"Sweet Home"

Take me to another place....Take me to another land...Make me forget all that hurts me....

Help me understand your plan...

-Tennessee - Arrested Development

This weekend I will be traveling to my hometown for my cousin's wedding.  Going back home always brings mixed emotions.  I'm always thrilled to see my family and friends, childhood sights and places, and to get a break from what  I'm use to everyday.  So in honor of traveling to "sweet home" as my brother use to call it (which is a reference from Beloved) I present this week's 20twoquestions...

1.  Does anybody else hate packing as much as I much as I do?


2.  Speaking of packing.... does anybody pack for a weekend trip like you are going on a 7 day vacation? 

3.  Why does sleeping in my parents house make my grown behind feel like I'm 12 years old?


4.  How I'm going to entertain myself for the first time in years (if not a decade) that I've had to make that 320+ miles journey alone?


5. Should I call my grandmother and tell her I want some of her pancakes before I leave so she'll be prepared to make them (lol) ? 

Took a picture after I had a bite!

I avoid Wal-Mart like a the plague.

6.  Am I the only one that avoids certain places when you go home so you will not run into everybody and their Mama while you at home?  










7.  Does anybody else look at some of the people you grew up with and wonder WHAT THE HELL HAPPEN? 

8. Did anyone else grow up in a small village?  
















9.  Does anybody else wonder if their friends from where they live now saw the area where they grew up they would be amazed or feels like it explains a lot?


10.  Is your childhood bedroom almost the same as when you lived there?  

Remains of a Guy poster that was stapled to the ceiling of my childhood bedroom.*...use to read Word Up magazine*

11.  Does everybody in "sweet home" have the exact same phone number they did when you were a child?


12.  Do you cramp 5 days worth of visiting/eating/shopping within a 48 hour timeframe?


13.  Do you have a roadtrip playlist? 




















14.  Do you hate seeing your exes when you go to your hometown and have to add "What was I thinking?" to question #7 ?

15.  After seeing your exes do you break out into several verses of "You Been So Faithful and "It Could of Been Me"? 

16.  Do you find yourself coming back home talking differently because you've picked up the local venicular and accent?


17.  Do random people play the "Do you remember me" game with you? 

18.  Or are you the subject of the hometown favorite match game - "You look just like your mom/dad..." ?


19.  Does your hometown have a food that you can ONLY get there and every time you go you have to have it? 

Slugburgers are a hometown FAVORITE!!!

20.  Are there any better friends than the ones you grew up with?














                                                21.  Is there anything sweeter than being in the company of your family? 












22.  Although sometimes you hate to leave, is there ANYTHING like return to your house and sleeping in your own bed?


But I am still thirsty,


- N
  

Birthday Edition

Go shorty it's your birthday!  June 22nd was my birthday!!!  (Here's a little known black history fact: Since the 20second is the day I was born that is why we have 20two questions every week.) I spent most of this past week preparing for and celebrating my birthday that I fell behind on the date for posting my blog.  I had to take some time to celebrate ME. I apologize for you being tardy for the 20two Questions party, but here you go.  In honor of birthdays I post this week's 20two questions...

1. Are we ever too old to celebrate our birth?

2. At what age should you stop putting candles on a cake? 

3.  Don't you think there should be a birthday soundtrack? 

4.  Have you ever been disappointed by someone you cared about on your birthday?

5.  Does anyone else love Wal-Mart cake as much as I do? 

Or you can have LaWanna's strawberry and Patron cupcakes. Yum!

6.  Are black people the only ones who sing Stevie Wonder's version of the birthday song?

7.  Am I the only one who knows the time when they were born?


8.  Do you buy yourself a birthday outfit? 

9. When selecting a birthday card do you put effort into finding the perfect one?

10. Do you feel guilty like I do if you don't take a present to a birthday party?

11. Wonders do my guests enjoy my celebrations more than me? 

12.  Can you have too much fun on your birthday?



13. Does anyone else think it's a sin to work on your birthday? 







14.  Since it's a sin don't you think everyone should get a paid  for their special day? 

15.  Do single people have more fun or less fun on their birthday?

16. Is anyone else appalled by this song? 












17. Do you love spending times with the ones you love on your birthday as much as me? 

18.  Do you find yourself singing "Have You Seen My Childhood"? 

19. Do you thank God for each year He blesses you to live to see a birthday?

20. Do you wish you would always get flowers and balloons on your birthday? 

21.  Does anybody else get cake wasted? 

22. Am I the only one who can't wait until your next birthday to do it all again? 

Cancers rule!
-N

Paul's Daughter

This Sunday is Father's Day.  People everywhere will honor and celebrate the men in their lives that are fathers.  So, in honor of my own father The Honorable Paul E. Durr and in memory of my grandfather Albert A.C. Avery I would like to pose 20twoquestions about dads....

