As discussed in a previous blog, the carefree days of summer are indeed over, leaving many to wonder between school and work if they will have time to go out and enjoy autumn in DC. Well, wonder no more, as autumn in DC proves to be my favorite time of year for a few reasons, the main one being that the weather is no longer unbearably hot. So enjoy the cool (but not quite California cool) weather and explore some of these options:

Prior to this week, I too would hopefully scroll the many housing ads on craigslist everyday in search of a decent pace to stay for a decent price, using my sparse daytime minutes to make frantic calls in response to those ads, only to be disappointed and sans abode. However, all of this changed on Sunday as the housing Gods and my grandmothers, Ms. Coleen Ransom and Minnie Nealy (R.I.P) looked down from heavens, saw my good friend Danyelle and I in need and delivered us the gift of “the hook up”. See definition below:

As you have probably noticed, a good 96% of my blog titles have been taken from some of the greatest songs ever... In the spirit of sharing (and my love of making playlists, as well as the fact that I watched High Fidelity for the first time last night), here are the top songs in the, “The Black Connection Title Playlist” …please enjoy!

Dear Social Capital Readers *

Well, it’s August and this summer has been filled with everything from doing arts and crafts with five-seven year olds to traversing the city in aqua blue skinny jeans in the search for a good party, but one thing it hasn’t been filled with is DATES…In celebration of my “Summer of Singlehood in DC”, I present the Anti-Love Mix:

Dear unpredictable weather of DC: This past Sunday, I was most offended by your unpredictable weather escapades as you once again had me running down U St. in a furious attempt to find shelter because even though I’m rocking a natural, as a sista, you know I DON’T LIKE GETTING MY HAIR WET.

After watching countless episodes of Miami Ink and admiring the canvas of tattoos that have become both of my older brothers’ bodies, last July I decided to get my first tattoo. Scared that the pain would be equivalent to that of my Aunt Gwen’s childbirth story , after numerous “punk outs” I finally got my first tattoo (purpose in cursive across my left wrist) one year ago this month at  the best tattoo shop in DC: Pinz-N-Needlez.

*In my spare time, I like to fancy myself as a "poet"...and in doing so, I decided to write two Tanka poems inspired by my students and furthermore all the little girls of DC...more forthcoming...

*In my spare time, I like to fancy myself as a "poet"...and in doing so, I decided to write two Tanka poems dedicated to the girls of DC... more forthcoming...

I should have known this day was going to come. How naive of me to be so wrapped up in my “ the children are the future” dreams that I didn’t think that nine students ( 5-7 years in age ) would have the power to drive me to loudly proclaim at the staff meeting at the end of the day, “I NEED A DRINK!” I don’t want to say that it was the students themselves that drove me to Happy Hour before I began this blog, but I will say that their senseless yelling, the lack of bladder control resulting in the need to go to the bathroom every 30 seconds, the inability to sit in their assigned seats, their total disregard for Literature Circle, and my slipping in kid urine did.  But I knew that once that clock struck 6 PM, Miss Nia was going to hit up her local pub/bar, have her  favorite drink (a Heineken, as you can probably tell by now… I’m not a hard drinker), read some more of Invisible Man , and perhaps listen to some good music.

“Nia was a waitress on U St.
she worked the night shift
kanekalon color # 2, chubby, and brown
she wished people tipped…”

"The Ballad of Dorothy Parker... Nia I’man Smith"

Prince

If you happened to be a patron of the Mocha Hut this past Saturday afternoon (say somewhere around 4 PM), let me apologize for the outburst that (somewhat) deserved your looks of both confusion and distain. No, I don’t“…HATE DC…” , it’s just that as of late, with the disappointing “soul/funk” dance parties and the seemingly never ending barrage of “rude” customers that seem to patronize every job I’ve had on U St.,I’m starting to see my life post graduation in the District through my pessimistic  turtle-shelled, cat-eyed  “ I should have applied to  grad school /sorry a*$ soul/funk dance party / dumb and non-tipping customer/ having city ” glasses, rather than my optimistic black horn rimmed “ this city has excellent music and cultural venues and great job opportunities” glasses.

A typical conversation my Freshman year about DC:

Freshman not from DC #1: “DC is sooooo dirty.”

Freshman not from DC #2: “Girrrrl, I know…and  the people here are sooo rude.”

Freshman not from DC #3:“Yes girrrllll… and you know what else?

I HATE THAT DAMN “POTS AND PANS” SOUNDING MUSIC !!!!

Freshman not from DC #4 aka me: “You mean GoGo? I like it. I used to listen to it all the time back home.”

                                 Freshman not from DC #1, 2, and 3:

“BUT I THOUGHT YOU WAS FROM OAKLAND? THAT’S IN CALIFORNIA, RIGHT?

 My African Queen

 brown and serene

 as peaceful as the  Nile Rivers I see in my dreams

*snap snap*

Dear Social Capital Blog Readers,  

Ahhhhhhhhh….it feels good to be back. Current time is 9:30, and after a long day of work fueled by off brand applesauce, Cheese Nips , and the continuing hope that during poetry club tomorrow, my 1st graders will remember who Lucille Clifton is, Miz Nia is finally able to return to one of her first loves (besides fantasizing about her “Men of U St.” calendar or daydreaming about becoming a member of the Tao of Slick ): blogging. All the conditions are perfect: The Internet in the ILAB is working, none of the security guards have asked, “Didn’t you graduate…?”(Damn my recognizable headwraps!), I don’t have any major lesson planning to do for my students tomorrow (save for construction paper renderings of Nikki Giovanni and Honoree Fanonne Jeffers), and most importantly: THE INTERNET AT THE ILAB IS WORKING!!!

Oh how I had envisioned that fateful Saturday night over a little more than a month ago...Clad in a pair of aqua blue skinny jeans complemented by a v-neck black sweater worn backwards to show off my back tattoo, it was my belief that on this fateful Saturday night, I, along with four good friends, would be dancing the night away to the likes of James Brown and Otis Redding at the Black Cat’s dance party, SoulF#@K while sipping on Cognac and drunkenly doing my best Dolemite impersonation. Sadly, this was not the case, as the night ended with no James, no Otis, and no Cognac but rather with a Reggae band at Bukom, a particularly strong Long Island Ice Tea, aqua blue skinny jeans that found themselves attempting to the do the dutty wind  when they longed  to slow drag to Boosty Collin’s, “What’s A Telephone Bill” or even Little Beaver’s, “Party Life”, and a confused Nia.