In the Mix with Aaliyah Miller

Tomorrow we will celebrate Thanksgiving as a nation. It's my favorite holiday of the year because it's a time when I get to reconnect with family and friends as well as begin my year-end reflection process. Despite the ups and downs I face in  life I am thankful for every day I'm granted on this earth. In today's post I'm going to share the five things I am most thankful for. My top five list of what I am thankful for this year: 1. Karim HadjSalem (the hubby). He helps keep me grounded and tries to keep me focused on my personal goals as well as our goals as husband and wife. It's an added bonus that he's a programmer and handyman! I'm a very lucky girl. 2. My family and friends. I consider my friends a part of my extended family. I have a few special shout outs. My first is to my mom. Even though I'm grown, there are so many ways that she still helps me today and I know I wouldn't be the person I am without her love and support. ...

Happy Friday everyone, We made it through another week. Yeah. I don't know about you, but Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I'm looking forward to a short week that will officially kick-off our holiday season. It's time for me to switch things up! You're going to get a flashback, just a different type of flashback video. Instead of picking a music video that I love, I decided to share one of my favorite movie scenes.This week's flashback is the final dancing scene in Dirty Dancing with Patrick Swayzee (RIP) and Jennifer Gray . Remember Johnny's line, "Nobody puts baby in the corner!" How can you not? It's classic!  When I heard Hollywood was remaking the film I was very disappointed along with many other fans of the film. If my memory serves me right, I believe there was some national outage, even if it was mostly on Facebook, lol. I felt the same about Footloose . I have yet to see either and am not sure if I ever will. I'm...

Happy Friday everyone! My bad on missing last week's flashback post. Time got away from me and when I remembered it was Saturday. Glad to be back. I'm feeling upbeat this week and thought this week's flashback video should be also be. Before the Spice Girls indoctrinated a generation of tweeners and teenage girls with marketed ideas of girl power, there was a quirky, off-beat singer whose song resonated women across the globe and made them feel empowered. If it's not fun, then it's done and it's why I've selected Cyndi Lauper's , "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" for this week's Friday Flashback. I love this song because it makes me feel good from the inside out. I can be having the worse day, but when I play this song I seem to be able to let go over my negative feelings and remind myself to take a page from Ms. Lauper's book and try to have fun. The single was Lauper's breakthrough hit, reaching #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and bec...

Documentary poster Where there is breath, there is hope. Today I was left with those words from Tonier "Neen" Cain , a trauma survivor that endured two full decades of sexual and physical assaults, homelessness, mental abuse and many other ills that come with being a part of our broken, social, mental health and criminal justice systems. She was the keynote speaker at Clifford Beers Clinic's 11th Annual Builders of Hope Breakfast. Even as I write this post, her words "Where there is breath, there is hope," still resonate with me. The short but powerful phase is a personal reminder to me why I love stories and believe in the power of one person's story. I was invited to the event as a guest of a colleague and while I'm familiar with Clifford Beers and what they do, I wasn't sure what to expect from the speaker. I wasn't familiar with her story. The moment she stepped up to the podium she had a strong presence.  She captivated me, and I thi...

It's late, but I wanted to squeak in this blog post. I'm not going to let Friday past without getting my flashback video out there. I really like this feature and sharing some of my favorite videos and songs with you. I feel like I bring you into the things that help to shape my opinions and how I view the world at large. This week's Friday Flashback is Red Hot Chilli Peppers "Under the Bridge." I apologize for not sharing upbeat and happy-go-lucky video in advance, but I have to be real about why I choose this video to post. When this song came out I was in eighth grade. I loved the smooth and calming rock melody, but at the time I didn't realize the song was about heroin use. Initially, I think I connected to the message of loneliness and wanting to be taken away. A few years later and wiser I got the song's real message about heroin, aka  H, white-horse, candy, an alluring and secretive killer drug. What I know realize is that the message of lone...