I can't say I have a special, year-ending blog in me this year, so I'll just ramble on a bit. I'm thankful that I spent a lot of quality time with my son, I'm thankful I got married, and I am definitely thankful that my writing career continues to take me to interesting places. Next year will bring more writing, more money and possibly a new addition to the family.

So tonight, whether you are going out to partayy, or staying home with champagne like my wife and i, please be safe, have fun, be responsible, and get laid.

Here's an article I wrote yesterday.

And now, my favorite song of 2010:

My son, his new hairdo that I STILL dont like, and Washington Wizards forward, Rashard (a spelling of my name I still DON'T like) Lewis

No words, just Stevie

So my son got in late last night, and he will be here until Thursday or Friday. He's partly here because of the holiday, and he's partly here to attend a two-day Washington Wizards basketball camp on Tuesday and Wednesday. As usual, it seems like he's grown two or three inches (he's about 5'6") and he seems to be in the embryonic stages of puberty because his voice is a bit more husky and he's slimmed down a bit. But there is one thing that is still an issue, and that is his hair.

Now earlier this year he told me he wanted to grow his hair out a bit to grow cornrows, and I vehemently disagreed with it, but his mother shut me down, which she can do because he lives there and now with me. I saw my son with insanely long hair a couple of times, and I cringed, but I had to respect he and his mother's decision, so I did. I even took him to the barbershop to trim his 'fro, out of support. But last night he walked into my house looking like Eric Benet in 1996. The fro has been replaced by little baby twists, and I just think it looks hideous, but of course he likes it.

In my terribly biased opinion, my son (until he's 16) should not have a say on certain things (piercings, tattoos, the amount spent on shoes and grooming, etc). This is the way my father raised me, and I saw not a damn thing wrong with it. When I was 16 and a senior in high school, my father let me experiment with haircuts (luckily no pictures exist), and that's exactly what I did, and it was fair. I had no such autonomy at age 13..I had to get my haircut every two weeks, whether I liked it or not, and those were the rules. My father could enforce those rules because he was there every day (as was my mother).

Unfortunately for me (and my son), I don't have custody of young Carlton, which means my wishes and desires get pushed by the wayside--until he comes to stay with me of course. I want to cut that b.s. out of his hair so badly, but I know that a)he'll be pissed (I don't really care about that) and b) his mother will be even more pissed (that's a lot harder to ignore). But I feel strongly enough about this to risk both of those things..I think

Sorry to rant so early, but its on my mind..

My article on former Washington Wizard, Mr. Gilbert Arenas.

If someone is in the way (aka blocking the doorway) and I say excuse me twice, and they barely move an inch because their conversation is apparently too interesting and compelling for them to move, do I reserve the right to brush up against them with my shoulder and laptop bag to get where I need to be? Because that's exactly what I just did, and I got cursed at and called all types of wonderful names as a result. I'm really really trying to be a better person here in November and December, but clearly I'm not trying hard enough..I took my ipod headphones off, said excuse me twice, and she looked back at me, determined I had enough room, and kept right on talking. My hands were tied man, I had to bump her..tastefully of course.

Anyway.. today, after a two and a half week hiatus, I get back in the swing of things in terms of writing about basketball, and I am a bit nervous. I have barely paid attention to sports since the day before I left for my wedding, and that was intentional. I wasn't burned out, I just had bigger and better things to focus on and I'm sure no one can blame me for that; however, getting back into the swing of things has been a difficult process. Usually I'm checking out at least 30 basketball sites a day, and I am all over twitter trying to stay informed about the Washington Wizards and the NBA in general. I've done none of that recently, but it resumes today, and I sincerely hope that its like riding a bike, because between today and tomorrow, I have to cover a game and write at least three articles. I'm sure I'll do fine, but the nerves are there regardless.

Someone asked me yesterday why I haven't blogged details about my wedding and honeymoon, and I asked them were they serious, and they said they were. So..I'm barely confident about keeping and maintaining this blog as a married man, but I am supremely confident that I'm not divulging any details about the wedding and the honeymoon. I put two pictures up and that's enough. The rest is reserved for when and if you people come to my house..at that point, my wife and I will feed you, make you drink wine with us, bore you with dazzling, detailed stories about our bless-ed event, and then shove millions of pictures down your throat like nobody's business. And then you'll leave our house feeling like you were there, and all will be well..at least that is how I have planned it out in my head. But no details via the blog.

Gravel Pit - Wu-Tang Clan
This whole song is good, but if you're not a Wu fan or if you're just lazy and don't feel like listening to the whole song, just fast-forward to Ghostface's verse, which is just effin awesome. Its not just what he says, its how he says it and it starts at the 1:56 mark:

So today, in what I can only assume is an effort to both celebrate the holidays and our hard work this year, my company bosses are taking us to lunch. They apparently sent an email out while I was gone last week, and I found this glorious email (one of almost 300 I had to sift through) yesterday afternoon.

