http://toriemichelle.com/words/?p=169

Read that.

…not to pass this on to all you folks who are not avid SNL viewers like me.  This is Beyonce and Justin Timberlake on November 15th’s Saturday Night Live.  The whole show was funny but this just about brought me to tears.  Enjoy:

Beyonce and JT on SNL

You can find me representing Strength of Nature/Profectiv as Miss Campus Fresh Face on the JET on the Set page of the November 17th Special Collector’s Edition–the “Yes, We Did!” issue covering President-Elect Obama–of JET Magazine.

Pick up a copy–if not for me (because it’s just a blurb of text) then for our fabulous 44th President!

That graphic cracks me up! Man, that’s too funny.  Are the donkeys hoof-bumping? HA!

This is the link to my second post after the reopening of my blog and my first Not Gonna Lie on Monday post.  I am so happy that my #4 was on point.  It may have seemed like there was no chance.  But we hoped for a new and different face of our country–one that represented [us] and one with lips that spoke [our] wishes.  We hoped for change.  Things had gotten so low, we were hoping for hope.

Barack Obama will be inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States in January.

Yes, we can.  Yes, we did.

Now, tell me you aren’t in disbelief (even if you thought it so very possible like I did).

Tell me you aren’t thrilled.

Tell me the anticipation isn’t tingling all throughout your body.

I’ve never seen so many people of different backgrounds come together in celebration.

I don’t know what the next four years will actually hold but…

this feels a strange and amazingly fabulous kind of wonderful!

The world has been ours.  If we’re just realizing it, fine.  Better late than never.  Take this monumental election as your last sign.  Get up, get out, and do something (positive) for your life and the lives of those around you.

Our country is in quite a mess.  Therefore, Barack Obama is not the be-all and end-all.  But he is very much a [huge] part of “the beginning.”  He is not your savior.  You are your own savior.  The United States of America goes nowhere on the shoulders of one.

Damn it, though, I just believe we’re going to be happy we went with that one.  *winks to McCain*

(Just as a note: Jesse Jackson, don’t think we’ve forgotten you were plotting to castrate this man.  Cry all you wanna….lol)

…and I want so badly to blog about it right now.  I just can’t.  Too much to take in…I just can’t, ya’ll.

I can’t believe it.  But I love it.

Maybe next week I’ll be able to write coherently about it.

Goodness.

I did it for all of the African-Americans who were denied.

…for all the women who were denied.

I did it for my grandmother.

…for my cousin who told me before he passed in the year after 9/11 that I was the future–that I mattered, that my generation matters.

I did this for a man who dreamed and has shown so many young, African-Americans that it’s worth it to dream; it’s worth it to work for what you want.

I did this for all the folks who found the “one-drop rule” in a positive light in 2008…lol

I stepped out on faith.

I Barack’ed the vote.

Georgia voters, you’ve got less than 2.5 hours.  If you haven’t voted, go get in line now.  It took me less than 10 minutes to fill out my form and cast my ballot.  Go.

GO VOTE TODAY!

GO VOTE TODAY!

GO VOTE TODAY!

GO VOTE TODAY!

GO VOTE TODAY!

GO VOTE TODAY!

GO VOTE TODAY!

GO VOTE TODAY!

GO VOTE TODAY!

GO VOTE TODAY!

GO VOTE TODAY!

GO VOTE TODAY!

GO VOTE TODAY!

“Everywhere I go I find a poet has been there before me.”
- Sigmund Freud

Okay.  Yes, I acknowledge that this quotation is not necessarily inspiration.  But I’m a writer and I like it so give me a break…lol  Plus, it’s Freud.  C’mon, you know you all find him, at least, intriguing.

Have a great week!

Toni Morrison reading from her new novel, A Mercy, on NPR.

Creative Loafing “Pop” Fiction Writing Contest

I got the idea to write this entry from this post and this post over at Starting Over at 24.

The first time I witnessed a ’serious’ PDA, (that’s “public display of affection”), I was 11 or so years old.  It was at a bowling alley in another city–one other than my home of Pine Bluff, AR–because I had been traveling with my mom, a friend of hers, and their bowling league. I’d been enjoying the adventure of seeing all the different cities and people and learning how to bowl along the way.  (For the record, I might add that I got pretty good at it.)

On this particular trip, I was having a fantastic eating experience with some of the best nachos I’d ever f’in had and learning to throw a curve ball by observation when I noticed this young couple on another team was going at it like it was Armageddon*, there was no tomorrow and they were potentially going to have to start the movement to re-populate the world that night, that very instant.  Um.  Clearly having a very different but still fantastic experience of their own.

There are just some situations that you witness and you say to yourself, I never want to be that person.  I can never be that girl/guy.

I’ve got class.

At 11-years-old, I decided I was not going to be the PDA kinda woman.

I mean, there’s nothing wrong with exploring sexuality.  That’s fabulous.  Do enjoy.  But perhaps, that kind of reckless abandon is best in private? Just a thought.

I remember being at a band event with the guy I call my “first boyfriend.”  (Quotations because I truly hate labels.)  It was a really cold day in the fall and we were boo’ed up.  (Random side note: I was wearing a blue and white sweater that said “Bad Girl” multiple times going around it on a stripe.)  After sitting for a while shooting the ish as people say, he started in on my neck…kiss, kiss, kiss.  I pushed him away.  At the time, I believe I chalked it up to nervousness and/or general annoyance with him.  In retrospect, I know it was because I am not a PDA kinda woman.

