Still Missing Trini

Wish I could just MOVE there. :)

Missing Trini

It is January, I am freezing my ass off here in PA, and I wish I could go to Trini...but with the new job, doesn't look like I am going to get to do that anytime soon. sigh.

Goodbye, Trinidad

Well, I have to say, my last 24 hours in Trinidad were pretty amazing, yet overwhelmingly emotional. The school had me a "surprise" party (although I wasn't that surprised...I was kinda hoping they wouldn't, but I know how they are..any excuse to get out of some work..LOL). They got me some goodies, including full Soca Warriors regalia so I could be decked out at the airport for the game (I think it is a law that if the SW make it to the World Cup, you MUST wear red and black on match days). They also got me a silver Trinidad necklace, a laminated map of T&T, a photo album, and some other stuff. We all cried (of course, you know how sentimental I am, so would you expect anything less of me?). After class was over, Quincy picked me up (and 2 of my friends came along home with me)...but on the way to the house, he stopped at one of those hole-in-the-wall places and bought everyone in the car shots of puncheon rum. Okay, tolerated that one. He stops 2 miles down the road (I think it was 2 miles, I was a little iffy after that point), he gets another round of shots and beer chasers. I will say nothing else, other than NEVER AGAIN. Anyway, later, after everything settled, more friends came over and we ordered pizza. Thursday, Quincy brought Kirk over and they serenaded me on the front porch and made me cry. I didn't allow anyone but Quincy and Kirk to accompany me to the airport, because I knew it would just make it harder. Out of everyone, I think I will miss Quincy the most. He has a heart of gold, and I definitely know I will always have a friend in Trinidad with Quincy.

Here are some pics from Wed and Thurs..oh, and some from the airport while the game was going on. Did I mention that my flight was delayed over an hour because of the match? I was afraid that might happen..the previous weekend, 5 flights were cancelled because no one showed up for work (They were at home watching the game vs. Sweden). Oh well, I am home now, and I actually feel appreciated. :)




























































Scenes from the airport during the Eng vs. T&T match...














































Well, I guess this means the Trini blog is done. I will have to start another one about something else now.

HSFIFA
At least I ain't in last place anymore. Eric is moving up in the rankings. I think Chuck quit on us. Congrats, TLC...good birthday present to be in first place, huh? Enjoy it because Kick Me will be kicking your ass after today prolly. :)

Okay, no more Trinidad. Over and out.

Some Good News!

Sushma's Getting Married!
My friend Sushma (from India) is officially engaged! She and Syam will be getting married later this year. I am so happy for you two! Many of you know that Sushma is my pal, someone I got to know while working at Healthscribe, and we later became really good friends (although we have never met in person)....this may be the year we finally get to meet!

Here are some pics of Syam and Sushma!


































CONGRATULATIONS, SYAM AND SUSH! If you want to see the whole album, click here.

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NASCAR
Eric couldn't wait to tell me "weenie" crashed his car in the race today (he calls Jeff Gordon "weenie" just because I think he is cute). I thought about it, and darnit, I have really been missing NASCAR. I miss arguing for hours about who is the best driver. My favorites are JG and Dale Jarrett (wait, is he still racing? I have been gone for 6 months), but Eric is a Tony Stewart man. haha TS sucks. :)

....Speaking of NASCAR....and old friend of mine who is a huge racing fan has a t-shirt business, just in case any of you ever need to order any t-shirts for anything. The website is http://www.teezone.net just in case you want to give a hard-workin' man some business. Here is a pic of DJ and his son, Nick. If you ever happen to go to a Choctaw powwow and see a redheaded guy selling t-shirts, it may be DJ.















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SOCA WARRIORS ROCK!
Okay, so maybe they didn't win their opening match, but in Trinidad, a draw is a win! Anything that isn't a loss is a win to them. Hislop rocked, even though he was subbing. And the locals all talk about how old he is..but he is their hero NOW. He went to the same school as my friend Marlene's son. If I hadn't used up all my transfers for this stage in Fantasy World Cup, I would have picked him up. Silly me, I went and got worthless Angola players..haha

Speaking of Fantasy World Cup, here are the standings for our league as of Sunday night...

HSFIFA Standings

Rank Team Points
1
Kick Me 51
2
Tastes Like Chicken 31.5
3
FC JngleRat 27
4
cocksoup 23
5
Buddha FC 16.5
6
Machembere 7.5
7
The Axis Of Naughty 4.5
8
WooSunJA 3
9
Soca Longshot -6.5

Yes, I am Soca Longshot. haha Is that soo surprising?

Oh, look! It's Chris Birchall, the lone white boy for the Soca Warriors! haha (No, this is not a racist thing, it just looks so funny seeing the one white boy with all the other guys, that's all...plus he is cute.) Let's look at him again!











