HAPPY MOTHER's DAY LOIS!!!

For some reason in my family, my brother and I call our mother by her first name. Lois. It is also my second name. I cannot express sufficiently on here how much I admire my mother. She is one of those women that has been there for me WHENEVER I needed her. Before it was the thing to do, my mother traveled the world and lived in Africa, Trinidad, and Barbados before going back to Jamaica and getting married later on in life. We are as close as sisters and we get along really well. We are both pretty silly and we love to laugh and joke around with one another. I know that if I needed her she would be there for me no matter what. She, more than anyone has made me the woman that I am and so Lois, on this day, let me just say that I wouldn't trade you for all the world. HAPPY MOTHER's DAY and I wish you so many more!

UGGGGHHH!!!!

So once again, I have come up on the short end of the stick so I'm gonna keep this short and sweet. I competed or shall I say participated in the meet at Modesto today and it was another tough one. I'm not too sure what is going on but I definitely need to assess it quickly and get my act together. Time is passing and I am having a tough time. I will take the next week to really try and sort it all out. Long jumping used to be easy. I used to be good at this and every once in a while in training I know that I still am. So I have to stop, take a moment, and exhale. I've got to get it right. I finished 4th today from a field of 8 and my result, shall we say, was less than stellar. And that's all I have to say.

Now, on to some brighter news, for those of you who don't already read David Oliver's blog....check it out for yourself. He had an OUTSTANDING race over in Doha, Qatar!! 8th best performance EVER in history for his event. Click on the link and read it for yourself! I am more proud than words can say! Congratulations! You guys travel back safely.

CRACKBERRY

Eb The Celeb....you called it!!! This blackberry stuff is out of control!!! I have talked so much trash to my friends who own blackberries over the past months. I kept telling them to get off their phones. Stop pinning one another. Stop checking it every second. Join in the conversation. Enough already!!

My friends David and Joice both own blackberries and they have been on me to get one for quite some time. It really helps when you're traveling to be able to communicate with everyone, they said. I resisted for as long as I could and then like I said on Monday, I ended up getting one.

Suffice to say, since then I have been using this thing like it's the last phone on earth. In my own defense, I have had to spend a fair amount of time just trying to figure out how everything works and on the first night I didn't know how to turn off all the bells and whistles and so all through the night the phone kept going off and I was really getting annoyed so I ended up just turning it off altogether. I have since figured out how to turn it to just phone only.

Yesterday at the GoTV photo shoot, between EVERY take, when I had to wait for the set up for the next shot, I spent my time browsing around on the phone. It's definitely a great way to pass the time. Man it seems whenever you do a photo shoot, it always takes way longer than they said and you have to do way more takes than they originally told you. Patience is definitely a virtue in these situations. I guess that's why they pay the big bucks.....not, just kidding.

This week my training group has dispersed for various competitions. Joice went to Martinique, Aub will be joining me out here in California at the Modesto Relays and Dave and Joel went off to Qatar. The true outdoor season is upon us and we are all primed and ready to do our best. Nothing surpasses the expectations that an athlete puts on herself and I definitely will accept nothing short of my best effort.

Anyway, since everyone has traveled from here to there and everywhere, it's a good thing I have this blackberry now so I can keep up with them all..... How did I ever manage??

TRAVEL UPDATE

So tomorrow morning I'm getting up early to travel back to L.A. I am going back for a couple weeks to compete in two track meets, the first, the Modesto Relays this weekend and then the second the Adidas Grand Prix Invitational at Carson, CA. I am looking forward to going home for a bit to catch up with all my friends and take care of some bills, etc. Trust me, living in two places at the same time does not come cheap!!! The things we do for our sport....call me crazy!!!

I get in at around 9:45am and then at 2pm I have a photo shoot for GoTV. They are doing some promo work for a new video feature that they have and they needed a long jumper of some caliber to use for the slow motion detail that is involved. I know I'm going to be somewhat tired from the travel but I am looking forward to the gig anyway. I can sleep tomorrow night, right?

Today I bought a blackberry. For those of you who know me, you'll know that I have little to no electronic/technological interest. So the thought of trying to figure out this gadget is somewhat overwhelming. I've already missed phone calls, texts, etc. I just don't know what all the buttons are supposed to do. There's texting, pinning, email capacity, internet, GPS, yada, yada, yada. I'm sure by next year this time, I will have it all down but in the mean time, if you call me and I don't answer the phone, chances are, I haven't figured that out yet. Bear with me...

I'll be headed back here to Orlando after the Carson meet but for now, LA here I come!

Like A Thief In The Night....

Can the gods really be that cruel??

Have you ever had a time in your life when things seemed to be going so perfectly....the stars seemed aligned, every day was a blessing, a joy, you woke up with a smile tugging at the corners of your mouth and a twinkle in your eye, all the rough edges seemed smooth, and the dull skies bright, laughter, fun, happiness...nothing could hurt you, or penetrate your armor of bliss, life was...outstanding!!!

