Bodega

Although I'm lamping in the big BK and not the Boogie Down, real recognize real and the corner store/bodega has seen me through some times.

While I love grocery stores, stunting in Food Town, Wholefoods, and Trader Joe's is cool, the quarter waters, icees and hero sandwiches from the local bodega is a must.

Veep Status?

As Flav would say woooowwwwwwww

And as the kids on the block would say, Jack Cafferty just put Gov. Palin on blast.

A Taste of Bed-Stuy

So a sis has been MAD busy, watering the seeds (to the best of my ability, we just got textbooks, holla!). One thing that helps me cool out is strolling around my reclaimed 'hood, the Stuy.
Feels so good to be back, so take a little tour around my neighborhood and get a taste on why I love my home so much.
Running to the C train at 7:15 am is always a pleasure because I get to walk the same blocks my family has been stomping for 60 years.

Homecoming

Coming live from Bedford-Stuyvesant, the livest one. Yes, yes ya'll once again my bed is in the Stuy.
I've officially come home to my hood after spending many years in the lovely home my parents provided me with in Queens. And while Queens is the deal, I'm so over joyed to be back in the heart of the heart - Bed-Stuy where it all began. The neighborhood I grew up in, the one my mom was raised in, where my family put down their roots after their arrival from Trinidad.

The neighborhood I left as a kid is so different from the one I'm making my way in as a young woman - this place has white people riding bikes, instead of burnt out buildings. Cafes instead of crackheads. But the realness remains, and a good Crown Fried Chicken is never to hard to find.

That and this free public wi-fi is superbomb.

A homecoming indeeed.

Scheduling the Essentials

One of the things I miss the most from my pre-TFA days is sleep. At Amherst, I would sometimes sleep in till noon, then roll out of bed, pour a bowl of cereal, then roll back in to watch the Cosby Show. Those days are over.

These days my schedules look more like this:

alarm goes off at 6 am.
I actually wake up at 6:15
leave for the 7:18 train into the City
get coffee at 8
get to school at 8:20
clock in, prep, grade, teach, run around the school like mad until about 5:30 or 6
go to the TFA office to make copies upon copies because the kids STILL don't have books, leave for the train back home at 7:45 or 8:45 depending.
home by 8:30 if I'm lucky
eat, prep for the next day, do grad homework
Bed by 1, if I have my stuff together
rinse and repeat

Lets not even talk about the nights when I have class...
Real teachers (even first year novices like me) take plenty, plenty naps and drink their coffee strong and black.

Teacher Don't teach Me No Nonsense

The name Fela Kuti speaks for itself

The First Day

(This picture isn't of me, but rather of another positive young black woman)

I made it through my first day as a public school teacher. Amen

I have never been as exhausted, drained, stressed, or thirsty in my life (all that talking causes the scratchiest throat evar!). Then I had to drag my newly minted teacher-self uptown to the Bronx for my first day of grad school. Truly a day of firsts.

But it was a good day. The good Lord saw me through. I got through the papers, passes, difficult to pronounce names. In the words of one of my students -"The thing I look forward most to about school is: Getting ready for the great tomorrow."