After all my logic and my theory I add a...

I am about to go buy some RPGs, some grenades, some bullet-proof coverings for my house windows and doors, and some serious private security guards.

Why?

Because Saint Louis is the 3rd most dangerous city in the world.

Don't laugh.

It is, according to Urbantitan.

We are further up the list than Mogadishu.  Higher than Caracas, higher than a city in Chechnya, and way higher than a city in Pakistan, where al-Qaeda kidnaps US reporters.

I know I shouldn't take this mess seriously, but come on now.

To compare any US city to the listed international cities and so many more cities where people really do fear for their lives daily is absurd.

I have never gone to sleep with ear plugs in due to the noise of the bombs; I have never had to sleep with night shades over my eyes so that the bright lights of the exploding bombs and missiles don't keep me awake.

I have never had to walk through shrapnel, crumbled buildings, streets filled with tanks, alleys full of soldiers reloading and resting up before the next evenings attacks.

I have never had to adjust where I walk so that I don't have to risk my small child seeing and walking over piles of dead bodies.

I have never had to see (in real life) the disfigured, dismembered bodies of my neighbors or co-workers.

I know that people try to bring this city down.  I know that there is still high unemployment here (especially among African American males).  I know that there is a good deal of crime at times in some parts of the city.

I know that there are people who move out of this city after getting tired of being asked where they went to high school for the one-millionth time.

These people are not considered refugees.

They are leaving on their own volition.

But as I always say - the data is not really that accurate.

Most lists that include StL as the most dangerous in the country (now world) do not count the city as most other areas of the country do.  StL county is not counted as part of StL.  Almost every other area of the nation includes the entire metropolitan area in their city counts.

Not to say that the county is crime free, but they don't have as many violent crimes.  They just have kidnappings, meth labs, cocaine parties, and a ton of other events in recent history that I won't list because some one is bound to think I am making light of the various situations, but please, do your research.

When you do count the city and the county together, the statistics for StL drop enormously.

I'm not going to argue that there are not a lot of crimes in the city, but it definitely does not compare to many other places.  If you watch local news here, there is a constant barrage of crime being shared (though I'm not sure if that is because there is a lot of it, or if it is because that is what local people expect to see on their news channels.  And if you really look at the local news (which I cannot stand, sorry Ms Huda), you could see that most of the crimes are taking place in the same spots of the city.

I am not going to hate on the author of the story for not looking at statistics appropriately.

But I am going to hate on the author for saying that "East St. Louis is the area of nearly 65% of the crime".

EAST ST. LOUIS IS NOT THE SAME CITY AS ST. LOUIS.  It's not even in the same state.  There is a huge (though sometimes not so high with all the drought) river that separates the two cities.  And if you want to get even more technical with it, not all of the area on the east side of the river is East StL.  There are other cities that people tend to lump together that are not actually part of EStL.  Perhaps that is causing that area to have a worse rap than it should.  If you include East Saint in the statistics, then you should include the whole metro area, fo' real.

All in all, the blog sucks.

And now that I think about it, this is what is to blame for some of the students I teach and young people I see around the area.

They think they are super hard as shit.

Why shouldn't they even though most of them have never been in a fight, never seen a gun, maybe been detained for MIP of weed, and never had to deal with any large amount of trauma, let alone having a bomb drop on your house in the middle of the night?

And why shouldn't they when each year they hear that their "city" is among the most dangerous in the country?  They all think of the city as the whole metropolitan area.  And they don't watch the news or have classes that teach about what is going on in the world, so I guess according to them (and the author of this blog) they do live in the third most dangerous area of the world.

These people are the reason that I often feel like Lauryn Hill.  Even after all my logic and my theory, I (often want to) add a mother-fucka so you ignant n----s hear me.  Remember. Take notes.

"Zealots".

More than a pain in the neck

I seem to experience pains and circumstances like no one else that I personally know.  There are the simple dairy issues, the more complex back problems, and the even more worrisome cancer scares.  More recently, I have had a lupus scare lending itself to some skin issues that are going to be with me permanently and have forever changed the way I will do my hair.

About a month and a half ago I was out eating a lovely sushi meal with my local sister and my brother from another mother and father and noticed a small bump on my neck.  I thought it was a pimple and made a note to look at it when I got home.  I didn't.  I remembered it a couple days later.  It was way larger and felt nothing like a pimple.  But I wasn't too worried.  Then it got larger and harder.  I went to the dermatologist.  He said he couldn't deal with it since it was too far under the skin.  I went to a general surgeon who sent me to get an ultrasound.

All in all, this lead to some incredible worrying.  And a lot of sub plan writing - one of the truly annoying things about being a teacher is that you can't just take a day off.  There has to be a plan for every hour and you have to write it all down for the person who will cover your classes for you.  It takes way longer to do sub plans than to actually stick out sicknesses and go to work.  Unfortunately, doctors don't work around my school day.

But, back to my neck.  The lump was growing.  It was becoming a nuisance when I swallowed, yawned, accidentally put the toothbrush too far and gagged when I was cleaning my tongue - it was really annoying. And becoming more and more scary!  What was this growth?!?!?!

The surgeon said it was likely a thyroglossal duct cyst - which he said usually develop in early childhood.  This added more to my confusion.  I know I can be immature at times, but WTF?  Am I a mutant?  Why is this happening to me?

He said it could be removed easily.  I set up a surgery date for two and a half weeks from that appointment.  And that began two and a half weeks of worry.