And then, just like a thief in the night, something so unexpected, so unreal, so out of the ordinary, so inexplicable comes along and stabs you in the heart, pierces you in the back, you lose your breath, your vision becomes blurred, there is physical pain, you feel a sense of shock and awe, disbelief, fear, sadness, disappointment, hurt, betrayal, and no amount of screaming or crying or wringing of hands and clutching of self eases the pain so you do nothing. You lie completely still and stare into space, no blinking, no talking, no movement, whatsoever.

It just cannot be true....but, reality stares starkly back at you and you know, alas, yes it is!

The gods cannot be this cruel!! It must be a dream....right??? PLEASE say that it is......

It has happened to me before and I pray that it never happens again!!

PENN RELAYS RECAP

We made it back from The Penn Relays this morning. All in all, it was a successful trip, I am happy to report. First, the hurdle guys did end up setting that World Record in the men's 110m shuttle hurdle relay. They went in with that goal and it was just a fantastic feat that they were able to pull it off!!! CONGRATS guys...I was as proud as if I was a part of the team myself!!

As far my own participation goes, I chose not to specify why I was going to Penns because I was truly nervous, beyond what was normal apprehension prior to a competition. About 10 days ago, one of the National coaches from The Bahamas called me late one night to inform me that they needed me to run on the women's 4X100m relay!!! OK, again, since I wrote a few weeks ago that I ran on a relay in Gainesville, at first glance this should seem like a piece of cake!!! Ahhh....wrong!!!

In Gainesville, I ran the first leg of that relay. This time I was being asked to run the third leg. Again, what's the big difference, you say??? Oh there's a huge difference. The main one revolves around the fact that on the first leg, you only have to hand off the baton to someone, whereas on the third leg, with a running start, you have to receive the baton within a 20m zone and then you have to hand it off in the same zone distance on the other end. I have not run the third leg on a relay in over 10 years, that's right 10 YEARS!!!

To say that I was nervous, would be the understatement of the year! In addition, the race was being nationally televised on ESPN and then to top it all off, two of the ladies on my team were members of the Gold Medal winning 4X100m relay team for the Bahamas from the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. They were since dubbed the Golden Girls both by the Bahamian press and the International press. So the standards and precedents they have set are high.

I had one day to practice on Friday and just hoped and prayed that I would handle myself with professionalism and carry out the job that I was asked to do. Thank the Lord that I did a decent job!!! We ended up finishing 4th, behind 2 USA teams and one International All Star team. Of course, it wasn't perfect and there's room for improvement, but it was definitely acceptable and I am proud of myself for having the courage to debut my relay participation in such a high stakes arena. Now that it's all over, I must say that I actually enjoyed the challenge. It was a completely different experience for me and one that I would definitely do again, if called upon later in the year by my country!!!

Here's a picture of my teammates, in the order that we ran from left to right: Timicka Clarke, Debbie Ferguson (original Golden Girl -she ran the anchor leg in Sydney), me, and Chandra Sturrup (second Golden Girl - she ran the 2nd leg in Sydney). It was truly my privilege to run with these ladies and they really took the time to make sure that I felt a part of the team. Thanks ladies!!!

PENN RELAYS

So this morning I flew to Philadelphia, PA for the renowned Penn Relays. It is one of, if not the largest track meet held every year in the US. I haven't competed here in years and to be honest in spite of the hype and circumstance, it's never really been one of my favorite meets, perhaps due in a large part to the overwhelming number of athletes that do come. On the one hand, it's a great thing because that means track and field is alive and well. On the other hand, they really herd you around like cattle to get all the many races off on schedule. In addition to the fact that there is no warm up area so you literally have to warm up in the nearby streets. Not a pleasant thing to do, particularly if you have shin splints like I do.

OK. That's it for the negativity! Now that I've gotten that out, I'm coming with new eyes and a fresh attitude in hopes of performing well. There is a little more pressure this weekend because I am competing for my country and once I have The Bahamas written across my chest, the stakes rise just a little bit.

Several of my training partners are here for this weekend as well, along with our coach, Brooks. The 110 men's hurdle crew will be going for the world record in the shuttle hurdles relay and they stand a VERY good chance of breaking it. So good luck to them.

Before I sign off, let me take the opportunity to wish my friend David a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! He turns 26 today! Perhaps that world record will be his birthday present to himself! Since I knew we would be traveling today, I wanted to return the favor and make sure he had a great birthday dinner a couple nights ago - David, me, Joice, Aub, Joel and Randy. We had a lot of fun at this Italian restaurant where Dave was up to his usual antics. Poor Sassy, our waitress, she had no idea what she had signed up for:) Here are just a couple pics from our night out. I wish I could post them all but I'll just share a few. And yes , it is still the same night in the bottom picture, but Dave decided to change his shirt mid-dinner!!

Anyway, that's it for now, I'll let you know how it goes.