Friday 26 February 2010

Lent & My Hiatus

Hello readers! I am back from my unannounced and unplanned week and a half hiatus from my lovely amazing blog. It feels like I have been gone far longer than simply a week. (Oh how I have deprived my readers!)

To catch you up on my life since last week, I actually feel like I have turned it all around. I have managed to keep myself fairly busy with schoolwork and a somewhat stable social life. I also have been going to church, though I did miss last Sunday due to an unexpected visit from brother unlucky.

As for me, do you know what time of year it is? It is lent! For all who are not Christian, this is the time when we prepare for Easter and Holy Week in which we commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus. As Catholics, we are to abstain from meat every Friday, as well as sacrifice something we love or use/do/eat too often.

Usually I give up a food item, but since I am already a starving college student, I decided to give up Facebook and Msn. This is probably why I have not updated my blog. I find that I only use my computer now for schoolwork, and the change is quite refreshing! I am not half as confined to my room as I used to be. (For those of you who are reading this in the form of a note on Facebook, no I am not cheating. I linked my blog to my Facebook and therefore the notes are posted automatically.) I realise that giving up Msn is far harder than giving up Facebook. In preparation for a harder withdrawal, I deleted the app from my Blackberry and stopped email notifications. Msn, however, still pops up every time I turn on my computer.

I feel like the next time I sign in to Facebook I am going to have 5 million notifications and 10 million friend requests, neither of which I am looking forward to.

Another habit that I picked up recently is going to the gym. I always told myself that once I get Fabian up here I would be more than willing to drive to the gym everyday. Now here I am, a month later, just getting to that. I took up spinning class which kicked my ass on the first day, but I am already beginning to master it.

Exercising, going to church, and getting good grades all make for a happy me. I cannot promise that I won't take another long hiatus from my blog, though I will try my best to update as often as possible.

I've become pretty busy, but I cannot say I mind.

Monday 15 February 2010

Home to the Yayo

I finally went home this weekend and it was much needed.

Contrary to your first assumption, no I did not go home for Valentine's Day. I do not even know what that is. I went home to celebrate the first birthday of a little princess by the name of Amelei (you will be seeing her on my super sweet 16 in a few years).

I also went home to see my family. I hadn't seen brother unlucky since last year, and I actually missed him. (I know, don't keel over in your chair. Drink some water, you'll be fine.)

The trip ended up being amazing. I brought 2 friends with me from school and only somewhat went against my new years resolution by going out on Friday night. I say somewhat because technically it was a special occasion, and I know I gave myself room for those.

My cousin and two of my friends were celebrating their birthdays and they organised a huge VIP list for all of us. My brother and his roommate did not get the chance to upset me this time around because I decided form early on that I was not going to wait on them to party. And what a free night it was. Even they ended up accidentally going through a side door, slipping past the bouncers at the VIP, and the ones in the VIP that was in the VIP. (Yes, there was a regular VIP and then what we called the V-VIP.)

My girlfriends and I also managed to get into V-VIP, but we did not do it illegally. We accidentally ended up at the entrance of what we did not know was another separate section, and before the bouncer had time to finish saying "You have to be 21. Where is your band?" someone my friend knew came with a handful of bands and just gave them to all four of us.

Needless to say, we were back and forth between the two sections for the first part of the night. We had to wish people happy birthday, show our faces, and then went back to the designated spot. My roommate from Orlando had a blast, as did my friend who never ever goes out, and of course we cannot forget about prima esposa.

All in all it was a great weekend. As usual I did not have nearly enough time to see all the people I needed to see, and with Fabian parked at my apartment he was of absolutely no help. I had a kalooki night, which almost goes without saying, but everyone who was supposed to be there never made it. Why? Well, for starters I said 10 p.m. tentatively and never got home until after 11, so those who don't know how we operate were probably waiting for us for hours. I suppose that is the reason.

So the big question is, who went home with bragging rights? No one did. Bragging rights stayed right where they should be.

My house.

Friday 5 February 2010

Better Days

I guess I wouldn't be a real girl if I never wrote a blog about girlie things like backstabbers and liars.

Well, I would stoop down to that level but I don’t think I have the energy. (Although I have all the time in the world to sleep I surely do not have enough time to talk about stupid things that don’t help put food on my table or give me an A in class.)

