Week Three and things are going GROOVY!

Well this is week 3 in Boston! And man it’s been pretty fun. This is my first week in my new place and so far so good! Well I only moved in my new place yesterday, but I must say I am totally in love with it. It’s like PERFECT for me. I live in the South End of Boston my neighborhood is pretty diverse and there is a huge statue of Harriet Tubman a few blocks from me. I live on the second story of a three story brownstone. The apartment is furnished and it totally fits my personality. My landlord is away in another city, much like me. I guess she didn’t have a younger brother who was willing to stay in her place. *lol*

It’s still a little chilly here, but actually I am getting use to the cold weather and although it’s cold for a Houstonian it’s not really that cold in the grand scheme of how cold this place can get. I’m glad I get to enjoy the spring, summer, and fall before I have to think about braving a winter here. Hopefully I will be close to completion on the project before the real winters start or at the least ready to brave the cold New England winters.

I really like where I work. It’s challenging and the people are a lot nicer than I expected. The men here are different. The black men from here are definitely different; so far the men that I seem to really hit it off with are still from the south! I went out with this one guy from Boston and his attitude was so….defeatist for lack of a better term. It seems the two Bostonian men I have talked to who were born and raised here are quick to tell me the negatives about Boston and what I won’t be able to do. The thing I find funny is that while I do know there are parts of Boston famous for the racism, its nothing like what we deal with down south. When I told one guy I was thinking of moving to South Boston he was all you don’t want to go there its racist, South Boston is where the movie The Departed took place so I knew it wasn’t JFK blacks are great territory but at the same time no one is dragging people behind trucks or hanging nooses on the high school trees there.

I once heard someone was quoting Thurogood Marshall he said that Marshall said blacks who chose to stay in the South had a stronger constitution than their Northern brothers, simply based on the hell and high water Southern blacks had and still go through as day to day living. Its kinda like training for the olympics as a track athletes, you know why track athletes train in the hottest most humid places, because if you can manage to succeed running a 100 meter dash in the sweltering heat of Houston, running that same dash in a milder less humid climate ain’t nothing. That’s kinda how I feel here, when I hear some of the complaints of racism, I mean doesn’t make it any less offensive but I definitely put it in perspective as a southerner. Like when the one guy was telling me about watching the racism here, I was like man they still dragging black men behind trucks where I’m from so somebody calling me nigger ain’t gonna break me ONE BIT. Yes there are brothers who are profiled and shot unlawfully by the police here, but I would venture to say they are far fewer who come up floating in lakes or ponds for random shyt Northern blacks take being able to do for granted.

Anyway week three has been totally AWESOME! I love my new apartment, I LOVE my new neighborhood, and I really love this public transportation the right way thing. I may never drive again!! *lol*

Talk to you guys later.

Be EZ,

OG