Praise God!!!

CONGRATULATIONS TO BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!

7 Long Hours In The Pouring Rain...

^^^^
That's my ballot up above. Aint it grand? :)

I voted early today in Miami Gardens. I got there a little before 11 AM thinking I would beat the crowds by arriving two hours before the polls opened. WRONG. The line was already wrapped around the block twice. In the end it took me exactly seven hours to vote. But boy was it worth it. Now I can kick back on election day with my fiancee and watch the pundits go crazy.

Some crazy things that happened today:

1) A puerto rican family set up shop to sell t-shirts to voters standing in line. But at $30 a pop no one was buying.

2) Poll workers started handing out tickets to make sure that people who stood in line for hours would still have a chance to vote, even though the poll was supposed to close at five.

3) A fender bender took place right before my eyes because some dude thought he could stop in a six lane street to drop his wife off at the curb. Even though it was his fault he wanted to call the police because he was bumped from behind. There was no damage to either vehicle so the guy who hit him pulled off. When he tried to elicit pity from us in the crowd we shamed him so bad that he pulled off without calling the cops. LOL.

4) One of the few white voters out there tried to skip the line and got ratted out and kicked to the back of the line.

5) McCain had his shyster lawyers out in force trying to disenfranchise voters but we weren't having none of that!

Not the blazing Miami sun, nor pouring rain, nor long lines, nor snake in the grass lawyers could deter the thousands who poured out today no doubt in support of Obama. I could have voted in Aventura but I wanted to be amongst my people and I have to say I was very proud and moved to tears at the amount of people who came out today. Yes we most certainly can!

Team Obama

I really hope Obama wins this election. I know the word CHANGE has been run into the ground over the last few months but that's exactly what we need.

But remember my fellow Floridians, we're not just voting for the highest and second highest offices in the land. There are a number of amendments and county issues on the ticket that need our careful consideration.

I've been doing some research and I found these two sites. Check them out and make an informed decision on Nov 4th!

http://www.kendrickmeek.com/Meek2008SlateDade_forweb.pdf

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-1024amendments.explained,0,7879718.story

Consider This..

Here's an interesting persp ective on Obama/Biden vs McCain/Palin. What if things were switched around?...ponder the following:

What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage, including a three month old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?

What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?

What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?

What if McCain had only married once, and Obama was a divorcee?

What if Obama was the candidate who left his first wife after a severely disfiguring car accident ? What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married? What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to painkillers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?

What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?

What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five? (The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)

What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker? What if Obama had trouble reading from a TelePrompter?

What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes? What if Obama was the one who was known to display publicly, on many occasions, a serious anger management problem?

What if Michelle Obama's family had made their money from beer distribution?

What if the Obamas had adopted a white child?

You could easily add to this list.

Would the election poll numbers be as close as they are? This is
what racism does. It distorts, rationalizes, and
minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes
negative qualities in another when there is a color
difference.

Educational Background:

Barack Obama: Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations. Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude.

Joseph Biden: University of Delaware -B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science. Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)

vs.

John McCain: United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899.

Sarah Palin: Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester North of Idaho - 2 semesters - Journalism. Matanuska-Susitna College- 1 semester University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism.

Education isn't everything, but this is about the two highest offices in the land as well as our standing in the world. You make the call.

Miserable Miami Memorial Monday

Try saying that three times fast.

Miserable Miami Memorial Monday/Miserable Miami Memorial Monday/Miserable Miami Memorial Monday.

One of the things that I've pledged NOT to do is to continually bash Miami like it's the worst place on earth. No one wants to read a blog full of moaning and groaning about how much better XYZ city is than MIA. Yes, it's a culture shock. No, people aren't as friendly and welcoming as they are in other cities. Yes, the sense of style is non existent. But Miami has many great things to offer which is why I moved here in the first place. It's also why I stay when there are jobs a' plenty back home if I ever want to gracefully bow out. I'm staying. For now.

But I must say, this past weekend makes me grateful that I will not be here for the next summer holiday- July 4th. The sheer ghetto, ignorant, just out right ridiculous crowd that descended upon Miami this past weekend was embarrassing. Shootings, rapes, macings, fights- you name it. It's no wonder most South Beach businesses close up shop for Memorial weekend and don't even bother. They won't make any money any way. 99% of the tourists don't patronize any of the local shops, so no money cycles into the economy. Why bring money when you can stand in front of the business, blocking customers who would actually spend a few dollars? While stopping the flow of much needed revenue, make sure to sexually harass every scantily clad female that walks by. Now THAT'S a party.

I'll end this post right here. I don't want to exert any more energy into rehashing Memorial weekend. Hopefully July 4th will be better.

Great Escape #3: Las Olas

A mere 30 minute drive from the upscale pulse of South Beach lies Las Olas Boulevard, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Those of you who want to get away from the oftentimes pretentious vibe of Ocean Drive can mosey on over to Las Olas and have a more gritty, seedy, but fun night filled with dance, cheaper drinks, and a more down to earth environment.

Las Olas reminds me of New Orleans, a city known for it's sizzling hot night life with an undercurrent of danger that can spring out at any moment. Upon entering Las Olas on a Saturday night we were immediately challenged to a fist fight and a drag race by drunken patrons who were too wasted to a) know what they were doing and b) follow through on their threats. After searching for parking for 20 minutes we strutted our stuff down the Boulevard and witnessed a huge melee by a group of drunk college boys. The scuffle was quickly broken up by a pack of police officers and who were a few feet away. That's the main difference between Las Olas and the N.O. The cops are just a devils breath away, waiting to slap a pair of handcuffs on you if you get too out of pocket.

It only cost ten bucks to enter the The Palace nightclub, which was dark, hot and had an even darker and hotter dance floor. The djs were from NYC which meant they knew how to blend their sounds to entice everyone to get loose on the floor. They played hip hop, both old and new school, and Caribbean music, both old and new. I teetered around in 5 inch stiletto heels and gave it my best, but after a while I kicked off my shoes and danced all night barefoot. I couldn't help it. Las Olas is not a place for the wallflower, prissy, poseur crowd. If you go to Las Olas come prepared to get down!

There was a raffle towards the end of the night and my fiancee won! To my surprise, the prizes were pretty nice. We won two 14k gold pieces of jewelry from Macy's, with the gift receipts attached so we can return them. I plan on keeping them though, because they are really nice and would look great with a little black dress, which is what I plan on wearing tonight when I party at my new buddy Darius' graduation party at Crazy Horse...

Been Gone For A Minute...

Now I'm BACK with the jump off... :)

I've been seriously slacking on my blogging as of late, and I apologize. I've been super busy in my off-line life. What could possibly keep me away from writing about my Miami escapades, you ask? Well there is the small fact that I am getting married! Yes, oh yes, oh yes! My fiancee popped the question on Wednesday March 26, 2008 and I said yes! So I've been a busy little bee preparing for our big day. Of course this blog will double as a chronicle of my MIA exploits and wedding planning. So stay tuned because the best is yet to come!

In the meantime, check out this clip of the Queen of Blue Eyed Soul, Taylor Dayne rip it at Miami's Jazz on the Bay. So you can't say I left you hanging for a 30days+ and didn't bring you back anything. :)



Shout outs to SoHood305 and BriaMia for the e-mails. I promise to update at least once a week from here on out.