ON THE WAY HOME....

So last week Wednesday, my manager sent me an email asking me to do him a favour and make a quick transatlantic trip to Scotland to compete in a match meet between Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, the USA and a Commonwealth Select team made up of athletes from the varying Commonwealth countries.

I had already told him previously that I had NO intentions on competing indoors and instead would take my time and get ready for an early start to my outdoor season in March. However, Robert, my manager, and I are very good friends and since he hardly ever asks for favours and since he's done so much for me over the years, I agreed in spite of my lack of competition readiness and against my better judgment. D.O. warned me,"Don't go if you're not ready!"

Of course, I came. And of course, I wasn't ready. Up until last week I had only jumped from a 7 stride approach in practice and my full run up is 17 strides long. For those of you who don't know, that's a HUGE difference as far as speed, timing and accuracy are concerned.

Anyway, without getting into great detail, it didn't go so well. Although I finished third and the Commonwealth Select team won overall, three fouls, one jump way behind the board and two oh-so-mediocre jumps later,I only won $1000 and the distance I jumped was far less than stellar. In spite of the fact that my training has been going very well, I was not ready to compete and as they say in track in field, if you show up on the start line, there are no excuses. You are implicitly stating that you're ready, so my bad on this one. It will not happen again.

I could have joined Dave, Joel, Aub and Brooks in Malmo, Sweden for another meet but I passed. I have work to do. My flight leaves Glasgow in the morning at 9am and I get back to LA just in time to watch the Superbowl. Go Steelers!!!

COMINGS AND GOINGS

So as I mentioned in my previous post, I went to a health business convention in Las Vegas last week and it turned out to be a great event. It was a financial success, a networking success and just fun all around.

There were also some interesting speakers - Dr. Oz, from the Oprah show, Shawne Merriman from the San Diego Chargers, renowned motivational speaker Les Brown and my very own brother, Dr. John Edwards to name a few. The convention was two days long and at the end there was a huge banquet and the food was awesome. Here's a pic of me and my parents at that dinner.



I'm back in LA for just a couple of days because I'm off again tomorrow morning on another trip. I'll give you another update as soon as I can.

Oh yeah, how could I leave you without showing you a photo of my new wedges that I bought at the hotel in Vegas and wore with my dress to the dinner. Love them!!! And they're comfortable too.... Can't beat that!

PLEASE DON'T DO IT!!!

(A friend of mine sent me this and I thought it was pretty funny so I figured I'd share. Also, I'm at a business convention in Vegas and not using my laptop so I'm doing this from Blackberry. Hope the text looks ok...)


IMPORTANT MEMO FOR AFRICAN-AMERICAN FAMILIES!!!

TO: ALL BLACK PEOPLE
FROM: YOU KNOW!!
RE: NAMING YOUR  KIDS
DATE: EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY
 
Please don't start naming your daughters after the President… names such as: Obamanesha , Obamalisha, Obamarette, Obamalaya, Obamaria, Obamanette, Barakala, Barakella, Barakesha, Barakyah, etc.  or adding, La, Sha, Da or Ja, Rhi, as a prefix is not allowed. Don't start that mess! PLEASE!!


Also, you might be tempted to name your twins JaBarack and LaMichelle but DON'T DO IT!!! And please don't misspell Michelle Obama's name.  No Meshell, Mayshell, Maeshell, Muhshell or any of that mess.  

It is acceptable to name your sons Barack or even Obama but that is as far as you may go.  

YOU HAVE OFFICIALLY RECEIVED THE MEMO AND HAVE BEEN WARNED!  
 

DREAMS DO COME TRUE!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS to President Barack Obama!!!



Today is such an historic day. Not only here in the US but around the entire world. I come from a country that is predominantly black; where the Prime Ministers have been black since The Bahamas became independent in July of 1973. Yet even there, and for me, today is significant, impactful, exciting, amazing!!!

Coming on the heels of Martin Luther King Jr. day, today is a day that proves that you might kill the dreamer, but you CANNOT kill the dream! King's speech seems all the more prolific given what will transpire in just a few hours. He knew it, he believed it, he envisioned it and now it has come to pass. At 12pm Eastern time today, a black man will become the President of the United States of America.

I can't say that I thought it would happen, even a mere 10 months ago when Hillary and Barack were campaigning to become the Democratic presidential candidate. I hoped but I'm not sure I believed.

And so now that this hero, this visionary, this leader takes office, it is now time for us all to do our part. He cannot accomplish what needs to be done alone. He did it, so we must now stand up and be accountable. He did it, so we must help that child. He did it, so we must give our time. He did it, so we must come together and ensure that his achievement will not be in vain.

I'm so happy to be alive to be able to witness history being made. I am proud to be a woman of color and I, like all of you, will be glued to my television today. It's an awesome time to reassess and reevaluate and know that dreams may stall, they may falter, they may even change, but what they will not do if we persevere is, they will not die! They may not come true when we want them to but let's thank God that they do come true. Barack Obama and all the persons on whose shoulders he stands has shown us all that!!! I pray for God's blessing on him and his family.

HAVE YOU EVER.....?

...sung a solo in church , The Lord's Prayer to be exact, not all that long ago and almost passed out from nerves, lol?

...laughed so hard you peed your pants?

...had a bird crap on your head?

...had a complete stranger walk up to you in an airport, bend over and whisper in your ear, "I would lick you from head to toe!!!!" (-Insert stunned look of shock and awe!!)

