I’ve hit the big time

I am being interviewed by St. Louis working mom, and she asks some interesting questions…  

1. Why St. Louis? Actually I was born here – and there is something in the water that keeps me from leaving, actually I think thats just my mom who doesn’t remember throwing a fit when I mentioned possibly moving to Vegas to become a teacher. Now, as of late I really like my city – I hated being from St. Louis for a long time, but Then I met m y husband and he helped me see so much of hte city I just hadn’t seen before. It still needs alot of work , St. Louis that is, but its come a long way.

2. When will we see you publish a book of poetry? Gheesh. Dude. At this rate? I can’t see it happening anymore. I miss poetry, I really do. And this may sound sad, It feels sad to even write it,  but the time for my dreams has passed. I am move vested in giving my girls the chance to take their dreams father than I could take mine. In addition, I’m focuing on being more realistic, I have several friends who are AWESOME poets who I would kill if they tried to quit, and I have a few who haven’t quit who I want to pull to the side and say, really dude, its time to hang it up. You are not gonna be the next (fill in the blank) so stop making your family sacrafice unnecessairly. I’m a better than average poet, but I’m not AWESOME, and given that fact the chances of someone my age breaking into written poetry is minimal, and spoken word is saturated with how shall we say, less than awesome persons, but given the right things happening  you could see a standard novel before Cammy goes to grade school. And if you really want – I can give you a copy of the CD I never released, if I can get a copy from my producer.

3. How has becoming a mother changed your life in unexpected ways? It made my dreams physical. I rarely dream when I am asleep anymore, and I used to all the time. Its hard to dream when your dreams wake you up asking to go potty. Motherhood has made so many things crystal clear for me, decisions I used to hem and haw over, have become very easy and the answer is very simple. I used to think I was born to be a wife and mom, and now that I have them I think I was born to be theirs. Motherhood has also made me more aware of myself as a woman, I never expected to be a mom to girls, I thought I would have boys, who knew? And Cammy is all about the girl stuff, hence I am all about the girl stuff.   

4. How do you know Dwight the Troubled Teen? Honestly, I don’t think I do. I found his blog I believe through my husbands or vice versa. And I read him regularly until his untimely disapearance (and miss doing so) and we went on the great Wii hunt of ’06 with him, but I couldn’t begin to say I knew him. Like if he got a book deal and came to town on a book tour I would expect him to sign my book

To: Raquita,
Dwight  

vs a blogger like Jaelithe who I would expect a doggone paragraph on the inside flap or at the very least an inside joke, maybe something like “don’t go passing out in the Esquire when I give this back to you.”

He and a few other blogs taught me how not “real” blogging can be. For a minute I thought Dwight might be somebody we would know in real life, alas not so. There are other bloggers who I thought I would like to know in real life, and as time has passed, I am glad I don’t. Not that I am glad that I don’t know Dwight in real life, cause that makes my husband a little sad and that always sucks. And then there are a couple like Jaelithe who let me know how real it can be, cause man I’m glad I hooked back up with her. Even though I suck and being on time nad keeping plans – I am so working on that J!

5. Interesting fact: the number of African American bloggers exceeds the ratio of African Americans to whites in the US. Why do you think that is and, whose blog gets more hits, your’s or your husband’s? (OK I cheated with a double question on that last one.) okay – 5a – I think the number of African american ratio is higher in bloggerville I think due to the nature of a blog. blogging is like the hip hop of the technical world. Its a basic opportuinty to rage against the machine. Give voice! And black people have never run away from taking the opportuinity to be vocal about what they think or beleive. And we always think we have soemthing to say, something WORTH saying. I also think Black people in general are into technology and having the new stuff, espceially my genereation and those coming after us, and if they have a computer, most of them want to have the internet and then you gotta do something with it, and the internet is an open space for voices where all people who have something to say can say it. Young black america is very into networking. so myspaces and facebooks are right up their alley – when i was a teen blackplanet was the equivilant of myspce and EVERYBODY in high school and college had a blackplanet page, I think mine is still up – scary. I find young black america typically gets broken into three groups – those who want to fill the sterotype gangsta/rapper/balla (and think a computer is something their geeky cousin has and they can come and use to do their resume) those who want to kick in doors and follow those on the cover of black enterprise magazine, and those too busy trying to live to care about the internet, unless it can help the kids get better grades, and give them the opportunity to do better for thier kids than their parents did, and help them do taxes and maybe some basic bill paying. its a tool, but its not a personal connecting tool.  But that is a pretty general sterotype but it works in my world. My family could be cut into those groups pretty easy.

5b. I think my husband has more general readers than I do – although he would argue since he doesn’t get nearly enough comments to make him think he is actually read.  But his blog is always number one on my stat sheet – so i think that speaks for its self. My feed is always number two, and my actual blog is number three – a distant three, and even if I add the feed to the blog hits he STILL beats me. Which totally sucks cause I blog like WAY more often than he does and I use pictures and everything! Dude.  

If you want me to interview you – shoot me a comment and I’ll lay out hte questions for ya – looks like the rule is five questions.

 later.