My Conversation with Gayle

Okay so here's part two: I got the call and I was put on hold to speak with Gayle and I'm trying to breathe deeply to control my nerves. I was told that I would be on hold and that I would be able to hear Gayle's opening monologue and then the caller portion would come on. Gayle of course was hilarious without even trying; she talked about Paul McCartney's unfortunate situation with his upcoming divorce and a new energy drink called Enviga by Coca-Cola.
The portion about the Enviga drink was so funny because I had already heard her talking about this drink before and she had talked about how someone described the drink as something that had been strained through a shoe. Even still Gayle tried all three flavors of the drink on air. I can only tell you that the whole scene was too funny. So after the opening monologue, one of the producers come on and ask me what question I have for gale and then I am informed that I will be the first caller. The next voice I heard was from Ms. Gayle King herself in a cheerful tone say "Hello Nicole". I told her that I loved the show and that I heard that she called her daughter "Kirby Cakes" and that I called my daughter Kakes. She sang a song on air that she used to sing to her daughter. We also talked about the Enviga drink which was funny and then my question: If someone were to read the story of your life what would be the most interesting chapter? Gayle's answer was that anything that had to do with her children would be the most interesting part of her life. She said that her business was quite fickle and that she knew what was real and that is her children. And then we said goodbye.

I listened to Gayle's show as I do everyday and lo and behold I heard myself on the radio that following Tuesday. The conversation had been cut a little but I was just blessed that I got the opportunity to speak to her at all. And guess what???

I've talked to her again!! I can't even believe how blessed I am and neither will you after my next 2 posts! So my next post will be about how I got to talk to Ms. Gayle King for the second time... Keep watching out for it.

Are They For Real!!??

During my conversation with Gayle King, she told me that there is a energy drink called "Cocaine" that is being marketing towards kids. I had not heard of this so called energy drink but today I read the following article:

"Convenience-store operator 7-Eleven Inc. is telling franchises to pull a high-caffeine drink from its shelves because of the product's name: The company acted after getting complaints from parents of teens, who are a big part of the drunk's target audience. Cocaine comes in red cans , with the name spelled out in what are meant to resemble lines of white powder. According to the label, each 8.4-fluid ounce can contains 280 milligrams of caffeine -- more jolt than a cup of coffee, a can of Coca-Cola or the leading energy drink, Red Bull -- but no cocaine. The drink is made by Redux Beverages of Las Vegas, which markets it as "The legal alternative." "We knew the name was going to be provocative," said Hannah Kirby , the company's managing partner, whose husband, James, created the drink. Kirby said the company wasn't glorifying an illegal drug in the eyes of its young consumers. "Kids understand the difference between a controlled substance and an energy drink," she said."

Are they for real? What's next Diet Crack, Liquid Mary Jane?? How crazy is it that people are allowed to do stupid things like this. Kudos to 7-11 for taking this ridiculous drink out of their stores. This just goes to show that people will do just about anything to make money without consciously thinking about others. All money isn't good money.

On The Radio With Gayle King!!

Okay folks here goes my run down on how I got to be on the Gayle King show on channel 156 XM radio! I have to admit that once I heard about the Oprah & Friends station on XM radio I was tempted to go out and get a subscription but I am so against paying for the radio that I just couldn't bring myself to do so, so lucky for me I have a great friend who already has XM radio and gave me her information to listen online. So I have been listening to the Oprah & Friends station since it's inception. My favorite show by far is the Gayle King show. For all you folks who don't know who Gayle is just from her name; Gayle is Oprah's best friend and here is a picture of her:

Okay so Gayle's show is her just talking about current events, hot topics, and just regular things that you probably talk about at work with your coworkers or with your friends, which is why I love the show. So since I love the show sooo much I decided just to send in a quick email to Gayle just to say that I listened to the show everyday and to make the comment that she and I have the same nickname for our daughters; Cakes. She calls her daughter KirbyCakes! So a couple of days after I sent in the email, I received a call from one of the producers from her show asking me if I would like to be a caller on her show! Hello! Of course I would. So I was so excited waiting for the show to call me back and when they finally did I almost jumped out of my skin. But to my disappointment I was told that Gayle was running a little late and that they would have to call me back. I said okay and just waited for them to call me back, which they did 2 more times but due to the heavy rains in New York Gayle was still running late each of the times they called me back. Around 4pm I realized that either they had tried to call me back and I missed the call or they weren't going to call me back again. I listened to the show the next day to hear Gayle telling the story of why she was late and listened to the callers who got the opportunity to speak with her fuming because I wasn't one of those callers.

