To T.K.- Because I Love Him Anyway

circa 1989.
Daddy, my sister, and I

 

Yesterday I dreamt of you. You walked tall and strong into the room wearing your kente cloth. The same one we buried you in. You were healthy and looked 15 years younger. I gave you a long hug. Something we hardly ever did while you were in this world.

You pulled away and asked if I needed anything. All I did was stare.

——

I hope he knew that I loved him. We didn’t speak to each other much towards the end. But, I hope he knew that I always cared for him.

Maybe that is why he visited me in that dream. To let me know, that he knew.

In life, I was waiting for his phone call. And even still I find myself expecting to find a missed message from him. I miss him.

You see, the thing with little girls is that they can’t help but love their daddies.

A lot of the time he was so frustrating, but sometimes he made me laugh so hard. I remember when we were little before he got sick, how he would drive so fast with us in his taxi car down the big slope of Grubb Road. It was like a rollercoaster! I remember how he used to work out on the Total Gym machine and how cool we thought he was. I remember the times we would sit and talk for hours about what I can’t remember on the stoop of the Silver Spring house. I remember how he used to play with his false teeth (and how surprised we were to find out they weren’t all real!) I remember all the Heineken he used to drink and the Redskins games he’d watch on the living room sofa.

I’m forgetting your laugh. If you could just call, just one more time….

He may not have been the best man, because he wasn’t –  or always present, because that he wasn’t either. He could have done better and I remember a lot of his failures, but I’m not angry. Because he was mine.

He was mine.

You are mine.

 

Happy Father’s Day.

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Strolling through Munich

Munich is cool.

Didn’t spend much time there as I was only on a layover on my way to Split. Luckily getting to the city center is super easy from the airport and naturally I wasn’t going to sit in the airport for 7 HOURS until my next flight.

The airport train station
These figures go around re-enacting medieval stories while the bells chime
The Glockenspiel
Interesting
Always one of these everywhere I go
Something that I’m sure is significant, but I didn’t take the time to find out.

I hopped on the S-bahn to Marienplatz and got to see the Glockenspiel and other attractions. Truthfully , I wasn’t even aware that the Glockenspiel was a big deal until I left the city and researched it.

I did catch the bells and chime show and that was cute.

 

Also, it was literally 9am when I arrived and people were drinking full glasses of beer. Oh, you Germans!

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Smells like Rotten Eggs

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Split, Croatia

It’s so surreally beautiful in Split! From the clear water to art deco buildings, to the cliff tops and beaches. All of it.

However, the closer you get to the Riva the more you’ll notice that it stinks. Bad. Like a levitating giant farted in the sky and pointed his ass towards the city when he let it rip.

(I might be exaggerating a bit)

Fun fact: The rotten egg smell is actually from an underwater sulfur spring. The famous Diocletian’s Palace was originally erected in Split as a retirement home for the Roman emperor Diocletian. Apparently he had terrible arthritis and sulfur remedies are a good treatment for it.

The palm trees aren’t even native here. They came from Florida.
Locals listening to live music outside a restaurant window
Within the palace walls
The basement of the palace.
Speedo!

I’ll be in Split for the rest of this month, so there will be much more to share!

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Cute Baby and a Haunting History

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Foggy skyline

I have a love hate relationship with New York city. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I can’t even. Here are some of my favorite things from my most recent trip:

Baby in Central Park

Ellis Island Hard Hat Tour

Took the hard hat tour of the old hospital and other facilities. A little creepy, but learning the history of how thousands of people entered this country was fascinating. There was also a pretty cool portrait exhibit by French Artist JR of old historic photos right on the walls of the abandoned facilities. Definitely added to the creepiness factor.

New York. Not the worst at all.

Magic Secret Boxes

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Sweet, sweet shopkeeper whose name I cannot remember

Off the shores of Lake Ashi, where you can catch views of Mount Fuji, lies Hakone Maruyama Inc. A quaint wood working shop where my tour group was given a really sweet demonstration of the mechanics behind Japanese puzzle boxes.

