I Feel For You

I Feel For You - Chaka Khan (originally sung by Prince)

Chaka, chaka, chaka, chaka khan
Chaka khan, chaka khan, chaka khan
Chaka khan, let me rock you
Let me rock you, chaka khan
Let me rock you, that’s all I wanna do
Chaka khan, let me rock you
Let me rock you, chaka khan
Let me rock you, let me feel for you
Chaka khan let me tell you what I wanna do
Do you feel for me, the way I feel for you
Chaka khan let me tell you what I wanna do
I wanna love you, wanna hug you, wanna squeeze you too
Let me take you in my arms
Let me fill you with my charms, chaka
’cause you know that I’m the one to keep you warm
Chaka, I’ll make you more than just a physical dream
I wanna rock you, chaka
Baby, cause you make me wanna scream

Well okay fine! Prince didn't sing the preface part in his original version. But I had to let the music aficionados know that I knew Prince was the original author.

Oh yeah, I'm back in Chicago and couldn't be happier.

I want to say thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes. I'm humbled that a lot of you took the time to do so. It warmed my aging heart, which is always a good thing..:-)

Overall I enjoyed my trip. And for the curious, no I didn't have birthday sex or any sex on this trip. I just had to get that out of the way...*LOL*. If you're still interested in my trip, read on...:-) I may get a bit long-winded but then again you all know that about me...*LOL*.

SATURDAY
Hemingway the first thing I thought of when walking through Seattle's airport was that I didn't see many black faces. The few that I did see were all working at the airport. It was a bit jarring.

After picking up my rental (a white 2004 Subaru Outback), I drove myself to the Red Lion hotel (though the one I stayed at was more of a motel...*LOL*). As I mentioned in a previous post, I got there a little after 1:30PM. I was told by the clerk that he couldn't check me in until 3PM, which I suppose is pretty standard. I contacted Jerome (that's my Seattle friend) and told him that I arrived. He got the hotel information and agreed to meet me there.

Jerome threw a slight hissy before we hung up when I told him I didn't have a room yet. He was all like 'let me talk to the manager' and straighten this out. I had to tell him that it wasn't a big deal. Hotels (even motel-ey ones like Red Lion) typically do the 3PM check-in rule. The clerk mentioned that there was internet access to keep me occupied (little did I know it was dial-up, at least it felt like dial-up...*LOL*) So I went online and after waiting an eternity to log on, I typed my brief Happy Birthday to me entry and gave love to no_the_game. Afterwards I got weary of waiting for pages to load, so I decided to log off. Before doing so, I wanted to clear the history. I was annoyed when I discovered the hotel didn't allow you to do so. I assume it's to keep track of what people are doing. I was just glad I didn't log into a credit card account or something. Not that I would do that in a public connection. Luckily when my paranoid ass checked to see if I was still logged into blogger after 20 minutes, I wasn't. I was worried somebody could access my blogger account and wreck havoc. Paranoid I know...:-)

Hemingway I'm rambling again. While waiting for Jerome, I noticed that a portly white male arriving before 2PM was able to get a room. I ran after Portly and asked him if that was the case. He did this whole 'yeah' thing while giving me attitude. I was like 'I was just asking. Thanks.' (My tolerance for bullshit is way too high. Hemingway.) I was all 'it's cause I'm black' when walking back to the counter. I told the clerk in a polite tone that I couldn't help but notice that Portly was given a room and it was well before 3PM. The clerk made some excuse that Portly had the room with double beds while I had the King size bed. He suggested if I wanted a room sooner, I could switch rooms & get the double beds. I went along with it.

After checking into my room, I attempted to call Jerome to find out how far he was. I got his voicemail. It then dawned on me that he didn't have a cell phone. So I wound up sitting outside of the hotel waiting for him to arrive since I had no way of letting him know what room I was in. Luckily Eugene was available and we chatted for well over an hour before Jerome finally showed up bearing a stuffed puppy and card. Both were nice gestures.

The bulk of our conversation aside from general pleasantries was his obsession with Chaka Khan. He's met her twice and even had tattoos with her likeness done on his right shoulder and back. After treating me to an early dinner/late lunch (in Tacoma) at a neighborhood black owned diner, we went to his place where he showed me his "Chaka" shrine. He showed me a couple pictures he took with Chaka and her son. Plus he has autographed magazines & albums. Then there's the giant size signed Chaka poster in his room. Then there was his autographed box of Chaka Chocolates that he has in his freezer. Also did you know that October 19th (today) is Chaka Khan day in Chicago? He wanted to know what people do to celebrate it. I had to tell him I didn't even know there was a Chaka Khan day. Frankly I was "Chaka"-ed out...*LOL*.