So I decided to send another email to Gayle, just to tell her that although I didn't send the first email to speak to her now that I had been presented with the opportunity to do so, I had to talk to her! Well, I got another call from her producer asking me again if I still wanted to speak with Gayle but alas due to some scheduling problems on that day I didn't get to talk to Gayle again but I was told I would receive a call the next day. Since they promised me that I would receive a call on Friday morning around 10:30, I sat anxiously at my desk checking to make sure that my cell phone had service because sometimes I have a strange abyss like dead spot that causes me not to receive the incoming call but I get the voicemail. Around 11:15 I stood up to stretch my legs and heard what I knew was my missed call from the Gayle King show "you've got voicemail". I wanted to scream but since I was at work I just ran to one of our empty back offices and listened to the voicemail as my stomach sank into my shoes. "Hi, this is the Gayle King show sorry we missed you, we'll try to call you back" but I knew they wouldn't. I was getting desperate and my mind was racing on how to call them back, then I remembered that I still had the studio number stored in my phone from the numerous calls two days before, so I decided to try to call that number back. I didn't have anything to loose, so I hit redial on my phone and was greeted by "Hello, this is the Gayle King Show". Again I wanted to scream but this time I just said my name and that I was just called to be a caller on the show. The gentleman said he was so glad I called back and asked me to hold on to speak to Gayle. And on Friday, October 20 I spoke to Gayle King!!!

I'll post again and tell all about the conversation.

I Like It Alot!

Okay, so I will be posting a little later (when I have more time) about my phone conversation with Ms. Gayle King! It was very exciting and I'm so glad I was able to speak to her!
I just wanted to tell you all about my favorite lip balm "Burt's Bees". It's much better than Chapstick in my opinion and it has a great menthol tingle for your lips! Anyway I was first given some Burt's Bee's from one of my coworker who owned a nicnac store and sold the product line. She came into work one day and handed out free samples of the lip balm to a few people in the office of which I happened to be one of those lucky few. At the time I jokingly told her she was like a drug dealer giving everyone the first sample for free but if I had only known how true those words were! :0) This lip balm is quite addicting so be careful if you go out and buy some.

Here's what it looks like: I'll tell ya, if you have dry or cracked lips this is the best stuff to use. Come on you know you want to try it, come and join me in my addiction to Burt's Bee's!

Aaaah, I was just on with Gayle

Okay anyone out there who has XM radio please listen to the Gayle King show tonight at 8 on channel 156 Oprah & Friends. I will be on speaking with Gayle after her opening commentary and the first break. I am actually the first caller to speak with Gayle! I will have to make another post to tell the whole story about how I finally got the chance to talk one the phone with Ms. Gayle King!

Strange, aren't we

I was thinking the other day about how some married people complain about being married; you know the men making comments about the ole ball and chain and women saying how horrible their husbands are and how they never help around the house. I thought about how funny marriage is because no one forces us into it. Actually men come to their girlfriend bearing gifts and asking to get married. So they ask to be chained and then they complain about it. The same with women; they knew their boyfriend had all bad habits before they got married but they did it anyway. It's the same, I think with having children. If someone told you that you wouldn't sleep, that you would have to wash more clothes, wash more dishes, spend more money and not on yourself, I'm sure that you would take a pass. But if someone told you that all those things come along with an unexplainable joy that will make your heart grow 5 sizes, I'm sure you would reconsider. We elect to make the changes in our lives I believe because that is how God has created us. Although marriage is a challenge and having children is wonderful and stressful all at the same time, I think we have to have these things prewired in us to want them otherwise everyone would stay free and single!

