Toronto, Here I Come!

Starting tomorrow (and continuing to Monday, Aug. 3) I will be traveling to Toronto, Ontario, Canada for vacation. I will be partying with the Caribbeans for a festival that's given every year there called Caribana, in addition to visiting my friend who also lives there. So I'll be killing two birds with one stone. I'm excited because 1) I've been to Canada before (Vancouver) and was looking for the opportunity to go back and 2) this is the first vacation I've taken outside the U.S. in four years. So this was a long time coming for me.

Catch yall later. And I promise not to act up too bad. You know them Caribbeans don't be messin around lol.

Family and Family Reunions

Yesterday, for only the second time in my life, I went to my family reunion. The first one I went to was about 4 years ago and had a lot more people. This one was significantly smaller. Many people opted not to go period, and others who said they were coming didn't show up. Honestly, I was not planning on going myself. I only found out about it the week before, and they were asking for $55 from everybody. I thought to myself, $55 for what??? I don't really feel like being around my family this time. And it's not even a damn pay week. I'll pass. But my cousin (who was coordinating the event) wanted me to come and represent for those in my family with my last name. So after talking with her on the phone for about 10-15 minutes, I gave her my word that I would attend.

The reunion was held at some small park in central NJ. It (supposedly) started at 10AM, and I got there around 1:30PM. No sense being there real early; it is a black event after all lol. And I was right. When I pulled up to the park, there was barely anybody there (I would say about 10 people). This was gonna be a pretty boring ass family reunion. After I greeted the few people that were already there, I sat down and ate and engaged in small conversation. Gradually, people started coming in. And I have to admit, I had more fun than I thought I would. We played a few games, ate some bangin ass food, and just plain had a good time in each other's company.

As we all gathered to leave, the coordinator had some words to say, and the words resonated. She first mentioned how there were "a good 30 people" who told her they would be there but didn't. She went on about how people go where they wanna go and what do what they wanna do, but what do they do for family? She also mentioned how she herself didn't know many of her relatives, even though they lived not too far from her. But the underlying theme was that we may not know each other and do things together like we should, but nothing will ever change the fact that we are and will always be family, and how we need to reach out to each other. Hell, family is the only major stability in life. There's nothing you can do about that. Believe me, I pride myself on the many wonderful friends both old and new in my life. But I'm equally more grateful on the family I have. Nothing like a good ole family reunion to remind a brotha of that.

By the way, the coordinator made no mention of the $55. She didn't press the issue because 1. other people didn't pay either and 2. she understood how the economy was making it hard for some people. Whew...dodged that bullet lmao.

Volunteer Work

As I stated in my posted entitled "Who? Me?!," my sexy coworker is a very motivated individual. Aside from his overall sexiness, that's one of the main reasons why I am drawn to him as a person. And he did not disappoint me with his motivation...

For the past few months, he has been telling me about how he plans to leave Corporate America and, along with his older brother, start a non-profit organization to increase health awareness in children in New York City, starting in Harlem. Yesterday, his plans came to fruition. Yesterday morning was their inaugural day, if you wanna call it that. They decided to hold a day of games and activities for some kids in Harlem at a school there, and I was one of the volunteers. Even though I absolutely despise waking up early (especially on a Saturday), I can honestly say that I enjoyed myself, and the event turned out to be quite successful. There were other organizations there too, but they all work together with the Children's Aid Society, which has been around for over a century. It was pretty hot yesterday, and for the most part I was just standing around not doing much. But seeing the kids play, laugh and just plain enjoy themselves did give me some satisfaction. And seeing my coworker explain to people the nature of his new organization with passion made me proud that I have gotten to know him and how I need to be around him. In this economy, there is no job security, so you have GOT to have a backup plan! So now I'm just praying and asking God to direct me to my God-given talent.

When the event was over for the day, he sent a text thanking me for my support, and how it meant a lot to him as he tried to keep the momentum of the company flowing. I replied saying it was my pleasure, and congratulated him on doing big things, and how a positive inspiration he was. Think about it...how many people do you know have big plans about their life or career and actually follow through with what they say? Sadly, not many.

I encourage all of you to volunteer somehow, somewhere. It's the best thing you can do as a human being.

