Boo Boo the Fool

It’s amazing what some folks will do so they can take advantage of others. A friend of mine recently took a group trip to Jamaica and spent the majority of her time at the all inclusive resort. One night the group had tickets to a party off the resort and she met a Jamaican guy who happened to live in NYC. They chatted, danced and hit it off so they exchanged numbers and promised to keep in touch once they returned to the US.

Upon returning to the US, my friend discovers that her uncle recently passed away and headed to his funeral. While she was away she received a call from the gentlemen she met in Jamaica. He’d wanted to see how she was and also let her know that he’d been mugged and lost his wallet, ID, credit cards and money. They conversed a bit more before he asked if she could send him some money and that he’d pay her back the moment he returned to NY. She told him she wasn’t able to and asked why he couldn’t ask his relatives since he was staying with them. He had an answer for that. A week or so later he calls her again this time he’s in NY and asked while they chatted if she could send him some money since he was having trouble getting to the bank since it was far and he didn't have any money to take a cab. When she asked why he couldn’t ask his friends there he stated that he doesn’t want to ask anyone for anything. Her response: “but you’re asking me”.

This is a man she met for about 30 minutes in a club and he felt comfortable enough to make her a target for his scheme. I don’t know this guy but all this is a straight up scheme and I’m assuming it’s worked for him before because I honestly can’t imagine a stranger having the nerve to ask my friend for money. You don’t know her, but there’s nothing about her that reads “boo boo the fool”

La Patte

Sain Supa Crew love 'em.

Jury Duty

I was summoned for Jury Duty sometime in August and postponed it for last Thursday. I figured the scenario would be the same as the last time I was “summoned”. I’d go down and they’d dismiss me in time for Oprah. I guess my juror number came up because I was the first person called and I was picked for to be the juror on a criminal case. Maybe I should play my juror number, who knows I might win a few dollars or a few million. Either way I learned a few things on Jury Duty, one of them is that the D.C. Courts need to revamp its system. The second is that even though I haven’t ridden a DC bus in years, toothless people and folks with jaundice still ride the bus. Clearly they haven’t given their liver a rest in ages. The courthouse is full of unsavory looking characters who smoke New Ports, and talk about their probation issues and getting clean before the urine test.

First it’s enough that you have to get there all “early 8AM” and shyt but there are NO snacks and they don’t give you bottled water. They have a few dial up lines in the business lounge but no wireless internet anywhere in the court house. I was a bit flabbergasted, are we not at the end of 2006? This seemed unacceptable, and I’m sending Fenty an email. I’ve heard that jurors in other cities are at least given a few basic necessities.

I knew the actual trial wasn’t going to be anything like it is on Law & Order or other TV shows but I was really disappointed by how slow the attorneys were. I felt like objecting a few times when the defense attorney kept repeating the same question, 10 different ways. More then 3 minutes of silence while you read your notes seems a bit much. I think both attorneys spent more time doing bench conferences with the judge then they did actually questioning witnesses or giving their opening statements. I can’t imagine having the task of prosecuting someone for a crime or defending them and my performance or lack there of, having a major outcome in their lives.

I did have a great time trying to figure out during the bench conferences what celebrities folks looked like and have decided that the prosecutor has a Pinocchio Nose, the first Detective to testify looked like a female Jaime Foxx and the Marshall assigned to the courtroom had a Steve Harvey hair cut.

Although I wasn’t happy getting picked, I did experience something new and did my civic duty.

Crack in a Bag

Yes, my friends this is crack in a bag. When I went up to NYC last weekend my mom had two bags on the kitchen counter. I finished one in 5 minutes and the other in the car on my way back to D.C. This is seriously crack in a bag and although I don’t promote addiction, if you have an opportunity try one or two. The only thing that may suffer is your waist line.

Rockland Drama Part 2

STOP

If you haven’t read part 1 then check it out here before reading this post.

For those who read part 1, here is the background story:

The mother of the bride asked her daughter, to ask the father of the bride to tell his wife that she was not welcome at the wedding. The mother of the bride gave these instructions the day before the wedding. The Stepmother’s son was a groomsmen in the wedding, she helped (via her husbands money, because his money is also her money, pay for the wedding), when my mom and another friend asked the Stepmother if she was going to the wedding back in July she said yes of course, I’m buying a new dress and everything.

27 years ago, the father of the bride met the stepmother at her cousin’s house when she just arrived in the US, they fell in love. He knew he was married and had a one year old daughter and stepson at home, she knew he was married and had a one year old daughter and stepson at home. He announced to his wife that he was leaving, divorced the ex wife and married the new wife. The ex wife just lost husband number two to divorce and was livid. So livid that my mom, when asked just shakes her head and says it was such a messy, messy divorce.

The father of the bride made sure he was as involved in his daughter’s life as much as he could with every other weekends and two weeks during the summer. In fact growing up I resented my father and his actions after my parents divorced because I had a daily example of what it really meant to be a father who doesn’t live with his child (the father of the bride and stepmother live in the building I grew up in). According to the grown folks (my mom and her friends) the stepmother didn’t try to raise the stepdaughter and kept her distance when she visited. Growing up the daughter and the stepdaughter had a bearable relationship but not a close one.

On the wedding day the father of the bride was sad and at first I thought it was because he was about to give away his only daughter until I realized that his wife of 27 years was not in attendance.

Now that you’ve received more details (albeit third hand) does this change the answer you gave in Part 1?

Rockland Drama Part 1

I went to a beautiful wedding in Rockland county (upstate NY) this weekend and am a bit bummed that I didn’t have time to call some NYC bloggers or even see one of my best friends. I’ve learned a few lessons this weekend though, one of which is to read driving directions very carefully. However, on a good note, we ended up on the scenic route to the wedding.

Unfortunately the weekend wasn’t as tranquil as the surroundings would lead one to believe. Without going into details at this time, what would you do if your ex husband’s wife planned on going to your daughter’s wedding. Would you ask her not to attend?

I’ll wait a day for some answers before posting the behind the scenes story.

What To Do?

I’ve been chanting “better countries” for the last year regarding my work assignments. There are better countries out there waiting for a competent project manager among my team’s portfolio. Unfortunately those projects aren’t under my bosses’ leadership and around here folks have to look out for their own sub team members first, so I have a choice to make. Say no to an opportunity in Kiev and take my changes with not being 100% billable or say yes to Kiev and grumble with secured billability and employment. Kiev isn’t too far from Yerevan so maybe that would work.

At least the Kiev opportunity doesn’t start until the new year so I can hold on to my “no more work travel for ’06” stance.