In the email, we were told that we would be attending M & S Grill which is right down the street from my job. However, instead of being given carte blanche on what to order, which is my what most people who offer to take you to a meal would do (even on dates), our job sent a list of 8 meals that we (7 of us) would to able to order from. I read that email, then I said, "Are you f**king kidding me?" (to myself), and went to my other co-workers to see if this had caused an uproar last week when I was out, and they said it had. Some of my co-workers even decided not to attend the lunch, because they were so offended at this notion.

Now, I've only been with this company since October, which means I am firmly entrenched in the probationary period, so I will definitely be there with bells on..restricted menu and all. But this sounds like a classic case of living beyond your means..Either take us out to eat and give us carte blanche, or be cheap and give us $10 Starbucks gift cards as a way of saying thanks. But don't treat us (especially me) like children and say, "Ok you can order over here, but not over here!" Tell us if we order expensive, we'll have to put out or pay out of pocket or something, but don't insult everyone by giving us 8 options, when the lunch menu has double that amount available.

So since I'm newly married, and I probably still get a pass, I think I'm going to bring a red pen to lunch today, and ask my bosses if they want me to cross out all the things we can't have. The wife said that may not go over well, but I want to at least acknowledge this bullshit with some classic passive aggressive behavior..it beats aggressive aggressive behavior right?

You Are Not Alone (Michael Jackson tribute) - R. Kelly

ok just one more, and then i'll stop. I know how annoying this picture thing can be when its not harnessed

That picture of my wife and I was taken on South Beach in Miami on 12/11/10

Friends, family, exes, lurkers and everyone in between. I will be getting married tomorrow and after that I will be on my honeymoon, which means that there will be no blog updates from me until December 20th (a month before my birthday I might add). I'd ask that you still check out DCist and Truth About It in my absence, because good things will be surely still be written. I will so (not) be thinking of you during this time, and I'm sure you will so (not) be thinking of me as well. The next time I write in this here space I will be a married man my friends..I will be annoying the shit of you with "my wife" references, and you know what? You will like it!

If you remember (and I'm sure you don't) last October when I was on my to workout, I saw Congresswoman Maxine Waters in front of my apartment trying to hail a cab. I stepped in, I spoke to her, hailed a cab for her, and we went our separate ways. It was absolutely random and surreal that I would see this decorated woman in front of my apartment, while I was in workout gear, but I was truly honored.

So this morning, around 8:15 or so, I saw Ms. Waters near my apartment again, and she was sporting the type of coat that would send PETA into a frenzy (she should have bought the matching hat too, because her head looked freezing cold). Now I should have known that a woman of her stature meets thousands of people each and every day, and there would be no way in hell she'd remember me from a year ago. Still, I went to up to her and then...

Me: Hey Congresswoman, my name is Rashad, how are you?

Her: I'm fine Rashad and you?

Me: Very perfect (and yes I really said that). Do you remember me hailing a cab for you last year in this same spot?

Her: No I can't say that I do

Me: It was early in the morning, and you were headed to the airport I think
Her: No I can't say I do young man
**awkward silence**
Me: Well this isn't going like I planned it

Her (laughs): Its ok, you can blame it on the cold

Me: Ok well you have a great day

Her: Ok you too Rashad

Now, I give her props for using my name during her dismount, that made me smile. I also get props of my own for ending on a relatively high note, despite my failed attempts to make her remember me. I give Waters the edge this time.

If you haven't already, I would kindly ask you read my article over at DCist.

My latest DCist article

Kellz JF
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Just one day after officially retiring from the Washington Post, my main man Michael Wilbon has written something for ESPN. Check it out here.

Everyone keeps asking me if I'm nervous about the wedding on Saturday, and then they seemed a bit taken aback or surprised when I say that I'm not. Right now I'm really too busy finalizing minor details here and there to feel any modicum of nervousness. So I'm not nervous now, but as Yoda would say:


But what I am lacking in the nervousness department, I am more than making up in the lack of concentration area. I'm not really focusing on work, working out, blogging or doing any Wizards-related writing like I should. In fact on Sunday, I agreed to write about that dreadful Wizards/Suns game, but when it came time to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard as it were), I had nothing. I'd write five or six paragraphs, and then think of something wedding-related and totally lose my train of thought. This went on for a good four or five hours, and finally I told my main man Kyle that I had nothing of substance to write (which used to happen to me with my old editor, my main man Ryan).

Kyle said he understood how that can happen, but then he used the Jedi Mind trick on me. He said that as much as he understood that I seemingly had nothing to say, he was sure I was up to the challenge of creating something out of nothing. I read that email and was like, "Who the f**k wrote this email, my dad?" But sure enough, I put my head down, powered thru, stayed at work a bit later, and finished the damn article (which can be seen right here). It isn't the best article I have even written, and I really don't like the way it flows, but I finished it. So thanks Kyle.

