That crazy daddy of mine called. I love him because he is my daddy but, I promise you, he is absolutely nuts. For those of you that don’t know the story, my daddy is a deadbeat but I love him. The End.

He called me a couple of days ago talking about the good ole days. The good ole days consisted of him taking me to the carnival when I was 2. And that’s as far as his memory goes of he and I spending father/daughter time. He still had an afro and bell bottoms. I was still wearing pull ups and probably had 2 teeth.

My daddy is so stuck in the past that it isn’t even funny. I think he still might even have an 8 track player. And his old school self pushes my buttons. I love my father but I can't stand to be around someone who doesn’t look forward. I’m not mad at my dad for being a deadbeat. He wasn’t equipped to be a father at the time and perhaps he probably still isn’t but I'm not going to let him continually talk about the 1981 State Fair.

He likes to have these pity parties for himself but I uninvite myself. Then this particular call started to get weirder and weirder. Finally, I asked him, "are you drunk?" That fool sighed and said, "well yeah, I have been drinking." Damn, so that's where my back child support is going. He went on to say how he really needs me in his life because I turned out to be a wonderful person and I am so encouraging. Yada, yada, yada. But what about what I need, father? What do you have to offer me? It's a very sad thing to have to raise a parent. I felt the need to share this because I know that I am not the only young lady who had a father who found everything else appealing besides parenting. It's okay girls (and boys). You aren't alone.

In 2008, we aren't going to let anyone usurp our energy. We played that game. We got the t-shirt and bumper sticker. Be it family, friend or foe, don't let them bring you down. So many folks look to other folks to figure their lives out when the truth of the matter is that everything that we need to sustain us is within. Let these folks have their own pity party 'cause you and I have some living out loud (LOL) to do!!

"We are each responsible for our own life - no other person is or even can be."~Oprah Winfrey

Anyone that knows me knows that I have a fascination with airplanes. Although, I hate being a flight attendant, I absolutely love aircrafts. So color me surprised when one crashed 10 minutes from my home last week. That thing had me choked up Friday evening. I just knew all kinds of people were injured and killed because the plane crashed in one of the busiest intersections in the city. On a bustling Friday night.

I really did expect the worse and that led me to kick into flight attendant mode. I went to put on my Skechers and get to the accident site. Then I had to tell myself to sit my wacky self down somewhere. Let the real professionals handle it. What was I going to do when I got there anyway? Cry?

So I just got under my covers and started to think about my own emergency landings that I have experienced in my life. I thought about how the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, was going to have their hands full with this one. Then those three letters, FAA, seemed to minister to me in a whole different fashion.

In life, we often experience holding patterns. God has to clear up some garbage that lies before us or some garbage that lies within us so that we can receive our blessings without harm. Delay doesn’t mean denied. The FAA (Father Above All) sometimes puts you in a “holding pattern.” He has to clear out some things before he can let you loose. It’s not that He is being mean or depriving you of life’s treasures but he wants your landing to be a bit smoother. There is a reason behind His madness.

If we received things immediately after we prayed for them we wouldn’t know how to act. We can’t budget the peanuts that we make now so how in the world could we budget a financial windfall? You’ve been praying for a wife? Well why should that prayer manifest when you still lust for your ex-girlfriend? God is going to bless us as to how we are prepared for things. That means we need to get our mental, financial and physical homes in order.

So as we sit pretty and patiently, we must not grow weary in doing well. We must be content to wait. Please don’t curse out your boss or punch out the UPS man because he isn’t on time with your QVC package. Don’t do anything that may hinder your blessings. When you feel like the adversary is really nipping at your heels that’s usually a sign your blessings are right around the corner. So don’t give up, don’t give in. The FAA hasn’t forgotten about you.

By the way, no one, not one soul was killed in the plane crash. The pilot suffered a broken leg. At a busy intersection. On a bustling Friday night. Further proof that the FAA sits high but He looks low.

So my former mayor did have text with that woman.

I was always a supporter of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick-always. I was so proud that we both hailed from the same Westside Detroit neighborhood and graduated from the same university. I watched his inauguration speech in January of 2002, beaming, that a Florida A and M University grad had made good. "You Go Boy!" my spirit was shouting.

He ran for a second term and my shouting spirit was reduced to a hum. So much so that I decided not to vote. To me it became voting for the lesser of two evils. Which one is going to win? To my indifference Mayor Kilpatrick won a second time. He spoke all pretty about how things were going to change. Things did change. Foreclosures grew, violence escalated and employment skyrocketed. Oh yeah but downtown looks very nice with the new casinos, so I hear.

For me, living in Detroit was like being courted by an abusive boo. I was told it was a great time to be a Detroiter. Be proud to be from Detroit. Then I go outside and see abandoned buildings everywhere. On some streets there are literally 3 houses. The school system is in a complete shambles. The city's morale is in the toilet.

And then amid the years of rumors, all kinds of mess hit the fan. Among the most telling, these alleged text messages on a city issued device where the married mayor and his former chief of staff got all freaky with each other. That part I don't have a problem with. People have affairs everyday. The mayor put it best when he said that his transgressions are between him, his wife and God. I couldn’t agree more. For me, the problem begins when what you do causes a struggling city 9 million dollars. I have a real problem with that.

It appears that the mayor and his former chief of staff may have perjured themselves when asked about the affair. Now because of the alleged lies, he has cost the city $9 million dollars. $9 million dollars. Now let me go to my job at the airline and, say, waste away $9 million dollars in Pepsi’s. Honey, my airline would fire me so quick that my curly weave would untwirl. I spoke with my mother earlier today and she said her property tax increased. Well hell, I reckon so, she has a $9 million dollar lawsuit to help pay off.

The old saying used to be "if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere." Naw baby, that thing needs to be updated. "If you can make it in Detroit, you can make it anywhere." I love my city but it is a hard time going.

Detroiters work hard for their money and they deserve honest leadership. Guess it’s hard to pull that off when you’ve got your hand in the city’s cookie jar…and your former chief of staff’s cookie jar, too.