My Addiction

It all started with my father.

When I was a child (around 7), my parents would sometimes let me sleep on the living room couch. Frankly, I didn't mind because I thought it was a lot more comfortable than my bunk bed, which was hard and uncomfortable. When I was there, I would often become awakened by an odd sound...the sound of a high-pitched female. As I opened my eyes to try to figure out where the sound was coming from, my view was blocked by my father sitting directly in front of the TV, with his back to me. It was then that I figured out that the high-pitched female was coming from the TV. She was moaning and making oooohs and ahhhhs sounds repeatedly. Why is she making that sound? I wanna see, I said to myself. Judging by the sound, whatever was going on sure made her feel good. And my father sat in front of the TV for quite a long time to view what was making her feel good. This continued for a few years, and each time, my curiousity became more and more piqued.

Fast forward a few years.

One day, when my parents were out of town, my oldest brother invited his friend and 2 females to come over. He forced my middle brother and I to go to the bedroom while they stayed in the living room. Being the curious little boy that I was, I crept up to the doorway of the living room to hear what was going on. To my amazement, I heard the same high-pitched female sound that I heard when I saw my father in front of the TV. Where they watching the same thing? After a while, I figured out that what my brother was watching had to have been something bad. Why would he not let my brother and I watch it too? So I told him I was gonna tell my parents what my brother had been watching. That was all my brother needed to hear, because he begged me not to tell them, grabbed me, and forced me to sit in front of the TV to see the source of the high-pitched woman. I was fascinated yet confused:

- Why don't they have clothes on?
- What is that hairy thing between her legs?
- Why is he pushing his pee pee into her like that?
- What is that white stuff coming out of his pee pee hole?

I definitely had no plans of telling my parents after that. But I still needed more....more explanation, more sight, more sound, more, more, more!

By the time I was a teenager, my curiosity reached the max. (I wasn't having sex like most teenage boys, so I reached my curiosity max a lot faster lol.) I found out that my brothers had some porno videos hidden away in either our clothes closet or the bottom drawer. When noone was around, I would take the videos out, put them in the VCR (I'm so glad I had a VCR in my room lol), and watched the movies in sheer amazement and joy. I saw white people, black people, and sometimes both enjoying themselves together, moaning and screaming in glee. Suckin dick and titties, eatin pussy, gettin fucked in the pussy and ass, squirting liquids all over their bodies. They were doin it at every location...couches, beds, tables, desks, on a boat, on the floor. Is that what this is all about? I could get used to watching this. Hell, I didn't even masturbate; I was too amazed by their own euphoria to worry about myself.

Now, anybody that knows me knows (or has heard) that I collect porn clips/movies to distribute. I sometimes buy them online, but most times I get them for free from multiple yahoo groups that post them (damn, just revealed my secret lol). Some of them take a long time to download, but I'm a very patient man for FREE porn! I sometimes like the straight ones (mmmmmm Brian Pumper), but they don't get me like the good ole gay ones (I love it every time Shorty J gets fucked). My friends and friends of my friends ask me if I have this so and so movie with so and so. Many times, they will just say that they need any clip/movie and leave it up to me to decide what I want to give them. I feel like a gay Blockbuster. Shit, I have 25 CDs/DVSs of porn, and that's not even counting the many more stored on my laptop. Oh well, it is what it is. But I say all this to say, without shame (or rehab)...

My name is Greg, and I am a porn addict.

Happy Birthday To Me!

Today I gain another year (a total of 31.) And don't even ask me if I feel old. I'm not older; I'm better! LOL And I must be doing something right, because when I went to dinner, the waitress asked to see my ID when I ordered an alcoholic drink. Thank God for good genes lol. I enjoyed my entire birthday weekend. Happy Birthday to me!

Oh yeah, and 2 of my female coworkers gave me a bouquet of flowers. First time I've ever gotten flowers in my life. Now I don't know how to take care of the damn things lol.

The Competence of Being Incompetent

For the most part, I can honestly say that I like my job. The company has a very down-to-earth atmosphere (possibly because it's privately-owned), most of the people are very charming and easy to talk to (including the best COO I've ever come in contact with), I'm always learning new things, and there is plenty of room for growth and opportunity.

