they still end up in the oval office for 8 str8 years. This makes no sense! The man should be applauded (if anything) for being as open about his mistakes as he's been. We've had two recent presidents who've lied about having sex with an intern, smoking weed [and/or cocaine], and leading us into a war that we never really needed to be in. On top of that, the latter two took place while the president's occupied the oval office! And yet and still, we seek to either complain or search for potential detrimental affects for a man who's up to this point been honest and given us no reason to think otherwise. GO MEDIA GO!

But what can you expect when a man of minority-blood has received such hype and such great expectations have been placed on him not by himself, but the monster that is the media. I guess this is why my co-worker Todd said he thinks that Barack will be eaten alive by the media machine. I think I get it now Toddler, I think I get it.

EXTRA CREDIT
My co-worker:

"Just because there's political excitement surrounding Barack doesn't mean doesn't necessarily mean he'll get shot. who was the last american assassinated? does lennon in 1980 count? otherwise we're back to what? rfk and mlk in 1968?"

My response:

Dude, Tupac got killed like 10 years ago. That was an assassination for sure! What about Bobby Kennedy? Martin Luther King? Not president's but serious political swag was wielded by these guys.

The shot that will be felt round 'the hood will have nothing to do with political excitement, it'll have more to do with ethnic background and what some people will fear that ethnic background may mean when-and-if he makes it to the oval office.

My perspective right now. We'll see Hillary as President before we see Barack. Why? Because Barack is going to be viewed by most as Black regardless of what his bio says. Why? Because he has dark skin. People may not want to admit it or believe it, but it is what it is and that's how he'll be viewed. With that said, the politicians will fear him because of that. They don't know if he'll get elected and get in the oval office and start having 40s and blunts every week. They don't know if he'll get in there and go either Tupac or Huey Newton on Congress. They just don't know. But, they probably assume/think that if there's a woman in office that (because of the covert machismo in this country) they'll be able to manipulate her, control her, and/or use her as a puppet. Even if it is someone as intelligent and strong-willed as Hillary Rodman Rodham Clinton. So while I may know jack-shyt about politics in the big scheme of things and even less shyt about political posturing and maneuvering, I know he's Black (to most) and she's a woman and people fear women less in this country than they fear intelligent, charismatic, and forward-thinking Black men.

And of course, I have my thoughts in general about Barack that have found their way onto this blog and been engaged in some great conversations over the past few months. Most of you probably already know that I am really a fan of Barack and I hope good things for him. But at the same time, I fear for him because of all that surrounds the current point of his political career. Too much too early could be very detrimental. While not moving while you're HOT could be even more deadly. I am proud of you Barack, but I don't envy your position nor the stress and ridiculous amount of media coverage and personal investigation that comes with it. Thank God you seem to be comfortable with you are, where you've come from, and wherever it is that you decide to go. You've officially made my list of role models!

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I wonder what Mel Gibson or Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf would do to Barack!

The cost (per notch) of being a "John"

"All this love for free! Better come and get some!"

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This picture can be explained by reading this "Cost per Notch" blogpost. And it's not referring to a literal "notch", but the figurative "notch on your belt" that fellas often refer to.

A co-worker of mine sent me a link to the post and I couldn't help but crack up after I read it because this really is an example of how much (or little, or both, depending on your perspective) sense things make when you really sit down and think about them. It's also funny because I would never have thought to have broken down the cost of fine-dining to get some "action" versus the cost of paying an escort (read as: "skunt-rat") for a "good time." The latter isn't even an option in my mind. But, like most men, I have participated in the former even if getting some "action" wasn't my intention. But I guess no matter how you look at it and no matter which way you end up having relations with someone, you're paying in some sort of way.

While I think the "Cost per Notch" blogpost is quite entertaining, I also think it took a LOT of effort to sit back and put a monetary value on the amount of money you spent solely in the pursuit of some azz. But I guess when you're just trying to get some action and not really trying to get to know someone, the money matters a lot more than it would otherwise.

But all I can think of is: "You ni**as ain't players mayne, ya'll some PAYERS!"

Miscellaneous Randomness....

• Obama's smarter than any of us could ever have imagined: Obama to form panel to explore presidential bid
  
  Very smart move! I just hope it's not the panel from those "Man Law" commercials. More seriously though, exactly who is going to make this panel? I'd like to think it would be some sort of Black Brain Trust, but who really qualifies to fill the Black Brain Trust? Really, I'd like to know.
  
