Today my sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc, was founded in 1908 on the campus of Howard University.   It is the oldest Greek-lettered organization established by African American college women.  I pledged Zeta Alpha chapter at Arizona State University in the 2nd semester of my sophomore and I think it was one of the best things that I have ever done.

Surprised that I am a sorority girl?  I was surprised myself that I wanted to pledge!  I never thought of myself as a “sorority type” because I was artsy and a bit strange, but a friend talked me into going to an information “tea” and I liked what I heard.  Truth be told, the existing members didn’t quite know what to make of me when I entered the room for my interview.  I will never forget: I wore a long black dress, black boots and a black hat.   And there they were…in their pearls and silk dresses.  I was out of place for sure!   But they took a chance on me (I think I had good recommendations) and every one of them eventually came to love my quirky style.

Pledging was rough–I’m not going to lie–but it was not physically harmful in any way.  The most challenging part was trying to do all that was required of a pledge and still study for my classes.   Honestly it is almost impossible to pledge and not have your grades slip a little and mine did; I made it up though and still graduated with honors.   From an outsider (someone who is not Greek), pledging looks stupid and senseless.  While I admit that many of the things that we were asked to do were stupid and senseless, it was all to teach us how to be “one unit” and look out for each other.  Sort of like the military.  And of course once we were in the sorority, we got our chance to mess with the new pledges.  Once my roommate was the dean of pledges and so I had special torture privileges because they came to my room everyday.   Lucky for them I was in my senior year and busy, so I didn’t demand too much, but just to be mean, my Big Sister name was “Chilly As In Ice–Not Nice”.   Ha!   I loved messing with them, but once they were in, I was as sweet as pie.  One of my pledges is a good friend to this day, so she has forgiven me.  :-)

I don’t know if I would have pledged if I had gone to another school or if my experience would have been so great somewhere else, but at ASU I have the best memories.   Having been an only child my whole life, I experienced sisterhood like I had never felt before.  I lived in the sorority dorm with my sisters and every day was so much fun.  My line sister and roommate Sondra became one of my best friends.   After graduation we never again lived in the same place and the chaos of life caused us to not even keep in touch that much, but I saw her recently and it was like old times; we sat in a restaurant for 5 hours talking non-stop.   There is a bond there created by Alpha Kappa Alpha.

I could give you a history lesson about all the community service that the sorority does or how we are dedicated to seeing women succeed in college and beyond, but for me it was all about the sisterhood.    Many of my sorors were in my wedding and one of my favorite memories of that day is when they surrounded me and sang our sorority hymn.   That song still always makes me cry.

*Dictionary Sidebar: “Soror” is what we call each other and “line sister” refers to the people who pledged with us.  Oh, and if you don’t know, “Skee-Wee” is the sound that other AKA’s make to greet each other or just let other people know that we are in the house.  It’s really high-pitched and has been known to break glass.

And talk about having fun!   We threw parties, went to other Greek parties, participated in school-wide Greek functions, took road trips to other colleges and had many late-night pajama parties.   Of course there was friction sometimes–have you ever known a group of women to not have friction?   But in the end it always came down to one thing: we were sisters.

On a road trip to a SDSU step show

At UCLA stepshow

ASU was not a very diverse school, that is to say, the black people were scarce.   And it is also one of the biggest schools in the country, an easy school to feel lost and alone in if you don’t have a crew.   I was far away from my Minnesota home and I only knew one other person on campus before coming to school; joining the sorority gave me an instant family and a place to belong.  And not just in my own sorority.   Because most of the other Black Greek Organizations were relatively small chapters like ours, all of us were one family.   Of course there was friendly rivalry, but with so few of us at the school, there was no room for dissension.

I have many, many fond memories but one of the best is when I got “kid-napped” while pledging.   It is not unusual for fraternities members to try to kidnap a pledge and for that reason pledges were never supposed to be somewhere alone.    However one night I had to study in the library and for whatever reason, I went alone.    When I was done studying I left the library and unlocked my bike to ride back to my dorm room.   Just then two members of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity (our brother fraternity) surrounded me and I had nowhere to run.   Since I was going to be in trouble anyway with my Big Sisters for being kidnapped, I figured that I might as well have fun.   I asked them to take me to Haagen-Dazs for ice cream and they did, but when we got there, they only had 7 cents between them!   They were broke!   I had to buy my own ice cream, can you believe it?  It was so ridiculous that I still have the 7 cents taped in my scrapbook.   Wait–It gets worse.  When they returned me to the library to get my bike, it had been stolen because they whisked me away right after I had unlocked it.  And they were too broke to replace it!  Eventually I shamed them into scrounging up 1/2 of the money for a new bike and good faith between our respective organizations was restored.   And yes, my line sisters and I totally got blasted for my kid-napping.  It’s funny now, but it wasn’t funny then.

