Keep The Change

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he will direct thy path."- Proverbs 3:5,6

Friday, July 25th(old i know) was truly an amazing day for me. I've been blessed time and time again, but this time was different. You know how the Lord blesses us over and over, but we seem to take it for granted, or it doesn't seem like an extraordinary blessing?! Well this time was one of those extraULTRAordinary, publish in the Review/Message magazine type blessing. Well, maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit, but that is what it felt like! Well, here's the story, blessing by blessing-

Blessing #1- It was payday and your boy was BROKE (and not that, "I only have 3 dollars to my name" broke either!!!!! I was, account in the negative, owe a nigga money BROKE!!!!! So I was soooooo hype to FINALLY get paid. Even though it was the 1 week paycheck, I was thankful.

Blessing #2- I had to go to the Philly International Airport to travel to Huntsville, AL for one of my friends wedding and I really needed to deposit my check. You see, even though it was payday, my automatic deposit was not set up yet, so i had to go to the bank. The only problem with that was, a) I had work until 3:45 and, b) The money wouldn't go through until the following business day if I was to deposit the money after I got off. So I explained my situation to my manager and he let me off of work (not to deposit the check, but for me to get to the airport on time, lol), so that was a blessing.

Trial #1- Well, I got off work at around 1:30 and immediately I headed to the bank. (quick story detour) I thought my flight was leaving at 8:50, but I checked the internet on my break and found out that it actually was to leave at 6:50!!!! So yea, that would've been tragic if I didn't check the internet. (Ok, now back to the story). Now I head to the bank and try......sigh....TRY to deposit my check into the bank, mind you, my account is overdrawn. So I try to deposit the check at Wachovia, but once I got to the desk, the lady told me that my funds would not process until the following day, despite me depositing the check before 2 p.m.!!!! So now I'm really stressing because not only am I technically STILL BROKE, but now I have to take a 40 minute drive to Philadelphia from New Jersey without the fill up that I previously planned!

Trial #2 and Blessing #3- So now I'm outside of the bank, slumped in my car seat, staring at the gas station right across the street and looking at the several pennies that I had to my name that were in my ashtray and I'm thinking to myself, WHY?!?! WHY ME?! So I briefly considered putting the $0.52 into my empty gas tank, and that didn't make any sense, because with gas at $4, that would only piss both me AND my gas tank off!!!!!! I also considered using my card (as credit of course) with the hopes that the transaction wouldn't go through until my money processed.....but then I realized that I was in the negative, and the gas station would deny my attempt before I could even start pumping! LOL (yea, I can laugh now, but it wasn't even funny at the time)! So I decided to start out on my journey to Philadelphia on my empty tank.

Ok, so I got the directions to the airport from this girl from my job..................and long story short, I got lost!!!!!! So I'm LOST on an EMPTY TANK with NO SENSE of where I was, AND my phone was off......Crazy right?! And no, I'm not making any of this up!!! Anyways, I was somewhere on 295 headed to Delaware when I decided to pull over and see where I was and how to get to the airport. At this time, I also decided that if I saw a gas station, then they were going to get the $0.52 that I was so dearly clutching in my hand the entire time that I was driving. Well, for some odd reason, there was no gas station to be found (figures) and there was no place to stop and ask for directions! I stopped at a vacant bank and got out of the car highly upset! The $0.52 that I had in my hands almost got tossed every which way, because I started to let my anger and frustration get the best of me, and because there was nothing to take it out on, I wanted to toss my change, but for some reason, I kept the change. After I gathered myself, I turned on my MAAAANNNNNNN sensors and decided to turn around and head north (I think) on I-295. Well, due to "road work" there was a detour to get back on the highway with no signs, so I swallowed my pride and asked a motorcyclist where to go. Once I got back on track, I still did not know where I was going and now my gas light is on. Somehow, I caught a glimpse of the exit(I-76) for the bridge that I was supposed to take in the first place and now I'm just praying that I can make it to the airport and just fill up once I got back from Huntsville. Well, I was able to make it to the bridge and well.....

