Relay for Life: Francine and Grandpa Pt. 2

Cont'd... July 9
If you want to know more about Francine's story, you can visit her site here.

So this was the reason for going to Relay for Life... then when I thought about it later on, I remembered that my Grandpa died of cancer too. It hurt me, to some degree, to realize that I had somehow forgotten the traumaitzing last weeks of Papa's life. After this revelation, I sat one day, determined to try to remember all that I could about him, and never forget it.

My Grandpa was a rather quiet man. The father of six children (that I knew of at that time) and the husband of Eslie Jackson, Mama. From what I can remember, he had pigeon and chicken "coobs" at the back of the house and also reared cattle on the hills of MoBay. But the memories that stand out are from the long summer we - me and Kiss - spent in MoBay with Gramma and Papa... and all our cousins.
He usually only saw us when food was around. He used to sit and peel oranges for all of us and we'd sit at his feet and eat our oranges. I can still picture him eating his orange, he'd take out his "teeth" and stuff the orange in his mouth and squeeze the juice from the orange. His defining feature was the belly he had in front of him. When we'd sit on his lap, there wouldn't be alot of space, so we'd have to keep still or risk dropping off.

Well, after a while, our trips to MoBay became less and less frequent. And we'd only see Granpa on the occassional family trip to MoBay that we grew to hate - because all three of us would have to cram in the back of the Lancer (my beloved).

Finished... Today - July 26
Then one day, Grandpa came to stay with us in Kingston. I can't remember if they knew what was wrong, i can't remember if they were hiding it from us, I can't remember how much time he would spend with us... but I remember how he looked, not like my Papa... he was losing weight, his belly was disappearing.

After some time, we found out that he had cancer of/in his intestines. He did surgery to remove it, more than one from what I can remember, but it was too late. It had spread to other organs and chemo wouldn't help him. So we were forced sit and watch him fade away. He'd be at home and have nothing to eat, and still throwing up. He had a bag at his side. He was in bed most the time. He eventually got so bad that he was brought back to the hospital.

Some days/weeks later, not sure, can't remember exactly, Grandpa died. I can remember the moment we heard he was gone, where I was, who I was with, how nonchalantly i thought daddy brought it up, how quickly Toni started to cry, and Daddy asking her why she was crying and saying he had to go.
Grandpa died of cancer when I was 12, long time ago, *rolls eyes*. Mommy and daddy would tell us to eat our fruits and vegetables or get cancer in our intestines and we'd end up like Papa. I think after Papa's funeral, I make an effort not to look on the people in caskets at funerals, so I can try to keep the memory of them healthy and alive. The last memory I have of Papa is a skinny man, with a drawn face, and he wasn't Papa's colour.

Those are the memories. Next year I'll be celebrating the life of another family member, not one that I knew well, met her once, but my aunt none the less. One of my mothers' sisters, half sister, that I met when Grandpa died. She died last month of cancer of her womb.

Eat your fruits and vege's people...

At my lowest...

Last night my father sat me down and told me the new "rules" that I would be living by, if I choose to live in his house... His house, his rules.
I have two options really, live there and be completly miserable, or move out!

I'm broke. The money I'm working here is for school... moving out isn't a viable option. So, do I opt to stay? The restrictions imposed are far more than ridiculous. He hopes, I think, that it will make me turn from the "path of destruction". But they won't. They're making me hate them more, as if that was possible.
I don't feel like I'm bein pushed out. I feel like they really think they are going to accomplish something by this, and in order for me to regain my freedom, I'll have to pretend it's working. But I cannot live under these conditions for too long. I am going to be constantly depressed, quite unlike me, and very unhappy.
But what options do I have?

Relay for Life: Francine and Grandpa

Written - Feb. 17, 2006 at 07:34 PM

It's funny what life throws at you when you feel like you can't go any lower.

Francine Dillon, a brave young lady whom I admire, died today of thymic carcinoma - look it up if you don't know. I admired her for her strength and her faith. Even though she knew that she was in a bad situation, she was strong, and the last thing I heard her say, in a whisper, was "Be strong, keep the faith, 'cause nothing happens by chance, everything happens for a reason. So keep praying for me while I pray for everybody." Faith.

The text she walked with for the latter part of her life was Luke 8:48 - And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.

Ladies and Gents, take life seriously, and live each day as if it were your last.
Love...

There you have it...