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June 16, my first full day back home, is going to be a LOVELY DAY.

Airport / Airplane Observations and Other Nonsense...

With all the travel I have done in the past few months, I have a list of grievances against airline travelers in general:

1. If you are from Alabama and have never flown before, please, PLEASE, do not sit in the seat in front of me and squeal at takeoff and put your hands in the air like you are on a roller coaster. I had this pentecostal chick sitting in front of me acting like she didn't have one iota of home trainin' (you Southerners know what I mean by that)...and she kept walking up and down the aisle to converse with some fellow travelers that were with her (in seats behind me, no less) and she was really getting on my nerves. I was in such a foul mood with this whirlwind trip the last few days, she really caught me in an ill mood and I almost told her to put her f*%^ing arms down and act civilized....but when I was thinking it, she said, "Praise God, hallelujah!", presumably because we safely made it into the air. LOL

2. Why do people have to have so damn many carry-on bags, and then why to they take 10 minutes getting them down out of the storage thingys? I hate that it takes 30 minutes to get off the plane. Check those bags, you idiots. Wait at the baggage carousel instead of holding everybody else up. Practice being quicker for the next flight, if you refuse to check the crap. Also, if they carry on a bag that ends up being too big and someone has to hold the flight up to get it put in cargo, they should just throw the bag away and say tough luck.

3. The airlines should have some kind of requirement that people MUST TAKE BATHS before they board, at least within 24 hours of departure anyway. This woman sitting on the other side of the aisle from me today almost killed me with the pungent aroma of a mixture of Vick's Vapor Rub and ASS. Please have consideration for your fellow travelers and defunk before you embark. :) I think there should be some voting pad on the plane, sorta like on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire or something, where passengers can vote off the people who are on the verge of making us sick. :)

4. Why does Trinidad require international flight passengers to be at the airport 3 hours in advance, when other airports usually require 2 hours? I guess it is because they are so slow and take their time that they have to make up for it somehow..so just shut up and show up early, we don't care if you have to pile up and sleep somewhere, cause we Trini and we takin' we time. Jeeze.

5. When arriving in Miami on Wednesday, I got questioned DOWN by a damn (apparently) Cuban immigrant (I supposed maybe he was Cuban, he was barely speaking English and had a strong resemblance to Ricky Ricardo.) Anyway, he wanted to know what I was coming to the states for, why I had been in Trinidad, what I do in Trinidad, when I was coming back home, what kind of accent it is do I have, because I don't sound like someone from Pennsylvania. I ALMOST SAID "YOU DON'T SOUND LIKE SOMEONE FROM AMERICA, BUDDY." (No, I didn't say it, but I sure wanted to). I hate going to the Miami airport because hardly anyone speaks English. Don't dare ask the Spanish speakers where anything is..they will give you a look that could kill, like how dare you ask me that in English, you better learn some Spanish-kinda look. I say make English the official language of the US. Hey, 29 Caribbean nations can't be wrong!

6. Don't bring me a pack of raisins and 2 cookies and call it breakfast. That just plain AIN'T RIGHT.

Countdown
I will be home next week, and I can't wait...then I am changing blogs, so you won't hear anything else about Trinidad. Maybe it will be something political or something...or maybe politics, fantasy football, and just random thoughts. That reminds me, I saw the fantasy football ad, and that is already starting up. I mean the real football. We are already playing the fantasy world cup thing right now, even though that is almost against my religion..but it makes for good filler until REAL football starts. :)
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BY THE WAY, HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, HEATHER!
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Someone make the gas prices go down before I get home so I actually get to drive for a while. Can't wait to get in my car and just go...on the CORRECT side of the road, too!

06/06/06...Just another day :)

Went to see "The Omen" tonight with a few friends. Now, I have to say, this was quite a strange experience. Trinis seem to laugh at very inappropriate times during horror movies. For instance, when Liev Schreiber is utterly devastated after learning that he must kill his son to save the world, he is in tears; well these folks found this hilarious and they were absolutely dying with laughter. I didn't find it so funny. They also showed a short clip of the twin towers burning (as part of the prophecy storyline) and people were laughing...and of course, you know I said out loud, "What the hell was so funny about that?" Then they laughed when David Thewlis got his head chopped off...HILARIOUS! Everything that we would screech or look away from, they would find terribly funny. It was so amusing. It almost made the movie not scary at all.

(By the way, so glad to see Liev Schreiber AND David Thewlis in something new..they are two of my favorite lesser-known actors. I first saw David Thewlis in an awesome movie called "Naked" where he was a raving drug-addicted maniac. Liev Schreiber was good in "A Walk on the Moon.")

