This has been on my heart for awhile, but I just have to share it now.  I know that people say that you cannot have a lot of friends.  I would have to disagree.  I believe that you can have a lot of “real” friends if you are a “real” friend.   There are different levels of friends and friendships.  I have the friends I grew up with; the new friendships that have developed within the past couple years; friendships with former co-workers; my girls from college are irreplaceable; and the friendships that just developed because of connections with people are the coolest.  But, how do you define friendships?

Types of Friends

I have old and new friends that are my strong foundations, I can call on these people at any time, and they are there.  Even if we don’t talk often, I know in my heart of hearts that all will be well when I call.

My girls from college form another foundation.  While I get more emotional support, the bond with these ladies is invaluable.

The connection with my grad school buddies are very spiritual in nature.  We do not talk often, but when we connect, it’s awesome.  They have the most beautiful spirits ever.

I have a different type of friendship with some of the people I grew up with.  We are connected only because we have years of relationship.  Many of us have gone our different ways, but we still love each other from a distance.

Friendships with former co-workers are beautiful.  Honestly, the strong relationship with some of my former co-workers did not come until we were co-workers.  There were a couple bonds while we worked together.

Types of Friendship

Even with all of the wonderful people in my life, I still break them down further. 

• I have friends who know my secrets
• I have friends I talk to about general stuff
• I have friends I only hear from when something is wrong
• I have friends I only call when something is wrong
• I have friends I only speak to once a month; once a year; once every other month
• I have friends I KNOW I can count on and others I can’t
• I have friends I love from a distance

Regardless of who they are and how we met, I adore each and every one of them.  Also keep in mind that I don’t mind losing friends if that’s what it takes to maintain a cordial level of relationship between us.  But, for what it is worth, I love each and every one of my friends.

This is just a reminder that the first day of School for many Chicago Public Schools is Tuesday, September 2, 2008.  Your children need to be there!  We are already experiencing huge absentee and dropout rates without the encouragement and support for missing the first day. The madness needs to end!  And it starts with you.  If you can’t take them yourself, make arrangements to get them there.

The Black Star Project is encouraging men to participate in the Million Father March by taking their children to school on the first day of school.  Do you know that Phil Jackson, the Executive Director of the Black Star Project, is so committed to education that he and a group of supporters went to Cook County jail to solicit support from the fathers that are locked up? 

Following is a conversation that Jackson had with National Columnist Esther J. Cepeda of 600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda. ”We went to Cook Country jail today, marched around the jail chanting ‘Educate or Die!’ and spoke to 1,000 men in division four, asking them to write letters to their family to have them take their children to school next Tuesday,” Phillip told me late Wednesday night. “Last week we took a letter to Sheriff Tom Dart and asked him to provide paper, envelopes, and stamps and he did saying ‘Yes! That’s exactly what we’re looking for!’” I told those men that the one thing that should never be taken away from a man is the right to be a good father.”  (Taken from an article shared in the Black Star e-newsletter Esther Cepeda See Solutions in Million Father March) 

Take your children to school on Tuesday, September 2, 2008!

I am soooooooooooooooooooooooo disappointed.  I interviewed with KeKe Palmer in June prior to her performance at The Taste of Chicago.  She told me about her movie, The Longshots, that came out on Friday, August 22, 2008.  It was a cute little movie.  I liked it.   Anyway, the story is about Jasmine Plummer, a 11-year-old quarterback on the Harvey Colts, a little league football team.  She was the first girl in the Pop Warner tournament history.  Basically, this young lady was doing her thang with the help of her uncle.

After my interview with KeKe, I made several attempts to interview Jasmine through her uncle prior to the opening of the movie.  It never happened.  Now, she’s everywhere!  And do you know, I still have not interviewed her even though I have contact with the family?  I will not give up.  There is still one more story for me, and I’m going to get it!