So to all of those who are bored enough with their lives to talk about those things and who believe that others are just as bored, I pity you. I hope one day you can find something more important to focus on.

On to more important things, I went to church last Sunday with prima esposa. (Yes, I know you haven’t heard of her in a while.) I think that was the better way to start off my week because although I have not blogged this week, it was a far better week than last.

I took my first test on Tuesday for World Political Geography and I am super confident in at least an A, possibly even a perfect score. I won’t aim for the perfect score though because that leaves too much room for disappointment. Nonetheless, a good grade can always make me feel better. If all goes as planned, I will be done with that class by March 30, and that is amazing.

I had another test on Thursday that I also did well on. I finished it so quickly that I was worried about how easy it was. I actually sat there and went over the answers a few times just to make sure I didn't rush through it. This was for my Spanish grammar class. (Oh, I never told you? I am planning on becoming a grammar freak in Spanish too. I am very excited about this.)

Two good grades made for one good week. God opened my eyes to all the things I have to be happy for. I have some of the best friends I could ever ask for and there are so many people who care about me and my well-being. My sulking days are over.

Plus, being happy feels much better.

Tuesday 2 February 2010

Empathy: When Your Heart Aches

Today I have nothing to say; my friend said it all for me...

"With sad news coming from home of all sorts of wildness it's hard to think of Jamaica as the paradise that the world knows it as. Hearing of kidnappings, the sex trafficking of 13-year-old girls, or of the lucky little girl who got away from her abductor by running through my yard and screaming is just heart-wrenching. Stories like these get to me on an emotional level and for multiple reasons I have never been able to shake those feelings easily.

I believe it was the Earthquake in Haiti that brought me to a conversation with a friend as she politely said to me "I think you might be an empath". If you are anything like me I had no idea what that really meant at first. I thought of the word "empathy" but I had never heard anybody use the term "empath" before, and then I decided to do some light research.

"Empathy is the ability to read and understand people and be in-tune with or resonate with others, voluntarily or involuntarily of one's empath capacity. Empaths have the ability to scan another's psyche for thoughts and feelings or for past, present, and future life occurrences. Many empaths are unaware of how this actually works, and have long accepted that they were sensitive to others."
*Wikipedia and 'Traits of an Empath'

There I was thinking that empathy was just a regular human emotion.

This isn't really about me though; I am probably just looking for an excuse to hide how a lot of these tragic situations really make me feel. After the crisis in Haiti during the last half of January, there was a pretty strange feeling floating around in the air. I couldn't help but let my mind try to imagine what these people in Haiti were going through and what level of hurt family members and survivors are feeling for their lost ones. I have steadily been trying to process the devastation that is taking place over there.

Yesterday when I heard about a girl who passed by the name of Patti Ann Lothian, the heavy feeling that came over me is hard to put in words. It was the build up to the horror that is now the truth that really caught me off guard. First hearing that Patti Ann was missing, possibly kidnapped, and then receiving another message I thought was alluding to her safety now that she was no longer missing but "found", only to realize that a car crash had taken her life. At first I was just disheartened at the fact that this was a tragedy but my feelings grew deeper as some of my friends expressed their feelings about the situation due to the fact that they either knew her or watched her grow up. It's hard to fight the sad feeling that overcomes you at that point.

Disaster, tragedy, and devastation affect me badly because I know that most of the time the victims never had much of a choice. Naturally, no one gets up and actually chooses death but when death makes that call you have no choice but to answer. So what does that say for life? We actually have no control over being alive; it's in the hands of some higher power. I can't help but be reminded by all these events that if I have life, health, family, and friends then in reality I already have all the wealth that this world has to offer. Every given day needs to be another day that we are thankful for because we have been given another chance to fulfill a purpose.

Aside from just giving thanks for still having life I believe we owe something to those who have passed. We owe it to these persons to give life our best shot; we owe it to them to make the best of the rest of our days. Yes we may not know all of these people but why do you and I deserve to have life more than they do? We have been given this heaven sent opportunity so we have no choice but to make something of it!

Remembering those passed and gone.. We will keep them in our prayers.."

- Alexander Day

*Yes, that is a link. Go ahead and click on it :)