About Jon & Kate ...

... leave them alone!
Please America, I'm begging you. For the love of all things holy and for the sanity and security of those eight innocent children, leave those people alone.
Yea, yea, yea. How dare I say leave reality TV stars alone? Because I believe it. So what they have a TV show on - cable TV. They are still entitled to their problems and issues in life but they DO NOT have a right to have their business and issues on front street for all the world to see.
First off, I am an avid viewer of the show. I think it's interesting to see such a young couple have so many children with so many different personalities deal with it all.
Secondly, I don't give a crap if they walk around with their own cameras filming -ish and putting it up on YouTube, who are we (America) to be judging anybody for what they are doing or not doing?!
OK, let me back up. Jon and Kate Gosselin married in 1999 after two years of dating. They experienced some fertility problems and they had trouble conceiving. They tried fertility drugs and long story short, they have eight children out of two pregnancies.
The had a set of twins first, Mady and Cara and later sextuplets, Aaden, Alexis, Joel, Hannah, Colin and Leah. TLC first approached them about doing a special on their unique family that turned into two specials and eventually a TV show. The show will begin its fifth season this summer and now we fast forward to their issues.
For the past five years, we've heard accusations about Kate's quirks and her need to clock Jon every few minutes. Regardless of the situation, they still appear to be a semi-functional family who is just trying to make it. Granted they thrust themselves into the public spotlight with that show but who can blame them for trying to make a little bit of change? They got eight kids to feed.
They have their issues right now with their relationship. Kate is claiming infidelity on Jon's part and he on hers. But the bottom line is people deal with these issues everyday - off camera. Why can't we give him the same luxury?
I think Michael Jackson said it best.

It's my birthday, my b-b-b-birthday!

Well, well, well, exactly 27 years ago today the world was blessed with my presence. I am so happy to be blessed with another year of life. Life is good. I tell ya'll, 27 never felt so good. Well, I feel good, IDK about ya'll.

I'm looking forward to this new year. I'm following Rev Run on Twitter and he Tweeted something yesterday that will become my mantra for my new year: "Man should never be a victim of his moods, a slave of his feelings, his food or THE WEATHER! MAKE a happy day! Tell ur feelings how to feel!"
I like it. Hell, I love it! Now if I could just put this into practice.

My name is Smarty Jones ...

... and I'm a girl.
No, it has not taken me nearly all my 27 years to figure that out, but it just kinda sorta showed itself in the worst way earlier this week.
First, lemme give you a little bit of background about ya girl. I am the last of four kids. The baby always bears the brunt of their siblings problems, I don't know why, we just do. In theory, we are supposed to be able to run to our parents and cry and point and wait for someone to catch a beat down. It didn't go that way in my house.
If I ran crying to my parents about something one of my siblings did, their response was, "so what are you gonna do about it?" This taught me two things: 1. Don't go crying to your parents for a problem you can fix and 2. Crying doesn't solve a damn thing! Maybe that's harsh, but that's what I got out of it.
Add to that the fact that I am the opposite of what one might call a "girly" girl. I played varsity volleyball, basketball and was on the track team. I was in JROTC. I have always hated dressing up. I still can't walk in heels. I NEVER wear make-up. And I only cry when someone dies or is near death and NEVER in front of people unless it's at a funeral.
Think of me as Sweet Pea in this clip. Well maybe not that extreme, but you get the point.
With that logic, experience and attitude, a girl learns to either suppress her feelings, go numb or fool herself into believing they don't exist. I'm very good at the last two. So much so that I don't trust anybody any further than I can throw them. And, I shoulda been a brick mason for the expert way I construct walls around my heart.
So I've been going through with this dude I got "feelings" for that I'm not ready to admit I have. I've always known how I feel, it's just never been this intense. Anyway, we ended up in a restaurant together recently where we had a "flirty" waitress. My first instinct is to call that heffa a ho, but I won't stoop so low.
This chick was blatantly flirting with this dude right in front of me. I mean to the point of leaning in to take his drink order with her titties in his face. Under normal circumstances, we both would have found this funny because she's sooooo NOT his type. We were NOT in Hooters and small Breastuses were not on the menu.
Everyone sitting in our section was constantly calling her to get stuff they needed. We didn't have to because she was always at our damn table. Long story short, I ended up having a sucky night because of this tramp and what it boils down to is I don't know if I was jealous or if I was feeling disrespected. Either way, this is NOT the kid.
Usually, I'm too cool for school and I let everything roll off me like water on a duck's back, but that ain't happen that night. IDK what my issue was, but I was pissed. I mean, I was really feeling some kinda way and I don't like it!
I have spent the majority of my (almost) 27 years building walls and trying not to feel anything and here he comes tearing 'em down and making me have - feelings. Ewwwww. I feel like a girl now.

Is it real?!

Right now, I'm reading a book right now, called "Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties." As you can guess from that long a-- title, the book is all about the -ish you go through in your 20s and I want to hear from my older blog brothers and sisters if you think it's true. Shoo, I do. I'll tell you why.
I've got exactly 19 days before I hit 27. I'm looking forward to it actually. I'm hoping life gets better in my 30s. Don't get me wrong, I'm good right now, I really am, but it's been an uphill battle tryna get here. Dude, my 20s thus far have been the opposite of paradise, OK?
Check it, I graduated from college early right? So I jumped into the full-time working world, feet first at the tender age of 21. Secured an internship that turned into a job that was a 12-hour drive away from home and an 8-hour drive to my closest relative. I'm the baby of my immediate family with a lot of cousins my age.
The two years I lived there, I endured some of the craziest events I've ever seen in my young life. I was diagnosed with Panic Anxiety Disorder and took meds that had me thinking about some wild -ish! Like that wasn't bad enough, I spent six of those months drunk five out of seven days, withdrew from the world even more.
Lemme tell you, anti-anxiety meds and alcohol does not mix! That -ish had me contemplating ending it all. It really did. Thankfully, I decided against it because I thought that would be selfish to my family and besides, suicide would have taken away from my fabulousness and I can't have that! Needless to say, I took myself off the meds and I stopped drinking. That mess was scary!
OK, so, I had to quit that job because it almost drove me crazy and I couldn't take being that far away from my family all the time like that. I moved back home to my dad's house and took a job at a big box store that has a big red 'K' in the front. That started the craziest nine months of my life.
After Christmas, I left that store and went to work with kids and young adults with behavior and mental problems and selling furniture part time. Yes, Smarty worked with bad a-- kids and people who wanted to buy furniture.
I think I sold a set of mattresses and a bedroom suite while I worked at that furniture store. But while I was working with those kids, I took a couple of kicks to the shin, a couple of pushes and a few punches to the gut - while I had cramps! I almost caught a case for that one! After that, I came back to journalism. I had to. The idea of getting arrested, going to jail and having to be Big Bertha's wife just didn't appeal to me.
My entry back into journalism wasn't exactly grand. I took a job in one of the most unlikely places. I was only there for six weeks and that led to my job now. That's a lot of five years, huh? *LoL*
Even with all of this craziness, all of these changes I'm still grateful for it all. It's all played a part in who I've become. It's helped me, I think, to make better decisions about all the issues that arise being an upwardly mobile woman of the 21st Century. But please God, and ya'll too, tell me it gets better.
Tell me that trivial crap will stop mattering so much and I'll learn to take trials in stride as they come without completely spazing out! I swear, my 30s are a couple years off, but OMG, please, tell me I've got something better to look forward to. Tell the truth, hell, lie to me, just tell me it gets better.
The Quarterlife Crisis is really kicking my butt! I'm sick of it all ready. I'm tapping out! No mas! Twenties, you win!