Updates and plans for the future

So....I imagine most are not checking this blog for updates at this point because, well, I haven't been on or writing as much as I used to in the past.








A little about what is going on: I am finishing my Masters Degree! Per my usual during academic pursuits, I am less creative in the fun way because all creativity is going into writing for academic reasons. It has also been a roller coaster of a year, lots of ups and downs, mostly downs, but I'm still standing and I'm here to write another day giving me something to be grateful for out of all of it.






My child is getting to be bigger and bigger, and by that I mean taller. He's catching up.


In other news, after completion of my masters I want to rededicate my time to this blog, my art, and now, wine and viticulture.








I haven't talked about it on here before but ever since March 2014, I caught the bug of desire to work in viticulture. I was out celebrating my anniversary with my man in Virginia wine country near Leesburg. As I sat enjoying my food and cool crisp glass of wine sitting in that rustic barn tasting room, I knew there was something there that intrigued me. A couple weeks later we decided to venture out again, this time staying in a bed and breakfast out that way, we visited another wonderful place and began talking to the owned and winemaker. From then I was HOOKED! I started thinking wouldn't it be fun to get into this, work as a volunteer or something and help out, I wouldn't care if I was paid in wine.








Later, I also had a necessity to make some extra income for personal reasons so I started searching for ways to satisfy my desire to work in the industry and my need for extra income to care for my family.






As fate would have it, I searched on craigslist and found a great winery gig as a tasting room associate. What a great experience and I am forever grateful to them for giving me a chance sans previous experience in the industry and sans experience in hospitality or food and beverage. I worked events both on and off the vineyard, I made new friends and connections, I learned the importance of aromas, notes, and pairings. I wanted to make it full time, but practicality and the needs of family came first. Unfortunately, the commute out started to take its toll and I needed to find something that worked better for my current living location and....my new budget. I bid farewell, and I miss them terribly but life goes on and so must I.








After that I worked and volunteered with two new wineries. One hasn't even built their tasting room yet so I am gaining experience working in farmers markets in addition to my previous experience from the first winery.








I plan on going for my MSET certification next and seeing about options for travel to Europe to learn more over the summer of next year. Here's hoping that all works out! I want to be there learning about the grapes, and the differences between there and Virginia. I also figure I'll get some great inspiration out of what I see and experience and be able to channel that into art and writing.






Other than that, not too much else is new. I am just looking forward to closing my school chapter for a while and opening a new chapter in wine, writing, family, art and so much more.

The Bad Rap of "Baby Mamas"

The Bad Rap of “Baby Mamas”

Lately, I’ve been coming across some interesting lists on why one needs to stay clear of baby mamas and I’ve been seeing A LOT of the worst examples of baby mamas on television as of late.

A little about me: I am a divorcee with an eight year old who doesn’t like being put into the box that comes with labels like “baby mama”.

Here’s my problem with the lists and bad baby mamas: you can’t make a sweeping generalization about a group based off of these examples. 

Double Standards...You're Kidding Right?

Yesterday my younger brother posted what I can only describe as a piece of ignorant dribble derived from that of an over-privileged mind. I want to take this moment now to say that this is another segment about race so if you’re going to get sensitive either stop reading now or leave that stuff at the door and follow along with me. 

 

   Now, the issue at hand is this article: http://madworldnews.com/michelle-obama-white-girls/

   The article’s title is “Michelle Obama Sends Message To White Girls That They Don’t Matter”

Let that sink in for a moment. It is obviously crafted to serve as click bait to ensure someone reads it. But, as the saying goes, “One cannot judge a book by its cover” so, too, “One cannot judge an article off of a sensational headline”. In the interest of not being shallow in my assessment, I clicked on this link and read the article.

   Here’s a summary if you didn’t click the link above: Basically Michelle Obama attended the “Black Girls Rock” event and as a result of doing so, she told white girls they don’t matter.

   It takes some effort for me as a Black Woman and a Latina to get through the article and took even more effort to nicely summarize the point of the article as I did above. Ok, now that I have that little item out of the way, let me get to my opinion and why I have arrived at my opinion.

My Take on #Ferguson

I debated writing this...went back and forth with myself but I had to write it.

