A few years ago when I was starting the postdoc in Baltimore, I met a powerful MD/MPH named Sekai, who was studying HIV/AIDS on both the domestic and international level.  She looked familiar, but I couldn’t place it.

Her last name?  Chideya.

She had the same eyes as Farai, and was from Baltimore too (turns out her mother lives up the street from me!).  So I figured, PhD that I am, that they must be related.   And I was right!  Not only were they related, they were roommates in San Fran….where they set me out with dinner during one of my visits to the area.  Farai told me she was working on an NPR deal, and she also told me that she’d put me down because she was interested in my work.

Now how many times have you been told you were going to be put down, only to be…jacked put down?  Yes, that’s what I thought.  Me too.

So I thanked them for the lovely dinner–the Chideyas (ALL OF THEM) know how to set it out!  And didn’t think about the NPR stuff.  Too much work to do.

A few years later, this is how that story ends.  And I owe Sekai and Farai.

Which brings me to Jimi. Jimi and I go back to the Africana.com days–(shouts out to Kate Tuttle, to Gary Dauphin the money man, and to Zakia Carter!), and we’ve hollered probably once or twice when we needed information and advice.  I was interested in doing some editorials and was interested in his spin, he was interested in teaching a class and wanted mine.

Anyway, Michele Martin is doing her thing and Jimi gives me a call about an idea.  He wants to have kind of a barbership session on her show.  And wants me to be down.

Jimi and Farai probably differ on a whole lot of things.  But being people of their word ain’t one of them.  So I knew that when he put the word in, we’d be good to go.

So we taped two bits yesterday.  I’ll let you know when you can listen to them.

A shout out also goes to my wife.  One of the hardest things to do in the modern era (or any era for that matter) is to be a good spouse, parent, worker simultaneously.   I am not that good at what I make LOOT doing, much less be a good parent, and spouse as well.  The phrase “something has got to give” has a picture of me and my wife, on the cover.  We are simultaneously a picture of the model black American family (wife, husband, five children, all healthy and *relatively* sane, all educated, all possessing a love of learning and each other, and all beautiful except for the daddy), and of the stresses and strains that crack many up in a bad way.  Here I’m talking about the stresses of homeschooling, having only one income living on the east coast, and working crazy hours to get job security.

This ain’t no joke.

So an extra shout out to her.

As you were…..