More Philosophy

Okay so here's part two of my humans are born to be innately good post which will answer the question: If we are supposed to be so good why is there so much bad or evil in the world? Well here's my answer. I think that all of us know when we are about to or are doing something wrong. Sometimes we choose to stop and others times we continue on even though we know that we shouldn't. They key word here is choose. The choice that God gives us shows just how much He really loves us. He allows us to make the choice to kill, rape, molest, and steal among other horrible things and still He chooses to love us! Giving us choice in our own lives is the most ultimate love that God could give us. He hopes like any parent does, that we will do the right things, the good things that we KNOW in our hearts we really should do, but He loves us in spite of the horrible decisions we make at times. So bad things happen sometimes because we choose for them to happen.
Then I think there are those people who have chosen so many times to do the wrong thing, the evil thing that now that person becomes that evil and wrong thing. In "Letters from a Skeptic" the author describes it like a snowball that keeps rolling gaining more and more momentum until it can no longer stop on it's own until it crashes into something big enough to maybe slow it down. I think we as people are like this as well. The more lies you tell the more you eventually have to tell to the point where you may even start to believe your own lies. I do believe in evil just as much as I believe in good, so I know that if goodness can exude from a person so can evil. I do believe that some people are pure evil, but not because they were born that way, but because of the choices that they made along the way!

What's So Different

I made a post a while back about interracial dating and within that post I made the comment that in nature with animals there is no intermixing and therefore we as humans should follow suit. Well I recently had a talk with a good friend of mine who pointed something out to me that I hadn't really thought of or taken into consideration when I made that statement. Let me start out by saying I have a completely different view now on interracial dating all together and I will also say that my comments where wrong! Although what I am about to say may or may not change your opinion, I can truly say that I've been taken out of the Matrix on this one.
So here goes my new view point: as the human race we are all the same species. Our only real differences are from regional origins, which is pretty much why we all look different. So in Africa people needed a skin tone that would allow for heat tolerance, bodies that would allow for hard work in the sun; and so you have black people of a darker sking tone. People in Alaska have flatter faces, skinny squinty eyes, and fingers with more blood vessel that allow the native people to be outside in freezing temperature without getting frost bite. Okay so I say all of that to say this; we really are all the same with just a few slight changes because of where God originally put us on this planet. So looking at my example of how animals stick within their species which is true, but specifically looking at dogs and how they mix within their own to make new breeds kind of sheds a new light on my thoughts. So a German Shepard may mate with a great Dane to create a new type of dog but it's still a dog. And to even prove that intermixing is a good thing, mixed breeds (of all kinds and species; dogs or humans) usually live longer because during the mixing of the two dogs the new product takes the best of both sides. This is the same with humans which I believe is why we live longer lives now.
We are all humans with no real differences that those that have been specifically pointed out to us. Really when you look at why racism is such a problem it is because of those who have (rich) trying to separate themselves from those who have not (poor). Race really isn't the big problem that we have all been made to believe but it's really about control and another way to divide us from becoming one as a people.

What Do You Think??

I have a new theory or actually I guess I've learned something new that I know to be true. My new theory is that we as humans are supposed to be good. I think we are all born inatly good, or in other words we are born with with a goodness programmed into our systems. I know this to be true now because as I think about it we all know and feel bad about doing bad things. We all have the ill feeling when we are headed in a direction that is negative. If you think about it, why are we all repulsed and sadend when people are killed? Do we feel that murder is bad just because you could possibly go to jail for doing so? No! We all know in our souls that killing is not a good thing to do. We all are born good and we learn bad things. You may ask, well Nicole, if we are all born good with the knowledge and understanding of what is bad, then why do people do bad things?

Well I've got an answer for that but I'll post that tomorrow!

See ya tomorrow

I know I haven't posted since Thursday..I think. I will definatly be posting tomorrow. I've got a few questions to ask and few of my thoughts to share. So I'll see ya tomorrow.

What would you do (part 2)

Another question that I heard on the radio: What high powered position would you like to have if you could do any job for just a week? Again I thought another interesting question. I'll tell ya, I'd like to have Oprah's job for a week. To see the inner workings and the background of what it takes to make a television show become what we see as an hour show. I'd like to see how much work she actually does during one week. Is she completely swamped all day long in meetings and making decisions or does she have numerous people under her who help her make decision and then she just signs off? Also Oprah has a magazine that she owns but that she is also involved heavily in. Where does she get all the time to do everything? I think a week would be exhausting but also pretty great because as we all know as the Billion Dollar woman Oprah can also pay to relax in great ways!

