For the past couple of years, I’ve sponsored a Halloween party for the kids in my neighborhood.  Well, this year the party has expanded, so now we’re having the party held at the community center.  And every year my friend Dre and I have dressed in different themes.

Last year we went with a Star Wars theme.  This year we’re going with a Matrix theme.  And my brother is even getting in on the act.  I’m going as Niobe, Dre will be Neo and my brother is going as Morpheus.

I really wish that some parents in the neighborhood would volunteer to take over one year because this is really wearing me out.  As much as I love the kids, I can’t keep doing this forever, nor am I guaranteed to keep living in this city.  But for now, I’ll play hostess again this year.

Democratic Presidential candidate, Barack Obama, made an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres Show today. And you all know how Ellen loves to dance. Not to be upstaged by Ellen, Barack showed that he had a little rhythm as well.

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My mom baked banana nut bread on Saturday. Mom always says that she can’t cook, but in reality, she can really throw down in the kitchen. So anyway, the family always looks forward to when my mom bakes banana nut bread, because it’s like once you started eating it, it’s hard to stop. It’s just that delicious.

So after she finished baking and let it cool, she invited my cousins, brother and I to partake of some. She told us, “Don’t eat that much at one time.” Now, I did warn you that it was so damn good that once you took a bite, you would want another, and another, and another. But let us not forget that bananas are fiber. So basically, the next day, you’re going to be regular, whether you wanted to be regular or not.

Well, on Sunday afternoon, my cousins, brother and I were outside playing with the younger cousins. Volleyball, tag and whatnot. And suddenly, my stomach started rumbling, so I paused a sec, then kept on playing. The next thing I knew, everybody else was experiencing rumbling sounds coming from their abdomen. I guess that running around kinda stirred up things and I said to myself, “Oh oh, this won’t be pretty.”

So imagine like 7 adults and 5 kids trying to make a mad dash to the house to occupy 3 toilets. My mom was like, “I told y’all to ease up on the banana nut bread on yesterday.” Now it’s an all out war to get to the porcelin God. Mothers against daughters, fathers against sons, brother against sister. We’re pushing and shoving. “I was here first. No I was here first.” We went through 3 cans of Lysol and a half a bottle of Febreeze. I think my colon was cleansed for the entire year.

Memo to self: No more of Mom’s banana nut bread for Nikki.

So I’m watching The View this morning and during their hot topic section, comedianne Sherri Shepherd shows a copy of the latest issue of Radar magazine. She says that she was in an airport recently and saw the magazine and got offended by the cover.

The cover has the heads of presidential candidates photoshopped onto the bodies of other people. Granted, the cover is a take on a previous Vanity Fair cover mixed with a take on Mad magazine. Now what tripped me out even more is that there are other presidential candidates inside of the magazine whose heads have also been photoshopped onto other peoples bodies, but get this………only the Democratic candidates are nude and the Republicans are wearing clothes. Ain’t that a bitch?