  For more of my thoughts on Barack, check here



• Use my wireless connection at your own risk: A Singaporean teenager who illegally tapped into a neighbor's wireless Internet network was placed on 18 months' probation by a district court Tuesday
  
  I guess this means I should stop using that "star" network my computer's wireless card finds? Then again, this isn't Singapore. You people out there with wireless networks at home better get on your WEP-key GRIND! And YES, I know this probably should have been a web nerd alert.



• God is GOOD: Embryo saved after Katrina is born.

  "Sixteen months after being rescued as a frozen embryo from a hospital flooded by Hurricane Katrina, Noah Benton Markham entered the world Tuesday morning and was greeted by his cheering family."

  Reminds me of something NaS wrote a while ago. It's not really directly related at all, but I think you'll understand why I thought of it...
  
  I existed in a womb just like an abyss/
  Came straight from spirit land my hands balled in a fist/
  Punching on my moms stomach kicking on her cervix/
  Twitching cause I'm nervous/
  Thought my intended purpose/
  Was to be born to reign, not in scorn or vain/
  But to take on a name, my pops chose for me/
  Bloodstream full of indo/
  Developing eyes looking out my belly button window/
  My father's face wears a frown/
  And I'm wondering if they even want me around/
  Cause I'll go back to spirit town/
  So I could rest longer before I come back down/
  The chute again, in the near future when/
  My moms and pops can agree on this/
  Was here before but my moms saw her gynocologist/
  He dumped me off, first they want me then turn around and they dont/
  You got a 120 days do what you want/
  But as for me coming back this be my last time/
  Abort me, keep me, give me away, make up ya mind/
  
  They must wanna keep me, cause 4 months past and I'm still alive/
  Guess I got what you call an ill-will to survive/
  When I look hard the lights is killing my eyes/
  I know when moms is laying down cause I get bored and start to get live/
  Move side to side hear loud music and vibe/
  All black babies are born with rhythm thats no lie/
  Solar energize, mineralize food through my mothers tube/
  I'm covered in this thick layer of goo/
  Month two was the least most comfortable/
  My umbilical cord choking me/
  But month 3 was closer, see/
  Thats when pops took moms to see the doc at the clinic/
  But I was saved cause he changed his mind in the last minute/
  Watching 'em yell, heard my moms voice well/
  Feared fist fights, so terrified when we fell/
  While they broke up furniture and smashed plates on the wall/
  I wondered if I am born will I be safe at all/
  This place they call the world though my view was so large/
  Couldn't wait to get up, grow up and take charge/
  Month 5, Month 6 went by, hoping I'm born in July/
  But the Lord already figured out a date and time/
  Septemeber 14th, 73/
  Get ready world, doctors in the front waiting for me/
  Arms open cause they know when I drop, alot of sh*t's gonna stop/
  See how the goverment will start re-training cops/
  Month 9, I'm a week over due, the labor induced/
  Pops told my moms to push and take deep breaths too/
  Said stay calm, holding her arm, I'm trying to hold on/
  Surgical gloves touching my scalp, my head pops out/
  Everything blurry, my first breath screams out/
  Tears pouring down my pops face he's so proud/
  Wanted to hold me, but I was so bloody/
  They washed me off and he said "At least that ni**a aint ugly!"/
  Placed me in his arms snuggly, laid me on my mother/
  Finally, I got to see who held me in her body/
  She loved me,and I plan to over through the devil/
  Y'all bout to see this world in trouble/
  Moth%rfuck%rs/

Ran-Dumb Miscellaneousness...

"Dude, you totally JAC'd that title!"

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I'm siced about seeing Maya Angelou



I got the following message in my daily JHU Broadcast email this morning:

Poet Maya Angelou will be the keynote speaker at the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration at noon on Friday, Jan. 19. There will also be a special memorial tribute to Coretta Scott King.

Man, I am putting this in my phone right now so I do not forget! This is going to be special!

For those of you in Baltimore who are reading this, I highly suggest that you make it a point to come out for this speech, especially if you can make accommodations to be there on your lunch break. I'm sure it'll be well worth it.

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Double-shot of Thera-Flu, on the rocks!

I'm trying really hard to catch a cold right now. I've felt it coming the last two or three days but I have done everything I can to fight this thing off. This morning, I'm drinking this last packet of liquid hell Thera-Flu. If this doesn't stop this thing before it starts, I may be out of commission by Sunday.

