Gangsta Mittens
Words combined to express thoughts. Pictures displayed to convey emotion. Opening my brain to the world.

Sometimes you really don’t want to know the truth. I mean we LOVE the truth when it’s in our favor… but when you find out that maybe you’re not as smart as you thought or maybe you’re not as important as you thought you were? ouch.

With just nine weeks left before i head back to san fran the butterflies are starting to flutter. I’m becoming more and more busy and yet nothing seems to be getting done. My laptop died at a pretty inopportune time. The SO is too busy to hang out with me. My drinking is just about back to where it was… and the stuff i *need* to do is steadily piling up. Add to that the frustration and bruised ego that goes along with not having a job or any prspects in the fall and well… yeah… this hasn’t been a good week/month for me.

But enough of the complaining. I suppose things could be worse. I think i’m gonna start using all this alone time to take more pics…not that i have anywhere to download them to… but whatever. i’m also at looking at picking up another activity or two at school. We’ll see.

*sigh*

Last night definitely didn’t live up to its hype. De La Soul performed at a club here in DC and well.. I dunno… I left disappointed. The night started off well-enough (kinda). After work I headed out to U St for a couple of mojitos. The drinks were decent but the bar convos were less than stellar. To my right was a black man explaining to the (white) waitress why black women aren’t worth his time. To my left was another black man who looked to be in his 40s. He was talking to his boys about the wonderful mind games he was running on his women and how smooth he was. Needless to say his boys were all high fives and chest bumps.

From there me and a friend travelled to a spot called Vapiano over at 18th and M. It was way more crowded there but i think it’s a spot i’ll visit again. We left at about 829p and went to get in line for the club.

Doors were supposed to open at 830p… 830 and 930 came and went as i waited outside the club. It was pushing 1015pm when the doors finally opened. I should take this time to point out that 1223 is not a large club. If anything it’s more of a lounge and for the most part, the club sucks. 1223 is located on Connecticut Ave, 1223 Connecticut Ave to be precise. That’s just below Dupont Circle and like just above downtown. The vibe in that place is just always off. Both times that I’ve been there (I now refuse to go back) the place has just an air of wackness. Like the idea is to have it be this “upscale” club… which is cool but arrgh I can’t put it into words. Needless to say, while standing in line the bouncer walks by doing a shoe check, my boy is told that his black nike boots (a dc staple) are a no-go. I had on these so I had to run to the car and change.

At any rate 1015 i’m in the club and my friend David offers a drink. I accept and wind up with a VERY cranberry, cranberry and vodka. The saving grace for the night was that 9th started spining almost as soon as folks walked in the door. His set was cool. Old school songs that you don’t hear too often but that make you feel good. Unfortunately, there were plenty of barely 21 yr olds in there that just didn’t get it. I overheard this one kid (who pushed his way in front of me and closer to the stage) say “i don’t even think I know any songs by De La Soul… and I really don’t know any of this stuff he’s playing.” At any rate after what feels like forever (it’s about 11:45 at this point), De La takes the stage.

Now… I have a love/hate relationship with De La performances. Ever since the first “all the beckys get on the stage” incident, it’s always been kinda hit or miss with me. I usually go to support because well.. there one of my fave groups of all times… but I tend to notice a dynamic that always bothers me a bit. Unfortunately that negativity comes from Dave who I feel is most talented of all three members. Dave seems over the whole De La thing… I mean i can understand not wanting to do Me, Myself, and I and a host of other songs that they probably hate by now… but his general demeanor is just… wack. Like throughout most of the performance I felt like we were a bother to him. Maybe we weren’t energetic enough? Maybe he was having a bad day? Perhaps, but it’s not the first time I’ve noticed it.

