At the King Center in Atlanta, GA – 2004

I am not going to say a whole lot today. This is because there is just so much to say. If I began to run off at the mouth & pontificate now, it would certainly become like a sermon. I feel as though I should leave those to the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. himself. All the topics I could broach today (or any day) are stalwart convictions of mine that I feel SO strongly about that it could very likely become much too personal, preachy, & not succinct enough to be an article for this blog. I don’t want to get on my soapbox here — the playground of ravin’ perkiness. I can write some pretty assiduously forceful declarations when I am impassioned, but What’s Ravin’, Maven? is not a project I designed for that. Thereupon, today I will just share what I know about this revolutionary man who has been my hero — my professor of life, my like-minded kindred soul, my muse — and try my best to honor him on this very important day in which is dedicated to his mark on *our* world.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was actually born Michael Luther King, Jr., on January 15, 1929. If I remember correctly, he legally changed his name to Martin. Following in his grandfather & father’s footsteps, he was the co-pastor to his father at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, but I have skipped ahead of myself… Before that, MLK Jr. graduated from a segregated high school when he was 15 years old. After that, he got a B. A. at Morehouse College, which was a “Negro” college, also in Atlanta. From there he attended 3 years at Crozer Theological Seminary (Pennsylvania) and studied theology, of course. One of his first triumphs & clues, into his future in civil rights, was that he was elected president of his senior class at Cozner, which mostly consisted of white students. Where our country was with segregation at that time, this was a ridiculously admirable & powerful feat. He went on to win a fellowship there, and then headed off to Boston University. At Boston University he completed a residency and got his doctorate. This is when & where [in Boston] he met Coretta. He went on to marry Miss Scott, making her Coretta Scott King. #love Together they had 4 children — 2 daughters & 2 sons: Bernice, Yolanda, Dexter Scott, & Martin Luther King III.
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Live, LOVE, Laugh, Dream by Brighton

After I posted yesterday’s blog about our time in NYC, my sista from another mutha, DEElicious, brought up the perfume I was wearing when I met up with her for brunch (and later that summer I spent time with her and our other bizzle, Hen, in Cape Hatteras)… After I left DEElicious, both times, she could not stop talking about how I smelled so good. Thank heavens it was that I smelled good! Phew! I wish I could take credit for it, but I can’t — Live, LOVE, Laugh, Dream by Brighton gets all the acclaim & honor. Although, DH tells me ALL of the time how he loves my “personal scent” more than all my perfumes on the tray. In fact, this is how I know it’s true love… He even loves my “personal scent” after we’ve been outside for hours on end in the dead of summer, or I am not feeling well and have not showered for 48 hours. He says, “I love Caveman Angelika smell. You have amazing pheromones.” Yep, that’s just how I like my men — delusional, primal, & easily pleased. ::snort:: Anyway, when I said goodbye to the gals at the Outer Banks, my phone fell out of my beach bag and I ended up leaving it at the Big Blue House, where they were staying (DH & I stayed at the Cape Hatteras B&B, which I can’t say enough splashy & splendid things about!) I had to have one of the lovely ladies mail it back to me. When they found it, they told me, “It even still smells like you!” And then they threatened to go into my photo folders and look for risque bawdiness. Friendship: it ain’t for the wimpy people or the faint of heart!

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Over the summer of 2011, Darling Hotbuns (DH) and myself went on 3 vacations, each of which where FUNtastic road trip adventures. We went to 6 different states, and Good Lord Byron only knows how many cities (the Mini Maven was visiting her Nana in Florida)! We went to Hershey & Kennett Square (Pennsylvania), Burlington (Vermont), Boston (Massachusetts), Cape Hatteras (North Carolina), Indianapolis & Clinton (Indiana), AND NYC!!! I, hopeless fashion victim, Angelika Frangelico, had never been to the Big Apple! I do declare, that is one of the most nonsensical things I’ve ever seen myself type! (<– That’s pretty harebrained in itself, considering this is MOI we’re talking about.) Going to New York was on my bucket list, so DH  made sure I got to scribble that one out on our first road travels together. If I kick the bucket tomorrow, I at least kicked that bucket over, emptying out whatever lame stuff was in there, and filled it up with museums, cabs, Michelin restaurants, off Broadway shows, carriages, pigeons, Central Park, and faaabulous shoes! I’d now be able to say, “Au revoir, Manhattan, it was nice knowing you!”

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L <3 V E!

Yepsers, you definitely read that right — my new, funky handbag IS foxy indeed! Imagine my shock, surprise, & satisfaction when I opened up a box and saw this with my name on it! (<– See to your left! Yes, that’s your left. Your pointer finger & thumb make an “L”. Helps me remember, too. ::snort::)

Let me formerly introduce you…
Ravin’ Mavens, meet Foxy Brown’s Sista! I’d have Foxy Brown’s Sista meet you, too, but you’re not getting her — she’s MINE! Allllllll mine. (However, I believe you can still purchase Foxy Brown! “That’s my sister, baby, and she’s a whole lotta woman.” – Foxy Brown)

One of the ginchy things about this Mama Maven gig is that I get goodies! This is my very *first* product review & endorsement to be featured on What’s Ravin’, Maven?, and HOT TODDY, I made out like Belle Starr the Bandit Queen! ::thud::

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I found these — what would seem to us now — unconventional, vintage advertisements, and I tucked them away to share with all you Ravin’ Mavens at a later date. I wasn’t entirely sure what I was going to do with them, but I figured I would post them on the What’s Ravin’, Maven? Facebook fanpage, at some point, with some jocular, tongue-and-cheek commentary. Yet, yesterday a whole different idea introduced itself to me, and WHA-LA (!), I suddenly knew what purpose they had and how I would apply them.

I’ve made it known that this website is merely for fun — there will be nothing pivotal or radical written here on the regular (it’s a playground for perkiness!). I have another project I am launching in conjunction with this one (just waiting on the graphic designer to finish the logo), which is going to be very pertinent and sometimes cumbrous , so I want to keep this venture a boisterous adventure, selfishly. ::grin:: All the same, there’s so much negativity being spewed all over the Internet like yesterday’s barfaroni & tater tot lunch, and, of course, none of us can escape the chronic, harrowing news media. Henceforth, I wanted to bring something entirely upbeat & cheery to your blog-reading rituals & Facebook newsfeed with What’s Ravin’, Maven? We need a heavy dose of delight in our days, STAT! With that said, today I am going to bring up a topic that might not be as airy as I admitted it would always be, and the counterbalance will be a eensy-weensy bit unbalanced just this once. Okay, maybe I shouldn’t make promises, but in the future…… cross my heart & hope to buy, over my velour tracksuit-ed body!

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