1. Will my Daddy EVER see me past this photo? 

2.  In Papa Was a Rolling Stone - did all Papa leave was a loan or them alone?

3. Didn't you think Will Smith's Just the Two of Us was the sweetest video?

4.   Does anyone else wonder what kind of Father's Day Creflo Dollar will be having on Sunday?

5.  Does anyone wonder like Prince that maybe they're just like their father too bold?

6.  Who didn't want to be one of Cliff Huxtable's children? 

7.  Unfortunately,  was your father more like Peter Griffin? 

8.  What did your dad keep in his purple Crown Royal bags? 

Mine kept his gun...*smdh*

9.   Was your grandfather your hero?  

10.  Although this song/dance does not embody the essence of my grandfather do you know how to do the Granddaddy Slide?  

11.  Isn't this soooooo true?   

12.  Did your father ever help you with your homework and it was ALL WRONG?  

13.  Does your father only fix about half of the stuff he claims he can?

14.  Do you have a hard time every year deciding what to buy your father for Father's Day? 

15.  Didn't you hate when your mother use to say  

16.  Do you think Luther Vandross is getting to Dance With His Father? 

17. Even though you were singing about it in the 90s don't you wish the word Babydaddy was never invented? 

18.  Would your dad do this? 

19. Is one of the things you look for in a man are the qualities that would make him a good father?

20.  Do you remember Shaq's Biological Didn't Bother?

21.  Are the father figures in your life the Wind Beneath Your Wings? 

22.  Don't you wish that every father was a real dad?   

Happy Father's Day to all,

- N

Waiting to Exhale

Waiting to Exhale is one of my favorite movies.  I recently recorded it so I could watch it anytime and today was one of those days. The title of the movie seems to be so reflective of my life.  Lately, I feel like I've been waiting to exhale.  My asthma has been acting a fool so I have been struggling to exhale literally and figuratively I feel like the events in my life over the last 2 months has left me in a state of waiting to breathe again.  So, I guess (gasp) I will (gasp) continue to (gasp) wait to exhale (gasp) ....

1.  Have you ever been so mad at someone that you wanted to reenact this scene?

2.  And with this scene - Don't you LOVE when she lights that cigarette and flicks those ashes?

3.  Which Waiting to Exhale character do you most relate to? 

4.  Aren't you glad when you can sit and exhale with you friends? 

5.  Does anyone else wonder if you should be waiting to exhale or should you be enjoying just being able to inhale?

6. Have you ever sacrificed so much for someone you love that it Hurts Like Hell?

7.  Speaking of waiting to exhale, why did Creflo choke his daughter like that? 

8.  Did Tameka Raymond star in a 2010 remake of Friday because she got knocked the F*** out?

9.  Does any other of my asthmatic brothers and sisters tired of being on the pipe?

10. Is one of the reasons you hate to exercise is because you are  embarrassed to be out of breathe in front of other people?

Or maybe is just me....

10.  Don't you wish all potential suitors and friends came with references? 

11.  Did anybody else besides me rock the short hairstyle thanks to Angela Bassett, Toni Braxton, and Halle Berry in the 90s?

Circa 1997

12.  Has somebody inhaled my motivation?

13. Did you know Kim Zolciak was waiting to be evicted?

14.  Do smokers not realize that the rest of us do not want to die from second hand smoke? 

15.  What?  Now I got to worry about my eyes, too?

16.  Has selfishness gone airborne? 

17.  Have you ever seen scenery so beautiful it took your breath away?  

18.  Even though this song is stalkerish have you ever felt this way about someone? 

19.  Speaking of that song....Do you remember Puffy's aka. Puff's aka P. Diddy's aka., etc....Notorious BIG rendition?

 (I'll be missing you Avie D....)

20.  Who can you Count On? 

21.  Aren't you glad there comes a point when we exhale?

22.  But until then will I ever Breathe Again?

Waiting to Exhale,

 - N

Summertime -- And the Living is Easy?

Memorial Day is over and even though according to the calendar summer hasn't officially started, but who are we kidding.  The weather is hot as hell  warm, people are headed to the pool, and kids are getting out of school.  Summer is basically here!!! And with summer there comes rules....rules that people don't quite want to follow.   Summer time comes with a lot of blank stares and What the hell heezy?  So, this week I have 20two questions about the sights, sounds, and smells of summer.

1.  Isn't this still one of the best summer songs ever? 

2.  Did anyone else's parents make a slip and slide out of a roll of plastic?

Our plastic wasn't this long and was held down with logs in each corner.

3.  Does anyone else hate to see adults in shorts? 

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

4.  Don't you hate when you see short people in capris/crops and they look like regular pants that are just a little too short?

5.  Don't you hate when you see tall people in shorts and dresses that would be a normal length on the average person, but becomes daisy dukes or a mini skirt on them?

Please tell me you forget to put on your pants.

6. Does anyone else besides me think that being at a crowded amusement parks is NOT the greatest way to spend a hot day?

7.  If your toes look broken or appear to be doing the gangsta lean shouldn't you wear closed in shoes?

8.  Or is it that everyone does not know they should NOT wear sandals. flip flops, peeptoes, etc.? 

9. Even though you are an adult do you still want to run behind the ice cream truck?

10.  Don't you wish you had this in your backyard even if you can't swim?

11.  Don't you wish some days you could have an old school water gun fight to cool off?

12.  Does the park become you favorite place to hang out May-August?

Nothing like Screen on the Green

13.  Even though you know it's a racial stereotype don't you just love watermelon?

14.  Don't you wish all jobs would honor summer break?

15.  Do you remember catching lightning bugs (fireflies) in  Mason jars? 

16.  Do you get excited or dread your family reunions?

17.  Does this song remind you of several things that deal with summer?

18.  Do you get excited about all the summer festivals and outside activities?

19.  Does summer mean that people can get away with wearing things that don't fit their body type?

20. Speaking of which are you afraid to go to the beach because you are afraid you might see things that will burn the UV protection off you sunglasses?

  

21.  Isn't going to  drive-end movies with friends and family the best?

22.  Were your childhood summer's  filled with fun memories of Vacation Bible School, sleepovers, band and sports camps?

Stay cool,

- N