My typical plan of attack for colds is to get them before they get me. So I start drinking cough medicine as soon as I feel myself coughing a few times. And I sip on Thera-Flu whenever I feel like I'm starting to get congested or like a cold is about to come over me. I don't like to take medicine in general so I try to take minor stuff before I get sick so that I never have to take the "real" medicine when I do get sick. But of course there are times when there's really no way around taking the real-deal.

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Woo, w-w-woo-woo-woo!



Gotta check out the ode to my right-hand-man Randy over at Zuri She Wrote.

Vacation '07: Countdown to 2007

If you haven't read Part ONE, you should! LOL.

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...You wake up in your hotel on New Year's Eve and you think, "This is beautiful! It's sunny, I'm in Fort Lauderdale, and I know I'll be somewhere in Miami tonight having the time of my life when the clock strikes 12AM! Back home my friends are probably dealing with rain, snow, or just plain 'ole cold winter weather. Man, I wish...

• I wish they could be here, with me.
• I wish my mom was here to call me at 6am chipper and happy, ready to eat breakfas. Even though she knows I hate being called that early.
• I wish my man Weeze was here wake up at 5AM but not bother me until 10am because he knows I like to sleep in (LOL).
• I wish Jon was here so I could hear him say: "OOOOOhhhhhhh! Ya'll boyz was CLEAN last night!"
• I wish my brother Marcus was here so his first trip to Miami could be highlighted by moments with his brother.
• I wish my stepfather was here to irk the crap out of my mother by not wanting to go out and just sit in the hotel room all day
• I wish my grandparents were here so my grandmom could take pictures of any-and-everything that happened and my grandfather could say "Heyyyyy Mikeeeeeee!" the first time he saw me every day.
• I wish Bay was here so I could show him that there's life outside of Capitol Heights, MD
• I wish Sei and Lionel were here to say "Boney, you and Randy are some wild dudes!" and giggle unstoppably
• I wish my sister was here to sice me up to drink some Mojitos with her
• I wish I could spend a weekend like this with everybody I love.

Man oh man, you guys just don't know how much I wish...

All those wishes may come true one day, but on New Year's Eve 2007, I was pretty happy with the company I was keeping, Dane and Woo.

The plan was to wake up and catch up with Kace to go jet skiing on South Beach. Out of the three of us guys, I was the only one gung-ho about jet skiing and Kace was the only one out of the ladies that was gung-ho about jet skiing. So even though I woke up late, I thought that there was still a chance I'd be able to go jet skiing on South Beach. That is, until we got to South Beach and found out that the jet skiing service was not operating. But before that even took place, we had a little adventure at our hotel in Fort Lauderdale before we left. Mr. Woo ended up talking on the phone while we were at the 7-Eleven across the street from our hotel. Turns out that he would get into an argument and Dane and I would be sitting in the car waiting on him for what seemed like an eternity. In the meantime though, I was able to cop another pair of my 7-Eleven designer impostor stunna-shades for the low-low price of $6.99. Randy had lost my first pair at club BED the night before. Little did I know that this purchase would complete my Swizz Beatz look for the day.


Why did I ever let this picture take place? I think I was just in a good mood because I was with Brandi. These are not the glasses I mentioned above. This picture is just to let everybody get the whole "he looks very Swizz-ish" out of their systems.

Back to the trip though. We made it to Miami, parked, and found the ladies on Ocean Drive where (from what I gather) they'd been eating (take a look at their bill, whew!) and people-watching. Fortunately for US, most of the guys there were fruitcakes so it probably made us look that much HOTTER (don't laught too hard at that ladies)! We talked for a few seconds and decided to head to the beach. But before we did that, I asked Jessie to take a couple pictures of the us. After those pictures were taken, little did I know that I would have my lowest moment of the entire trip.

We headed to the beach and hung out for a couple minutes and then I realized that I lost my digital camera somewhere between Ocean Drive and the beach. Was I blown? YES! Is this the first time I've been in Miami and lost a digital camera, NO! In 2003 I lost my digital camera in a similar situation on South Beach so I should have known better. I should have been paying attention. I should have been more responsible. Isn't that right JAC?


Picture courtesy of JAC. Actually, most of the pictures you've seen so far are courtesy of JAC.


All SMILES!

