Straight gettin' peeps

As most know I live in NYC. Brooklyn to be exact. I live in an area of Brooklyn that a lot of gentrification has occurred. BUT there is still a slight hood element. There are still bodegas where dudes hang out in front and try to holla every morning and dudes selling cigarettes( I guess you have to sell them cheap since a pack of Newports is dayum near $11). Besides the bodegas and west indian restaurants there are two medium sized grocery stores. I rarely go into these stores because I feel like they take advantage of the people in the neighborhood who don't have transportation or don't feel like hopping on the train to a major store and take a cab home.

So, yesterday after work. I had moved my car and got Totti positioned for the supposed storm that's coming tomorrow. I thought I need eggs. I love breakfast so I don't like to be without eggs. I decided to go to Associated since I don't patronize the other grocery store due to the fact they don't honor their price tags. Y'all I've seen it happen before but my goodness the price differential between this grocery store and the three stores I normally go to (Pathmark,Trader Joe's and Fairway--step below Whole Check) was insane! Yes a few things were cheaper but on average the prices were ridiculous! I love the Simply Limeade or Simply Raspberry Lemonade. At Pathmark it's usually like $3.29 but at Fairway it's always $2.79. Do you guys know at Associated the shyt was $4.89!!! A whole TWO dollars more! GTFOH!! Yeah, I could have bought it but on GP's sake I just couldn't do it. So, I walked out of there with some eggs, organic spring mix(which was cheap) and some cut up chicken for Curry(cheap...lots of west indians around). Also for a carton of medium eggs they were $2.29. I'm used to buying them at Trader Joe's for $1.79 but at Pathmark they're around the same price as the the rip off neighborhood grocery store!

I know I am blessed that I don't HAVE to shop at these stores. I have transportation to get to the other grocery stores and even if I didn't have my car. I still have enough money to take the train to the store and take a taxi home. It pisses me off that these stores charge this exuberant amount of money for their goods. Let me add that I was super surprised that their produce was very economical and it looked fairly fresh. I wish the neighborhood would take charge and demand change. This shyt is unacceptable,sad and downright pisses me off!

A few reasons why we're at 16.5%

I was looking at the unemployment stats and it says that the unemployment rate is 9.7% BUT for blacks the unemployment rate is 16.5%!! It's historical that blacks have always had a higher rate of unemployment compared to the rest of America but this is just ridiculous. It's almost double. I know we're barely coming out of a recession but that number is unacceptable. I think I have a few reasons why a few of my people are unemployed.

My people when you get a call for an interview at a MAJOR investment bank please dress accordingly. I don't care if it's in the mailroom,cafeteria, administrative assistant or lawyer. PUT ON A DAMN SUIT! It doesn't have to be an Armani suit but wear a suit. Women if you decide to wear a skirt please make sure I can't see the dimples in your ass! That's what they make Spanx for. Comb your damn hair and tame down the weave. Leave the excess perfume at home and for the love of God cut your damn monster claws down and paint them a normal damn color. People don't want to see nails 4 inches long with nail art.

I know some people are not raised to know what is appropriate wear etc but I think you have no excuse when you're over 25 and I don't care what your family life was like. If you can text, tweet and look on the internet you can Google what's appropriate wear to an interview.

One of my close girlfriends is a Senior Manager at a biotech firm. Her area is all of NYC,Long Island and Northern Jersey. She has 6 reps under her and NOT one black. During the interview process she always interviews black because like my profession their aren't a lot of US. BUT she hasn't been able to hire a single black person because of straight foolishness. People coming completely unprepared for the interview, inappropriately dressed, not knowledgable on the subject matter and of course LATE! The last dude she interviewed was ONE HOUR late. So after the dude interviewed with the other members of her team. She called him in and asked him if he thought it was appropriate to come to an interview an hour late and dude was like I thought it was at this time and she said how when I sent you a confirmation email and you confirmed. She told him how she just couldn't hire him because he would be a reflection of her.

The few things I listed are some of the reason that black people are unemployed. These reasons are NOT the only reasons but they damn sure are some of them. Oh yes and please stop putting your kids at a disadvantage with names like Quay'Kanisha, J'Terria, Mu'Funkay and Quaku. I know we like to be different but make the middle name different!

I think as a whole we can do better. Not because Obama is President but because we should want to do better for ourselves. Yes, this is a recession, times are hard, companies aren't hiring like they used to BUT you need to fight for that position. Remember if a white person is giving 100% we need to give %125!

So, this is how the dating scene is now?

My month of dating has been HORRIFIC I mean dayum what is wrong with these dudes. So, I met two seemingly nice men. Professional, handsome seem like they might be cool. Dude 1, let's call him Light Skin. He seemed cool. We met, he called we exchanged a few emails then he asked me out for dinner and drinks. Good conversation, handsome, fun, witty. Then after that I constantly got hit with the text messages. "What's up?", "You watching the game?" Ummm dude are you not 35 why are you CONSTANTLY texting me? His reply was well I don't like to talk on the phone a lot. I'm better in person. Ok. Yeah but how are you going to see me in person again if all you do is text. He said I was going to text you to go out with me again! *DEAD* Oh word. Don't waste your time because my answer would be NO! I'm a grown azz woman and when I really don't know you. Texting is NOT a good form of communication! WTF? So, we had this convo and he waits a week and decides to text me again like it's ok. That's when I lost it! AFTER I had to tell him about himself via text. He decides to call me and say do you want to come out for drinks and stay at my house? Arrruuuuuuuuuu? WHAT?? It's 10:30 the night of the NFC Championship game and you think it's ok to ask me to come out for drinks AND stay at your house when I've only had ONE date with you. After I cussed his azz out with everything I had. He said I was just saying that since you'd be in the city! Mothereffer what? BYE and don't EVER call me again!
Dude 2, let's call him PA(he's an Physician's Assistant). The night I met him we had good conversation he seemed cool although a tad bit sheltered to be 38 but I still decided to give him a chance. The next evening this dude TEXT me and said "Thinking about you." Uhh word? That's nice and all but you spoke to me for 20 min and now you send me a text saying thinking about you! WEIRDO! So, I never responded to that text because I was in the middle of Walmart and then I just forgot about it. So, fast forward to Thursday this fool sends me a text "Good Morning" I text back and say the same thing. Later that evening he sends YET ANOTHER text that says" I tried to reach out to you several days ago. Hopefully I'll see you soon." What?? He sent me a text that morning. So, I kindly text him back and say that he text me that morning and I responded and this fool tried to get smart and say "Sorry hon, this is Darryl I haven't heard from you. I was like "shall I forward you YOUR text?" Then he says "Oh yes, sorry." Of course I text him back and asked him if he found it appropriate to text a woman he's never had a conversation with. And if his first line of communication is always text and how I found that to be young and not becoming of a grown azz man. He said some other dumb shyt and that's when I said dude lose my number.

I know we're in 2010 but c'mon. Do men really think it's okay to have the first line of communication via text? My 20 year old nephew who has grown up in the digital era even calls girls after he meets them. What's wrong with expecting 30+ year old men to do the same! The Teacher is looking better and better to me! Dang!