The " what is this ? " post

It's hard to find time for this, but i'll make sure i do. it's worth it.
A weekly post will do for now though, it's cool to keep up with all the blogs i read, i just can't find time for my own ! It sucks

I had a Karamale moment a few hours ago, at work.
Some guy who wanted to invest in one of our projects ( having a band to perform live every single day of August & September in one of the hotel's bars ) came by and wanted to talk to somebody from the management team. I was sent to talk to him.
The (very troll looking) caucasian man hesitated a bit and then asked me if there wasn't anybody more experienced that he could talk to, i let him know i was probably the best choice or my boss wouldn't have asked me to talk to him. He then said he wanted to talk about promoting our concept and needed somebody who was more " attached " to the city. I told him i had been living in Montreal for the past few years and i really knew almost everything there was to know about promoting a nightlife event. He then said : " i need to talk to somebody who knows about music. Mostly Rock. It'd be better if i could talk to somebody whose culture included those types of music, you know ! " i let him know i was really a music lover and he wouldn't be disappointed. Then he said he wanted to discuss the menu, and since we offer European cusine, he'd prefer talking to somebody who knows about that too.
I told him i was french and i started getting annoyed by his behaviour, i gave him the " what is this ?? " look !
The look on his face made me realize what was going on.

" Basically, you don't want to talk to a black person ! " was my answer to him, as i stood up.
He was shocked. I told him i should be the one in shock because of his ignorance.
He started getting some kind of attitude, telling me i should watch my mouth. I brought him back to reality. When you're the one who's new in town and you're trying to get notoriety by financing projects for a hotel so your name can be mentionned in a public place, it's better to hold some stuff back and avoid letting your bullshitty nature show.
I'm black so he didn't expect me to know my job ? know about music ? or (european) food ? and he thought i needed to "watch my mouth", probably because he thought i was gonna be scared of him talking to my boss.

I told him to just sit right there and wait a second for my boss.
Their conversation was quite short. He didn't get the contract. We have a list of 150 + people who want their name associated to that project, we don't kiss people's asses, we don't deal with retards. This is 2006, and this is Canada. I love my boss.... I love my job.

Speaking of european things we (France) made it to the final against Italy. WHAT IS THIS ??? How did that happen ? I'm shocked. If we win, i'll probably stop this blog, stop working and sell myself on the streets for the rest of my life. Weird ain't it ? i know but i don't want the french team to win, we just TALK too much. If we win, we're gonna be acting as if we were the best team that ever existed, as if we were made of gold, as if the cup was gonna be ours for life... Viva Italia ! The land of delicious pizzas, excellent wine, illegally handsome men, godesses like Monica Bellucci, pasta, and... well, my grandmother.. :D lol.



This world cup final itself got me like : WHAT IS THIS ???
Your boy soldier, as explained last summer in that post, is french/italian/ivorian/senegalese ( for the geographically lost people ivorian = from Ivory Coast, Senegalese = from Senegal, both countries in West Africa). And the final of this world cup is gonna be France Vs Italy.
France is my country, Italy is the love of my life, Africa is my blood, heart and soul, and guess what ? (As you can see here, the french team is full of African players),
I'm 100% sure i'll cry at this final. It'll be so damn beautiful. I'm rooting for both teams I dont want France to win cause we talk too much but i want the African players of the team to be the best so i want France to win too. Like my boy Eamon said : "Fuck what i said (earlier about not wanting france to win), it dont mean shit now !" Every player is my favorite player, lol. Whoever wins, i'll party my ass off.

I sold my 4 semi-finals of the world cup ticket for 550 euros each ( 700 $ ). They cost me 400 euros. My gain of (4 x 150 = 600 euros) was exactly the price i paid for my ticket for the final. So i paid myself back. This sunday i'll be in Germany, watching the final of the World Cup Live, in one of the first rows, for free ! My father (who's going with me,... and my mom, and my 2 sisters, and my cousins, etc... we're a group of 35, lol it'll be so much fun) was like (you guessed it) : WHAT IS THIS world coming to ??? (He's mad cause he paid full price, lol)

From now on, i'll still be living la vida loca but i will not spending a penny on it.
This is a business world. Hop on the train !

Random !

I answered all the comments to the previous post in its comment section
----

Artiste Extraordinaire : Daft Punk - " Face to Face "

(click on Play to listen to it right here, right now)

The Random thing, I don't think i ever did it... if i did, then it was a long time ago...

Well i'm in the process of getting my life organized, so uh... it's the same for my blog i guess...

* Me and another blogger are in "talks" about co-hosting a lil sum'-sum' that'll deal with travelling, experiences, and tips on where to go if you ever wanna step out of your comfort zone. Let's hope we'll make it happen. it could be cool !

* I love people who know how to get what they want. An opportunity to meet a really influent businessman presented itself. I called my friend Nikki to see if she was interested in meeting him with me. The meeting was taking place 10 minutes later, so i was just giving her the info, thinking she would probably be too busy to come with me. Less than 10 minutes later, she was standing in front of me and we were ready to have lunch with the man. She was STUNNING. Trench coat, nice pumps, perfect hair, glowing face, perfect smile (For a second i even thought about cancelling everything and asking her out, just like that.. lol).
We met the man and thank god she was there, she really made an excellent impression and he gave us more than 5 ways to contact him in case we ever needed his help, advice or support, or anything !
I dropped her at her appartment, went in for a sec to get some dvds. I saw her removing her trench coat, i was curious to see what was going on under. I was sure it was something very short because during lunch as she was sittin down all you coud see was legs, no dress or anything.
If only i was prepared for i saw : stained gym clothes !