The other beef i have is with the song Rock Kokaine Flow. The song that appears on the album features Dave, Pos, and MF Doom. I have NEVER seen Dave do his verse… and there’s always a reason/excuse. The time I saw De La in DC at the 930 Club, Dave appeared to be under the influence of something.. that night he just said “i ain’t doin that shit”… in CA a couple years back at the Rock the Bells show, he made a similar comment… last night he said “it wouldn’t do that song justice to do it without MF Doom”… word? You performed Buddy without 80% of the lineup… a lineup that contained folks that’ve done way more than Doom did… you performed COUNTLESS songs that were performed with others… but you can’t do *this* one. Don’t get me wrong… I like Doom (the real Doom… not the fake one that was doing shows) but c’mon… just say what it really is… RKF has GOT to be a difficult song to do live… the breath control it requires has GOT to be hellish… and well… I just don’t think Dave has it in him. Perhaps I’m wrong… I’d like to be wrong… But that’s my take.

I finally got home at about 130 last night… tired… and a bit hurt. No one wants to be disappointed by a performance by artists they admire. But that’s where i was. Part of me says maybe i need to stop going to shows… But EPMD and ATCQ put on GREAT shows… I dunno maybe it was because 1223 sucks so damned much… Either way the night was decent. Definitely cool for a free show. 1223 won’t be getting any more of my money though… as to De La… I’m still up in the air on them.

**ADDITION**
Ok… now I’m pissed… I just found out that Dave *HAS* done his verse in San Fran… arrrghhh Thanks Geo… I hate you… but not really 🙂

I’m busy again.

There’s about a month left in the semester. About 10 weeks until I leave for California. And about a million things that I need to do before then.

Although I’m pretty much done with school, I need to make the most of these last few grades that I get to try to get at least a decent GPA. I bit off a little more than I could chew this semester so I have fallen behind in my schoolwork for the sake of trying to write my comment. The good news, of course, is that the comment is finished. The bad news is that everything else is starting to come at me. I’m also trying to take on more responsibility at work… well at the internship. I am almost positive that my mentor thinks that I’m slow. His assignments usually consist of editing and making grammatical corrections. Now part of that may be him giving me shit he doesn’t want to do, but I suspect that he thinks that those are “safe” assignments. Consequently, I’ve sought out other attorneys and have gotten assignments from them. These research assignments are BEYOND boring, but they’re helping me to hone my research skills which is important. I need a self esteem boost in the legal arena and I’m hoping that this will help.

In other news I spoke to my boss about my leave of absence, he tentatively gave the green light. Words cannot begin to express the relief I felt. I cannot imagine anyone else in the world that would let me have another summer to do something like this. I really do love what I do at XM and I’m praying that staying there thru the end of law school will help me to save up some money and possibly lead to a position in the new company (ifthateverhappens). With the economy the way it is, I was DREADING coming back to no job. I tend to be optimistic when it comes to the job market. I have been fortunate enough to have avoided being unintentionally unemployed for any extended period of time… but with all this talk of recessions and whatnot, I was starting to wonder if i was making the right decision. I’m happy for now, but until the paperwork is all completed, I’m only cautiously happy. This also means that i’ll need to work my ass off between now and May. Between the raise that I received and the fact that my boss goes above and beyond for me, I need to make sure I do all that I can to keep things running smoothly.

So… I’m back home 😦

And by home i mean DC… not my “real” home.

Once again Eric, Dom, Mariam and Vic went out of their way to make us feel special. We ate at our favorite spots and discovered a couple of new ones. We learned how great watermelon hookah could be and even got to ride a cable car.

I had an amazing time and I think I’m one step closer to making the move permanent.

And now… the photo recap:

Gas is trés expensive.. but i won’t have a car this summer so i guess it’s ok

BJ signed a couple of endorsement deals

There were tons of beautiful flowers

See?

One more

There were cute doggies too!

Delicious Pizza

Amazing sunsets

Dom swears by the Guinness Float, but we didn’t try it

One thing that I love about SF is that it’s so colorful… between murals, graffiti and colorful buildings, the city is so vibrant and alive:

There are some things you shouldn’t do in San Fran…

Museum of the African Diaspora

We got some culture at MoMA:

Then I decided to get creative:

This sums up me and Dom’s friendship:

Me, Dom and ID at the Warriors game

I love my city

See all the pics here:

San Francisco 3/10 – 3/15