Tell me if this has ever happened to you: One night on my way home I was pulled over. This female Fairfax County Police officer proceeded to ask me "Is this your car?" not "Do you know why i pulled you over?" (which is the usual line of questioning) and not "License and Registration" but "Is this your car?" Maybe she forgot herself, maybe she was having a bad day but last I checked that is not a proper question to ask someone.

Tell me if this has ever happened to you: One night, as a friend drove me home, he got pulled over. He was Jewish, I am mixed with a darker skin tone. There was no reason for the police officer (again Fairfax County) to come to my side of the car, I was not driving. There was no reason for the police officer to ask me any questions (like my ID and such) and yet I was the one being asked all the questions. I WAS NOT DRIVING.

I am not a black man but I have had my share of racial profiling too and at the hands of police officers. Those situations above are MY personal experiences. I have never been in trouble with the law, I am an upstanding citizen, I will soon have a Master's degree. Regardless of all these things, my experience in the country has and for the foreseeable future will always be different from that of my white counter part. I will be seen just like any other member of the black community no matter what letters come behind my name. Its something I grew up understanding that the world would always be a different experience for me as a woman, and as a Black woman.

If one thinks that everyone's experience is the same....they really need to take a better look...

Knowing this difference exists makes me fearful for my son, makes me fearful for my brothers, makes me scared for all black men in this country. What is a black man's life worth in this country? The answer in what I see in today's world scares me beyond belief. What do I tell my son, my cousins, our family, our community, our progeny? Do I tell my son to immediately lie on the ground with hands behind his head in order to not be shot? Do I tell him that in a situation where he is the only black man, that if something goes wrong he will have the worse punishment? Do I teach him that his mere being is considered a crime?  I want this world to be better when I leave it in his hands but....how do I do that? How do we all achieve this?

I do not condone the actions of the rioters in the community. Martin Luther King, Jr. wouldn't either. Gandhi wouldn't either.

Nothing is ever achieved by responding to violence with more violence.

Also, if one is to get angry, don't mess up your own neighborhood. All that does is prove to those that seek to oppress that they were right about you. That you are an animal that needs to be controlled and contained.

Prove those folks that would say otherwise wrong, that you can conduct yourself as a civilized human being. Turn the other cheek. Greet thy neighbor and thy enemy with love not with anger and hate. Like will always attract like so....do you want to attract peace, understanding, positivity, a positive cultural change? Then one needs to be and project those things first.

I don't pretend to know all the answers, I don't. I know the problems, racial privilege, comfort with the status quo, inhumanity. I am not sure where we go from here but I will say that if not now, then when will we start to work together as AMERICANS, not as African Americans, White Americans, Irish Americans, Italian Americans, Hispanics, and so forth, when as AMERICANS with out the added prefix of heritage will we work together to CHANGE what treats some of us as less that human while others are treated as having more VALUE. When?

The time needs to be now.

I want to be able at the end of my life to say that the world I leave to my children and my grandchildren was better than the world handed to me by my parents and grandparents. I think that is something every human being should and can strive for in this lifetime.

Of Water and Words

Interesting thing: whatever labels you keep repeating to a person, that is who they will  become, especially your children. So if you keep calling someone thoughtful, considerate, beautiful, and kind they will become those things. If you keep calling someone lazy, selfish, inconsiderate, and ugly they will become those things too.

Consider this: The human body is made up mostly of water. There was an experiment done with water by Masaru Emoto in which he attached or exposed water to different words like love and gratitude to You make me sick or music like Beethoven or Heavy Metal. In these experiments he found that water reacted to whatever he exposed to it. (See the images I attach to this post.)
If words and music can do this to WATER imagine what it can do to people...

Words, while not as deadly as a bullet or other forms of weapons, are still quite powerful and dangerous if not used with care. Words, once spoken, can never be erased so be careful what you say to others. Sometimes when one is so focused on winning an argument, they lose something else.

So ask yourself: Is winning this argument worth hurting a person I care about? What are my words doing to those people I say that I love?

Domestic Violence and The Past

  There comes a time in every writer's life where they have to get real and rather candid. Being a writer is being an artist with words and as an artist, one must be open to sharing a part of themselves from time to time.

   I was inspired by a video I saw on Upworthy and while I gave a brief synopsis of my experience with the subject I felt that telling my story at length was the right thing to do as well as the lessons learned.

Newest creation

So...I know it has been a hot minute since I posted a new creation here. I am trying to name her...any suggestions??? Comment below...