This is an excerpt from the BBC report I heard yesterday.

Asked what had caused to react so violently, Zidane said Materazzi had directed some "very hard words" at him.
"You hear them once and you try to move away. But then you hear them twice, and then a third time," said Zidane.
"I am a man and some words are harder to hear than actions. I would rather have taken a blow to the face than hear that."

He went on to say... "Do you imagine that in a World Cup final like that with just 10 minutes to go to the end of my career, I am going to do something like that because it gives me pleasure?"

WHAT WAS SAID?
BBC Radio Five Live asked a deaf lip reader to read Materazzi's words phonetically to an Italian translator:
She deciphered the insult as being "you're the son of a terrorist whore"


So there we have it Ladies and Gents. Believe what you'd like, I'll take a stand for Zidane. I don't think he was wrong. As a matter of fact, he could of done much worse. I mean, out here, a man gets shot for steppin' on another man's shoe... so I guess we can thank God that all he did was to give Materazzi an "UpperBuck".

But that isn't even the end of the story... not for me at least. After that report was aired yesterday, another followed with some clown commenting that he's actually upset that Zidane only apologized to the children who were watching. He doesn't appreciate that Zidane didn't apologize to everybody who was watching.
I'll just roll my eyes and leave that be... NO! What kinda ...beep... behaviour is that? What... him jealous that Zidane never call him name and apologize to him? *sigh* Boy... I tell you bout these people who don't have anything to bother them.
I guess World Cup finish, so the sports reporters need to find something to report on till something else, of consequence, comes up...

Anyway... bun a fire pon Materazzi!! Him too lie!
:)

Best header of the World Cup Final :D

So... tho I missed it when it happen, and when it replayed during the World Cup finals coverage on Sunday... *sigh*... I've seen the many replays and heard the many reviews on BBC. Monday morning, one of the BBC sports news correspondent, Gordon Farquhar, made a rather silly comment about the "header"... that probably cost France the match and the World Cup - debateable.

He said, "But it's going to be a bit embarrassing for Fifa - the man who got sent off in the final for a completely unacceptable foul against another player is the guy who's been chosen by journalists as the man of the tournament.
"The reason the journalists voted for Zidane was this great emotional thing - everybody knew it was his last tournament and the final was his last game of football ever - but most people were dumbfounded to see what he did on Sunday.
"If you'd asked the 2,012 journalists - who voted for him - after the game whether they wanted to change their vote, they probably would have." (You can read the rest of that article at the BBC website... my limited html knowledge not allowing me to give a link... :( )

Clown... Why would Fifa be embarassed? Didn't they follow the protocol? And in any case, the head butt that Zidane delivered to Materazzi isn't a good enough reason to deprive a perfectly eligible candidate of the post... in my eyes. He played well throughout the tournament.
Obviously, Materazzi had aggravated him for him to have to retaliate in that way. I mean, come on, Zidane has been playing football for a while now, and if he hadn't been able to take comments from players from other teams, and just keep cool, he wouldn't have gotten so far, or even be considered as the Man of the Tournament. Sure, send him off the field, but don't deprive him of the position he earned and deserved.

In today's report, one of the leads on the BBC website, it states "Zinedine Zidane will speak publicly for the first time after his controversial red card in the World Cup final, which France lost to Italy on penalties."
It also states that Materazzi denied reports that he called Zidane a "terrorist" or insulted his mother.

Materazzi: I didn't call Zidane a terrorist and certainly didn't mention his mother. I am ignorant, I don't even know what an Islamic terrorist is; my only terrorist is her (pointing to his 10-month-old daughter).
I did not bring up Zidane's mother; for me a mother is sacred.

So no Simone, according to Materazzi himself, him neva seh nuttin bout Zidane modda. But can we believe him?

I guess it will all be revealed today when Zidane speaks out... but can we believe Zidane?

Your best friend

Arrange the qualities below in order of priority, highest to lowest

The best friends in life:
Keep your secrets
Bring you soup when you're sick
Give you advice
Know laughter is the best medicine
Don't keep score
Motivate you to reach your goals

Interesting responses so far... most important quality to Seeker was Keep your secrets.
Mine - Don't keep score...
So?

Life's Questions

Written - Oct. 08, 2005 at 10:03 PM

Sometimes i feel like God just look on us and seh "Jamaica can't be helped", then cross us of his list. It just seem that we getting more and more hopeless with each passing day.....

