Happy Valentine's (Love) Day!

If music plays as much of a role in your life as it does mine then please enjoy the playlist below as a token of my appreciation to you. Enjoy your day with the one you love or if that's not the case in your life then please enjoy the day enjoying all the fruits and treasures in your life.

For all you lovers out there please read this, then add the playlist below.

Follow Me On Twitter

Subscribe to Makes Me Wanna Holler

My wife and I have an occasional debate as to whether or not my daughter has asthma. Her doctor's say she has most of the symptoms of an asthmatic (as do I) and it can be triggered easily triggered by allergies or colds. This bit of info is enough for me to deny calling her an asthmatic.

The debate between my wife and I only arises when my daughter's symptoms arise as they did this week. A cough that came out of nowhere overtook her quickly the night of the Superbowl and by Monday evening she was beginning to wheeze.

I'm typically very cool under pressure. However the one thing I cannot endure is my child not being able to get a full breath of air. I get angry quickly and begin to bark. Why? Because I've had bronchitis more than once as an adult and unless you've actually felt what's it's like to not be able to bring air into your lungs, you can't relate. I can call 911, I can tell someone or write out (to conserve air) what's wrong. My daughter, nor any child for that matter cannot. And for this reason I hate cigarette smoke, cat dander and anything else that can trigger such a thing as if they were the Devil themselves. What made matters worse, is we were out of medicine and I had overlooked refilling the prescription because it's almost been a year since her last episode.

Tuesday night I didn't sleep. I sat in her room on my iPod Touch, surfing the Net and watching the rise and fall of her chest, regulating the heat and the humidifier in her room, sitting her upright if she coughed, patting her back and rocking her (as my dad did me) back to sleep when she awakened from the discomfort of it all. At sunrise I picked up her prescription, her symptoms subsided and somehow I made it through the day with no sleep, a bit of personally disappointing news and the threat of the snowstorm of life being flashed on every channel on television.

Yesterday afternoon I took her to a park in my neighborhood where, armored from head to toe looking like a pink Stormtrooper (or pink mercenary), she pelted me with little snowballs, chased her grandfather at 1 mile per hour and made snow angels, laughing through all of it the whole time. I had to literally pick her up off the ground to get her to leave.

When I dropped my daughter off at pre-school this morning, my heart swelled as it does every morning. I lose a piece of me every time I part ways with her. But I don't own her. Despite all of what I described above she is NOT my human. She is my child and what I own is the responsibility of raising her and her brother, who currently believes he is God's gift to women and football, (Update: he managed to pull up all of his grades to a modestly respectable level for his 2nd quarter of high school. Now his challenge to to continue to pull them up even higher), protecting them and teaching them as much as I can until they leave the nest.

She kissed me and walked off. I watched her dive into her classroom to play with her little friends before school officially started. Despite my heart-swell, I did as I always do, I suck it up and walk away. This is the beginning of her path, whether she remembers it or not. I have to let her walk it and discover it on her own because after all, she's here to serve her purpose, just like we are all here to serve ours.

This has been your Friday Fatherhood Inspiration from MakesMeWannaHoller.com. I hope you were inspired.

Follow Me On Twitter

Subscribe to Makes Me Wanna Holler

Ever heard the R. Kelly song, If I Could Turn Back The Hands of Time?

If you haven't you can read the lyrics here.

I wrote a book of poetry and short stories way back when. Contained on many of its pages are one lamentation after the other, forlorn, unrequited blah blah. Over the years people have told me how profound it is and how it speaks to them, or to a relationship they once had.

I was having a conversation with someone the other day about the book and it's contents. How it was compiled based on poems and short stories I wrote between the ages of 18 to 23. How if I had it to do all over again, I wouldn't. Not the book, but the experiences that served as motivation for many of the stories.

Even more, if I could travel through time now as grown-man E.Payne I'd be waiting for fresh faced E.Payne at every turn...

• When he opened the closet door in his dorm room, I'd be there to jump out to smack some sense into him.
• When he went to turn on his car to go driving off into the night to stalk a former lover, to plead at her window that she was the only one for him, the car wouldn't start because I'd arrive five minutes earlier to cut every single wire and tube under the hood.
  
• When he hatched some cockamamie scheme such as writing a script to read on the phone to that special someone who was no longer speaking to him. I'd turn the desk over and rip up the paper.
• When he got dressed in his best Willi Wear rayon ridiculousness to go to a party so he could maybe create a chance moment with the one who used to be his, I'd pop out of the underwear drawer, choke fresh-faced E.Payne out, dump a pile of VHS tapes all over him and make him stay home, keep him company and we'd watch some good movies. And then I'd go back further.
  
• In high school when fresh faced E.Payne opened his locker, I'd explode out of it and kick him up and down the hallways, throw him down a few of the iron staircases and beat him with his backpack until he begged me to stop. And when he would ask me why I was doing what I was doing I'd simply say, "You're too good to suffer the disrespect that is waiting for you in Algebra and Social Studies. You don't need to stay up nights listening to Sade, wondering why girls would rather have a bad guy who can't put a sentence together and only wants them for their bodies, to a decent fellow like you. There's nothing wrong with you. You wear glasses, that's all. Your parents are a little on the strict side but only because they love you. Don't do what I did. Don't change your outward appearance thinking people will accept you because they won't and when you realize this it's going to hurt like fire. And then you'll embrace what you knew all along, it's what's inside that counts. Don't hate yourself because you don't think anyone loves you. Love your God and love yourself and don't worry about what you can't control. Live everyday to the fullest, enjoy the little things, but stay mindful of the big picture." Then fresh-faced E.Payne, bloodied and broken, would say to me, "But aren't you me? How am I supposed to know what you know if I don't live as you did?" I would stare into my younger eyes, sigh, click my heels and disappear.