What would you do

I was listening to the radio this morning and interesting topic was brought up: If you knew what you know now, would you marry your spouse all over again? I thought this was very though provoking because people always like to look back on situations and I wish I could change this or that. I can actually say in a split second that with all the ups and downs that I would marry my husband all over again. What about you? If you had all of the current knowledge of the person you are with right now would you still make the decision?

The Right Way

Have you ever been at a crossroads in your life? You know where you had to make a decision of going left or right, saying yes or no, leaving or staying, or even finding a new job or staying with your current one. At these times it becomes so hard to know which decision to make or which will have the best outcome for you. Many of us battle within ourselves to make the easy choice, the choice that will cause us the least amount of discomfort. Someone once told me "to make a difference is to inconvenience yourself." And truly I know most of the time we chose not to fight or inconvenience ourselves. God give us all free will and through that free will we make decisions that shape our lives. The hard thing about free will is that you never know if you've chosen the right way. In times of tribulation I find it's best to sit back and be quiet for a while and try to allow God's voice lead you the right way. He knows better than all and he is the creator of your big picture.

Education

Knowledge is power. This is something that slavemasters knew oh so well. Most slaves were forbidden to learn the alphabet or to learn to read or write. If a slave was found with a book they actually could be killed. Can you imagine that? I love to read and collect books but I could have been killed for that passion if I was a slave. Something so small to us now was something that our ancestors fought and died for. The slavemasters knew that if slaves were taught to read and write that they would be very dangerous because then questions would arise. Questions that the slavemasters did not want to hear nor did they want to answer. Keeping the slaves ignorant was an intricate part of keeping the slaves content in the bleak existence.
In my opinion this same mentality is still very much alive today. A friend of mine asked me the following "Hey Nikki I got a question for you. What does an education do for you? I was asked this question by a member of my church. He is our age, without a GED or any will to get one. He feels that his life if lead by God. And he will be taken care of through miracles from God. I have to say that this thought process really challenged me." I know that God is leading my life and that through prayer all things in my life can be changed but I also know that God doesn't want to see me just sit and do nothing while I wait to see him move. How unrealistic is it for someone to think that God will come and change everything for you when you aren't even willing to make the first step? If you were stuck in a dark room and you sat still and prayed to God to help you out of your dark situation and God said to you turn on the light, but instead of moving around trying to feel your way to a light switch, you just sat there still waiting for God to give you some light. God gave us a brain and the ability to learn as a gift and if not used God will take back his gifts! Education is the ultimate equalizer, it is something that no one can ever take away from you. So Billy, my answer for the member of your church is this: God blesses those who are willing to be obedient and move when he says so. Being ignorant by choice is turning his back on the gifts that God has given him; the same gifts that slaves died to further. Knowledge is true power and it sounds like the member of your church is choosing to be powerless. I'ma pray for that brother!

A Break

I think everyone should be able to take a break. You know when you are so tired that you just don't want to do anything. When you feel like that and you can't take a vacation, or take a break from what you are doing then it really make you feel bitter. As people we need to take time to refuel. You're break or vacation could be going into a room in your house alone away from everyone listening to music or flying to lay on the beach in Hawaii. I haven't made it to Hawaii yet but I hope to one day.

Half Full or Half Empty

Are you the type of person that when things are going good and your life seems great that then you can tell others how blessed your are and the wonders of God, but when trials enter in you find it much harder to keep praising him? I'm listening to Byron Cage "I will Bless the Lord" right now, and it's my third time in a row of hearing it. A lot of us find it easy to sing and bless the Lord when things are good in our lives, but this song that I'm listening to right now says that I will bless the Lord at ALL times, even when I'm lost and my strength seems gone. If we could all look at our stormy times as lessons from God instead of some kind of punishment, then I know we would all be able to reach the potential that God really has set for us. The only thing that holds us back from being great, is us. Our own minds keep us trapped. Bless the Lord at all times because He has done great things for you. Remember the times that you fell down, remember when you got a speeding ticket, remember when something you tried at something that didn't work out as planned. That speeding ticket could have kept you out of a fatal accident, when you fell down God just let you know how strong you really were when you were able to get back up, and always remember that when you've failed at something once you now have secret to make it work when you go back to try again. How do you view your big picture; is it half full or empty.