I wrote all that to say my mind is all over the place, and I really wish I could take this week off. But I'll be fine. Sorry for all the Star Wars references, but I recently found out that Irvin Kershner, the director of my favorite movie EVER (The Empire Strikes Back), died last week, so I figured I'd pepper in some references.

Also, as I mentioned not too long ago, my main man Michael Wilbon is leaving the Washington Post, and his last column appears in today's paper. If you ever wonder why this man is one of my favorite writers, just read this article.

Scenario (remix) - A Tribe Called Quest featuring L.O.N.S.

My latest article

How come you people (all 5 of you) didn't tell me that Pam Grier wrote a memoir?

For the past week or so, I have been taking time at the beginning of both my night and morning showers, to recite my wedding vows. I have made the executive decision not to write them down at all, because I don't excel at reading things off pieces of paper, note cards, iPad, etc. The most I may do is write down some bullet points, but even with that I'm worried that my hands will shake out of nervousness and whenever I show the wedding video to people, they will see me shaking like a madman. That's not the visual I want, so I'm going the Jay-Z route..I'll think about what I want to say, bob my head a bit, and then spit it out off the top of my head..with a little practice of course.

The only problem with this method is that I cannot get my time down. One time I said everything I wanted to say in about 90 seconds, and then last night it took me three minutes or so. I kept adding and subtracting details on the fly and it was just one convoluted, hot ass mess. I'm thinking about getting the cue card holders from SNL to stand directly behind my bride, so it'll appear as if I'm looking in my lady's eyes, when really I'm reading the cards. Pretty smooth right? One way or another, I'll get this down (that's what he said). I have another 9 days to get it straight.

And now, here's an example of my immaturity:


I saw this in the drug store the other night, and nothing but perverted thoughts entered my head(s). Of course the disgusting-looking pictures of food in both the bottom left and right hand corners made it hard to maintain that perversion, but still...

And finally, I've made it pretty clear over the past 4 years of this blog, that I can't stand LeBron James. He basicall defeated my Washington Wizards in the playoffs by himself a couple of times, and I resented that deeply. So tonight when he returns to Cleveland, I hope he fails miserably, and then goes back to being an All-Star another day. My hate is that strong.

Little One - Bilal
I know I've been all over the place in this blog this morning, but I highly suggest you take a listen to this song. Its a song Bilal wrote with his kids in mind, and its beautifully written. It came on my ipod this morning, and I got a little misty..because it was windy outside

I can't wait for this to come out..

So I lost my umbrella yesterday, which meant I had to buy a quick replacement umbrella before starting my journey to work. Unfortunately for me, all the umbrellas at my local drug store where the size of a flaccid phallus, so I begrudgingly bought one, and then I decided to take the train rather than walk to work. I couldn't have people seeing me with that puny umbrella.

As SOON as I got on the train, I noticed this couple kissing, groping and just being f**king disgusting. I'm all for love, and selective public displays of affection, but at 7:30 in the morning? No one needs to see all that when they are en route to work. I was only on the train for 5 minutes, but during that time, this couple barely came up for air. Luckily for me, right before I got off, the train came to a quick and sudden stop, and the dude not only had to stop kissing his girl, but he reached (and missed) for the hand rail to hold on and fell on his ass. I mean FLAT on his ass.

I laughed out loud as did a few others, and then I reached my hand out to help the brother out. And then the following conversation went down;

Him: I fall, you laugh, and then you help me out, no thanks chief
Me: It was funny sir, but you could still use a hand
**at this point his woman steps in and helps him up**
Him: I'm fine a$$hole
Me: Now is that nice?
Him: Is laughing at someone who falls on their ass nice? Its pretty f**king disrespectful if you ask me, but I guess that's what you're about
Me (as the door opens for me to get off the train): You're right, I'm wrong sir. Now go back to groping and kissing your lady, show me that good, respectful train etiquette

Now I heard the man say something else but I had put my headphones back on already, and Kanye West was telling me how much of a Monster he was, so I didn't hear. Personally, I think it was pretty admirable of me to stop laughing and help the man up, as opposed to the other folks who kept right on laughing and did nothing. Clearly this brother disagreed.

I realize no one probably cares about this but me, but I'm curious as to whether anyone else thinks I was in the right. The lady tells me that I need to improve on my public behavior, and I think this was a start. Plus I left on a high note which isn't easy to do.

One more question for you the reader..if you and I were friends, whether it was online, in real life or just via blog comments, would you be offended if I deleted your blog from my blogroll (which is over to the right by the way)? There is one person who I initially added to my blogroll because they seemed relatively pleasant, but their blog entries are terrible and elementary. This is my blog and ostensibly I can do what I want, but again, I'm trying to be a frequent traveler of the high road at this point in my life.. It just annoys me each and every time I see that person write something...

Angela Bofill - I Try