Going to the Bank...I love it

I OWE.....

Before I launch into why I love going to the bank I owe you the following images ...my too pink Michelle Obama shirt, my purple gye nyame which made me feel like a "crayola god"...I couldn't get that pink shirt in a picture...


There is also a conspiracy a "foot" that I wanted to share. It is a conspiracy that only mothers (or whomever buys shoes for the kids and pays attention) I think will understand. I mentioned in my last blog that I bought Ali new shoes from Target for which I was very proud. I always want my child to look like his mother has good sense.

Anyway I find that every time I buy shoes that fit perfectly he grows out of them ASAP like within a month. I find however if I buy shoes half size to big (THE ONLY OTHER OPTION), he never grows into them before they get worn down and it is time for a new pair. Let me know if that happens to you.

The Lincoln Stuff....this is more stuff I owe....FYI...Lincoln did not free very many slaves...

Okay so when the Emancipation Proclamation was handed down to the Union....slavery was already over...it had been abolished....the slaves he would've been freeing were already free...Viriginia and Delaware the 2 northmost southern states were not mandated to comply as Lincoln did not want those 2 states to secede, as well...the Southern States had already seceded ...for a moment in time ...Lincoln was not their president, the Emancipation Proclamation was a federal mandate that did not apply to them as they were all state run and not part of the Union...they had their own crazy laws addressing slavery

The Real Reason I started this blog, and posted a week later ...

Finally....why I love going to the bank....it has nothing to do with the money or that fact that my bank has not bought anybody or been bought...it is the conversations I have with the tellers one of whom is a student I taught, another who aspires to be an actress and is actually going to school (in LA what a concept) and just overall nice folks. Last Wednesday when I walked in I saw tellers whom I'd never seen before. One in particular was a Latino gentleman. He become my teller and waved me over. I was depositing the latest pittance document that the state weekly confuses with something called child support. They even type those words on the check to make me think that's what it is....

I slid my check and deposit slip through the glass and with slight pause but little hesitation my 1st time teller says "this is all you get". Now I am certain all tellers are forced to read what is on checks because they have to key the figures into the computer, but I am sure somewhere in the code of conduct manual it explains that they cannot converse with customers about their economic plight.

I was so tickled and thought "the pretense was over". We quickly launched into the madness that I endured on my court date back in July when the court officer explained to me that Ali's father had worked out a $20 per month payment agreement on the past due child support he owes me and the state. The candidates have been talking hatchets and scalpels and this fool is trying to catch a waterfall with children's motrin medicine cup. Our conversation ended with him telling me, "you are a strong woman and you don't need this anyway." (I get the compliment...but we will always take the money...whatever it is ....it spends)

What a lift!!!!!
Marketing and Promotions

Y'all Know I gotta pay bills and for these airline tickets for me and Ali's trips to Tuskegee's Homecoming and to the Inauguration in January

www.cafepress.com/InaugurateObama
www.cafepress.com/NextFirstLady
www.cafepress.com?NextFirstLady2
www.cafepress.com/kaliahklothing2
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Anybody who reads this blog....please check out my radio show Change Is Now....live or archive or search"djdannak" at iTunes
www.blogtalkradio.com/djdannak

10/18 Financial Manager and Guru George Thompson
10/25 Alabama Senator Bobby Singleton
11/1 Drs Yolanda Pierce and Melissa Harris Lacewell (check out their Kitchen Table Blog at www.princetonprofs.blogspot.com)


all love
Danna "that one" Kiel

Don't call it a comeback...it is actually

Everyday I have these thoughts I want to share. Everyday I don't. I want to share that I am thrilled to be alive in a time such as the one we are in. Despite what the economy and the daily news tells us we have to look to powers of imagination and creativity that are greater than our world's circumstance might have us believe.

I am trying to get Obama elected and my heart aches daily for the women and children of the Darfur region whose plight doesn't crack the headlines or the feeds right now. My 20th year high school class reunion that was to take place 3 years ago (2005) in New Orleans was rained out...if you know what I mean. As we plan for a 25th I still worry about New Orleans. What is the progress on the Crescent City? Katrina's lessons prepared us for Gustave, Ike and Holly I think her name was, but where do we go from here? We keep striving and believing.

I am a lifelong learner currently working as a Math Intervention teacher trying to find my place in the world. Despite my skill area of math my greatest days as a teacher are spent listening to the lectures of History and English teachers who are working to shape thought through the lens of our country's ill written history. They both do an awesome job of aiding standard texts with truth without cracking the framework of the state's content standards or providing top notch instruction. Lincoln freed very few slaves....he's still a genius and inspired others to make change that moved us toward a more perfect union and the abolition of slavery, but I repeat the brilliantly written Emancipation Proclamation freed VERY FEW slaves...

If you have ever read this blog, you know I am driven by the life of my beautiful son who gives his all everyday to life and living even when his bird has died and his mother can't get to the pet store fast enough to buy African Finches instead of parakeet particularly since this is the 3rd parakeet to die and the first for him to actually grieve.

I grieve too this time because I put a lot of time, energy and emotion into keeping this one from the great "Up Yonder" within 2-3 months of purchase (like the others). She seemed to be doing so well. For that matter so was I. I changed water everyday and food every week. I did a big cage clean up about two weeks ago. I felt like I was ushering in a new era for us. Last week I took my eye of the ball, the bird actually. She ate all her food up in a week (which she never does before I change it) and her water evaporated and I missed it.

Between Wednesday and Friday it all went wrong. Friday night upon our return home from the Debates, she was gone. We should be able to get the African Finches this weekend and prayerfully, we will make it to 6 months with them.

I finally made it back to blogging because I was inspired by the writings of Dr. Yolanda Pierce and Dr. Melissa V. Harris-Lacewell (check their blog here on blogspot called "The Kitchen Table" IT REALLY COOKS!!!!), the blogging of Shavar Ross and learning that if you are a procrastinator like me and have not filed your taxes this year....the deadline for filing in time to qualify for the stimulus check is October 15th ...whew I was relieved ....3 months ago a friend mentioned file by October and as I pulled W2's on Sunday the 28th, I discovered the most important 1 (my primary full time job) is missing. I put in a request today to get a copy. I also logged on to turbo tax to get the party started. I am trying to get right...

I also made the decision today to actively pursue graduate studies next year and try to build the Career that I think I was supposed to have... an intersection between African American Studies and Filmmaking....the journey thus far though has been AMAZING!!!!