Jerome treated me to a movie. He really wanted to see "The Gospel". Before going, there was an odd moment I noticed. Even though we were at his place, he asked if he could use my cell phone to contact his friend that he wanted to take to the movies as well. I thought he has a phone at home, why doesn't he use that? Of course, my quiet ass didn't say anything but told him okay.

So back to the movie. It's gotten a few pans, including one from fellow blogger Jamal. So what did I think? Overall I thought it was okay. The music (with the exceptions of poor Boris's lip syncing..though let's be real, nobody watches Boris for his acting...*LOL*) was very good. The plot I thought was a bit convoluted, though I did appreciate the politics that goes on in the church, since I grew up working in the church. Overall it was aiight. I'll say if you enjoy Gospel music primarily, definitely check it out as the music tends to overtake the actual story. If you like a bit of story more, I'd wait until it hits video, as getting to the real story was a challenge in itself.

After the movie, we went to a Fred Meyer's (Tacoma's version of WalMart...*LOL*) because he needed to purchase CD jackets while I needed a lithium battery for my camera. We then hung out in my room for a bit watching a boxing match on Showtime. They were replaying the rematch between Jose Castillo and Diego Corrales that took place sometime earlier. I really don't follow boxing...*LOL*. Jerome was rooting for Diego because he was "cute". But Jose wound up winning it by knocking Diego out in the 4th round. Afterwards we watched an episode of Barbershop: The Series. It was my first time seeing the series and honestly I didn't like it too much. Jerome then left for the evening & I went to get some Wendy's.

SUNDAY
I woke up around 8:30 that morning to the sound of my cell ringing. It was Eugene and we wound up small talking for about an hour. After hanging up with him, I went to the ghetto gym. Get this! They had three machines on the top of the 2nd floor hallway and called it a fitness room. None of the machines in the hallway worked. So I wound up doing some light exercising in my room.

After 30 minutes of that, I showered, got dressed, and headed towards downtown Seattle. On route there, I spoke with my older sis Tasha. We just made small talk, mostly about my birthday and what I was up to in Seattle. A friend of hers was taking her to a play so she had to go. Around that time, I found myself in the heart of downtown Seattle near the Pike Place Market. There was ample parking space so I found a spot, paid the fare, and headed down to the market.

The streets itself were a buzzing with folks. Lots of them I assume were tourists like me, checking out the different shops and wares. I myself was enticed by the smells coming from this bakery called Cinnamon Works. They specialize in Vegan pastries, including the Vegan Blueberry Muffin I ordered with a chocolate soy milk. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven when tasting it. It was the bomb. I later on had lunch at a restaurant called the Lowell. It was actually a bit pricey...$19 for a salmon Ceasar salad? I think the catch was that the salmon was fresh. It was pretty good.

Before I went to Lowell, I walked quite a bit around the city. I went inside a restaurant called Fish Club. My eyes locked with an attractive brother that was chatting with another brother and a caucasian lady, who I assumed was the hostess. I stood momentarily dazed before the "hostess" directed me to another hostess. So she sat me down and presented me a menu. Unfortunately it didn't have anything I wanted (hot, tall brother about 6'3, weighing 195 lbs..mocha...ooops, just kidding...*LOL*) so I walked out. Before leaving I locked eyes with the same brother who seemed to be chatting up a storm with the hostess. I assumed they were asking for directions somewhere or hitting on her.

After lunch at Lowell's, I walked around downtown Seattle for a bit, stopping at a Sharper Image (I always have to stop there to check out their gadgets.) So does anybody have an Ionic Breeze? Or does anyone want one so we can save a bit more money by buying two units?

Later than afternoon, I drove to the Space Needle area to check that out. It was cool going on top of the Needle and checking out the view of key landmarks from atop. I snapped a couple pictures that I know won't come out anyway. Then this guide named Patricia was telling me some history of Seattle, including a mention of Bruce Lee, who apparently is buried in Seattle. She also mentioned the tragic death of his son Brandon during the filming of the Crow. Nice conversation.