They are boxes with numerous amounts of combinations to perform before being able to open it. Some boxes only need four actions to crack the code, while more complicated boxes can require up to 125!

You can order your own from their website. They do international shipping!

Catch a peek of Mount Fuji
Tiny box
The exterior of the shop
They create all sorts of wood masterpieces

How to Catch a Geisha

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How to Catch a Geisha…with your eyes: 

  1. Head over to Gion, Kyoto’s famous Geisha district.
  2. Line up on the streets right before sundown outside an ochaya (a teahouse)- the best time to catch a geisha is when they are on their way to meet clients around 6pm.
  3. Don’t call them geisha- geisha in Kyoto are highly regarded and in a different class from your everyday geisha. Call them Geiko.
  4. Also, don’t call them geiko- a lot of them are actually geiko in training. They can be as young as 15 years old. Call them Maiko.
  5. Take pictures, but don’t touch- these are busy working women!
  6. They are not whores- they just play drinking games with wealthy and important paying men.
  7. Listen for ringing bells- maiko wear bells on their shoes.You’ll know it’s them coming around the corner.
  8. Snap a photo quickly before they shuffle into the ochaya- You’ll only have a few minutes before they’re all gone!

*It didn’t occur to me until later when someone mentioned how odd it is for grown adults to wait excitedly in the dark  for young girls to pass in the night…¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Maiko on her way| December, 2015
Mia, our Geiko seeing tour guide | December,2015

Red Rocks and Old White People

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How awesome is that pink jeep?!

Sedona, AZ has to be the most visually stunning place I’ve visited so far.

It’s a small town in the middle of an incredible backdrop with an overwhelming population generally over the age of 65.

A lot of old people- thankfully not the crotchety, grumpy type of old people. But the type of old people who share their inspiring life stories (warranted or not), sing kumbaya, buy healing crystals, and probably smoke a little weed. Obviously, the kind of old people you want to befriend.

I took a pink jeep tour around some of Sedona’s most famous rock formations and have never felt more in awe at a natural landscape. Honestly, the entire atmosphere is so breathtaking it just makes you want to get your spiritual woo woo on.

I’d retire there in a jiffy.

How awesome is that pink jeep?!
Rock crawling with a pink jeep

Life becomes beautiful…

Washington, DC | April 13, 2014
Gaithersburg, MD | April 6, 2014

Life becomes beautiful once you realize everything you see is a different part of yourself and everything you experience, good or bad, positive or negative is meant to benefit the evolution of your soul.

-Kyle D. Jones, author of Author of Candyland: For The Progression Of Human Evolution

Really Can’t Escape the Snow, huh?

In early March of last year I went on my first ever solo trip and it was to Arizona (whoo!)- which I thought they called the valley of the sun.*

Except it was around 30F and snowing at the Grand Canyon.

(It’s not that I don’t like snow. I just don’t like being cold. If snow was warm, I’d probably be much more inclined to enjoy it. But maybe I’m thinking about sand now. Can we consider sand the opposite of snow? I do like the beach, but I don’t like finding sand days later in undesirable places…)

I somehow was under the impression that I was going to be escaping the lingering winter in D.C. at the time by jetting off to the other side of the country. The locals said they sometimes get one snowstorm a year. Lucky me it just so happened to be that week I was visiting.

So there you go. It does snow in the desert.

Bring a jacket.

 

*Later found out that phrase refers mainly to the Phoenix Metropolitan Area.

 

A Hot Second in London

It’s 5am and I had five and a half hours between my layover at Heathrow and my next flight, so I risked taking the 1 hour Underground ride from the airport to Central London to meet my cousin for a quick early morning breakfast and some sightseeing.

Actually, A sightseeing. Just one.

We walked over to Buckingham palace, which was completely void of people.

*Tourist tip: visit popular attractions at 7am on a Tuesday. You’ll get a great view!

Shortly after we arrived at Buckingham (and by shortly, I mean really short because I only had about 20 minutes to spend there) the changing of the guards occurred. For being short on time, that happening right then was perfect timing.

After I took some crappy videos and photos on my iPhone we grabbed a quick bite to eat and I was headed back to the airport.