After searching the path we walked and searching in the area we were sitting, I resigned to the fact that my camera was gone, never to be recovered. I was upset for a few minutes so I went off by myself and stood in the water, letting the sound of the ocean and the view calm my nerves. After that, I was good. Disappointed, but good. I wanted a drink though (LOL).

After we left the beach, I was as hungry as a hostage so Dane and I went to grab something quick at JohnnyRockets on Ocean Drive. We ended up seeing Drew Gooden and Damon Jones there eating as well. I guess the Cavaliers and Heat must have played the night before or were playing soon. We sat and had a couple Heinekens and ordered one for Woo too since he'd left the beach to go do "something" and was going to meet us at JohnnyRockets. By the time Woo got to the table, Dane and I were two Heinekens in and waiting on our food. While we were eating, a few young ladies who went to college with Dane walked past and ended up sitting down with us. They were pretty down-to-earth and talkative, which surprised me a bit, but it was definitely a pleasant surprise.



As we were sitting and chatting, TC, Kace, JAC, and Jessie came by JohnnyRockets and sat at the table next to us. It was at this point that I noticed a certain NBA player giving me (I should say, me, Woo, and Dane) the straight ice grill. Damon Jones! Cigar in his mouth, few million in the bank, and probably more low-budget-lowered-expectation NBA groupies than you can shake a stick at, HATIN'! What for? Of course I ignored it as I was the only person who noticed it, but it struck me as comical.

After we finished eating, we had to get ready to head back to Fort Lauderdale and change up for the night's festivities (that we'd not yet decided on, LOL). So we left and headed back to Fort Lauderdale, got dressed, and returned to South Beach fresh to def! We met the ladies at their hotel and proceeded to walk toward Ocean Drive where we knew we'd be hanging out walking the streets and partying till the clock struck midnight. Honestly, I don't think we really had any idea what we were going to get into. But we knew that Ocean Drive would be poppin' so we just walked in that direction. And when you have 4 ladies looking like they just came from a Beyoncé (or "Bee-yonce", like Kace says) video shoot, you'd probably have went with the flow too! LOL. But while we were walking, we walked past this hotel and a guy who worked there told us there was a rooftop party and that we should check it out. My reaction...


Let's get it!

So, we did just that. Unfortunately, when we got to the roof we realized that if there was a party there, we were going to have to be "it", because no one was up there. So we did what any quick-thinking, liquor-in-the-bag toting group of young folks would do in this situation. We found ourselves some seats in the corner, cracked that bottle of vodka open, and got to sippin'! LOL.


Doesn't Dane look happy?


We're all ready to go, but we gotta finish these daggon drinks first!

Once we finished taking our swigs, we decided to leave this rooftop "party" and head to the beach. As we walked to the beach I noticed that it was about 11:45PM. So we stepped it up a little bit to ensure that we were literally on South Beach when the clock struck MIDNIGHT! When we got to the beach we quickly popped that champiggity and when the clock struck 12 we all celebrated. As I stood back and just absorbed the moment, I noticed that everybody celebrated as a group but everyone also took a moment to celebrate on their own. It was as if we all needed a moment to reflect on where we were, where we came from, and where we wanted to go in 2007. There was a sort of depth to this celebration that each of us somehow tapped into in our own way. That, in and of itself, was a beautiful thing!


Bye to 2006, HEEEEYYYYYYYY to 2007!


Probably my favorite picture from the entire trip. Definitely in the top 3.

But cracking midnight was really just the start of this night. After we celebrated on the beach, we ended up back on Ocean Drive just walking around, checking out the clubs and restaurants, and we ended up in Fat Tuesdays. What took place inside Fat Tuesdays will go down as one of the funniest moments of the trip for me. There's a little club in Fat Tuesdays and that joint was packed! I mean packed like a Rayful Edmonds crackhouse on the first of the month! Or better yet, packed like the Kobe in that girl out in Colorado a few years back (ouch). Anyway, the pictures speak for themselves. Let's just say that ole' boy in the white was not bashful. Not bashful at all and quite entertaining. And Mr. Clean (you'll see) thought he was young, flyy, and flashy...


Is that a roll of quarters in your pocket or are you just happy to see a sistah?


Kace trying to ignore this bama but he would NOT go away. LOL!

The next two pictures I MUST put into perspective. This guy 1) had on a velour sweatsuit in the middle of a hot-azz club in Miami, 2) had to be at least 43.5 years old, 3) had on a gold chain with a barbell on it, and 4) thought he was cooler than a popsicle! This is some classic -ish people! CLASSIC!


