The Musings of a Latte Queen: Narratives of Everyday Life

Every day, I wake up with the strikes against me, trying to push through them, to the other side of life. I wake up with the full knowledge that today, someone will tell me I'm being irrational or emotional, even if they do not use those direct words.  Someone will drape their shoulders in their privilege to reprimand me or cloak themselves in the dripping sorrow of fragility because they didn't like something I wrote. Someone will tell me I am too old, too educated, too outspoken, too diversified, too something other than just right. Pushing through it anyway is the what I have to do, with a smile, and a pen. I had to push through when told to create a portfolio, even though I had one, essentially, it being busy work, because they thought I was overqualified, over-age, and just plain over.  I keep getting up. My pen on paper keeps writing muses, thoughts, poetry, literary criticisms. Only to be told that I don't perform, even if they don't say it directly, no o...

There, I said it, I want a divorce! I'm done, simply done. It is just beyond mending, fixing, repairing. We have to start over. The other day, a couple things happened that made me take a good hard look around my surroundings. It is no secret to my readers that I live in a wooded area in an old (by today's standards) townhouse that has had structural challenges. This 1900 square foot dwelling with the awesome view, 2.5 bathrooms, 3 bedrooms, and a loft-like main living area, has issues. The main one being the old pipes. The bathroom sinks leak. And the maintenance crew is not always the most thorough, they may look at one thing but not take a wholistic look at the whole problem, kind of how issues of race, gender, equity, and inclusion are looked at in our country. I pay too much to not have my needs met, so I keep calling, kind of like a spouse trying to save a marriage. The other day, I woke up to "rain." It was not, it was water cascading like a t...

I consider myself an independent scholar, a lover of learning, one on a quest to know and share. It is in that space that I recently did a walk down memory lane and a brief view through the looking glass at what a future possibility could exist for someone like me. Let me explain. There was something on one of my social media sites that made me think about the time that has gone by. Perhaps it was the news that one of the "known" tweeters during the Black Lives Matter movement has been invited to teach at Yale, or maybe it was the continued circus that is the Republican presidential candidate cast of characters. Whatever it was, it made me think of time that has gone by and time yet to come. College inevitably came to my mind. Through my life spaces and choices, my collegiate choices were not traditional. First, I had a child shortly before I graduated from high school and subsequently suffered through that child's murder. I've written about him before. On...

I have my MBA in marketing from a highly ranked full-time program in the midwest. I have taught at a few universities and was accepted into an invitation-only conference designed to recruit business background professional to enter the PhD program. I've ideated brands, products, and directed or produced shows, posters, billboards, and print ads. My career has not allowed me to do television or radio yet, but I did conceptualize and produce a PSA on drinking water. I've written articles, essays, papers, poetry, situational analyses, marketing plans, press releases, and brand identity statements. I've delivered speeches before high ranking officials in several states and have mentored children to increase their love of literature. I was looking over the body of my work, over the more than twenty-five years of experience and realized, I was mad and didn't want anyone to tell me to not be angry anymore. Why? Fifteen years ago, I made a fateful or fatal decisio...