Homelessness

So today I went to listen to Dr. Pete Gathje speak about homelessness in Memphis. After he went through and gave some statistics and the history of homelessness I then realized that this really is an issue in Memphis and everywhere else. I did not know that Tennessee are in the Top Ten States of Poverty. I usually thought of homelessness as people just living on the streets because they are just to lazy to get a job. Well, in reality some of them do try they just do not make the money they need to support them. Ill be honest whenever I see people on the street sometimes I will lend a hand but then sometimes I think to myself can they just not walk the nearest gas station and at least try to get a job! I know that is really bad on my part and my point of view has definitely changed after hearing some of the causes. Some of the causes include lack of affordable housing, lack of health care, substance abuse, mental illness and ect. Dr. Pete is apart of what is called he Manna House. This house is open three days a week from 8 am to 11 am. People can come in whenever they want and stay as long as they want. They get to drink coffee for free, get clothes and even take showers! I think this is such a nice thing to do. Although he also made it seem like there are no other organizations not helping the homeless when really there are. For example, around Christmas time when people go to the homeless shelter and bring food and toys. I am just so grateful that I am living a good life and do not have to worry about living out on the streets. (303)

Idol Gives Back

This is the second year for American Idol to host the Idol Gives Back Show. Idol Gives Back is for people to donate money to help out the less fortunate people all over the world. This night consisted of many celebrities and showed tapes of celebrities going over to Africa and other places around the world helping out people. I forgot how much money Ryan Seacrest said that was donated but I rememeber it was a big number! There was this one slide they showed I forgot where they went but it showed a little girl who was 8 months old. This little girl was born with malaria and was so infected that her brain was swelling bigger and bigger everyday and causing her to have seizures. When they traveled to Africa it showed Bono from U2 talking to this little boy who was infected with HIV. Idol Gives Back helped donate money to help and try to keep these kids in need to survive! It was a very inspiring night along with inspirational songs. The top 8 idol contestants sang Shout to the Lord and Seasons of Loveboth were very good. If any of you want to check this out you can go to americanidol.com and watch videos of Idol Gives Back. I think this is such a great thing for American Idol to do. (277)

MY OBSESSION!

Well what do you know, another blog on American Idol. This past week American idol was on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday night! I had to work Tuesday and Thursday night and had dance on Wednesday night so I was not able to watch it at the time it came on. So, I had to TVO, even though I always do! There is just something different to me about watching it live and then watching it after you taped it. Anways on Tuesday night the contestants performed inspirational songs. My all time favorite David Archuleta sang “Angels” and what an amazing job he did… the judges loved it! My second favorite Jason Castro sang “somewhere over the rainbow” which was amazing too! I am so glad my two favorites did good! The other contestants were not that good and its not that they did not sing well, it was the song choice they picked. Wednesday night was the Idol Gives Back night and that was a good show. Thursday night was the elimination night and last year they did not send anybody home instead they sent two people home the following week. Well, I was very shocked and so were the judges and other people about the bottom three. I was especially shocked about Michael Johns getting eliminated. He was one of the most talented contestants on this show…I guess it just goes to show you that at this point in the competition no one is safe! I am just waiting on Kristy Lee Cook to go home…she is the least talented on this show and yet somehow she is still on here! It bugs me so bad! Next week, Mariah Carey is the mentor so I definitely will be posting another blog about the competition! (295)

i STILL LOVE our tigers!

I am sure everyone along with me agrees that Monday night was not as exciting as we thought it would be in fact it was depressing. I was so upset the whole day just because I had to work Monday night and was not able to watch the game so I had people calling and texting me the results! I wish I could have been somewhere watching it instead of work where I only saw twelve people. I was so mad they would not let us close early. The refs I heard were making bad calls and didn’t call the foul at the end where Kansas made the three pointer! I was upset at first but then I got to thinking that atleast we made it to national championship even if we did not walk away as champions! We still deserved to be there and also no other team has the record we had this year! The Tigers had a great year. Hopefully, we can come back next year and win it and I have a strong faith in the tigers that we can. Oh, and maybe Derrick Rose and CDR will decide to come back one more year =) (200)

dance competition continued

Well, if any of you read my last blog about my dance competition and want to know what the results were feel free to read. Last Sunday I had to be at White Station High for Showstoppers. I had to wake up at nine o clock in the morning to put my hair in curls and get it ready for the number that we were performing later on in the afternoon. We had to put curls in our hair so it would flip out and be teased like the people in the hairspray movie. After, all this time spent on everyone’s hair we realized that next time we are purchasing a wig to wear! HAHA. Anyways, we all got to the school around 10:30 and we did not go on until about one. The reason we got there so early was because we had to go over the number and also make sure we were stretched out good. We did a production and in our division there were four other numbers. The awards were not until around 4 o clock so believe me it was a loonnngg day! Well, the good news is that in our division we got first place and then we also got overall production which with overall we were up against about 8 other numbers! They put you in different age divisions. So , we were all pretty excited about the outcome and ready to go home and get some sleep. I thought we would have a break for a little while and not have so many practices but I was wrong. We have a show on April 25th to get ready for!(277)

