Views from a BrewTown Sista (aka The Chronicles of Kayleah H. Madison)

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Ok, people. It's not my birthday yet. This coming Saturday (October 26th) will be the official day of me getting a year closer to keeling over. I will admit that I do get a little giddy and go bragging about it on facebook and/or twitter. Don't know why I do that so much! I have already been getting some well-wishers texting me about how to cope with getting older. Remember Pamela,my facebook friend? She says that yours truly "is so preoccupied with age" (her exact words), and that I am still young to do whatever you want to do in my life. This is coming from someone who has a good 10 years on me with a family and a writer herself. Go sue me! I've mentioned repeatedly that my life hasn't been as fruitful as I once dreamed about in my younger years. One blink I am a pre-teened wise-ass who spent A LOT OF TIME in front of the TV, something that routinely pissed my dad off. Few kids were in my neighborhood at that time, so I chatted to myself at lot, too...

                                         It’s nearly the middle of my favorite month, October.  This normally means two things to me: Halloween, and of course, my birthday.  I’ll still be a giddy sumbitch when it comes to getting my scare on.  It’s usually more funny when you scare somebody else than the other way around, which has rarely happened.  Last year, I got to attend a Trunk or Treat gathering at my church. This is a safer way to do your trick-or-treating around Halloween.  Kids still get to dress up as who they desire, remaining in the church parking lot so their parents can keep an eye on them. I will admit that I personally never got to do any trick-or-treating when I was a kid. In Milwaukee, trick-or-treating was done solely during the daylight hours of 1:00-4:00pm on the Sunday before Halloween. How conservative they were! But there weren’t th...

Lets's see. Since my last blog, another season of school has begun, as did football season. Summer 2013 has concluded, and Six Flags Great America is building a record-breaking wooden hybrid coaster to replace Iron Wolf for 2014. The days are getting shorter, the weather's getting cooler. Damn, it's all part of life,isn't it? This does lead to that special day in late October where I basically want to break all the rules for just one day and get wasted...on life, that is. I actually got myself dressed for last Sunday service last week. Also attended the 3rd annual Rockford Pride Walk, which raises funds for Rockford Pride Fest 2014, which I am told will be back in the downtown area for 2014. Here's proof right here, along side my friend Jenin on the left. She goes to church with me.  I had to get a pic with me and this rainbow boa on the right. i thought it was, well, divine!! The weather was nice this past Sunday;just not as many people attending this event than...

while I was typing up a blog for last Saturday night, yours truly was asked by my pal gary to roll with him in what turned out to be a day-long escapade.  This of course, meant I wasn’t going to be in church. My apologies. Gary picked me up shortly after 11am and we headed out on the highway out of Rockford. He took the scenic  route 2 along the rock river-something we would cross over a dozen times- to go to the sterling-rock falls area, which is about 55 miles se of Rockford. Since I had traveled in this area before but my first time there in about 6 or 7 years, it was like re-visiting an old friend.   In one of my previous jobs, I was a courier driver that delivered merchandise to various homes; one of those deliveries was in sterling.  Also made a few stops in neighboring rock falls (total population: about 23,000).  Both towns have wal-marts, though the sterling location was open 24-7.  Not sure if it was gary’s first visit here, though. One decad...

Why should I be nervous?  I was thinking about that after deciding to dress as Kayleah for Sunday service. The congregation at my church has seen me dolled up twice before last year, but I haven’t dressed up for church since. Even my pastor has seen me dressed up. He almost couldn’t recognize me at this year’s Pride Fest! Many of them either didn’t know what to call me or haven’t yet learned to pronounce an easy name to remember (KAY-LEE-AHH!). You’d think after all these Sundays when I have worn some type of makeup on my face they’d understand how different I am. So what if I just happened to be the church’s (as of right now) lone member of African decent who likes to express his femininity from time to time? If I tried doing this at one of the churches I attended in the past, they would basically say a bunch of prayers and such, then eventually ex-communicate me from that church. That’s what happened to me in 1998, when Kayleah was first discovered on a Tuesday night in Milw...