Strange Happenings in the Life of Seyi

I’m a magnet for strange occurrences. A partial explanation is that I’m both almost always in a hurry and lost in thought, so I tend to miss things like walls or steps in front of me. Some of these strange happenings, however, can’t be explained. Slipped on a banana and gone flying, head first into someone’s butt? That was eighth grade. Walking to class in broad daylight when hot, liquidy bird poop lands on my nose? Freshman year of college. Telling people to shut-up while on my cel phone in my sleep? Done that. I even had a squirrel run up my leg sophomore year. In the grand scheme of weird occurrences in my life, the one I am about to tell you is only slightly memorable. However, you may find it amusing…

I was in Ikea with my roommate. We were looking at some cheap picture frames when we heard this loud voice say “There’s a monkey on my back, there’s a monkey on my back.” We turned toward the noise, and who did we see? None other than Iyanna from Road Rules Season 8, Semester at Sea (Other notables from the season: Veronica, Yes (yes, he was fine—tacky, I know, but I can’t help myself; he was:)) and Sean (kinda cute, but no Yes:)). She was telling her companion a story.

I don’t want to say too much about Iyanna, but I will comment that, at least on television, she was portrayed as a….well…nut job. To refresh the memories of Road Rules and Battle of the Sexes watchers, a quote from Iyanna: “All I wanted was just one of y’all---to have my back!” (That’s the only one I can think of. I also vaguely remember consistent bouts of thrashing, crying and yelling). It’s fair to say she ranks among the top five most volatile Road Rules cast members, which is no small feat considering the cast selection. (And you know MTV has hit an all-time low on the latest season of the Real World by airing the therapy sessions of an anorexic cast member with a host of emotional issues. Someone with so many personal problems should not have been cast. MTV has exploited cast members for years—that’s the essence of its reality television, but this is by far the sickest form.)

Perhaps you don’t find me running into Iyanna worth discussing; after all, she did go to Howard undergrad and likely lives around here. But at the same time, to hear some random person yelling “There’s a monkey on my back” in Ikea and turn around and it’s a crazy person from reality TV…I think that’s just enough to rank as an officially weird occurrence. I actually kind of wonder whose monkey it was, and what it was doing on her back…