Gold and Fire

Remember when Alisha had a tumblr and she updated it?  Pepperidge farm remembers.

Okay — maybe Pepperidge farm doesn’t actually remembers.  The fact is this.  USMNT — baller. Y’all are awesome.  Thank you for making today awesome.

So, this was a fun exercise during this morning’s workout — what do I want in a partner:

I want a man who likes to laugh at silly things he finds on the internet and has interesting, original ideas and views about the state of the world.  I want a man who wouldn’t mind if I wanted to stay in and play video games or watch a movie.  But, he should also enjoy being active. He would get bonus points if he would be up for running a marathon or two.  He should appreciate music.  Bonus points also awarded if he enjoys singing along to ’90s pop.  He should be passionate about something - a cause, an intellectual pursuit, anything.  He just needs to care. And, like Liz Lemon, I want a man with clean hands and feet — and beefy forearms like a damn Disney Prince.

It’s a beautiful spring day in DC.  After heading to Pentagon City to pick up my packet for tomorrow’s race, I hopped over to the National Geographic Museum to see Tavis Smiley’s America I Am Exhibit.  If you find yourself in DC between now and June, I recommend checking it out even though the exhibit felt a bit short, and I felt like there were some serious gaps in the story. (Then again, can you really squeeze roughly 400 years of history into a single exhibit?)

Fascinating things on display:

Frederick Douglass’s long coat

The contract that gave Douglass his freedom (for $711.66)

Prince’s (or whatever his name is now) guitar

James Brown’s concert wear

John Brown’s rifle

One thing that I noticed standing in line for tickets — most of the visitors to the exhibit were African American.  Don’t take this as complaining, but it does say reinforce the idea that the people who engage in the study of history or culture of a particular group are often members of that group. 

Google teamed up with one of the oldest, family-owned African-American newspapers in the country and the result is an incredible archived database.  Things that I’ve searched for so far:

-1936 Olympics (which lead me to a piece about Jesse Owens reaction to being snubbed by the Hitler and Roosevelt)

-Marion Anderson concert on the Lincoln Memorial (a few very cool pieces about reactions from the DC’s black community)

HISTORY WIN!!!

For the last couple of days, I’ve tried to figure out how to be a better person.  But, then I go and do something that doesn’t help me reach that goal.  Maybe it isn’t terrible to want to be alone for a bit and not answer your phone (or the door) because it’s easier than saying, “I don’t want to pretend like I want to hang out with you right now because all I want to do is be alone.”  Hm….