It has been over six months since I’ve seen the people on the METRA train that started out as complete strangers or slight acquaintances.  Our conversations started with a simple, “Hello” or small talk.  Soon, they blossomed into full conversations about everything – family, work, politics, violence in Chicago, booty-ology (Yes, men tend to classify the different shapes and sizes of the bottoms of the ladies that they pass.)  Everything.  These are the people I endearingly call My Train Crew.

I had my morning train crew and my afternoon train crew.  Regardless of the time of day, I always learned something and I hope they feel the same.  I keep in touch with my morning train crew via email – Andrea, Daryl and Greg -  so I know what’s going on with them.  However, my evening train crew – Dee and Eric - is not so interested in technology, so I hadn’t seen or spoken to them since February.  I do keep in touch with Tony B.  I also miss Mr. Frank, my favorite conductor.  Although I see him sometimes when I go downtown in the morning, it’s just not the same.

I thought of my evening crew often and often considered catching them in the evening.  It did not happen.  Until Tuesday, August 26.  I parked my car and ran to the train platform.  I felt like a character in a movie chasing a love that (s)he would never see again.  My running was for real.  I went up the stairs one way and they were going down the other set of stairs.  Shorty was ti’ed.  However, I did catch up (only because Dee always has at least one bag and she had two big bags this day.).  It was great seeing Dee and Eric.  The extra effort was worth it. 

I can say that I would not want to see them under the same circumstances we bonded – working a 9 to 5 job.  I know that my writing will take me places, and I pray that a full-time job isn’t one of those places.

I learned two lessons on Tuesday:
1. I really miss my train crew
2. I am sorely out of shape

Big School, Bigger Meaning

Above is a picture of the Little Rock Central High School.  This huge building has earned its place in history, particularly Civil Rights History.  This is the school where nine black teenagers fought through a crowd of angry white protesters against integration.  It was also integral in determining the validity of the the 1955 Brown v. Board of Education decision.

The meaning behind this building is greater than its massive structure.  Think about it.  In 1957, nine black students in an overly-racial community fought to get an education.  They had to pass mobs of angry white people to get to the doors of the school.  And, once inside those doors, they had to face people that did not like them for no reason other than the color of their skin.  I’m sure the educators were not too happy about teaching these people that did not look like them.

Fast forward to 2008.  The school doors are open every day, and children are not walking through them at the rate that they should.  The Little Rock Nine fought for an education, and some of the young people of today could care less.  It’s really disappointing and sad.  What’s even worse is that it costs more to hold a child in juvenile prison (up to $96,000 per youth inmate per year at Kewanee, IL) than it costs to send a child to a Chicago Public School ($10,555 per student per year).  So, I guess it can be said that the mob is no longer the angry, raucous group of white faces boldly protesting integration. The mob is now a cowardly group of white faces hiding behind an unjust legal system.

State Department of Corrections

I interviewed KeKe Palmer in June prior to her performance at the Taste of Chicago.  During that interview she told me about her movie, The Long Shots, which starts today.  The story is about Jasmine Plummer, a female quarterback that lead the Harvey Colts in the Pop Warner tournament.  I wrote the story about how I reached out to the Harvey Colts, the family of Jasmine Plummer, and Nick Satora, the producer of the movie in my blog, marciewrites.wordpress.com.  I connected with everyone except Jasmine Plummer.

I received an email from Mr. Plummer, Jasmine’s grandfather, on Sunday evening giving me permission to interview Jasmine ASAP.  That was awesome.  The interview has not taken place yet because Jasmine is basking in stardom this week (you go girl!).  Wait…there’s more!  Mr. Plummer said that he learned about me from KeKe Palmer’s mother.

The blog addition is finally working for me.

There is an old song that little girls used to sing years ago:

Susie and Johnny sitting in the tree,
K-I-S-S-I-N-G
First comes love, then comes marriage,
Here comes Susie with a baby carriage.