Really I could go on and on with all kinds of stories.   It’s funny because many people who have met me after graduate school don’t even know I’m an AKA.  I don’t have a license plate and I rarely wear my letters.   I’m not currently active in a graduate chapter.   I do not feel the need to let people I meet know about this part of my life; more often than not it is my husband who will tell others about my sorority membership.   Yet, my sorority is something very dear to my heart.  I have fantastic memories of my college years and I know it is because of Alpha Kappa Alpha.

Thank you Alpha Kappa Alpha for having a vision more than 100 years ago of sisterhood and service.  This quirky, artsy girl will always proudly wear her pink and green.  Skeeeeeee-Weeeee!

© 2010, Funkidivagirl.com. All rights reserved. Republished only with permission.

I have the flu.

That sucks.

At least it’s not H1N1.

That’s a good thing.

Between winter break, my kids sick and now my flu, I’ve been in the house for 4 weeks.

That sucks.

But I don’t have to be anywhere else.

That’s a good thing.

I did have big plans to start a new exercise program and now I can’t.

That sucks.

Well, at least I really don’t feel like eating bad food.

That’s a good thing.

My husband has been out of town all week while I’m sick.

That sucks.

But he is working.

That’s a good thing.

Because my car is leaking coolant and needs to go in the shop.

That sucks.

So I am driving my husband’s car, since he’s out of town.

That’s a good thing.

Except his car is messy and I don’t know how to turn on the windshield wipers.

That sucks.

At least it hasn’t rained.

That’s a good thing.

But it did snow and got really icy and cold here in Atlanta.

That sucks.

However it looks like it’s warming up and the ice is melting.

That’s a good thing.

But I have the flu and I’m inside all day anyway.

That sucks. Being sick sucks.

Hey, I’m alive.

That’s a good thing.

© 2010, Funkidivagirl.com. All rights reserved. Republished only with permission.

I know it’s already the second week in January, but my kids were sick last week and out of school, so I’m only finally getting around to acknowledging the new year. So, HAPPY NEW YEAR! Have you made any New Year’s Resolutions? I haven’t and I don’t plan to, but I do like to use this time of year to reflect upon last year.  Thank God for my blog because I wouldn’t remember anything otherwise.

FUNKIDIVAGIRL HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2009:

I would say one of the biggest things that our family did in 2009 was get Chili Dawg in May, back when he was a tiny puppy. Since then he has brought so much joy (and chaos, to be truthful) into our lives. We love him to pieces.

As a family we took a couple of memorable vacations in 2009 to Disney World and Jane Fonda’s Forked Lightning Ranch in New Mexico.  Both trips were crazy fun.  I also managed a weekend get-away alone to Key Biscayne, something that I hope to do more of.

My family became food critics, by our own entitlement, and had tons of fun picking the best cupcakes in Atlanta (although, I don’t think I have eaten a cupcake since; I ate enough then for a lifetime).   My son even got local recognition as a real food critic when he ended up on the cover of Atlanta INtown.

My husband started his own social media marketing company, Everywhere.  It’s doing very well, but as everyone knows who has their own company, the hours are brutal.   2009 was a struggle in work/life balance in my house and I blogged about it; I hope that 2010 will be much better and we can find more quality time as a couple and family.

In October I attended my first blogger conference, Blogalicious, and I enjoyed it very much.  You have to understand that this is totally out of my comfort zone–networking is not my thing–so I am very proud of myself.

Not only did I get personal satisfaction out of attending Blogalicious, but contacts made there led to an invitation for me to go to Disney World for a media event.  This was probably the most exciting thing to happen to me professionally in 2009 as I felt that it validated my role as a blogger and social media influence.  And I had a ball and made new friends.  I hope that 2010 brings more opportunities like that.

Most of all in 2009 I have enjoyed connecting with you, dear readers.  From sharing Things I Like to exploring Deep Stuff, I love writing.  Thanks for reading Funkidivagirl.com and helping me to build an online community.  I hope that you stick around in 2010 and beyond; I promise that it will be a funki good time.

© 2010, Funkidivagirl.com. All rights reserved. Republished only with permission.

As my friend Darcie has so eloquently commented today on my last blog post,”tap, tap, is this thing on?”  Her funny way of saying that I have been MIA on my blog.  And she’s absolutely right…I disappeared on December 16th and just now got my house and mind cleared enough to blog again.  Christmas, while my favorite holiday, takes a lot out of me and frankly I don’t think that I have sat down long enough to blog until now.   My daughter is actually home sick, but DVR recordings of Spongebob Squarepants will keep her occupied long enough for me to write.