Why it so hard for some ppl to apologize when they make a mistake? Why is it so hard for some ppl to accept apologies? Why it so easy to screw over somebody u dont know?..... Why bad things happen to good ppl?...... Why do ppl lie? Why is it so hard to fess up to mistakes made? Why is it so easy to do wrong? .... Why cost of living so high? Wat school fee goin look like next year?.....

Why it so easy for some ppl to kill? How dem can kill children? How dem sleep at nights? How long it take/ how many ppl they hav to kill b4 dem conscience stop bodda dem? ....
Why dont i feel safe/ secure wen i see police anymore? Why i get nervous wen dem flag me down and pull me over? Why dem turn a blind eye on so many things and notice all the small wrongs? Why so many police seem to be corrupted? Why so many committing more crimes than the average citizen?.........
Why cant I go one day without hearing about somebody dying in my country because of violence? Mi nuh know!!

On the foreign side...
How many more soldiers hav to die b4 Bush pull out di troops? How different wud it b if one of his relatives was over there?
Wat the terrorist groups tryin to prove by killing innocent ppl? Wat do they gain? Is which god talkin to them? Which god approves of their behaviour?

To be continued...

The Life and Times of Jubi-Lee... Super-Assistant! Part NEXT...

So, I get back to work after having a splendiferous lunch lyme at Tastee's with my pan ppl... WAH?!?!

Before I left for lunch, I had arranged informed Jan - my friend from school doing a Spanish major - of my current problem. "A wah dis u get yuhself inna? A summa job dat?" she said. She finally agreed, after laughing me to scorn, to help me give Senor costa the right information.

We got to calling Senor Acosta at around 3:00 pm. But Jan was on a cell phone, and apparently conference calls makes the static louder... much louder. Needless to say, calling Mr Acosta with Janelle on a cell phone would not be working out. But out of desperation, we called again when Jan moved from off the roadside (which means that the perceived static might have been trucks driving past her!!) to the staircase, then again when Jan steps into the ladies bathroom at her office. After that attempt, I accepted that it was pointless calling with Jan on her cell, and Jan couldn't, or didn't want to use the office phone - speaking loud in Spanish in the ppl dem office... unacceptable!

Light bulb ... Jan remembers her friend who teaches Spanish who would be able to help with my current dilemma. So after doing the happy dance, I tell Jan to call her and prep her on the job thst she'll have to do, if she agrees to do it.

3:45 Jan comes back online and gives me the contact info for her friend, Alicia Bernard. THANK GOD, cuz I was near my breaking point... stress threshold...
Give her a call and give her all the travel information for all the members of the team... because when I called Mr Acosta by myself, after I wrote Part 1, I believe I may have totally confused him, and I couldn't clarify anything for him. I was telling him everything in Spanish, and from what I could make out from him, everything was fine... in the beginning. Then he got to talking - straight downhill.

So it was Alicia's job to tell him all the infromation and clear up any misunderstandings. I sat in amazement as she got through it in a flash, wondering if Senor Acosta would ask her who gave him the information before, and then talk smack about my incompetence. From what I could make out... he didn't :)

So, that chapter finally comes to a close. Hopefully all the trips Boss will be making from here on will be to New York, or England, or Trinidad, or any damn place that has English as it's primary language... where all the taxi drivers speak ENGLISH!

What can I say though? This experience has taught me that there will be unexpected obstacles in the jobs we will hold in the future, and in order to impress the boss ( and keep these jobs) we need to have some back-up plans... like holding on to the friends that speak Spanish.
I think I may just do a Spanish course this semester. What the hey? All in the name of "I just need credits!"

Stay tuned for the next Chapter in... The Life and Times of Jubi-Lee... Super-Assistant!

The Life and Times of Jubi-Lee... Super-Assistant!

The "my job is better than your job" Mentality.

Now, working as an assistant isn't as easy a task as one would think. I should know, I've done it for the past three summers and last Christmas. The thing about it, is that you don't need much qualification because all you have to do is, do whatever it is your boss needs done. Besides, who needs a first degree to photocopy documents, send faxes, make phone calls to schedule meetings... blah blah. That's pretty much all I had to do... in the past assistant posts I've held.

