Oh Shit!

April 9th, Tuesday... Let me preface what I am about to write by saying I grew up in poverty! That being said, I was in the ATL for the Final 4. I did not see a game. I did not run into any old friends that are coaches. In fact, I never got to downtown Atlanta to see anything relating to the Final 4! What I did get to do was stay in a mansion! Not a 5 star hotel... I stayed in a freakin' mansion! Never in my life I thought that I would get to experience how the other half lived! (And I enjoyed every stinking minute of it!) I stayed in the east wing of the house. The east freakin' wing! It was like a private studio apartment, only bigger! I enjoyed all the rights and privileges of the house. I ate, I drank... I was invited out to breakfast and rode in a S550 Benz. I watched movies in a home theatre with surround sound and 3D capability. I basked in the lap of luxury and I enjoyed the experience. And then it happened... I had to leave! (Crickets...)
I don't regret living the life I have lived so far. I have enjoyed my adventures, good and bad. But I have to tell you... Being rich does have its advantages! But I am thinking that if I had that lifestyle, I would be an idiot today. Not that the people that allowed me to stay with them are "idiots." I am saying that "I would be an idiot!" I would have no perspective. I probably don't have one now. What I do have is an experience that I will never forget! ThankYou Father!

A Warped POV by A. Dacosta Brathway

July 2nd, Thursday/ I gotta tell you... I thought MJ was bizarre in life but he is more out there in death! What the hell is going on? I won't even try to figure out the whole children thing! That I don't get at all but what I want to know is how the money thing works? Please, somebody explain to me how someone can have a compound go into foreclosure, be $400 million dollars in debt, pay $100,000/a month on one of the most exclusive mansions on the planet, be considered "BROKE" and have an estate worth millions? How does this happen in America?
Bad economy? Homes in foreclosure? People losing their jobs? MJ is broke, allegedly, and he has an estate worth millions? How? I'm broke and I can prove it. I have no estate. When I die, I will have nothing to divide up except my bones, if anybody wants them. It's a good thing I have no children. I just cannot imagine them being happy when they realize that they can fight over the division of my bones! "I want his foot bones that are connected to the leg bones, and the leg bones are connected to the thigh bones, and the thigh bones are connected to the hip bones..." (And you know the rest of the song!).
Man, I played my life all wrong. I should have majored in Economics, in college, like I started to but I let a, so called friend, talk me into majoring in English, which prepared me for writing a blog! Where is the estate in that?

CRAP/ My Journal by Al Brathway

June 5th, Thursday/ Well, Independence Day, '07 is in the books and I have to admit that I'm feeling more independent than I've felt in a long time! I'm no closer to getting a job than I was yesterday, I still don't have a girlfriend, and I'm broke! Yet, w/out those things, I am free! Somehow what we crave, as human beings, enslaves us. I was watching some of the fireworks shows last night and it amazed me how many people were singing God Bless America w/ such joyful looks on their faces. We're in a war, gas prices are through the roof, and global warming is killing us, literally, and we THINK we're free! [I guess there is a difference between being free and being independent...(?)] Being black makes me sensitive to anything that I think enslaves me (I need to see a therapist about that!) and the shit that is going on now is really fucking w/ my head! But, what is cool about America is I can go through whatever drama that is in front of me, fact or fiction, and no one will give a fuck because w/out the things I mentioned I don't have means I don't count in America anyway! I guess God IS blessing America! We probably shouldn't waste what precious time we have left by worrying about things that would and should concern us in the distant future or anytime really. We're, already, the walking dead! So I should understand what it is when another American looks me in the face, in passing, and does not see me at all!/ CRAP!