A Day in the Life of a Master(s) of Education

Live music is back!! I am so happy. I'd missed it. I missed being in a space (hopefully crowded) with other like minded souls. Taking communion at the altar of music. This year I've stacked my live music calendar. Partially because so many artists are recovering from the height of the pandemic, partially because I need to express my life and triumphs and failures through live music. Here's a list of artists I'm seeing (some for the first time) this year: AJR ^+ Gayle VINCINT  Todrick Hall Chvrches*+ Green Day* Maren Morris Florence + the Machine Lil Nas X New Kids on the Block En Vouge Lizzo Salt N Pepa Rick Astley Imagine Dragons  Macklemore ^ Lady Gaga Twenty Øne Pilots  AWOLNATION Måneskin  Highly Suspect *+ (also ran into them at Church after the show which was 🤩) Rainbow Kitten Surprise *+ Mt. Joy* Japanese Breakfast* COIN* The Glorious Sons * Kendrick Lamar  Bleachers Orville Peck  Panic! At the Disco My Chemical Romance  Pitbull Iggy Azalea The...

  I ran my first 10-miler and much like it's namesake, Tower of Terror, it was full of ups, downs, tears, screams and joy 🏃🏿‍♀️🏃🏿‍♀️🏃🏿‍♀️ Right around the 8 mile mark, I could barely sustain a running pace and it sucked. But I had My friend/coach  right beside me. And complete strangers/runners checking in on me. And folx chEARing me on. And I got to see Cast Member friends along the course. 🏃🏿‍♀️🏃🏿‍♀️🏃🏿‍♀️ This was not my first RunDisney  event but it was the first time I've been on this run part of RunDisney My main goals were to keep going, stick with my friend and not let the balloon ladies catch me. 🏃🏿‍♀️🏃🏿‍♀️🏃🏿‍♀️ I may have scared a few folx with my very loud yelling once I crossed the finish line, but it didn't matter because once that ride was done I was reminded that my body is enough 🏃🏿‍♀️🏃🏿‍♀️🏃🏿‍♀️ Going to share some photos from the race and reward...better known as Eating and Drinking around the world a la Epcot's Flower and Gard...

So. I'm running a 10-miler. This 10-miler to be exact: So. I'm running a 10-miler in Florida. And I am ready. What possessed me to sign up? Well I wanted to push myself this year. Accomplish things I've never done before. Fun fact: I hate running....but I used to be on the cross country team 🤷🏿‍♀️.  I thrive on being unpredictable and neutral chaotic tbh. Anyway to train for this (because I'm not silly enough NOT to train), I enlisted my friend who not only does several long races a year. She's been known to do 2-3 half marathons (13.1 miles) in a month. Plus she has been building a small business on coaching nonrunners to run. Makes sense to me to get the help.  Anyway through the training program, the longest distance I've done is 8 miles 💪🏾 😅. However, I also trained while in 90° Jamaican dusty fields so I feel like that's got to count for something.  Mentally I think I'm going to have a few hiccups. Mostly because I've been runni...

Just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge one of my favorite days. Spreading some love in a world that sometimes feels void of it. Also some of these photos are 🥰. So Happy Love Day to one and all but especially to the person who goes to a gay nightclub and dances to music they don't like just to have fun together 

It's been a long (yet short) couple of weeks in 2022. With it has come some big ups and downs. A few major celebrities died (Betty White, Sidney Poitier, Louis Anderson, Andre Talley, Meatloaf) and I've really been thinking about quality of life. In that regards I've taken a few steps towards things I want to accomplish this year. I wouldn't say they are goals per se but I wouldn't actually say they aren't either 🤷🏿‍♀️. Talking in circles I know but here goes: 1) Started locs 2) Training for a 10 miler 3) Run 3 miles a week 4) Cook 2x a week  5) Read 50 📚  6) In bed by midnight  Until next post...laters

A year ago today, some folx decided after hearing a dude talk that it was a good idea to barge into a space and disrupt it. Violently. Destructive. Anarchy. What has since been referred to as the Capitol Insurrection has changed the fabric of my world. I've always had the thought that life is short so enjoy the ride. Sometimes rides are thrilling,  boring,  fun and scary. On that day, life was scary. People I love were just going about their daily life when the decisions of other people affected them adversely. I had flashes of September 11 & April 16. Dates that fundamentally changed me.  As I reflect now on a new date on that list, I try to think of the little things that make me smile.  New houseplants. Family. My dog. Starbucks iced chai. Doctor Who. Steven Universe. J.  It's through this I can continue. Through these I'll stay on the ride and try to enjoy it. 