This summer I'm working with the Caribbean Development Manager of JMMB, a rather cool individual... a "CoolDad" kinda character. LOL!
So, what's different about this job? In case you didn't get the hint from his title, his work takes him to different countries in the Caribbean, including those where the inhabitants don't speak English.

So the latest task that I've been appointed was to book hotels, set up meetings with organizations and arrange for pick up of all the members of the team from the airport in the Dominican Republic.
The first one I got over quickly... thank God for the internet... Looked online for the hotel and discovered that I can call a toll free number in Jamaica and book rooms for the hotel at any of it's locations all over the world. GREAT! Objective one completed.

Objective two is skipped... *rolls eyes*

Objective three however posed a problem. I had to call the taxi driver that my boss had been working with since he started goin to do business in the Dom Rep... Senor Acosta.
For those of us who don't know, Dom Rep is a Spanish speaking country. Now, since I didn't excel in Spanish in high school, and I stopped at CXC - how many years ago - I would have to dig deep in the rear compartments of my brain to sift through the little Spanish I put in permanent storage.

There I am with my little Spanish, calling a taxi driver in the Dominican Republic - the chance of him speaking English obviously slim - to secure his services for pickups from the airport.

Dial the number...listen to it ring... listen to Senor Acosta speak... understand the Buena part then get lost... ask if he speaks English... he puts me on to another person who speaks English relatively well... get through one of the reservations... moving on to the other... then she starts saying Bye. Gracias. Bye. So I'm like No, no, no, no... I'm not finished!! But it's pointless... click... the dial tone.

I relate my current dilemma to Shevz who advises me to plan my conversation and then use an online translator to figure out how to say what I need to say. Good idea.
So with the help of an online Spanish translator - AltaVist Babel Fish Translator ... thank God for the internet AGEN ... I was set to call Senor Acosta to let him know the itinerary for the other team members. I relayed information about all five members to be picked up and hung up from the call feeling very accomplished.

Days later I get an email, informing me that there will be another member going to the Dom Rep and I need to enlist Mr Acosta's assistance again... as well as make hotel reservaitons. sigh
So as before, I called and reserved Senor Acosta to pick up the new team member. No big deal.

Then just yesterday, I get an email saying that three of the team members will be goin to the Dom Rep a day earlier. *glare* So here I am, planning my conversation so I can call Senor Acosta and cancel the reservations for those three and re-reserve his services for them again... Even considering cancelling all the reservations and re-reserving for everybody again (all six members of the team)

What am I typing all this for, besides to vent? I dunno *shrug* Joke. It's just to remind you that all jobs are important in an organization. Imagine if I mess up those reservations for the pick ups? ...... That would be quite interesting actually. :D

So ... Live, Love and Work hard... really hard!

Life...

Written - Sep. 11, 2005 at 03:35 PM

Just todayI was thinking about my aim/goals for my life, and i realized that they've changed so much in the past few months. I realized how much I've grown over this past summer and i've also realized how much more confused about life i am :S

Okay, so i entered university hoping to do the Actuarial Sciences option, and as some of us know this did not go as planned. So we changed direction and went on to do Computer Science. I enjoyed it for the first year, but then after that i don't know what happened. So here we are, once again exploring the Act. Sci. option and quite a few things come to mind. For one, i'll have to spend at least another year at school part time. I'll hav to get a job to pay for school as the parental units have kindly informed that they will not be paying for another year of school. And I still can't picture myself in the working world... who can?!? Only God knows right now and hopefully it will all be revealed soon enough.


Cont'd... today - July 6

So here we are, almost one year after I first posted this. Where am I now?

So we are fully set to continue travelling the Comp Sci track. Though it will take alot of work on my part, I think I'm ready and willing to take charge of my future... thought it may seem that the parent ppl think it's kinda late to correct the mistakes I've made.

So what am I working for this year, final year... straight A's - completely attainable! We also need to be working/"frennin" up our friend down there at that place *roll eyes* for a part-time wuk! Definitely needed, since I will be paying for school.

As for the latest on the parental units... to be written soon.


NOTE... I read over and realized I refer to myslef as we alot. So just to clarify, there aren't alot of other ppl in my head. Just one! :D

Newbie in the house!

At last, a place to release all my stress... vent.
It will be interesting to see the things I put down when i get inspired/aggravated.

Well I guess I'll stop wasting space now and come back later when I have the time and brain power to put "finger to keyboard", and start doin da ppl dem work... :)