With a later boyfriend, I refused hand-holding and kissing in public.  True, the latter might have been because if all the good kissers were from Mercury then this guy was from the rock on the other side of Pluto.  But still, I want to argue that it is definitely because I am not a PDA kinda woman.

And then there was this one guy.  It only takes one mofo to have you shoving your foot in your mouth.  He wasn’t a boyfriend.  Can’t classify him as a ONS or a fling because it was more and less.  But he is the one who now has me saying, Are you f’in kidding me? I was that girl.  I was THAT chick.  Noooo.

This happened ages ago but reading SO@24’s old blog brought up the bittersweet memories.

I want to blame the vodka.  But I can’t because it wasn’t the kind of night that you need pictures to half-way-but-not-really remember.

I want to make it seem like it was so crowded in that room that I thought our ridiculousness would go unnoticed.  But that’s just a lie…lol

Nope.  It was just the attraction I had for him that was unrivaled to that I’d had for any previous fella.

I was that chick.  Damn.  I can more than imagine what others were thinking, whispering.

I say that because again, it wasn’t a night of debauchery, and I heard some of what was said….  Namely:

Daaaamnn.

But it was a one-time stupid, idiotic, moronic, enjoyable, great, yet wasteful, crazy, fun, but silly thing.

An occasional kiss in public.  Fine.  A really great hug.  Sure.  Kidding around.  I love.  But the going at it against walls, straddling chairs sorta thing that I saw when I was 11 and never thought I’d be a party to, I’m not trying to see ever again and won’t be participating in–ever.  I don’t even have to try not to.

Last time: I am NOT a PDA kinda woman!

If any of you *points around* are ever so lucky to date me, I ask demand that you remember that…lol

—————————————————

*’armageddon’ in the apocolyptic sense not the final showdown

Hope the title didn’t mislead you too much….

But Is it just me or has there been a sudden proliferation of “Get ______” songs?  It seems that we’re all trying to get something or get somewhere…right now in this moment.  So I’ve decided to highlight, in no particular order, four of my favorite…gettin’ it songs…of right now:

• “Gettin’ Up,” Q-Tip
• “Get Up,” Mary Mary
• “Girl, Get It,” Raven
• “Get Me Started,” Steph Jones

And just for kicks, one flashback and one throwback that make you want to…get it…in one way or another.  Haha.

• “Get Loose,” T.I. ft/ Nelly
• “Let’s Get It On,” Marvin Gaye (You had to see this coming.)

I highly recommend that you download all of these if you don’t already have them in your musical collection.

Now tell me, what are your favorite gettin’ it songs.  (And, yes, obviously the word ‘get’ must be in the title.)

Got this from douchegirl!

Rules:

1. Go to http://www.photobucket.com/
2. Type in your answer to the question in the “search” box
3. Use only the first page, choose a picture
4. Insert the picture into your Blog

Here are my answers:

1) What is your relationship status?

2) Who is your celebrity crush?

3) Who is your favorite band/artist?

Of all time?

Love those chicks.

4) What is your favorite movie?

Again, of all time?

5) What kind of pet do you have?

I don’t, unfortunately.

6) Where do you live?

7) Where do you work?

8 ) What do you look like?

(I wanted to pick something off of the front page of my search for “black woman” but that didn’t really work out…lol  So this is from page 3 of my search for “african american” which I tried after “black girl,” “black,” “brown skin,” “black girl cartoon,” “college student,” and “torie” lol.  Seriously.)

9) What kind of car do you drive?

I WISH I HAD A CAR, DAMNIT.

10) What is your favorite TV show?

Right now?

Of all time?

Of course.

11) Describe yourself:

12) What is your name?

We’re already clear that that isn’t me.  I don’t know who she is but apparently her name is “Torie.”  Rokk on, little girl, rokk on.

13) What is your favorite candy?

Here’s 18 links to older posts within my blog.  They’ll help you get acquainted with me, the material I offer here, and the ‘way’ I offer it.  Also, please enter my “What’s Your Pro-fection?” CONTEST!  Free stuff awaits you.

In no particular order (but I’ve italicized some of my faves):
The Miss Fresh Face Experience
Seduced
Just Too Good to be True–E Lynn. Harris Goes Straight
Forget the Flag
Dear Jesse Jackson
Yes, We Can Mock Barack
ORS Product Review
Ask Me About Being Black in America, Soledad! Part 1
Ask Me About Being Black in America, Soledad! Part 2
Where is Mehbooba Andyar?
Barack Obama as “The Antichrist”
Random: Graphic Design, Olympics, Epic Fails, Etc.
Craigslist is a Cesspool.
Two Letters Written After Watching Friday Night BET
Pine Bluff, Arkansas as “place”
Things I HATE: Part III - “I haven’t seen you in so long!”
In This Economic Crapshoot We’re In…
17 Girls Make Pregnancy Pact

If you haven’t yet read something that made your heart skip a beat, then maybe this blog’s not for you? Or mayyybeee, you should peek through my archives because there’s something for everyone.  And comment, too! Please? Gracias.