The year ahead has so much potential. I'm looking forward to seeing what will happen. Covid is STILL raging (there's another variant, Omicron) but I feel as though we've figured out how we (J&I) will and can navigate it.  We've got a few trips planned. Namely Tampa, Baton Rouge, Portland,  Seattle, DC, Jamaica (for me) and Vancouver. I found out that I will be receiving a raise and possibly an assistant. So just winding down the work year with plotting out what that could look like. I never really do a great job of plotting out my visions and wants for the future but I am hopeful and happy so that's got to count for something 🤷🏿‍♀️ Until next post....laters 

It's about that time again. The anniversary of my birth. I'm stuck on what to do to celebrate. It's another year that I survived and thrived. What garners a good celebration of that? Another tattoo? A quick trip? Fancy dinner? Watching my favorite shows or movies? Dance party? All of the aforementioned?  Still trying to figure it out...much like life itself.  I don't hate my life but there's always more I could be doing to live it to the fullest.  I have made one promise to myself.  This is the year that I am fully honest with my parents about my life. Dear reader (do I still even have any?) the older I get the closer to death they get. Not trying to be intentionally morbid just honest with myself and you. My parents will die. I will be devastated. I'll be even more devastated if it happened and they didn't know all the things I think they should about me.  In the past I've tried to wait to have these "tell all" talks in person.  However,  time...

The last time the Braves won the World Series, I was a kid. The last time Atlanta won a championship was 2018. Now for the second time in 3 years.....we are the champions!! I missed the Atlanta United parade in 2018, so I made sure to see the Atlanta (Marietta 🤣😤🤣) Braves parade. I don't "love" the team name or the "chop" tbh but they did won after a lot of work so way to go.

The past few weeks I've been having various versions of the same dream. Something happens tragically to J (death, injury, disappearance) and I am not only witnessing it I can't stop it from happening. However, I still try to. I scream, I fight, I look for help, every time and it's always the same outcome. His demise and my sorrow. I mentioned it casually to my therapist who pretty much posed the question: what am I not talking about to him? What am i holding on to that is manifesting in this way? Tonight, he came home after a night out. He was loud, he brought home some folx he'd just met and though he did apologize for not warning me and for the disturbance, he didn't adjust his behavior.  That's when it hit me (well technically 3 hours later when I couldn't sleep) it's the constant lack of consideration and thinking of me (and by extension my needs) that I afford to him. If I've come in from being out...I tiptoe in. I barely turn on lights. I get u...

So I went to NYC for the first time as an adult without a parent. It was a learning experience and adventure.  We're still dealing with Covid-19 (🙄😤😬) so a few months ago the city enacted a law that in order to do indoor activities (movies, clubs, dining indoors, visit museums etc) you must be fully vaccinated against covid. So we headed there to explore and see what life is like in a place were you either do the things or you don't.  We walked just about every where after catching the train into the  city daily. We looked at the cityscape from the Rockefeller Center. We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge.  We caught a ferry and rode just about every MTA Subway line. We saw a Broadway show and went to botanical gardens and art museums.  We danced the night away at gay bars and clubs (some VERY questionable decisions were made) and ate pizza and bagels and drank beer. It was a delightful trip and reminded me of a time before the selfishness of humanity was on s...

The other day I was training a new employee and as we talked they mentioned that they weren't going to get a covid vaccine. At first I was annoyed by that,  so I asked why. I figured if they had a sound reason I had no problem with their choice. Initially, they said that their parent (who lives abroad) said that they shouldn't.  At this point I had the thought about how we all tend to follow our parents advice, especially at that age. Then the said that there's a microchip in the vaccine as they texted on their phone and told me how their maternal and paternal grandparents have suffered from covid. I'm talking ventilator. Weeks in the hospital. Damn near dead suffering.  The logic behind it didn't make ANY sense. So I stopped talking about it. It felt like a losing battle.  However, they are not alone. Every day there are battles being waged against the vaccine, against calling it a vaccine, against disinformation, against masks, against restrictions, against EVERYT...

