JAMAICA IS...ALL THIS & MORE

Jamaica is...Blue Mountain Coffee and Sorrel
Jamaica is...Rum and Red Stripe
Jamaica is...Kola Champagne, Manish Water
Jamaica is...Jerk Chicken/Pork, Scotch Bonnet, Hardough Bread
Jamaica is...FryFish & Bammy, Coco Bread & Patty
Jamaica is...Irie, Nyabingi, Boogooyaga, Legobeast
Jamaica is...Cornmeal Dumplin, Dasheen, Yam, Coco.
Jamaica is...Pimento, Ackee & SaltFish, Black Mango, Star Apple
Jamaica is...Miss Lou
Jamaica is...Anansi and Big Boy stories
Jamaica is...Jackfruit, Juneplum, Nesberry, Ginep and Hogplum
Jamaica is...Busta, Icey mint, and Paradise plum
Jamaica is...Sinking toe, Drops, Gizzada, and Grater cake
Jamaica is...Bun and cheese, Sorrel and Rum cake
Jamaica is...GRANDMARKET NIGHT!
Jamaica is...Doouckunu, Dip and Fall Back, and Run-down
Jamaica is...Bulla, Totoe, Festival and SaltFish Fritters
Jamaica is...Peppa shrimps, blue draws, and Roast breadfruit
Jamaica is...Chalice, splif, sensi and lambs bread
Jamaica is...Cool runnings, cease and settle, haul and pull up, and nuffrespect
Jamaica is...Reggae Boyz
Jamaica is...Ital stew, Strong Back, Irish Moss, Circey Tea
Jamaica is...Kin-Puppa-Lick!!,Blouse and skirt!!, Gouzum!!
Jamaica is...Rhattid!!, Blough-wow!!, Geeze-u-wiz!!
Jamaica is...Boonoonoonous
Jamaica is...Suck-suck and sky-juice
Jamaica is...Wi likkle but wi tal-a-wa!
Jamaica is...Wey yu a sey, What a gwan & How it a go dung
Jamaica is...bull-buck and duppy conqueror
Jamaica is...Zinc fence and gully water
Jamaica is...Escoviche fish, julie mango, Oxtail, tripe and beans
Jamaica is...Icy mint an bus-mi-jaw
Jamaica is...Stop de cow bawlng eena de place
Jamaica is...Anyting wha sweet yu gwine sour yu
Jamaica is...Weh yu, and kibba yu mout
Jamaica is...Dandy Shandy
Jamaica is...A hell an powdah house dunga tiday
Jamaica is...Nu mek mi spit an it dry up before yu cum back
Jamaica is...Blouse an' skirt, and kiss mi neck back.

JAMAICA IS EVERYTHING WE ARE AND MUCH MUCH MORE...JAMAICA LAND WE LOVE!!

IFYOU LOOK AT THIS LIST AND YOUR HEART SMILES...YOU'RE DEFNIITELY JAMAICAN!!

1/4 Century Mark

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about my life, and where I want it to go, as well as where it should be. I had set some life goals for myself to meet by the time I was 30 when I was 17/18. However, quite a few of those goals were unrealistic. One of my goals was to have all of my kids by the time I reach 30. Now that is a joke. I am approaching 25 in a few weeks, and there is just no way I am ready for a kid, much less "kids". My mom had me when she was 23, however, it was a different time then, and 23 in 1980/81 is today's 33. Now the problem I am having is this...I do not want to be 45 when my kids are 10. I want to be that "young and hip" mom. But really and truly, I just do not see myself having kids in the next 5 years. There is so much that I want to do before I have kids, like travel, make some money, and of course, party. Is that selfish? I think not. Anyways they say 30 is the new 20, and 40 is the new 30. So I guess that makes me soon to be "15". That does not sound too good, but hell, you get my drift.

The problems of a woman in her mid 20's.

This Aint Oprah's Book Club, Part IV

OK well I should have completed "The Life of Pi" by now. However, that is not the case. It's not that the book is not good...But it is more of a "nighttime" read...And well lately I have just been too tired. No worries though I picked up "The Kite Runner", by Khaled Hosseini, on my way to Jamaica so that I could have something to read on the flight. I must say that I enjoyed this book. "The Kite Runner" is a memoir of an Afghan man looking back at his life. As stated on Hosseini's website it is "an epic tale of fathers and sons, of friendship and betrayal, that takes us from the final days of Afghanistan's monarchy to the atrocities of the present."

From Publishers Weekly
Hosseini's stunning debut novel starts as an eloquent Afghan version of the American immigrant experience in the late 20th century, but betrayal and redemption come to the forefront when the narrator, a writer, returns to his ravaged homeland to rescue the son of his childhood friend after the boy's parents are shot during the Taliban takeover in the mid '90s. Amir, the son of a well-to-do Kabul merchant, is the first-person narrator, who marries, moves to California and becomes a successful novelist. But he remains haunted by a childhood incident in which he betrayed the trust of his best friend, a Hazara boy named Hassan, who receives a brutal beating from some local bullies. After establishing himself in America, Amir learns that the Taliban have murdered Hassan and his wife, raising questions about the fate of his son, Sohrab. Spurred on by childhood guilt, Amir makes the difficult journey to Kabul, only to learn the boy has been enslaved by a former childhood bully who has become a prominent Taliban official. The price Amir must pay to recover the boy is just one of several brilliant, startling plot twists that make this book memorable both as a political chronicle and a deeply personal tale about how childhood choices affect our adult lives. The character studies alone would make this a noteworthy debut, from the portrait of the sensitive, insecure Amir to the multilayered development of his father, Baba, whose sacrifices and scandalous behavior are fully revealed only when Amir returns to Afghanistan and learns the true nature of his relationship to Hassan. Add an incisive, perceptive examination of recent Afghan history and its ramifications in both America and the Middle East, and the result is a complete work of literature that succeeds in exploring the culture of a previously obscure nation that has become a pivot point in the global politics of the new millennium.

On a scale of 1-5 (1 being the worst and 5 being the best) I give "The Kite Runner" a 4. Not bad for an author's first book.

The Re-Emergence

Please let me first start off by apologizing to all my fellow bloggers for my lack of postings these past few weeks. I have been very busy with "life" and just have not had the time to dedicate to it. Anyways a lot has happened to me over these past few weeks. I moved into a new place, my sister moved away, I spent my first Holiday season away from family, and I lost one of my best friends. Overall my 2005 did not end well, nor did my 2006 start well. However, one thing I can say is that it can only go up from here (I hope...because I can't imagine it getting any worse). But my words of advice for all who read this post are as follows:

"Tomorrow is not promised. Therefore, we must live each day with goodness in our hearts for ourselves as well others. We must also remember to tell people who are important to us that we love them; sometimes we assume that people know that but in reality we need to hear those things. We also need to enjoy each and every day that we have...even if we spend the day doing nothing but laying in bed. Remember life happens...so make your days count and make your mark so that you are forever remembered and loved."

RIP Jamie Lue...a true friend (11/9/80-12/31/05).