...loved or missed someone so much that you cried?

...tripped on your own pant leg while crossing the street in Hollywood and fallen flat on your chest, dropping both the ice tea in your left hand and your purse in your right?

...driven a total of 24 hours from Austin,TX to San Jose, CA in one trip by yourself?

...bowled 264 in a game before? Don't hate the bowler, hate her game, lol!

...had your heart broken so badly you thought you'd never recover?

...installed your own ceiling fan?

...fallen asleep on a stranger's shoulder on a plane?

...chopped all your hair off - from past shoulder length to a couple of inches?

...sat in the 14th row at a Prince concert and swear on your life that he was singing directly to you?

...for that matter, have you ever not realized until you went to that Prince concert that you were so attracted to 5ft 3in men, who wear high heel boots, have hairy chests and have a better perm than you do?

...dated MacGyver, Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan...in your dreams?

...given someone your phone number and then 5 seconds later ask yourself, "Now why did I just do that?"

...competed as an equestrian?

...been stuck on an elevator for 2 hours with 7 Kenyans who just finished competing? All I can say is Lord have mercy!

Whose wacky life could this possibly be, lol?? Well, that would be me! I have done all of the above and it's certainly made for some interesting, funny and crazy times! Those of you who know me will probably laugh at some of the things that would only happen to Jackie!

MY ORLANDO TRIP

So I've finally made it back home! I spent the last week down in Orlando and I had a REALLY good time:) Nothing wild and crazy happened, nothing life changing but I got to spend time with some of my most favorite people and so for that reason alone, the trip was superb. I hadn't seen Brooks since he came to my Hall of Fame Induction in November and I hadn't seen Dave since he came out here to LA a little over a couple months ago. Even when you talk to and BBM someone all the time on the phone, it's not quite the same as seeing them in person and you don't realize just how much you've missed them till you see their dimples smiling back at you:)

It felt good to be back with my old training group again too and it almost felt as if I had never left. I felt like I was on a training vacation! I pretty much did nothing during the days except just relax and get ready for practice in the afternoons. I didn't even turn on my computer one time while I was gone. I hadn't been back to Orlando for several months and so it was good to see Randy and Aub and Joel and the gang and all I can say is those guys still know how to make me laugh.

We had Friday and Saturday off practice because Dave, Brooks and Randy went to North Carolina for a coaches' clinic. I wasn't sure what I would do on those couple days but as luck would have it, one of my good friends, Chris Spencer, just happened to be in Orlando for this Celebrity/Pro Baseball Charity Golf Tournament for those couple days. So on Friday afternoon, I headed over to Ginn's Reunion Resort and Golf Course and let me tell you, this place was amazing. The baseball guys know how to do it big!!!
I rode around the course with Chris' playing group and I got to drive the golf cart, which I had never done before and I had a lot of fun doing it. I felt like a little kid, lol! Later that evening there was a dinner and a comedy show and I got to meet Ken Griffey Jr., Jacques John, Eddie Murray, Dave Winfield and Bobby Bonilla to name a few and my friend Kenny Lofton was there too. It was great to sit around and listen to these guys trade old locker room stories.

Me and Ken Griffey Jr.


I spent Saturday watching football all day and on Sunday a 2pm practice time was thrown in there. I was like, "Does Brooks not know the playoffs are going on, lol?" Yeah, he could care less! Anyway, unfortunately my trip to Orlando came to an all too quick end. You know that old saying about time flying when you're having fun...well it flew and I had to bid everyone adieu yesterday. It's back out to the track for me tomorrow as I continue to get ready for either a couple indoor meets or an early start to my outdoor season. We'll see. Anyway, hope you all didn't miss me too much and really and truly it is good to be back...

TAKIN' CARE OF BUSINESS

Well the new year is still young and already I've hit the ground running. It's been a hectic couple of days. I was up in Oakland, CA yesterday at a recording studio, no not singing, LOL, but I was doing some editing and voiceovers for this motivational speech that I gave/recorded a couple years ago. A few things have changed in my life since then and so some changes had to be made. The CD will be sold at this business convention to be held later this month in Vegas for a health drink company that my brother is the doctor/medical consultant for. They sold really well last time round and it's "new and improved" and it's a completely different audience, so we're hoping that they'll do even better this year.

Additionally, a couple months ago when I gave a speech at the Stanford Olympians event that was held up there, Ted Robinson, the host that day and host of many sporting events on TV, thought that I did a pretty good job and suggested that I get in contact with his agent in New York who works with television commentators as well individuals who give speeches, whether they be motivational in nature or otherwise. So I've been in communication with that guy and am looking forward to what the possibilities might be in that regard this year.

I don't usually make New Years resolutions but this year I made two. I fulfilled one of them today, that being to get to church on time. I don't know what it is with me and church but for some reason, I can't ever seem to get there before 10:05 or 10:10am so I promised myself to do a better job of this this year because I have no good reason for being so consistently tardy. Today I was in my seat at 9:59am....still pushing it, lol, but I'm gonna do better. I have to. I want to.

The other one, well I'll just keep that one to myself. No need to put all my business out there:)

Aside from that, I'm gonna be taking a trip and so I'll be gone for about a week and I'm not sure whether I'll be updating the blog while I'm gone but if I get a chance, I'll be sure to fill you in. Otherwise, I'll give you the rundown when I get back. Hope you all have been enjoying your New Year so far...

PS. - Sorry about the Dolphins DO:(