But like every job, there are some things that I don't like. And for me, my main issue is my supervisor. Granted, she's a nice woman, but for the life of me, I cannot ascertain why/how she became a supervisor. Shit, just being nice ain't gonna cut it in Corporate America! At her previous place of employment (which she reminds me of at least once a month), she wasn't even remotely any type of supervisory role. She was a plain old worker. In my 2 years of being under her "leadership" (for lack of a better word), I have watched her crash and burn from instances ranging from telephone conferences to meetings. She can't even type a simple e-mail without asking me how the grammar and spelling are (OK, chalk that up to her being originally from India, but that's a mute point. She's been in the U.S. over 10 damn years now; no sympathy here lol). But in even greater instances, our department manager (her direct boss) frequently has to tell or remind her of things she needs to be taking care of as a supervisor, since his hands are tied with so many other things. Sometimes I just sit and laugh to myself about my manager chewing out my supervisor about what she did or more frequently, didn't do. I swear, it's pure comedy most times lol. My supervisor seriously lacks effective leadership, technical, and interpersonal skills. And she's reactive rather than proactive. A few times, I've had to take it upon myself to present and handle things myself rather than wait on her to make a decision, and it's paid off. (And it also boosts up my employee goals/accomplishments for the year.)

So today as I perused CNN.com like I do most days, I came across an interesting link to the Time Web site entitled "Competence: Is Your Boss Faking It?" Click here if you wish to read the article in its entirety. I think this article was pretty much reading everyone's mind who has ever had to report to a boss. How many times have we said to ourselves (or another coworker, friend, etc.) that our boss can't possibly be as incompetent as they are? How much bullshit did they talk to land them on top of the heap? Hell, do they even know or remember the bullshit they talked to land them on top of the heap?

A few years ago, I read a book called "Work Would Be Great If It Weren't for the People." But in this case, wouldn't work be great if it weren't for (incompetent) bosses? Can Congress include that in the stimulus package? LOL

My 3-Day MLK Weekend

This past weekend, I told myself that I was gonna have fun (since I didn't have to work on Monday), yet stay warm (cause God knows it's cold as shit now!). I accomplished the first, but not quite the second one. You can't win em all you know lol.

Friday night one of my friends had a little get-together at his house to celebrate his 26th birthday. It was good seeing him, cause I haven't seen him in months. And I'm proud of him because he used to weigh over 200 lbs. Now he looks at least 40 lbs slimmer. He's actually looking kinda sexy now lol. It was also good to see his brother, who I am also friends with. Haven't seen him a while either, but he is still keeping himself together physically too. I also saw a few others there that I'm cool with. Everybody seemed to be having a good time. Liquor was flowin (rum, vodka and gin) and I think people were in there smoking just about everything (but I don't smoke). A spades game was briefly played, but I don't think anybody could really concentrate cause they were either drunk or high lol. Then the music kicked in. I tell you, if I see one more homo dance to Single Ladies I'ma fight em lol. But I must admit, you can't sit still when that song comes on. But I didn't start movin til the House Music came on. Now that's my shit! By the time 2:00 came, people were startin to be out, so I left soon after (there wasn't much goin on after you left, Jay). My weekend was startin off pretty well.

