i have been "away" for the past few weeks. away from this blog & others' blogs that i adore. it's not because i've REALLY been away, but i've been in some sort of a lackluster groove.

i can feel it...this blog, writing, me writing, tugs at me. all the things i should be making time for, like myself, have been trying to get my attention, but i've been ignoring them. i know that i'm tired. my students this year are challenging, to say the least. when i get home, i'm so tired & do nothing but feed my son, read him a story, get him to bed (and maybe a bath), watch Cosby reruns and go to sleep myself. my body feels neglected. i haven't worked out in SO long & it shows. i am sluggish, i am craving more sugar (pepsi!), and i need desperately to do something else.

sure, i can wait until the new year and risk falling deeper into this slump, but i've decided to fight. fight my will to veg out and not take care of myself. this week i will work out, at least 3 times. i will not fall asleep at 8, just because. i might even pick up a book, unrelated to work, and *gasp* read.

i've been invited to attend a book club this Saturday. i'm semi-excited because i'm sort of a nerd and like to talk to GROWN FOLKS about books sometime. who knows, perhaps this endeavor will propel me on to things that i have been neglecting, like writing.

everyday i think that i should be writing. everytime i flip open a magazine, or read a book, i think...i should be doing THIS. yes, teaching is noble, teaching is necessary, but writing, for me, is my ideal life. but how can i claim that if i'm not working toward it? how can i claim to be a writer if i am not writing?

Dear America,
you did it, baby. You lived
up to your promise

even though it took
some time, you defied history
& got it right.

dear America,
today I see for the first time
what Jefferson hoped

when you were born
anything was possible
and for the first time

          I feel he was right


(c) me, just now...on the dawn of a new day (Nov. 4th, 2008)

"If you don’t follow me when I go out, I’m going to kill you. Go forward and live or turn back and die."

~Harriet Tubman

while i do not subscribe to the literal meaning of "vote or die," i can certainly understand Harriet Tubman's message. people have died for our right to vote. Denmark Vesey , Nat Turner, MLK, Gabriel Prosser, Medgar Evers, brother Malcom and a plethora of others have given their lives for this moment. it has only been a mere 143 years since Slavery was abolished by the passage of the 13th amendment, and only 43 years since the Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed discriminatory practices against African-Americans, and yet here we are...on the eve of making history.

i believe in the Hopeful America Barack Obama speaks of. i am esatic that finally, a Black child can say that they want to be president someday and someone will truly believe it is possible. i am hopeful at what this election will mean to my son and the way he sees himself as a Black man/child in America.

i cannot tell you how to vote, nor do i want to. all i care about is that you do, indeed, go out and vote tomorrow. the lines may be long, the procProxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0 s may be tiring, but this will be one of the most important things you ever do in your life. now is your time, our time, to be apart of history.

do not take this moment for granted.