Lean back! Lean back!


She tripped me out lifting that joint like she was working out!

After Fat Tuesday we ended up hitting Wet Willies where, at the door, I was mistaken by some young lady for none other than Swizz Beatz. She aactually said out loud: "That's Swizz Beatz!"

As you saw in a pic above, Woo found some balloons hanging somewhere (I have no idea) while we were walking down the street after leaving Fat Tuesdays and just held on to them. Why? I dunno. But it became rather hilarious after a while. Imagine seeing one random dude on South Beach walking around with a gaggle of silver balloons. It wasn't his birthday, not even close. This wasn't a silver wedding anniversary party, it was New Year's Day! But Randy will be Woo and Woo will be Randy.



After we did enough walking, we headed back toward the ladies' hotel (fellas, don't get too excited) and sat out in the front of their hotel for a minute. We all decided we would head to the diner across the street from their hotel and we went and grabbed a table. We proceeded to get the absolute worst service I have ever had at a restaurant. But we were on a high of sorts so we didn't even care. It probably took about an hour to get our food, no joke. But we were sitting there talking, some of us in-and-out of consciousness (meaning, sleeping), and some of us just people-watching. It was Miami so people were still strolling through and things were still jumpin!

The ladies did the wonderful gesture of paying for our food (like they had paid for the alcohol for our rooftop binge drinking session and the champiggity we popped on the beach) and headed to their room. Woo, Dane, and I sat there for a few more minutes soaking in New Years Day in South Beach and all of us were probably thinking of ways to avoid being the one who drove us an hour back up 95 North to Fort Lauderdale. LOL. We all agreed that we were having one helluva time and like I'd said the night before, "We [weren't] even on the boat yet!"

I ended up driving to Fort Lauderdale after we walked what seemed like 5 miles from the restaurant to our rental car. It was definitely a rough drive and I am glad Dane tried his best to stay up with me. The worst part of that drive was having no music in the car (because none of us brought CDs) and having to listen to wack-azz radio stations the entire time. But we made it home safely and crashed, knowing we'd have to be up tomorrow in time to head to the airport, return our rental car, and catch the shuttle to the Port of Miami to get on our cruise.

And you guys are probably thinking, "Dag! They've already done all this stuff and he's typed too long-azz blogposts and there's still a cruise to talk about! Jeez!"

Smooches people, I wuv you too! ;-)

Vacation '07: Parting is such sweet sorrow

DISCLAIMER: The nerd in me would like to note that this is but part 1 in an X part series, where X is an integer greater than 1 and possibly approaching infinity depending on how many random moments I recall until the next vacation. Gotta mix some educated talk in there with my ghetto banter, right?

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"We used to use umbrellas to face the bad weather/Now we travel [coach] class to change the forecast"...

Talk about starting off your year on the right note! Miami for New Year's...Hop on a Carnival cruise ship on New Year's Day...Head to Key West, then to Calica, Mexico...All while in the company of great people who know how to have a good time...Truly PRICELESS way to start off any year. And speaking of price, well, I'll get to that later in one of these vacation posts, LOL.

First and foremost, I have to note how amazing it is to simply sit back and think about how lucky/blessed I am to have been able to travel to some of the places I've been to and experience the things I've experienced while traveling. God has definitely been good to me. Thank you!



Now I'll begin my recap, highlights, etc...

Dane, Randy (Woo), and I started off the trip in Miami (well, really Fort Lauderdale). The plan was to stay in Fort Lauderdale near the airport and use a rental car to commute back-and-forth between Miami and Fort Lauderdale for the two day's we'd be in Florida. For the most part, this plan worked well. That is, until it was time to drive home from Miami to Fort Lauderdale at 5am every night.

On our first night of vacationing, we had reservations for Club BED in South Beach (SoBe). So we waited in line at the airport (well Dane did while Woo and I stood around talking) for what seemed like an hour, got the rental car, drove to and checked in to our hotel in Fort Lauderdale. Upon our arrival we ran into a wedding party on their way to either the wedding reception or to the actual wedding ceremony. But judging by the guy in the tuxedo who came out of the hotel door with the Heineken in his hand, I'd bet that they were going to the reception. Now that I think of it, wedding parties were sort of recurring theme on this trip (ask Dane about that, LOL). Anyway, after we checked into our hotel room and joked about how much fun we were going to have, we got spruced up a bit (you know the boys clean up well from our vacation-white-T's and tennis shoes), and made our way to Miami to make our BED reservation.