the BIG paper

So our big paper is finally coming to an end! I cannot explain how relieving that is. Although, I will admit we should be really thankful that Wendy is letting us do it in sections. If you think about some teachers would just make us do it all at once. So thank you, Wendy for letting us do it in sections! Also, in a way it kind of makes it easier and make me concentrate on the paper more. It makes me think about what I am writing about more so that my paper makes more sense. I think I like the peer editing for this paper as well because other people point stuff out that I probably would not catch. The reason for that is because when you read your paper, you are going to read what you thought you wrote. Also, it gives me help on the structuring of my sentences and paragraphs! I find this paper not to be easy, but easier than any other paper that we have had to write just because of the help and advice Wendy has given us. Especially like on ecourseware where we go to the contents and click on “part-four” or whatever part we are working out. She breaks it down easier for us so it is not that hard for us. Thanks again Wendy! Haha. So I started on my part four yesterday and almost done, since we need to have it Tuesday in class! I am trying not to procrastinate on this anymore! GOOD LUCK ON YOUR PAPERS EVERYONE! (263)

busy day

Okay, so I had to work tonight which I really did not want to because I have had a massive headache all day and have been lying in bed not being able to sleep because of the pain but no one would cover for me! So anyways, I get to work at two o’clock and the salon assistant does not come in until three. Well, the school next to the tanning place I work at gets out at two o’clock, so of course I am going to get a bunch of girls and boys coming in to tan. I thought to myself, I am going to have an easy day at work, today. Well I was completely wrong! I saw like fourteen people in ten minutes. So, I have to go clean the beds because the assistant as yet to make it to work until her scheduled time. I came back up to the front to see a line of people. I was freaking out! After a busy couple hours at work, I come to find out that my salon assistant has to leave here at six and we close at eight. She has to go to another store to close because supposedly that store is busier! Yea right! So I am going to be stuck here probably pass eight o’clock because I will not be able to do any closing duties because it has been so busy! I am surprised there are a lot of people tanning on a Friday! It is never that busy, ever! (255)

SHOWSTOPPERS

This Sunday I have a dance competition at White Station High School. I am excited for it and ready for it be over at the same time. The reason behind that is the fact that I love to compete in competitions because I love to dance but over the past few weeks it has been so tiring!! We will have dance twice a week or maybe even three days a week when it is normally just on Wednesday nights. The reason for practicing so much is because we are doing a production number and there are two other classes plus my class doing this number. We are dancing to You Can’t Stop The Beat from the Musical, Hairspray and it is a really cute dance, just a lot of work has to go into it. These weeks have been so tiring for me and hard to wake up and do everything because I have school work, dance, and having to go to work! My manager does not get the point. She always puts work before your education and other activities you have to do. So basically I am just really ready for this competition to get here and be over with! I hope we win though! That will be really exciting! (211)

MEMPHIS TIGERS

I don’t know about any of you but I am really excited for the game on Saturday against UCLA! It is going to be an intense game, but I believe that the Tigers can pull it off and win! You can tell they want to win the Championship. Also, if they play against UCLA like they played the past two games I think we will have a GREAT chance of winning. As much as I hate to say it, I am kind of glad they lost against Tennessee just so they have the pressure off their back of being an undefeated team. I don’t know if it is similar but when I cheered in high school, we would always get first at whatever competition we competed at and it seemed as if everyone was out to beat Germantown. So, I kind of know what the pressure of being undefeated feels like. Anyways, back to the tigers… I really hope that not having Andre with them in San Antonio doesn’t affect them. I do not suspect that it would. At least I hope it doesn’t hold them back. I will be watching the game with my family and we will be supporting the tigers and wearing our final four shirts! By the way I got my family final four shirts and it was $109… yea I was a little upset about that!! GOOO TIGERSSS!!! (232)

FAVORITE SHOW UPDATE:

It is that time of the week again to post another update! Feel free to read or feel free to skip this one! Last Tuesday’s theme on American Idol was Dolly Parton’s songs and Dolly was the mentor. I was a little worried about all of the contestants singing their songs, especially David, who was my favorite. When the show started, I was so anxious to see David and wondering when he was going to come on. When they showed him with Dolly Parton together, I thought it was neat. Dolly said she believes that he will become a great, great singer. David picked Smokey Mountain Memories to sing and as usual, it was amazing! I am being totally honest when I say this…in that David gave me the chills. His voice is just so pure. Overall, the contestants did pretty well with their songs. I was amazed because it just seems so hard to top her songs off since she is considered a legend in country music. Wednesday night was the result show and every night on this show, the group sings a song together. The song they sang was Nine to Five…I love that song of Dolly’s. Anyways, of course David was safe! That made me even more excited and Ramielle went home. Next week is the idol gives back week so the contestants are singing inspirational songs! I can’t wait to see the top eight perform!
P.s. I know I am OBSESSED with this show! (251)