1000 subscribers, Quincy Olivari, and more

hey y'all! what's up?

yeah, so that happened

On October 9th, this blog hit 1,000 subscribers.

I want to sincerely thank each and every one of you who read, comment, like, restack, and show love to me on Notes. It is very affirming, and I don’t give a fuck what anyone says; knowing people dig your writing goes a long way toward keeping you inspired.

I am definitely finding my people every time I update, and my people are finding me. The levels of dope I’m feeling right now are indescribable.

Just writing about it is giving me a lift.

Anyway, let’s catch up.

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Friday night’s Laker game

I know it’s only preseason basketball, but in my mind it still counts, so the Laker loss to the Warriors Friday night was disappointing as hell!

Still, there were some good stories to come out of that game.

Quincy Olivari is one.

If “shoot your shot” were an actual person, it would be Quincy Olivari, an undrafted rookie who made his first start in an NBA game in the final preseason game for the Lakers.

Olivari put up 22 points — roughly 30% of the Lakers 74 points. The Warriors scored 132 points, but we aren’t here to discuss that.

Quincy gave a very passionate and emotional post-game interview that went viral on the internet.

Saturday, the Lakers signed him to a two-way contract which gives him the opportunity to play in up to 50 of the 82 games

Friday night was Quincy’s job interview, and he impressed everyone who watched him — not just with his skill on the court but with his passion for the game of basketball and his humility despite being the indisputable MVP of that final preseason game.

"I just want a job in the NBA," Olivari said. "Like, it's the only thing I've wanted since I was like 5 years old, and my dad always said my biggest gift is my energy. Energy can never be created or destroyed, only transferred. So I bring energy to whatever team wants me, and I bring every group up."

(ESPN)

Word up, Quincy. I hope we see you in some games this season.

Bronny James also had a good game last night. I’m wondering how much we will get to see him on the court in the coming season if at all.

"It just a great feeling to go out there and not think as much as I do and just play," Bronny James said after the game.

The 20-year-old struggled mightily in his first five preseason games, scoring eight points total on 4-for-20 shooting (0-for-7 from 3) with five turnovers.

Friday was a different story. James made his first shot less than a minute after tipoff, scoring on a cutting layup while absorbing contact at the rim. He finally connected on a 3, beating the shot clock with a 28-foot jumper from the top of the arc in the second quarter.

(ESPN)

I hope he works into his groove and doesn’t let the pressure other people are applying on him get to him too badly.

Either way it goes, he’s made NBA history.

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this has been a trying week …

I am having an ongoing “technical glitch” experience that is impacting my ability to get a lot of things done. I’m learning a very valuable lesson about storing things in the cloud and not having a permanent backup somewhere, and it’s embarrassing, aggravating, infuriating, and mentally draining — all at the same damn time.

I’ve been breathing through it, reading more, organizing (more on that later), and generally trying to stay positive, but I’d be lying if I said I haven’t been more anxious than usual as of late.

Still, I rise.

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… but it hasn’t been an entirely terrible week

Here are the good things from this week:

prepare to be sick of me with this cut and color

1. She cute

I mean, my hair still cute, bitch!

Also? I know a strapless dress, jumpsuit or romper hate to see me coming, cause baby? I’mma wear it! Pictured above is a cute capri-length jumper I found at Ross for $9.99.

1b. Remind me to write a post about shopping at Ross.

OK fuck it. Here’s the jumpsuit.

my 9.99 jumpsuit from Ross

2. I’m somebody’s auntie

Anyway, I get to see my nephew most afternoons during the week, and he is always telling me how much he loves me and how much he loves hanging out with me, and there is nothing better than being cool in the eyes of an 11-year-old.

He feels comfortable enough to speak freely around me and tell me what’s on his mind, and that is super important to me.

When I drop him off and he gets out of my car, he always turns and says to me, “Thank you, Titi. I can’t wait until our next adventure.”

I have always wanted to be his Auntie Mame. I never want to lose that bond.

3. I had some leisure time for myself to do nothing but veg out

Because I was allowing my mind to decompress in ways that didn’t make me have to think too hard, I binged the new episodes of Love Is Blind (we’ll discuss that in a separate post); watched that Netflix movie Rebel Ridge (pretty good); read the latest book in the Crenshaw Kings series (more on that later); and went through a three-day detox just to clean out.

Like I said, it wasn’t all bad.

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moving

Photo by Alicia Christin Gerald on Unsplash

I am in the midst of packing up my apartment so I can move at the end of November.

This reminds me of why I hate moving so much. I’m at the point where I’m about to pay someone to come in here and pack all this shit for me because one thing about me? I’mma pay for some convenience and peace of mind, baby.

Of course, I do still want to go through all my shit myself, so I can organize what I want to keep and what I want to get rid of.

This is where I admit that I have a two bedroom apartment, and one of those bedrooms is essentially a giant walk-in closet.

I have a lot of shit, and a lot of shit to go through, get packed, and get moved out of this apartment, and I have now 41 days to do it in.

Please pray for me and send encouragement.

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apartment hunting in Los Angeles

Photo by Aaron Sousa on Unsplash

Speaking of moving…

Apartment hunting in Los Angeles is wild as hell, yo. It is truly the ghetto out here.

These people are fucking crazy with these prices. I truly believe they are trying to price people out of this city because charging almost $3,000 a month for an apartment east of La Brea, west of Crenshaw, south of Martin Luther King, and north of Santa Rosalia should be fucking illegal.

And I know it’s these developers who came in trying to gentrify these mostly Black neighborhoods, and to an extent they have managed to do that, but the OG residents are still holding it down in the Jungle, and y’all don’t seem able to push them out, so stop trying to charge these Cheviot Hills prices. Fetch is not going to happen, Gretchen.

I have mostly been looking on the westside, where I currently live, but I’ve expanded my search and widened the area because I have a list of absolutes in an apartment, and as I said earlier, these people are tripping wanting $3000 a month for an apartment with street parking.

Please!

I have a contingency plan for in case I don’t find anything by my move-out date, but still.

Girl.

This shit is raggedy.

If you have any leads on cute apartments in the L.A. area, please let me know.

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book notes

Feelings For You is the sixth book in the Crenshaw Kings series by Shvonne Latrice.

I love me some urban fiction and urban romance, and I don’t call it a “guilty pleasure.” It’s an unapologetic pleasure if you want to know the truth.

I’ve read all the previous books in this series and enjoyed every single one of them — even the one about the oldest brother, who I cannot stand.

This book started off really slow for me, and I think it’s because where the other books all opened up with immediate action, this one had a cold open. There wasn’t anything that made me care that much about the FMC (female main character), and the MMC was mostly unknown to me because we only caught short glimpses of him in the previous books.

I was determined to finish this book, however, because I want to read the entire series, so I pressed on, and I’m glad I did.

This book was really good. Watching a man mature enough to understand how he needed to change to get the woman he wanted was so good. Shvonne Latrice definitely knows how to tell a story.

I gave it 5/5 stars on Goodreads. I highly recommend the entire series if urban fiction and urban romance are your thing.

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until next time

Until next time, here’s a picture of me modeling a hat belonging to The Cannabis Cutie — aka Thicky Ricardo — while my wifey,

Amber

, photobombs me in the back.

I’m pretty sure I’m about to make trucker hats and baseball caps a regular part of my wardrobe.

This short haircut is too cute not to.