An Omen of a Different Kind
I put on a load of clothes to wash before I left for the movies..came home, moved them to the dryer (bulb had blown in the washroom, so I had no warning of what I would later discover after the clothes had dried)...my favorite good luck white t-shirt is now a light grayish-blue. Jesus. I hope this isn't a bad sign regarding my trip to Atlanta in a few hours. Well, everything else in the load is grayish-blue, too...and the thing is, I cannot find a thing that was in the load of clothes to turn things that color. Something weird happened. Maybe it is a sign. I guess I will find out what kind of sign in a few days.
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Ginger, Donnie, and Gen, have a safe trip home tomorrow! Long drive from MS to NJ with the baby in the car. ;) At least it is much cooler in NJ than MS.
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World Cup
For those of you involved in HSFIFA, please make sure you have your lineup done before Friday! Root for the Soca Warriors, 'cause they sure as hell are going to need all the help they can get. I predict a 3-0 win by Sweden over the Trini boys, unfortunately.

woohoo, it's Chris, the TWB of the Soca Warriors!

I will miss Trinidad, in some strange sort of way. I hate making new friends and then facing the thought that I may never see them again for the rest of my life. sigh.

BREAKING NEWS! :)

Congratulations, Miss Sydney Bohn, for making news announcer for Channel 63 at Pleasant View Elementary! For those of you who don't know, this is the morning news broadcast for the school that is seen in all the classrooms before class work gets started. I am soooo proud of you, chickie!

Trini Fashion
I went last night and got chocolate lowlights in my hair...and today, I went and bought some 5-inch pumps. Yes, now I am truly like an amazon in this land of tiny women. My class dared me to get some Trini-style shoes, and I showed them that no one should ever dare me to do ANYTHING. ;) No, I ain't modeling them...maybe you will see them in person next time you see me. hahahahaa

I got some packing to do this weekend. Jeeze. :)

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT I HAD FALLEN OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH...LOL

It is too quiet in this house tonight...the family left to go home today. I miss them already. Now I have major housework to do, though. :)

We had a great weekend in Tobago. We drove all over the island in what is considered a luxury vehicle in Tobago, a brand-new Suzuki Grand Vitara. LOL We rode up mountains and through rain forests and saw some neat waterfalls and stuff. We also saw what may be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, Pigeon Point. We went snorkeling and saw some HUGE angel fish, coral, all that. We hiked, walked, rode, completely wore ourselves out. We had a great steak at Sugar Point Restaurant. I miss steak. LOL If you ever go to Tobago, rent your vehicle from Sheppy's...and if you take the boat for snorkeling and the coral reef, go with Michael (near Pigeon Point). Okay, I know, none of you will ever go, but just wanted to say that these two guys would give you an awesome deal and not rip you off like some of the operators would.

Here are some pictures from Tobago!















My girlies, Shelby and Sydney
































(no, i wasn't pissed, just looks that way. I hate pictures. lol)
















(and no, Eric wasn't pissed, either..he just looks that way. LOL)

















Eric and the girls swimming in Nylon Pool...yeah, that is Eric with the cap on. He always has it on, unless he is sleeping.

















S and S at the park at Pigeon Point....below, some pan player playing America the Beautiful, waiting for Eric to break out the wallet, 'cause everyone in Trinidad and Tobago KNOWS that ALL AMERICANS, ESPECIALLY WHITE AMERICANS, ARE FILTHY RICH. ;) Riiiigggghtttt





























































The hotel (well, okay, the bar part..haha) Shots, anyone??


















The view you get if you walk out on the pier outside the bar part of the hotel. LOL

I should be cleaning, but I am not. By the way, the movie RV with Robin Williams was pretty funny. Take your kids to see it (if you have kids). Hilarious.

Oh, and never rent from Budget (Car Rental) outside the US. NEVER.

I am tired...more later. Bye!

Miss you.

Exhausted

That is all I can say.

The family made it in. Eric wrote down my address for immigrations but lost the paper it was on before he got into the airport, so they wouldn't let my family in the country. I was waiting right outside, but I had left my cellphone in the car, so I was of no help. Anyway, they ended up getting delayed walking out of the airport about an hour because of all that crap.

















Saturday, we drove up to Maracas and spent the day at the beach. A bunch of the students went along. We had a blast.












































Shelby and Melissa (a student's little sister)















Eric and his one true love...his fishing equipment. ;)



















Eric and I in the back of Gordon's little Marouti (the pimp mobile..haha) Yeah, I know I look like crap...AND? I had been at the beach all day long and I was exhausted and water-logged and felt like I had sand and salt saturated into every square inch of my body.


















