Aliya S. King

Dear readers, what have we learned this week?

Well. I started out the week with a Guilty Admission about my pathetic excuse for a wardrobe. I got tons of helpful advice from my dear readers: edit that closet! start with the basics! But I was most surprised by the comments from the dudes who said, “what’s wrong with your outfit?”

Love that.

Turns out guys like women in sweats. Who knew!? I asked TheHusband. He co-signed. Sweats are fine. But I still wasn’t sure. I feel like maybe I should try a little harder, even if I won’t see anyone. Just in case I run into…you know, someone like…

Aliya, is that you? Fancy seeing you here! You look...comfy.

Or maybe I’ll just try to look good for ME.

I got this comment from a dear reader named ScottieDog who put things in perspective for me:

Girl I live in Central Florida. People here wear footies, flip-flops and dress socks for all occasions. I mean long black church socks ya wore to church (at age 11), regardless of the weather condition.

The Northeast Corridor is cold, I like what you’re wearing. It reminds of our days in High School. I miss those simple days.

Scottie Dog made a good point. In the grand scheme, I’m not doing that bad in my sweats. (RIGHT?!) And the truth is, it IS cold, my office is freezing, (Alberto!), and I want to be comfortable when I write. Even jeans are tough to sit in for an eight hour day. But I still plan to get my grown woman on and clean it up a bit.

Stay tuned. One of my stylish friends and dear readers will be giving me a complete fashion overhaul soon and of course, it will be documented here.

Later in the week, I shared one of my just-starting-out stories about getting my first clip in Vibe magazine. I love the stories people shared about their beginnings, especially Thembisa’s KRS experience. (A big byline! Yay!) and Nai’s experience at Seventeen. Much love to Iyana Wakefield, still holding it down for her mother’s memory…

I had a contest on Wednesday. And no one cared! (Sob!) I was up all late, editing audio and posting it, thinking to myself, my dear readers will love this! Maybe you all were just scared off by TremayaR’s lightening quick, all-correct answers. But I was kind of baffled on the non-participation on that one. Eh. I’m still doing another Who Is This contest next week, so TremayaR, Portia and Jovi, get ready.

[Sidebar. I’m trying not to get all obsessive about my blog’s stats. I’m not supposed to look at all. But I still do. And when I come to work in the morning, sneak a peek and see stuff like this, I feel sad.]

I inserted this graphic in an email to TheHusband after one of my lower-rated posts this week. He laughed. =(

Then there was my favorite post this week: my Geek Love tribute to Uniball pens. (It was also my highest rated post of all time!!)

Not that I'm obsessed about my stats are anything...

People are serious about their pens. And many of my dear readers had to weigh in.  I looooove how you nutcases are so geeky about your office supply needs, just like me. Anita and her liquid highlighters! AK and her fonts! Did we talk about Tremaya’s pen collection?

this makes me uncomfortable

(Tremaya, I respect your pen game. Particularly your dry-erase joint. But I’m gonna need you to go ahead and organize your pens by make and model and re-take this pic and then post in a new album. Thanks.)

Another heartfelt thanks to Steve Gradman, the Senior Brand Manager of Uniball, for answering my questions AND for helping my dear reader slb find her special pen: the uniball vision fine, majestic purple, 0.7 mm.

We made an official convert out of my dear reader, Hanif. Here’s his brand-new pen cup, filled with the world’s best pen:

Good job Hanif. However. I feel like this pen cup needs to be filled up a bit more. You need a full dozen in there for optimal peacefullness. Also, that pen on the side? It makes me uncomfortable. It's uncapped. And it's not supposed to be on its side. Either in your hand. Or in the cup. No other options.

My Comment of the Week came from that post on UniBall pens. And the winner is….TremayaR! (I’m gonna have to stop giving you so much love up in here. My other Dear Readers are gonna get jealous…) But here’s an excerpt from her hilarious quote about her unabashed affection for ink (emphasis mine):

I buy them when I don’t need them, I hold them when I’m not writing, I carry them in multiple colors and editions (yes, editions) in my purse, I get ticked if anyone has the nerve to use my “good ones” (Uni-balls and Pilots, (kinda like when someone reads my fresh new Essence or any magazine or novel before I have a chance to, that’s a no-no)), and I am not ashamed to ask my doctors if “I can have that nice pen over there”…”yeah the one that says Viagra or that Cialis one will do”

The entire comment sounded like it could have come straight from my own mouth. And she had me chuckling the whole time I read it. I had a visual of her leaning over a receptionist’s desk saying, uh-uh, no not that one, yes that one. Thanks.

I capped the week with my memory of Big. I never met him. Never interviewed him. He had already passed away by the time I got into the game. I saw him perform once, at HoodShock up in Harlem the summer before he was killed.

Of course, after collaborating with Faith on her book, I feel like I know him. I cried when I wrote the scenes in which Faith had to identify his body and I felt like I was right there when I wrote the scene in which she and Mrs. Wallace lay flowers at the Peterson Automotive Museum the day after he was killed, before they came back to NYC for the funeral.

But I didn’t know him. Though I did keep his belt safe during my time at The Source. And it seems as if we are finally getting to the bottom of the mystery…

I will find the Biggie Belt....

I’ll keep you all posted.  In the meantime, have a restful Sunday. See you all on Monday…

-A

This entry was posted on January 17, 2009 at 9:34 pm and is filed under The Week In Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.