I called Jerome and asked him if he knew of a great seafood place that I could treat him too. He got excited about the prospect and actually mentioned there was a good seafood buffet at Muckleshoot Casino. Ironically my Mom asked me if I planned on going to a casino in Seattle and I told her no. The background is for the last couple birthdays I've gone to various casinos. Last year, I went to one near Chicago and the year before that, I went to Vegas. I had no plans of hitting one this year but Jerome changed all that.

While dining at Pisces Buffet, I made the discovery just how ghetto Jerome is. Some of it will probably sound petty on my part so forgive me. When we started eating the food, Jerome was groaning and squealing like he never had food so good. It would've been funny had it only been in the first couple seconds, but he kept doing it, which got me annoyed after a while. Then while we were chatting, he suddenly starting screaming off the top of his lungs towards a lady in the restaurant he recognized and then ran towards her. Needless to say, everyone around us was looking at the commotion. I was ready for my second round at the time so I got up and introduced myself briefly to the lady he shouted at. Of course, the wait staff were now focusing their attention on us, which embarrassed me further. Asking twice if we were doing okay sort of gave that away.

I came back with my food while Jerome then proceeded to sit with the lady and her girlfriend for 30 minutes while leaving me alone at the main table. I thought it was a bit rude, especially after bringing attention to our table. He eventually came back and then said he could have the staff sing 'Happy Birthday' to me. (Because he didn't draw enough attention to us?) I decided I wanted to cut the evening short, though not without playing a couple games of Keno, which I royally lost. Of course his ass won $42 playing Chaka Khan's birthday. Grrr...*LOL*. As we were walking back to the car, he told me that the girls he sat with was stuffing shrimp in their purses. He then said that they enlisted his help in getting some. That was way too ghetto for me. I'm just glad we didn't get stopped as we left the restaurant, though technically we didn't have the shrimp on us. After that eventful evening, I called it a night...*LOL*. It would be the last time Jerome and I hung out during the trip.

MONDAY
I spent Monday in Redmond, WA driving back and forth around Microsoft's large campus. I enjoyed getting the run around from various staff members I met in the street or in the lobby of various buildings as I asked if they gave tours. I don't know why I got that impression that they did. I wound up giving up on Microsoft for the moment and headed towards Nintendo's corporate office, which I accidentally found somehow. I entered their customer service area and was able to play a demo of their new virtual dog game. It was so cute...*LOL*. I then spoke to the nice lady at the counter who gave me all kinds of promotional shit for Nintendo, namely because I lied about having two nephews. I don't know why I did that...*LOL*. She told me that Nintendo used to give tours until they realized the competition may try to steal their secrets. She then gave me directions to Microsoft's Store, which was actually down the street from them. I thanked her for her time and headed there.

Unfortunately I learned that only company employees were allowed in the store. However, there was a nice history museum. I walked through it with mostly senior citizens and maybe a couple of college students. No souvenirs from cheap ass Microsoft...*LOL*.

I later on headed back to Muckleshoot Casino for another round at Pisces Buffet. I guess I wasn't embarrassed enough last night to resist their crab and shrimp feast, which was in full effect once again. I saw a couple of the waiters from last night but ignored them pretty much, except the one that gave me the occasional glass of water. I found out that since it was my birthday month, I could get $10 off the meal, which was really cool. I wound up only paying $9.99 as opposed to $19.99.

I then tried my hand again at Keno and lost. I never did have much luck when it comes to gambling. I clowned around on the phone with Eugene again as I left the casino. I then went back to my hotel and watched a slightly less crappy episode of Girlfriends and the always excellent Half & Half.

TUESDAY
My last day in Seattle was spent downtown. I went back to the market briefly hoping to get another blueberry muffin from Cinnamon Works. Unfortunately they had no more so I settled for a poppyseed muffin. It was good too but I definitely feened for the blueberry. I headed towards the Seattle Art Museum & did a quick one hour tour. I decided that with all the beautiful art that I perused that there was no way I'd remember everything I saw so I decided to find one painting/object that I found interesting and focus on that. I chose a controversial piece to focus on. Kara Walker's painting titled I'll Be A Monkey's Uncle. Warning...the link of the painting in question is pretty disturbing. Here it is. The painting itself is said to depict several stereotypes that are prevalent in the black community. I'll leave it to interpretation what you think the painting depicts.

So Hemingway, after that I returned my rental car and then was driven to the airport. Overall as I said, it was a fun trip. I plan on just chilling out the rest of this week.

So does anyone have any plans for Chaka Khan day? :-)

Chaka Khan - I Feel For You


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