It's time for the Olympics. After a year long delay because of the panorama, we're finally having the Olympics. It should be noted that the pandemic isn't over, athletes have been barred from the games for positive covid test and there aren't any spectators. That being said....I FUCKING LOVE THE OLYMPICS. I'm so excited to watch everything I can. This year a few new sports were added including skateboarding, surfing and 3x3 basketball. Jamaica also had its first competitor in Judo. I'm glad that we're able to have a semblance of the games we've grown to love and I hope that we grow closer as the human race through experiencing it. Probably not going to happen but hey 🤷🏿‍♀️ Until next post....laters

For a really long time I felt like I didn't have a hobby. I garden for a living, have zero creative talent (i.e. crafting,  painting, singing etc) and generally just like doing a variety of things, whenever folx would ask : What's your hobby? What do you like to do?...I'd draw a blank. I'd ask myself well...what do you like to do 🤣? In doing so I came to a couple important thoughts/stances. 1) I don't need to define a "hobby". I don't need outside validation that the things I enjoy doing qualify as "hobbies". I've never really been one to feel like I have to have validation in most other areas of my life...why should this be any different 🤷🏿‍♀️. 2) I DO have hobbies,  just ones that may not necessarily fall into one's mind initially when you hear the word hobby.  3) See 1) & 2).  Alright, so now that that's cleared up on to the reason for this post! One of my hobbies is traveling and exploring a new place. People are fascin...

I'm going to Oregon. I've never been. I'm excited (and privileged) to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19, have a little spending money and friends willing to host me. And I am pummmmppppeeedddd. I am beyond grateful to get back to a favorite hobby of mine, to have lessened the likelihood of me catching & spreading this disease that crippled and continues to cripple the world. I can't wait to visit cooler temperatures,  wonderful food, natural landscapes and beautiful people. I. AM. READY.  Here's to science helping bring back a sense of normalcy.  Until next post....laters

I'll start by sharing what I posted on social media in light of the fourteen year anniversary of the Virginia Tech shooting:  14 years ago I posted to Facebook "fine right now, cell phones aren't working. Call room phone". Fourteen years ago, we still had landlines in college dorm rooms. Fourteen years ago I'd just bought my first car. Fourteen years ago we could walk into any building on campus freely. Recently I was visiting the campus of Georgia Tech and needed to use the restroom in a nearby building. As I walked up, i noticed that I needed a GT ID in order to access that door. I immediately thought in that moment "My university is the reason that this university has secured doors". Fourteen years of treating a wound that never really heals, seeing the scars on your everyday life, of reminders, of knowing that day is a fundamental part of who you are and how you navigate through the world. #NeverForget #LiveFor32 #Hokie4Life On the heels of this anni...

It's been one year since the outbreak of Covid-19. The world is still shit. People are still being targeted because of their race, gender or economic status. Every day is a struggle. Every DAMN day. Today I'm just exhausted. I am hopeful though. Today I got my first of 2 vaccinations for Sars Coronavirus-19. And that's the bright spot I'm holding on to today amidst the trash world we aren't currently living in. 

After almost a year of Covid-19 we caught it. And it sucks. We've been sick for over a week but seem to be on the upswing. The draw of normalcy was a huge temptation. We're not sure where we caught it but have a few theories. In any case glad to be feeling better.  In my grad school friend group of 11 folx, 6 of us got it. And we're all over the world (various UK cities, various US states and Germany). I'm just glad my parents have only one dose of the vaccine to go and I have antibodies. Maybe I'll get to see them this year 😞  Until next post...laters

I was thinking about this the other day. It's been almost a year since we've been dealing with the global pandemic that is Covid-19 aka Coronavirus bka "The Rona". 12 months!! 12 months of no hugging,  wearing masks, washing your hands for at least 20s multiple times a day, closed businesses, an ever rising death toll etc.  This past weekend I got the opportunity to do something normalish. I went to a wedding. I thought about this wedding a lot. It was originally in November 2020, but was rescheduled. In 2020, I was to attend 5 weddings and participate in 1. All were postponed, some for a few months, others for a year and even one indefinitely until the pandemic is fully over and covid is under a semblance of control.  This one was the first. An exercise in what could be done to make those in attendance feel "safe", while still allowing those who couldn't make in person to be able to participate. The entire wedding (ceremony, cocktail hour & receptio...

Sometimes I just feel overwhelmed about the vast amount of uncaring people in the world. It can feel like folx just don't have empathy for each other. We spend so much time condemning one another for things we disagree on.  Sometimes I can let these thing not phase me, other times it keeps me up at night.  As I spiral in sleeplessness, I become less and less hopeful about where we will go as a city, country and civilization.  I've tried to be more reflective about my part in all this but it also feels like I'm spiraling.