I know everyone is doing “happy new year” posts, but before I get to the new year I have to make sure Christmas is over and it’s still lingering in my house.  I am still finding bits and pieces of Christmas lying around the house that I’ve forgotten to put away.  The Christmas tree is still on the curb.  A few toys are still out because they haven’t found a home yet.  And the pine needle, oh the pine needles!  I’m sure that I’ll be finding pine needles until at least Easter.

Everyone in my house had a good Christmas because my kids mostly care about spending time together and we did plenty of that.  Christmas Eve was our big celebration because we traveled to my aunt’s house on Christmas Day; I cooked a big dinner and we decorated cookies and a gingerbread house like we do every year.

My favorite memory from Christmas morning was that my daughter wanted the family to open the gifts that she had made for us in sewing class–before she opened the gifts that Santa had left her.  She was more excited to give than receive!  That was really sweet and special.  My son too was excited for us to open his gifts as he went shopping all alone with his own money and was very proud of what he picked out.   He did a great job getting just the right present for everyone.  The kids got everything that they wanted for Christmas and even though we don’t normally exchange gifts, my husband surprised me with a new pair of my favorite jeans (he said since I worked my butt off making Christmas special for the family, he bought something for my butt ).

He also did something funny:  he bought me this card along with my gift.  The inside says “that would be nuts.”  When I got it I thought, um, okay, weird/inappropriate card to give your wife, but I didn’t want to seem ungrateful so I didn’t say anything and displayed it on our dresser.  A few days later my husband came to me to apologize because he finally noticed how crass the card really was.   When he picked it out, he thought it was funny because we always have squirrels in our attic wrecking havoc…he didn’t notice the, uh, enhanced anatomy on the squirrel.   My son and I had a good laugh at his mistake and my daughter kept asking, “what’s so funny?”

Something else my husband did was not so funny, but really annoying.  We had decided as a family to treat ourselves to an after-Christmas gift, a panini press.  We had seen the one we wanted in Williams-Sonoma and went to the mall specifically for that purpose, to buy the Breville Ikon Panini Press; isn’t it lovely?

However, while in the store my husband tweeted out a question about what brand of panini press to buy and he got a response from a few people to get a George Forman Grill instead.   Somehow he talked me into it.  I know; what was I thinking?  I won’t go into the arguing that ensued, but it turned out to be a big mistake and you know I let him know it!    I ended up going back to Williams-Sonoma the next day and getting the panini press that we were originally supposed to buy.  Peace was once again restored in our household and we have been making gloriously yummy paninis ever since.

Oh, but that peace was disrupted by a simple family game of Monopoly.   I knew better, I really did, than to play Monopoly with my husband.  We’re all competitive in this family, but something comes over my husband particularly when he is playing Monopoly that only can be described as manic.  He loses all sense of decorum and tries to win at all costs.  No life is spared.   I know this because no game of Monopoly that I have ever played with him has gone well or can even be described as being fun; torture is more like it.   This is how bad it gets: before we got married we played Monopoly and he was as tyrannical as he usually is, but I won that game.  Slaughtered him, is more like it.  I never wanted him to forget that defeat, so I wrote it on the top of the Monopoly box.  We have bought many new games over the years, but I cut out the box top and always transfer it to the newest game.  My son read the box top aloud before our latest game:

On May 7, 1993 Sherrelle and James played.  In the beginning James talked much “yang” and bought up all the properties except the yellow and green (he even owned Boardwalk).  However, Sherrelle had all the $ and all the railroads and utilities.  That was James’ downfall because he never passed “Go” and always land on railroads ($200 each time)!  Slowly he had to sell all of his many properties.  By this time Sherrelle had bought 3 hotels on her yellow property and the climax (and end) of the game came when James landed on a hotel property–he then owed Sherrelle $1150!  He was broke and Sherrelle won (he still owes her $680)!  Sherrelle also left the game with $5,700 in cash, property and hotels.  What a victory!  James called himself the “Monopoly King”, but who’s ruling now??  The rightful ruler, now and always, is SHERRELLE.  No matter what happens in future games, this will always go down in history as the night that Sherrelle let James know who was BOSS!!!

I don’t think my husband as ever forgotten that defeat and won’t rest until he reclaims his “Monopoly King” crown.  Needless to say, “family game night” didn’t end well….blood was shed, tears were spilled, voices were raised (okay, not blood, but the rest is true).  The game is retired to the top shelf of our laundry room and if we are smart, it will never be taken down again.  I think we will be safer playing Candyland or Hi Ho Cheerio…..maybe.

So there you have the highlights of my holiday season.  And we look so normal, don’t we?

© 2010 – 2011, Funkidivagirl.com. All rights reserved. Republished only with permission.