For my 18th birthday, my mom and I went on a road trip to St. Louis to see my cool Aunt Pam. Now the reason she’s cool is our birthdays are two days apart, and she’s just amazing because of it. That year we basically shared our birthdays together and I got the experience of a lifetime. This was still during my culinary dreams phase in life, and I was debating on whether I should go to college or just go to culinary school. Being the genius that my Mom is, she brought me up to the Lou to experience my Uncle Vincent’s cooking. Now just so you know, Uncle…

My all-time favorite movie is Finding Forrester. I stumbled across it on HBO around 2005 or 2006. I don’t remember what compelled me to watch it or anything. I hadn’t heard anything about it, seen any promo, or had anyone tell me to check it out. It opens in New York with hip-hop playing in the background and a young man doing spoken word as he looks into the camera. At the time, I was really into writing poetry so immediately this hooked me in. The movie is about a young black man by the name of Jamal Wallace. He is a brilliant kid who doesn’t want to appear too…

My Dad and I don’t have what I would consider the typical father and son relationship. We don’t go camping. We’ve never gone on a father-son road trip. We don’t sit down and watch Sunday football or anything like that. But, what I cherished the most was the fact that every year around my birthday we used to watch the Bond movie marathon on TNT. There wasn’t anything better than seeing Odd Job, Goldfinger, and the rest of Bond villains. Overly dramatic intro music, the most high tech gadgets, and hearing the best line ever- “Shaken not stirred.” We also agreed on the fact that Sean Connery is, and will…

Right before I sat down to write this, I woke up from a nap. As an adult, I rarely get the chance to just take a good nap. I miss the olden days of a lovely mat laid down next to me. Preceded by a snack or something, I’m sure. Dimmed lights for ambiance. A blanket I think you may or may not have brought from home. Basically, the perfect situation for midday resting. I don’t know if I truly knew just how precious it was to have that time to recharge. As kids, we just keep running until our tanks are empty. We fight what we need because the…

I love cooking. So much so that I’ve been to culinary school. Twice! I didn’t finish either time, but yeah, I tried. Look, the point is I enjoy being in the kitchen “cheffing” it up from time to time. I had dreams of opening a restaurant in Italy making fusion style Southern and Italian cooking. Now I can see at this point you’re probably wondering why Italian and honestly, I couldn’t tell you. It may have been from all the Food Network I used to watch. I’d watch that network like ESPN. Emeril Lagasse (probably the origin of my fusion restaurant), Iron Chef, and Good Eats were all my favorite…

It was placed upon my heart to give roses to those who could smell them and even those who could not. We never know when our last day could be so it’s important to cherish each and everyone who’s important to us. Today it was hard to pick one more person so I decided to just end this week with some thoughts on why I’m doing this. When I was younger as “sweet” as I could be, I’m honest enough to admit I could be a brat. I was selfish. I didn’t remember anyone’s birthday until a card was handed over for me to sign. I didn’t consider many people…

Growing up in the church for me was a lot like going to a family reunion every Sunday. I wasn’t related to everyone by blood, but my church was and still is, one of the places that feels like home. We in the black community are known to have a plethora of play cousins, aunts, and uncles just to name a few. My church was no different. I was blessed to be raised by all the church mothers. I wasn’t always the most confident person. I doubted myself daily and felt like the four-eyed kid with glasses couldn’t be as awesome as those around him. They never saw that. I…