I have several doctors in the family, but I also watch a lot of doctor shows.  I have seen simple surgery turn into a life-long nightmare.  I have seen doctors leave items in body cavities and seen doctors operate on the wrong portion of a patient.

I went in this past Tuesday for the procedure.  Fortunately, my siblings were kind of sympathetic when I called and told them that I had had enough and that I was going to slit my throat.  One of them was really worried and thought I was actually suicidal.  But when I offered her my nice tv, she seemed ok with it all.

Luckily the worst part was not eating after midnight prior to the surgery.  The procedure was scheduled for 1:45, but the doctor was an hour late.  I was so hungry that I was actually past hunger.  I assume that my insides were already digesting my body... that would explain why I was significantly lighter when I stepped on the scale than I have been for over four years.  Oh, and not being able to take headache medicine or any other medicine for a week before the surgery - great time for my sinus to become completely f-ed up (neti-pot is my new best friend).

Actually, the worst part was not not eating before surgery.  It has been trying to eat after surgery.  The tube used during anesthesia caused irritation afterward, then the fact that they cut portions of my throat muscles and throat bones out has caused significant pain during eating, chewing, drinking, and any activity that involves moving the tongue besides talking.  Also, my neck is swollen and sore when I try and lay down or turn over when in bed.  As soon as I finish writing this, I am going to go back and get the cold pack and lay it out on my neck.

Unfortunately, it took me two days to realize that I could be taking two pills for pain instead of just one at a time.  That made a huge difference.  I still don't see why people get addicted to these sort of pills, but I guess my demographics don't fit the usual suspects for prescription drug abuse.

I took the gauze off yesterday and am now looking like a black Mrs. Frankenstein.  The stitches stick out more than the actual incision - which should blend a bit with the natural neck folds when they unsew my neck in a little over a week.  I guess there go my chances of showing a lot of neck when I finally get a chance on Tyra's modeling show.

Hopefully, this is the last of my medical ailments for a long time.

Oh, yeah.  All this happened after a massive tornado impacted my school district and made several of my students and colleagues homeless.  I feel for them and the people in the southwest recovering from that devastation.

Oh, and while this was all happening, I was doing another cycle of SIOL for 30 days.  I even managed to wear my six to the hospital for the procedure since Tuesday was the last day of the project.  I will continue until the end of May with my Project 333 challenge.

Awesomely disturbing prank

I can't find a better video quality, but this is hilarious.



Check out his hang-time.

Wordless Wednesday: Hello?

Sent to me from my brother.  Lionel Richie always tickles me.

Near death experience

There's nothing to bring you into reality like some sort of major scares.

• There are the not-so-serious scares (beauty, societal issues, occupational, parenting issues)
• There are the more serious scares (familial, near-death instances, physical pain, fears of cancer) 

These were/are all scary for different reasons and to different intensity levels.

Thursday I experienced a new kind of scare.

After school, I went to practice (yes, track is back in session - I am back being sore demonstrating drills and trying to pretend in front of the kids that it doesn't hurt and is still easy for my ever-aging body, and I will soon be losing most of my free Saturday time).  Before practice, I decided to wipe down my dirty computer keyboard area.

When I came back in, I had to clean up and get ready for three hours of parent-teacher conferences.  Then I packed up and headed down to meet, greet, share information.

At various times during these conferences, there are lulls where I can either sit and stare out the door (I was seated RIGHT in front of the entry door.  Not sure if this was some sort of social justice move to let parents know that yes, there are some black women we hire as teachers, or just a coincidence), grade papers (which I had none on this second night), walk and talk with other teachers who are not meeting with parents, get a snack of pita chips and cheese (which would not turn out well for me or the parents), or I can get on my personal laptop and cruise through some of my favorite safe for work sites.

I pulled out the laptop and turned it on.

The light came on, but it took a while for the login screen to appear.  When it did appear, my keys were not typing anything.  I restarted it and then it did not come on at all.

It was dead or broken or about to implode or something.

I wanted to scream for fear of all the data I had put on in the past two weeks that I had not yet put onto a jump drive or my Time Machine.  I wanted to get up and make a bunch of phone calls to see what could be done.

Instead I had to sit there for another 2 hours talking to parents (mostly about how well their student is doing since the parents who need to kick their kids into shape are often the ones who cannot make it for various work, school, a lot of other kids, not really paying attention/caring reasons - maybe they haven't heard of the proposed jail time and conferences issue in Detroit).

I had way more pressing issues.

That night and into yesterday morning the computer would still not turn on.

I had to go to the dreaded Apple Store.  First, that meant I had to go into the mall.  In itself a scary time, but I was hoping that since I would be in there around 1 on a weekday that it wouldn't be too bad.  Then there is the Apple Store itself.  Fun gadgets to play with, but too many people - many of them crazed gadget-hounds who think life revolves around their desire to acquire/fix whatever Apple devise they currently are servicing.  I braved the lunch crowds, but would have to come back at 4:45 because there were too many people and I had to leave for practice.

Later came back and got to look at all the cool new computers with amazing mouse pads.  They said that everything on my hard drive could be saved.  Then one of the nice workers said that I was still under a warranty and that might cover fixing the power button.  (I guess when I got the computer three years ago I must have done the normally unthinkable for me and purchased an awesome extended warranty)

The computer is fixed.  Even have a new casing that they replaced, new keyboard, and new mouse pad.

I still have all of my information.  I don't have to spend over a thousand dollars American on a new computer.  And I can now stay out of the mall for a while longer.

Wordless Wednesday: Funny, but sad and sadly true

Two things for you mind and your funny bone.