Saturday my sexy coworker, myself and whoever else he decided to bring with him planned on going to the movies to see The Wrestler, with Mickey Rourke. (We like to see movies together, sue us lol.) But plans changed...when he called me that evening, he told me that "the consensus" decided they wanted to see Notorious, the movie based on the life of rapper The Notorious B.I.G. I was indifferent about the movie; it wasn't my first choice on the movie to see, but I didn't care that we were going to go see it. We decided to go see it at this movie theater in Manhattan (in Union Square), and ordered the tickets online at Fandango.com. We knew the ticket lines would most likely be ridiculously long, and when I got to the theater, I was right! It was jam packed with people. Even the lines for the Fandango kiosks were long as hell. Here we go, I said to myself. I was the first one to get there, so my coworker told me to save 4 seats. "I'll try," I said. I knew the line would be long, but I was not prepared for what I saw: the line outside the theater was literally down the ramp and up against the wall. I have NEVER seen a line so long for a movie. (Of course the thugs came out to suppport, but there were surprisingly quite a few white people there as well.) And I was allllllllll the way in back of the line. I couldn't believe it. This is a classic reason why I hate seeing movies opening weekend. But alas, a silver lining....one of the movie ushers told the crowd that they were seating people in the balcony section as well, because it was a "sold-out show." I really wasn't expecting to find a seat, but I took my chances anyway. Good thing I did, cause there were actually seats available for our party of five. I had to be ingenious and put my coat on two of the coats, and my scarf on the other two. And believe me, people were eyein them seats. Hell, I practically had to beat em off lol. About 15 minutes later, my coworker finally arrives with some female family friend (that he already fucked, natch lol). He told me that the other two (his sister and brother-in-law) were still on their way. About the movie....uhhhh...I thought it was good for what it was. I wasn't expecting it to be some grand, award-winning movie. It pretty much told us what most of us in the NYC area already knew about the man: he grew up in a single parent household, sold crack, how he met Diddy & 2Pac, his rise in the hip hop game, his meeting Lil Kim and Faith Evans, the whole East Coast-West Coast rivalry, and his untimely death. The dude who played Biggie was pretty good. And of course Angela Bassett always does her thing. I can see why Lil Kim was mad, cause she was portrayed like a straight-up jumpoff. Oh well, if the shoe fits... lol. The girl that played her was OK. Derek Luke (dude from the Antwone Fisher movie) played Diddy. Didn't like his performance all that much. I didn't like the 2Pac character that much either. (The dude from the Spike Lee movie She Hate Me.) If I was Roger Ebert, I would give it a marginal thumbs up. (We still plan on going to see The Wrestler though.)

Sunday morning at 8:30, I was awakened by the ringing of my telephone. Anybody that really knows me knows that I am not a morning person. You're lucky to get me on the phone at 10:00 on weekends, seriously. And I also hate being awakened from my sleep, because I don't fall back asleep easily (or sometimes not at all). After about a half hour, I struggled with myself to get out of bed to find out who interrupted my sleeping time. It was...ta dah!...my sexy coworker lol. He sent me a message saying that he's going snow boarding and invited me to come along. (He went snowboarding about a month or so before, and he loved it and couldn't wait to go again.) We had discussed this yesterday, and I could've sworn he told me he wasn't going. That bastard lol. But one thing about my coworker is that he's very adventurous and doesn't mind trying new things. (Hmmm...I bet the same applies in the bedroom too lmao.) It was just one more thing for me to say I did in my life, so I kinda jumped at the opportunity. My black, homo ass was going snowboarding! So I got myself ready and headed up to Vernon, NJ (about 1 1/2 hours from me). I got there around noon and it was crowded as hell with both snowboarders and skiers. Guess everybody had the same idea. There were also quite a few black people up there. Go head us...tryin to take over skiing and snowboarding too lol. I met up with my coworker and 4 other dudes. One dude was a newbie, just like me, another was there for about the third time, and the other was pretty much a pro. He was showing me and the other newbie dude the basics like how to position our feet, how to control our speed, how to stop, and how to steer. It's definitely harder than it looks, and I took a whole lot of falls. We practiced for a while on a little hill, then worked our way to two more hills. *I have to stop here to tell you that the other newbie dude was a Latino from Queens, but he had such a nice ass! I caught a glimpse of it when he was removing his shirts to wipe off the snow. I saw it through his windbreaker pants. You don't know how much energy it took for me to control myself lol. Turns out he's a personal trainer. If personal training gives you that, shit, sign me up!* Back to the story...the second and third hills were not kind to me at all. I can't even count how many falls I took...on my back, my stomach, my knees, my ass, my hands. It was quite a challenge. I was so damn exhausted and cold after I while I just said fuck it and walked down the hill. I went to the cafeteria and got myself some hot chocolate. But nonetheless, I enjoyed myself. I left around 8:30.

And today I was supposed to go to Dave & Buster's with a few others, but I was in so much pain in my body I didn't feel like goin out. Even as I write this, my elbow, legs, knees and ass are still hurting lol. Sucks to be non-athletic. Oh well. I'll be OK after a while.

So that sums up my weekend. Hope yall enjoyed yours.