Aliya S. King

Time to pick up Tog. Lord give me strength.

Tog loves “school.”

But the transition between school and home is…fraught with drama.

There are tantrums. There is bribery. There is cajoling. There may or may not have been the threat of a spanking once or twice. I’m not saying.

It is rough.

I’m off.

Can you pay my telephone bills. Can you pay my auto-mo-bills…

Well. That’s what I call an inspired bit of songwriting. Auto-mo-bills.

I saw Beyonce and company sing that song in Miami at a benefit concert for Haiti. Beyonce said, “Now don’t y’all get the wrong  impression of what we trying to say in this heah song…”

(Remember when she used to have a thick country accent?)

Beyonce and company got booed. Badly.

Can you imagine?

Anyhoo. I always think of that song on the first of the month because that’s when I pay the bills.

I would love to hear from my dear readers on this one.

How/when do you pay your bills? Do you pay them all in one fell swoop? Sit down with all the bills and pay what you can or pay the full balance due for everything. Pay online? By phone? By mail with a check and a stamp?

I feel like I have a different method for every bill and it drives me crazy. I think it’s a testament to poor money planning. If I had it right,I’d have everything deducted automatically each month.

But. As we all know, I’m a freelancer. It’s feast or famine. Sometimes Comcast and Sprint have to wait until King, (sob!) pays me my money.

So though the bills do get paid, it’s always a frazzling experience.

How do you handle it?

All hell is breaking lose in London right now, as protesters converge. Not sure what their beefing about. Is this about the G20 summit? And why are people angling to perform at the protest? What’s that about? Is it a protest or is it Burning Man?

I forgave Obama for giving Britain’s prime minister a set of DVDs that aren’t even compatible with Britain’s system

But now. What is this about The Obamas giving the Queen an ipod.

Come on. Is this for real?

Okay. So it did come preloaded with video footage of her 2007 visit to the States. But still…

I’m not sure how I feel about this.

What do you think?

I skipped the McDonald’s fries.

Having veggie chips instead.

They are GOOD. I know they look weird. But trust me. They are tasty. Tog loves ’em. I don’t use the veggie word. I just call ’em chips. They’re fried so they’re not that healthy.

But I’m gonna go ahead and pat myself on the back for not hitting up McDonald’s.