Follow Me On Twitter

Subscribe to Makes Me Wanna Holler

Before Halle,
before Salli,
before Paula (Patton),
before Alicia (Keys),
before Jill (Scott),
before Erykah (Badu),
before anyone that I could list here,

...there was Sade Adu...

and boy did I love her music and lust after her beauty. Many a teen and college age night was spent sitting in the dark listening to her music, either lamenting alone over some stupid and immature love lost or with company doing my best to make it last forever (even though I can't say I can remember any of those moments now).

If you haven't heard her very radio-compliant track and title of the album, Soldier of Love, please listen and look below.



The first time I heard this I was driving and I swerved in my car. "Was that Sade?!" I screamed to myself, gasping as all the ridiculous lust I once had for her bubbled back to the surface. Several people I know don't like the cut or haven't made up their mind about it yet. In truth, it's a bit light for those of us who hold Sade and company to a higher standard. But the music business is just that, a business, she had to get the attention of the mainstream and get into the rotation on stations such as New York City's Hot97. This is the perfect song to do it.

If the loyalists aren't ruled by unrealistic expectations, few will be disappointed with Soldier of Love, barring it's title track and interesting video.

The group, best known for their mellow, melodic hits like "By Your Side" and "No Ordinary Love," will release their first album of new material since 2000, Soldier of Love, on Feb. 9.

Among the new tunes is "Babyfather," "about how great it is to be a parent, what a great honor and privilege that is, and what a terrible thing that is to waste," frontwoman Sade Adu recently told PEOPLE. "As long as you feel good about yourself, you can be a good parent, and then it becomes an endless fruitful cycle," she says.

The somber tracks of love, unrequited, unwanted and survived featured in The Moon And The SKy, Morning Bird and Skin will quickly assure you that time has taken nothing from SADE. Like R&B crooner Maxwell, the time off should only make her return that much sweeter.

But I'd rather let you find this out for yourselves...for free!

Presenting my first giveaway for 2010 -

I'll be giving away three (3) copies of Sade's Soldier of Love CD just in time to celebrate the afterglow of a wonderful Valentine's Day.

Contest Rules:

The contest will run from Monday, February 8th to Sunday, February 21st, 2010 at 11:59pm PST. Only 3 winners will be randomly selected.


How to Enter:

• You can either tweet, blog about, or mention this contest on Facebook. Each will serve as a valid entry that you MUST mention here in the Comments Section of this post with the representative links back to your mention. There is no limit to the number of tweets, blogs or Facebook mentions you can make. Winners will be selected using Random.org. And,
  

• Leave any comment love here about Sade. That way no matter what, you have at the very least two (2) eligible entries.
  

Who Is Eligible:

You MUST be either a verified subscriber, a MakesMeWannaHoller Facebook Fan, MakesMeWannaHoller Networked Blogs Follower or a Google Friend of this blog to be eligible for this contest. No other entries will be taken into consideration. If you currently are not and want to play, then sign up and enjoy the blog, why don't you?

You must be a resident of the United States or have a valid U.S. mailing address.


Winners will be announced by the end of the week beginning Sunday, February, 21st, 2010.


Good luck!


Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post nor is E.Payne or MakesMeWannaHoller.com being compensated in any way for the above review. Though I received an advance copy of the Soldier of Love CD free of charge, there was no request for the above review nor any persuasion to make the above comments as they have been stated.

Follow Me On Twitter

Subscribe to Makes Me Wanna Holler

My wife thinks it's so unromantic that I don't go shopping with her. But when I have, this is what happens...every time, multiplied by 1000.



Sigh.

Follow Me On Twitter

Subscribe to Makes Me Wanna Holler

If you missed the Superbowl last night you missed the New Orleans Saint's historic win over the Indianapolis Colts.

You also missed this:



I'm so due a car with some real horses under the hood...

Follow Me On Twitter

Subscribe to Makes Me Wanna Holler

On February 9th, 2008 I wrote the inaugural post for this blog which at the time was entitled Manchild In The Promised Land. What was I thinking? The post was entitled Here I Go Again... I wrote about new beginnings and what to expect from me based on my previous illustrious bad luck with blogs. I smacked this ship with a bottle of cheap champagne (the bottle didn’t break) and sent it off into the sea otherwise known as the Internet. Back then I was writing for one --- myself. Back then I didn’t know if anyone was going to read, let alone care, about anything I had to say.

On Tuesday, February 9th, 2010, I will have written or produced 414 posts that have given insight to my soul and definitely my family, cracked a few jokes at my expense and hopefully created something meaningful so that anyone can visiting can say, “That’s cool,” after reading a post or two. Honestly, I never imagined it would last this long. By the grace of God it has.

Since I'll probably be getting my car serviced most of tomorrow I'd like to take the time now to declare, Happy Happy MakesMeWannaHoller.com! You done turned out good...so far.

But that’s not all.

In celebration of these 2 years, I’ve got a little contest that I hope most of you will like. Check back at 2:09 pm today for the juicy details.


Follow Me On Twitter

Subscribe to Makes Me Wanna Holler