Sunday, we rode a boat out to Chacachacare Island. Years ago, this place was a leper colony. It is uninhabited now, although plenty of visitors and campers apparently go there and leave their litter behind. It was nice and isolated, but sad to see the litter like that.

















I invited my friend Marlene (she lives down the street from me) and her kids along. None of these people even know how to swim. Unbelievable. They live on an island. 90% of the people I know here do not know how to swim. I don't get it. You live on an island, you MUST learn how to swim. LOL
















Robert and Anthony were our guides for the day. It was very comforting that they polished off 3 bottles of scotch before the ride back to port. ;)































Shelby, Sydney, and Aurelia (Marlene's daughter) had a blast swimming and snorkeling at Chacachacare.
















If you look closely, off in the hazy distance, you can see Venezuela. We were about 5 miles away from Hugoland. ;)

I gotta go to bed. Vacation is very tiring, especially when you are working during half the vacation. :)

Wooooohooo...Tomorrow!

Midterm exams are tomorrow, and I have to go into work early. I will be glad when it is over. The minute exams are over, I head to the airport to pick up my family. Quincy is driving to the airport, too, 'cause he wants to meet them (and just in case we need for room for suitcases, too). Supposed to go to St. James tomorrow night (where the Harley place is) and see the street nightlife. They have a lot of music and stuff. Get to see what new foods the kids want to try..or avoid. :) Some of my students are caravan-ing up to Maracas with us Saturday. We are going ot have a great time! Then Sunday to Chacachacare Island and the other islands off the coast for fishing and snorkeling.

Oh yeah, I rented a car today. Let me say first that, when in the states, I always use Budget, because the service is always great, quick in and quick out. Well, NEVER USE BUDGET IF YOU COME TO TRINIDAD. It took me almost 2 hours to get a car I had reserved over a week ago (online)..I get there, and they don't have a reservation for me (and thank God I printed out my confirmation). They didn't have any cars. None of the other car rental places at the airport had any cars, either. While I was waiting, a guy just happened to bring his car back early, so I got a POS Mazda....and man, this thing is allllll skinned up and scraped up. The radio doesn't work. Aside from all that, what started out as a 160.00 rental ended up with a damn 600.00 hold on my card (for a week...tying up vacation money). On top of that, they were very flip and thought it was hilarious that they didn't have a car for me. My coworker (a Trini) was shocked herself at how bad they SUCKED. After I got the car and got back to the office, I immediately called and cancelled my reservation with Budget in Tobago....NO THANKS. We will use taxis, since you have a million people asking you constantly if you need a taxi. It is only about a 5-minute walk from the airport to our hotel anyway. At least with my previous trip to Tobago, I know now if a taxi driver is trying to rip me off...my class says never pay them over 6 TT a passenger to go anywhere. lol But this afternoon, I drove into San Juan and Curepe.....dropped students off, drove out all by myself. Driving on the left side isn't so bad...I am a pro now. :)

Muslim student was expelled today, so no more obeah drama, thank God.

I am tired. I will be glad when school is over tomorrow....boy, do I need some stress relief!

Wish Me Luck!

I don't want to hex myself, but would everybody cross their fingers for me? Or whomever or whatever you worship, would you put in a good word for me? haha I may have good news before the end of the week.

Quincy would not let me practice driving today because he is a bull-headed man, and I am really pissed off. So I decided to rent the car for this weekend a day early (and i haven't told him..haha) just so i can practice driving before I have a carload.

I have a wonderful new friend in the neighborhood who has hooked us up with a boat trip to the islands off the northwest coast of Trini (and fishing, too) for an unbelievable price. If any of you ever come here, maybe you can get a good deal, too. Thanks, Rob! You rock! And thank you, Ellie, for the Obeah info!

Sydney, you are going to have to get a job if you keep calling me every day from your cell. LOL

Eric, any chance you can freeze some ribeyes and bring them along? I already had excellent cholesterol, but on a diet of nothing but chicken, jeeze, i must be hitting negative numbers by now. This is toooo healthy. I have to smoke extra to make up for the lack of dietary indiscretions here! (Okay, I am going to try to quit smoking one more time before I leave here, so shut up if you are thinking up some smartass comment here. Thank you.)
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You are in my thoughts and prayers. Sucks to be away from home.

Genevieve at 1 Month

Hard to believe she is already 1 month old!


I have to have the sweetest baby niece anyone ever had. I can't wait to get back home to spend some time with her! She is a month old now...Good Lord she looks just like her daddy. Gin, are you sure you had ANYTHING to do with this? haha

















Sitting out on the back porch with Donnie, listening to Elvis..



































Looking forward to the weekend. Won't be long after that and I will be on my way back, too. I am really getting excited. You don't appreciate the USA until you aren't there for a while. Everyone stop bitching, be glad you are there. haha