Modern Day Miracles

When I think of miracles I think of Jesus turning water into wine, healing the blind, and feeding thousands with one loaf of bread and a few fish. Most of us are still looking for those types of miracles to occur now to help insure our faith but when we really experience miracles today we brush them off as something ordinary. I know I witness a miracle today. My 6 year old nephew was hit by a car today, flown by helicopter to a hospital and when I went to go visit him in the emergency room he didn't have any broken bones or bruises. There are people hit by cars going only 5 or 10 miles an hour who suffer major damage to their bodies. I will not ignore the wonders of the Lord working. I know people choose to overlook the great things that God does everyday but I am choosing not to be one of them. Have you experienced or seen a miracle lately? Even the little things: have you found $1 in your pocket when you really needed one, ever had someone hold a door for you when you had your hands full? Tell me about your miracles, because they happen everyday but sometimes we are just too busy to notice or we just write them off as something ordinary. God is anything but ordinary.

God's Gifts

When ever we receive a blessing whether it's a new car, a new job, a raise, or even a child it's a gift from God. That gift is given to us to enjoy for the as long as God allows us to. The hard thing to deal with is when seemingly out of nowhere, God takes away your blessing. You lost that new job, you had an accident with that brand new car of yours, or even when He takes away your child. How do we as humans deal with the strong emotions that come along with loss? Many times we are so grief stricken that we blame God or even seek out answers to why something so horrible has happened to us. Often we ask Why? Why me?; why take this from me? I don't really consolable answers to those question but I do have the answer that I believe most Christians would give: Why not you? God never makes mistakes. I know neither of those answers help ease the physical ache in your heart that you can feel when you incur a loss but isn't that what faith is all about. Being able to praise God even when.... even when bad things are happening, even when things aren't going your way, even when...
I'd like to ask everyone who reads this entry to please pray for my friend Joan Frank who has just lost her 9 yr daughter, Jeanna. I have no idea what that kind of loss feels like but I know that I would want someone to pray my strength in a time such as hers. Please pray with me.

Never Satisfied

On my ride into work this morning, I listened to the Steve Harvey Morning show. During his first half hour Steve always starts the show off with a prayer and an inspirational thought for the day before he (as he puts it) gets completely ignorant. Today he said something that really made me think. He started off by giving thanks to God for waking him up this morning and promising that he would try to fulfill some purpose for the day. He said God doesn't just wake us up to go through our days thinking just let me make it through, but He really wants us to try to find some purpose for the day. Then Steve went real deep on me and said: to move ahead and allow God to allow bigger and better blessing to occur in your life you must first be pleased and satisfied with the ones that he has already supplied you with. Meaning if you want a bigger house, first be happy and pleased with the fact that you already have a roof over your head that God has already provided for you. Why would God want to bless you further if you can't even thank Him for the blessing he already gave you? Steve's example was that of a boat. He said if he had a little boat and was never grateful for it but he wanted a bigger boat why would anyone want to bless him if they always heard him talking bad about the boat he already had. God wants to bless us beyond our own beliefs but we must first have faith that He can and will do that for us and then we also need to be thankful for the blessing we already have while we wait for other blessings. Sometimes we need to be satisfied with what we have. That's not to say you don't strive for more but appreciate what you have because you didn't have to get it. Remember God already knows what your big picture looks like but if you can't realize the beauty of what you can already see why would He give you something even more beautiful to look at?

Vote Or Die!

That's Puffy's slogan not mine but I like it! I meant to post this early so that I could say "Hey get out there and vote" but since it's a little late for that I guess this post is just "Hey, I hope you got out there and voted!" I did! And if you didn't then don't complain when schools are over crowded and your kids have books from 1881! If you aren't part of the solution then you are part of the problem.