We made it to BED just in time for our reservation and ate. Club BED! What can I say? That is, other than the food was GREAT! Filet mignon, DELICIOUS! Sea Bass, DELICIOUS! We've been talking about that dinner more than the dinners on the cruise ship (LOL)! We knew that we'd have a beautiful group of young ladies coming through to hang out with us later on in the evening so after we ate, we laid back, relaxed, and just soaked up some of that SoBe poshness that floats around in clubs like BED. Meaning, the women, the waitresses, and the WOW!

And naturally, since we had Dane, the "professional conversationalist" and Woo, the "socialite" with us, we made a new friend. There are two sides to this friend though. The first is that he started off really cool. Dude introduced himself and his friends (he was with a few ladies and another guy) to Dane and eventually bought Dane a drink (no Sugar Ray Murphy). But you know how some folks get when they're drunk (or just drinking) in the club. They'll offer complete strangers "a round", so that's not really saying much, but that's our new friend's "good side". The bad side was about an hour later when this guy's 3 drinks into the evening and he starts wanting to be aggressive with the women vicariously through me, Dane, and Woo. What I mean by this is that this guy sees two girls sitting across from us and every five minutes he says:

"Why the F*CK are those two girls sitting by themselves! You guys should be over there!"

You have to have heard how adamant he said this to really understand how annoying that gets after he says it more than twice. So this dude kept pestering us about two random girls that were sitting alone. So much so that I started to feel like he had some subconscious notion that all black men are immeasurably sexually aggressive and must consume all poontang women that is/are in a 20 foot radius. On top of that, he even sent his "girlfriend" over there at one point to speak to them. I have no idea what it was that she said, but I can only imagine. It was a this point that I realized that I had to get away from this guy before I said something to him I truly did mean. So that's the "bad side".

Oh yeah, there was another "good side" to this guy depending on how you feel about the following: He and his buddy were porno movie producers! No bull! And the girls that were with him (3 to be exact), especially the Asian girl he claimed as his "girlfriend", were pornactresses (one word). Once a *certain person* found this out, he was pretty d@mn pumped about the invitation Mr. Good-Side-Bad-Side gave us to a New Year's party the next night at Nikki Beach on SoBe. Me, I wasn't too excited because this guy had really gotten on my nerves with the whole "go talk to those girls" stuff. It's a matter of principle people, not porn!

Once the lovely ladies we'd been waiting on arrived at BED to join us, Mr. Good-Side-Bad-Side continued his antics and pulled a straight disrespectful move. He started trying to flirt with (and I assume rap to) our company for the evening. LOL. Now I can only laugh about this because he was harmless and none of the ladies joining us was my girlfriend or a girl I was courting (what ya'll know 'bout 'dat?). If either had been the case I might have had to get my azz whooped off GP (LOL). But it was also hilarious when you consider that: 1) he said the Asian girl was his girlfriend, and 2) he had absolutely no chance whatsoever at being successful with the young ladies show below (Dane and Woo just so happen to be in this picture):



Yet and still though, it was pretty entertaining to see this guy ignore his pretty attractive girlfriend to come over and waste his time talking to Kace, TC, JAC, and Jessie. And by waste time I mean see him put so much vain effort into being flirtatious and inquisitive when his "girlfriend" was within 10 feet of him. This picture of Mr. Good-Side-Bad-Side pretty much sums up his scheming-azz tendencies for the night (LOL). It's crazy how people flip the script on you once they're about 3 shots into their night. Do I seem humored by all this? I hope so.

Overall though, we had a ball in BED. It was a little pricey as far as the food was concerned but it was worth it. I won't even go into the bottle service we had to get in order to keep our bed for the evening. Let's just say that while I was ready to dish out the dough initially (I believe the words were: "We're in Miami! Fuggit!"), I was not that happy of a camper after we got the check. DANE, they need to add gratuity and tax onto the price listed on the d@mn bottle service menu. Wouldn't you agree?

Here are a couple more pics from BED:


Kace enjoying herself.


Once that champiggity started flowing, everybody was ready to dance!


You know I was throwed!


