wit & shit

Nearly two months ago, a young man was shot to death on my corner.

I can’t forget coming home to a street swarmed by police cars, an ambulance, and neighbors peering out of their front doors. 6 shots had rung out just a few minutes prior. I sat in my room, hoping that everyone was alright, noticing how quiet everything was. A few minutes later, a woman’s cries filled the entire neighborhood. She was shrieking, sobbing. There is a level of pain that pierces and overwhelms your heart when you hear what I heard that night. This was a woman (the victim’s wife and mother of his 2 children, I later learned) who had just found out her husband had been murdered. Her whole life turned upside down in an instant. Those wails were the most sobering, silent moment I’ve known in NOLA.

In a city like New Orleans, where violence (and especially gun violence) runs rampant, I have very rarely felt unsafe. I may be on the edge of Hollygrove (once a kindred spirit with Weezy, always a kindred spirit), but I live on a safe block. A school, a bowling alley, the archdiocese. A shooting so close to home shook me, reminded me that this city has a problem. We live in a city where even a Mother’s Day second line isn’t safe from senseless shootings.

He was 27. Twenty-seven. He was the 32nd person murdered in New Orleans in 2013 (the current count stands at 58 murders). They don’t know who did it, they don’t know the motive, and I am 100% certain it’s been forgotten by the NOPD.

But I can’t forget. And I know his widow and fatherless children won’t either.

If you’re not jealous of my life, then I don’t believe you.

kerryz:

[New Post] No-Bake Paleo Chocolate Cream Pie (dairy/grain/sugar free).

Seriously, it’s actually kinda healthy and doesn’t taste like a sock!

http://yumandyummer.com/2013/04/paleo-chocolate-cream-pie-glutensugardairy-free/

Y’ALL. I made this other night for a dinner party, and while it nearly set my brand new food processor on fire (not hyperbole), it was a HIT. This shit is delicious. Gonna be my new go-to potluck dish.

humansofnewyork:

“When you yell at someone, who hears it more: you or them? You’re only hurting yourself by getting angry. I want to live to be 100. I haven’t raised my voice in 40 years.”

(Source: happytimesahead)

nevver:

Dream Interpretation Dictionary

When I lived in the Gambia, I would regularly fake eat in order to satisfy cravings for foods I couldn’t have. I distinctly remember walking down the path to the beach from the road, and pretending to eat a bowl of chocolate pudding. I was super high all the time back then, so it was pretty much a dream. And ya know what? That shit fucking works. To this day, the best pudding I’ve ever had.

I wrap a mean present, y’all.

natgeofound:

Swimming lessons are part of these undergraduates’ curriculum at Tulane University in New Orleans, April 1930.
Photograph by Edwin L. Wisherd, National Geographic

!!