Trial #3 and Blessing #4- Well.......there was a toll at the end of the bridge. Hmm, the only cash, no, currency that I had on me (that I knew of) was my precious $0.52. Not wanting to hold up traffic, I pulled over to the side and decided to discuss my situation to the office personnel, not wanting a free pass, but a ticket for not having the change so I could just continue on to the airport. Unfortunately, it was not that easy. I was told that I would have to be written up for the ticket and then wait for the police. I didn't quite understand that concept so I decided to stay parked on the side of the toll booth for a while and look for some random money laying around in my car. Well, the power hungry toll booth operators meant business and called the police on me and not even a minute went by before the police cruiser approached my dearest Dorothy (thats my car). I always get nervous when a cop car comes near my vehicle, due to my illegal tint and WAY past due tickets and this time I really didn't have time for any conflict, so I calmly approached the cop car. He asked me what I was doing parked in that section and I explained to him that my car was running out of gas quickly and that I just needed some more time to search for the money. He seemed real cool, and he actually let me do it. He also let me know that some state highway people were going to come and GIVE me a gallon of gas to continue on my way!!!!! This is when God really rolled his sleeves and got to work! I'm looking, looking, looking and I was starting to get discouraged. Then I realized that I didn't say a prayer, dumb I know, but hey I fixed that right away! After saying a prayer, I decided to look in an old receipt, $1, looked under my car seat, $0.25, car cushion-$0.35, and the list goes on! I could not believe what was happening! I mean, change was literally coming out of NOWHERE!!!!! The cop even got in on the action and offered me a quarter of his!!! Meanwhile the guy with the gas is putting the gas in my tank and my eyes started to well up with tears. I mean, God is sooooo good! So after all of this, I found myself $0.16 over the $3 toll fee that I needed. I gave the left over change to the cop, and thanked him for all of his help and patience. Oh yea, when I started my car up to continue on to the airport, my tank was in between 1/2 and 1/4 of a tank....now you tell me if that was a gallon!!!!!!! HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!

I was able to make it to the airport on time and most importantly, my faith in God became stronger! Isn't he good?!?! I keep the lone penny in my ashtray as a reminder that My God is Sovereign and there is nothing that he can't do!

So even though it may not seem like much at the time, you should always keep the change!

Jazzy Strikes again!

I know this song would really suck if you were in this situation, but if my girl sang this to me like Jazmine sings, I just might put off the hurt and tell her to sing it one more time, LOL! Anyways, enjoy the video!

US(Redeem Team) vs. The World, Part 1 of 2- What the World has to do to beat Team USA.

(This is a 2-part article, part 2 can be found on go2page3.blogspot.com)

8-8-08 is FINALLY HERE!!! Do you feel the love?! Well....not really due to all of the wars going on around us right now, but the Olympics is a time that the entire world can pause for world unity and I feel so proud of my country(even if a single game has yet to be played!)! But that is not what I am here to talk to you about. I am actually here to talk about the MUST WIN gold medal that Team USA is facing after failing to bring home the gold in 2004. Let,s weigh some quick pro's and con's. The pro's, it's Team USA, need I say more?! They have the best players in the world and this time around, with the 3-yr commitment from the top players in the league, things will be done right. Oh yeah, they also have Lebron James, the ZEUS of Basketball!(That is for my boy Calvin!). The con's, well they lost in 2004 and....well....the competition didn't exactly get weaker. Teams are actually stronger, and they have been playing together for years.

Despite Team USA being 2/7 favorites in these Olympic Games, I have the blueprint for the World to pull off the most colossal upset EVER!!! Here are some steps that can help the World beat Team USA.

1. Kidnap Kobe Bryant- You think I'm joking?!? OK, maybe I am...but it wouldn't hurt!

2. Play match up zone defense- I watched the US-Russia warm up game the other day, and I noticed that this defense is the best defense to play against Team USA. Why, you ask?! Well, its quite simple. No team can play man against Team USA. If they do, they are bold and foolish. It would look like 1992, but on a whole different wavelength! You can try to play a typical 2-3 or 1-3-1 zone, but the 2-3 zone would cause Coach K to go to Micheal Redd, and that would not be good for the world, and if they play a 1-3-1, then Dwight Howard would have a field day in the post. So the world's best bet is to play a match up zone, which can confuse Team USA at times.

2b. NO DOUBLE TEAMS!!!!- World, if you so choose to double team Team USA, then you are setting yourself up for failure!

3. Play with confidence- Every team needs to play with confidence against Team USA. Back in the days of Team USA dominating the competition, half of the reason was that the players were too busy being awestruck by the players on the Dream Team. So the world needs to play with a sense of disrespect. Who cares if you're LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and so forth. Get in their face! Try to frustrate them. Try to reverse the roles and play bully. The world needs to realize that they are basketball players just like them and that their game is not the individual game, it is a team game, so they must all be confident when facing Team USA.

4. Play Team Basketball- I watched Spain play a couple of games and I have watched Argentina a lot also. Although these teams have great individual players, they never stray away from the team game. The extra pass, the pick and roll, the give and go, the "no iso", all of these things are apart of the world game. The world needs to use this to their advantage, and remember that the way they play team basketball is the only way that they can defeat Team USA.

5. Go Hard or Go Home- Whatever team that has the challenge of playing Team USA, needs to play the full 40 minutes as if its their last game, because if they slack off one bit, then they are going to catch an L.

And that is how the World can possibly beat Team USA aka The Redeem Team. My predictions....well, I think Spain and Argentina are the toughest match ups for Team USA, but in the end, Team USA will claim Gold.

Don't forget, Part 2 of this article is at go2page3.blogspot.com! Check it out now!