Notice three things: 1) Dane (on the right in striped shirt) is not paying me any mind, 2) Woo, "the socialite" is nowhere to be found because he's getting his Paris Hilton on, and 3) Your boy is losing hair at about the same rate that the divorced Britney Spears is losing her self-respect. D@mn you father! D@mn you! Freaking genes! LOL. Mom dukes still calls the kid handsome though, so I'm str8888888888! ;-)

Before I continue though, I must say this. I honestly cannot complain about the money I spent during the course of this vacation. When you're hanging with good people who are having a good time, are generous in their own right, and are very appreciative, it's worth every penny! The conversations and laughter alone were worth the cost of everything we spent. And boy were there some conversations...

Like the one we had at 4am after leaving BED and hitting some no-name club where we snuck (is this even a word?) into the VIP area, and had another round of drinks (LOL). I believe this conversation began with:

"Have you ever had sex or contemplated having relations with a man?"

Isn't that right, JAC? This question was posed to none other than the 3-drunken-amigos: Me, Woo, and Dane. The context of the conversation however, was how a woman nowadays must protect herself when dating and questions like this may be necessary to ask as a part of protecting herself. Now those of you that know all three of us know where this conversation went. But you probably don't know that the ladies had just a strong opinions as we did. Needless to say, the conversation went on for a minute, got a lil heated at a couple points while pretty jovial at others. It's one of those conversations taht prior to the trip I promised I wouldn't have on vacation but inevitably happened because you have several young, intelligent, passionate, and forward-thinking people all hanging out. It was a great discussion though and Black men and women need to have these types of open discussions anyway.

Our night ended when the ladies headed back to their hotels (I wonder how many of you guys reading this are sighing or laughing at us right now, LOL) and we stayed outside at the table where we had our discussion and talked for a few minutes before deciding to head back to Fort Lauderdale. From that point until I woke up the next morning, everything's a blur. Dane was driving and I had one eye awake and the other eye asleep the entire ride home. No lie! I would call myself one-eyed Willie but that'd either mean one of two things. Neither of which am I comfortable with, but I digressed... And the entire ride back to the hotel I was listening to Woo snore like he had a deviated septum and sleep apnea. Between him and Dane I don't know who needs that d@mn mask more.

Dag ya'll! That was just the 1st night! "We're not even on the boat yet!"

WebNerd Alert: Amazon.com puts their $$$$ where their mouth is

Did you guys know that if you buy a product from Amazon.com and the price drops within 30 days, that you can get a refund for the difference in price? Well, you can! This is kind of crazy if you ask me because it also applies to items you've used coupons for and also items that are discounted because you buy more than one at a time. For a more in-depth description of this policy and how to actually go about getting your refund, check this blogpost out.

Sidebar: I haven't done a WebNerd post in a minute. Feels weird.

Old but NEW Music

Today, I got an email from yourmusic.com about my latest monthly shipment of new music. I signed up for this website a while ago and as a benefit of membership, I get a new CD each month for $6.99 with no shipping and handling charges (check it out). It's a great site to find old music you never had the chance to buy at a very good price. Not to mention it feels good to get some new music every month so that I don't to listen to the same CDs over-and-over again like I normally do. I've gotten everything from The Gap Band to John Mayer to The Game to Leelah James to the Chipmunks XMas CD (which, now that I think of it, my ex-girlfriend still has...D@mn!).

I love this site. The only drawback is that they don't get new albums when they come out. You typically will have to wait a month or so after the album has dropped for it to appear on the yourmusic.com site. But if you're looking for old glass R&B, jazz, hip-hop, rock, or whatever else, this is a great way to collect all the old stuff.

It turns out that at the top of my CD queue for this month was The Best of Sade! Man, I am so siced about getting this CD. Sade and Anita Baker are two artists that I love because of my mother's love for them. My mom listened to Anita Baker and Sade when I was younger and as a result of seeing how much she loved that music, it made me love it as well. Now that I am older, I have a much better appreciation for their music than I did back then and it not only takes me back when I hear "Rapture" or "Sweetest Taboo", it makes me think about my moms. :-)

Right now I could use a little Sweetest Taboo, Smooth Operator, Nothing Can Come Between Us, and Kiss of Life. I'm already owner of the Sade Lover's Live DVD, which is a must-own if you're a Sade fan. This Best of Sade CD will be pleasantly welcomed to my car's CD changer in a couple days.

Oh yeah, I can't believe that I forgot to mention that she is foooyyyynnnnnnneee (fine)! LOL.