If you really think about this song, it was all in order.  You fell in love, got married and a baby came from that union. 

I share this because, I promise, if one more person asks me when I am going to have a baby,  I am going to spit them up and chew them out!  (I know I said that wrong.  Since the whole conversation is wrong anyway, I felt the need to put my wrong-ness in.).  These people feel the need to be in my business by saying the dumbest things like, “ You know, you’re almost 35.  You need to hurry up and have kids.”  Many of them DO NOT say, “Well, it’s time for you to get married and have a family.”  Ok, that’s not true.  Most of the people who say that are men.  They are probably speaking from hormones, so their comments don’t count.

This is just another thought that will fall into my bass ackwards category.

I just wanted to share my experiences with all of the front desk people at the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) properties.  I went to each of the properties to request permission to post flyers for a story I am working on, and everyone was really nice and supportive.  I just wanted to share.

I had two interesting conversations on yesterday that I just had to share. 

First, I contacted someone at The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) to ask if one of their properties was still open.  I had called all of the properties that were posted on the CHA’s website.  The CHA has gone through major reconstruction over the past few years.  Two of the numbers were disconnected, and there was no answer at two other numbers.  So, I inquired about the properties with no answer.  I was told that the properties were still open.  I asked for the contact information because I needed the information.  Do you know that this person told me to call 411 for the number?  I was talking to CHA!  Why did I need to call 411?

My second call came from someone who told me that he didn’t know if he was calling the right number when he called my new red phone.  I know I changed my voicemail message after I got a new phone to reflect my phone-is-working status.  So, I listened to my message and it says, “Hi, this is Marcie.”  So, what was this person talking about really?

After those two conversations, I had to wonder if these people actually thought I had sucker written across my forehead.  Nope.  I am convinced that they were the suckers to make those comments.

Sucker on Forehead

It is dishearting to see things that used to be exceptions are now the norms. Things are all out of order and people are accepting it.  A few things in particular come to mind.

1. There was a time when parents died before their children because it was the natural order of life. Usually the death was from age and other less stressful causes.  Now, parents are burying their babies at alarming rates.  And what’s even worse is – nobody cares. It is not normal, first of all, for kids to be killed at the hands of other people.  Secondly, the fact that children continue to die and nothing is being done is just absolutely disgusting.

2. I hope I don’t offend homosexuals with this one, but gay marriage is not natural and should not be accepted.  I am not a homophobe, and I feel that you should love whomever you choose.  However, marriage should be between men and women.  One of the purposes of marriage is to procreate.  That will not happen in such a union.  I know that the argument can be made that adoption is an option.  Which it is.  No matter how many children you take out of the system (bless your heart), two people with the same parts cannot reproduce with each other.

3. Women taking care of men is just plain ol’ outrageous.  Unless buddy boy is a dependent son not of age, or has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual (according to the ADA); and…I think that’s it, women have no good reason to care for an able-bodied man.

4. Some people are nicer to people outside of their families than they are to their own family members.  While I completely understand this, it’s still not right.

5. People who expect to get paid more than minimum wage without an education are waaay bass ackwards.  How do they expect to get something, and you don’t know nothing (yes, I used a double negative.).  So, instead of working their way up, they just don’t work.

6. The government systems are pretty bass ackwards too.  Check this out.  I am a single woman with no kids.  During a period of unemployment, I tried to apply for health benefits under the public assistance program.  Do you know that I could not get benefits in Illinois because I did not have any dependents?  I was livid.  First of all, I know my tax dollars are going into the system.  Who am I paying for?  Secondly, I only wanted health benefits.  I didn’t ask for financial assistance or food assistance.  That was freakin’ unbelievable!  I am still not happy about that and it’s over 5 years later.  Ideally, I should be over it, but my taxes are still being taken and I still don’t have any kids which means I am still SOL!

Ok, I’m done with my whine and moan fest.  I may continue on at a later date.  I’m sure I’m not done yet.