WHAT ????? She laughed and told me what happened when i called.

She was at the gym. The second i told her who we could be meeting, she stopped everything she was doing, borrowed the trench coat and pumps from her friend who works at the gym's front desk, as well as the friend's handbag, ran out of the gym, and hopped into a cab in which she did her hair and make-up with what she found in the bag (she was lucky the friend and her didn't have completely opposite skin complexions).
All of that in about 10 minutes, that's crazy !! Damn, who does that ? lol
To me, she has James Bond status now... damn, damn !

* Masculinity is perceived so differently around the world ! On the re-run of CSI i watched today, a woman saw a man and called him "girly" and assumed he was gay just because he had style (nice suit, nice shirt, nice tie, nice shoes, perfect choice of colors,... viva italia !), and was perfectly groomed.
He wasn't gay, he was just european, lol... european men are very fashion-aware.

David Beckham

* Speaking of style, why don't some people dress according to their physique ? i mean some things will fit certain people and not others. Some trends are not for you... lol... do not follow them !

* Special shoutout to all the bloggers who kept in touch with me with during the past six months, you guys rock !

* What are you guys doing this summer ? any major plans ? I know i'm gonna be working most of the time but i'll definitely take a break in August to go on my usual African tour : Morocco, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Senegal & Cabo Verde to see my family.
To me, nothing beats that kinda trip.

Here's what i miss the most about living in Africa :


They are our future,... i wanna be there every step of the way, and make sure they grow to become wise, strong, and just so damn beautiful !

I opened the door...

Artiste extraordinaire : Esthero - "I drive Alone"

---------

... and dropped my bag on the floor.

First thing i did was taking a cell phone out.
I dialed 5 numbers. one by one.
And about 5 times, i smiled as i left the same message :
" We had some unfinished business, didn't we ? Well guess what... i'm back "
I kept on similing as i threw the phone somewhere over my shoulder, knowing i wouldn't have to use it again for a long time.

I took another cell phone out of the bag and like a kid turning his video game on for the first time after finding it under the christmas tree, i turned it on : My local cell phone. i was back for real.

20 minutes later, as i was coming out of the shower, i heard the familiar incoming-text-message beep coming from my cell :
" Welcome back soldier, be downstairs in 10 minutes "

8 minutes later, when i stepped out, the car was already parked in front of the house and the driver was standing by the door (they hadn't forgotten how much the small details count, i was impressed).
10 minutes later, i was there. The place i loved the most, a white tent set in the park, table for 6, fresh seafood. I smiled as i sat down with the people i had been separated from for the first time since birth, my bestfriends.

Three words were enough to put my brain on memory-shuffle mode : " how was it ? "
Only one word made an appropriate answer : "chaos"

Saying that life is a rollercoaster is an understatement, people...

When i left home in december, i unplugged all the electronic applicances, cleaned the floors, closed all the windows and doors, emptied the fridge. I just had the feeling this trip was gonna be more than a few days long.

• At the beginning of december, my pregnant friend and her boyfriend ended their 5 years relationship, which led her to depression. Can you even imagine what it's like to be disrespected, lied to and cheated on by somebody whose child you're carrying in your body, a child that will become an unbreakable bond between the 2 parents for life... i've seen depressed people before, but this one was carrying a human being in her body. it was scary ! In the last weeks of her pregnancy, right when the pressure became too much for her to handle, she got sick and was taken to the emergency room. The baby we had all been waiting for, the baby she had been talkin about for more than 8 months could never see daylight... and she almost died.
  
• 3 days later, as me and my friend were packing to return to France so she could rest with her family, we received a phone call. Some boy had just slit my 17 years old friend Alex's throat right in the middle of their high school ( ASOY, American School of Yaounde, Cameroon). Why ? The boy claims Alex tried to "seduce" him.

I took the friend who had lost her baby to France, then headed to Cameroon, Ivory Coast, and Senegal to be with my people as we all wanted to support Alex's family.

A week after my arrival there, my friend who had lost her baby passed away in Paris and her boyfriend who felt responsible for everything that happened commited suicide.

My life became a TOTAL MESS. It felt like some kind of end of the year wipe-out... It was harder than words will ever be able to express. I was like a dead mind in a living body. I didn't know what to do or what to think. I seriously didn't feel safe.

They say life always goes on. As impossible as it first seemed, it did. Life went on.

I kept on going back and forth between Paris and Montreal.
I did it so much, it became.. my job. crazy but true.
A small Paris-based hotel group hired me because they needed somebody who didn't mind going back forth all the time.
So much happened.....

The hotel experience was very pleasant, it kept me busy, it kept me from drowning in misery.
I was so comitted to my job, i fell in love with it.
Me and the hotel business are now in deep, pure love. I need my own hotel, anybody wanna buy me one ? lol

Life went on, the world kept on turning,
life has to go on, the world has to keep on turning,
Things change,
cherish the day,
every moment counts,
save for tomorrow,
live for today,
but most of all, never forget


by the way, i'm back.