Monday, 26 October, 2009 by Omo Nyja.

You ever have one of those days that just brings you down? You know what I mean, a day when it seems like everything is going wrong… well, I just did… at least it started out that way… but a lot of times, the way you feel is the way you think you feel… that’s why after emptying my viente caramel vanilla latte onto my computer at work, I refused to be upset… i know it wasn’t my personal computer, but that was the second time I have emptied the contents of a cup on company property… i probably won’t get into any real trouble, but i’m pretty certain it will be frowned upon… oh well, we’ll see how it goes tomorrow… i probably won’t be drinking at my desk for a while now…

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Monday, 17 August, 2009 by Omo Nyja.

Hello world,

it’s been a while since I’ve written on this blog. 438 days to be exact. But for some reason, I’ve decided I’m going to give this a shot, again. I don’t know if anyone will actually read this, but hey, I’m paying for it, so I might as well use it… lol.

Ok, so what has happened since I was last on here? Obama became president, Michael Jackson died… can’t think of any other major occurrences, but I’m pretty sure I’m missing at least one. In my life? um… I moved… I have a roommate now. It’s not as bad as I feared, but after two years of living alone, it takes a little getting used to. But hey, at least I get to save some money every now and then … life is pretty good, I must say… don’t get me wrong, things aren’t exactly where I hoped they’d be at this point, but I am very fortunate to be where I am on my journey and I thank God for it. I’ve got a wonderful family (spread out in 5 cities/villages and 3 continents), some good friends, a job that pays the bills and I live comfortably. I’m not exactly, ‘living the life’… but I really believe that optimism goes a long way, and I always try to keep a smile on my face… I like to say, “lie to yourself, sooner or later you’ll start to believe it…”

By the way,  I am now a season ticket holder for the Seattle Sounders FC of the MLS. If you told me this time last year, that I’d be cheering for an MLS team, I’d have called you a liar. But life doesn’t always take you down a path that you expect. So yeah, those of you that follow me on twitter or facebook are probably tired of my constant updates about the Sounders. What can I say, I fall hard sometimes … We had friendlies against Chelsea and Barcelona and there were over 60,000 people at both of those games… we lost but they were both fun. Also on the sports front, Manchester United had a pretty good season, lost in the finals of the champions league in May, which was really painful… lol… and the Orlando Magic made it too the NBA Finals but lost to the Lakers (boooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!).

I’m guessing that none of this is news to most of you, but I didn’t really know what I was gonna write when I started typing so I’m pretty much just pouring out whatever random thoughts are on my mind….

So the big news here really is still this debate about healthcare. I’m not too sure why people are so angry. There is nothing wrong with disagreeing with someone else and having a debate about it, but all this fear mongering and outright racism is really appalling. I do believe that the crazies we see on tv are in the minority, but they seem to have some numbers behind them. Personally, I’m in support of the plan for healthcare. People seem to talk about Canada and the UK as examples of the evilness that is healthcare for all. I have been sick while I was in England and my aunt took me to the hospital. Didn’t pay a dime… on the flipside, when I lived in Florida, I once had to drive myself to the hospital, in pain, after bruising a bone (felt like it was broken) because I didn’t want to have to call an ambulance and have to pay close to $1000. I think healthcare should be a right to all, especially children. As a child in Nigeria, I remember going to work with my mom (she’s a doctor) and seeing her react to a death for the first time. I was a little surprised to see that she was angry… I must have been 8 or 9 at the time, but I remember asking her and she told me that the baby’s parents had tried to medicate the child at home and only brought the baby in when the child’s condition got worse. My mother said it was too late and there wasn’t much she could do to save the child. I know Nigeria has a long way to go when it comes to healthcare among other things, that’ll have to be a whole ‘nother post, but this is supposed to be the greatest country in the world and I know there are families that have to decide between hospital visits and paying bills and I don’t think that shouldn’t happen.

Ok, so I think I’m done blogging for now, hopefully, it won’t be another 400 days till my next post… Enjoy life people!!!

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Thursday, 5 June, 2008 by Omo Nyja.

A day I will never forget…

I was on my summer holiday in Nigeria…. My dad woke me up saying, “Mama is gone!” It took a while to sink in, but after about 30 minutes, it did. My grandmother was dead. That was the first time someone I was close to had passed away and even though we had known for a while that her condition was deteriorating, it was hard to take. I cried that day, and a couple more times over the next few weeks.

When the ambulance came to get the body, I couldn’t bare to look at her. I retreated to my bedroom so I would have to see her body. I was in no way ready for that. A month later, when her open casket was placed in our living room, my mother almost had to force me to come downstairs and pay my respects… I remember seeing her, so frail and so pale… I was like a confirmation, she was gone. I remember someone trying to console me by saying, “It’s ok…” No it wasn’t… and it never would be. Someone I loved dearly was gone…

I wrote something down, for the funeral program:

Mama was a wonderful person. I have so many memories of her and I don’t even know where to start. She lived with us even before I was born so she had as much to do with bringing me up as my parents did.

When I was in primary school, I would look forward to coming home to the meal she had prepared for me. Most of the time it was ogi, but when I was lucky, she would surprise me with ’small-small fish’. In the mornings, mama would feed pigeons in our backyard, most of the time, I would join her. I also remember that every year, after we got back from church early on New Years Day, we would start the year off with a prayer from mama. She was a deeply religious woman and she had a lot to do with bringing me to Christ.

Many times, I would go sit with her and just talk, something I will definitely miss. Whenever she saw me, she would say, “BABA!!” and I would jokingly respond saying, “MAMA!!” I also remember her as a disciplinarian. She always had her canes by the door to her kitchen, ready for us if we were naughty.

It was really painful for me to see her when I got home in May. It was hard for me to accept that she couldn’t remember me. The last memory I had before that was of her crying when I left for school in August 2002. I know that she is in a better place now, but she will be sorely missed. You don’t meet people like my grandmother everyday. She was a loving, caring, funny and extremely friendly person. She got along with everyone. It was impossible not to like her.

I don’t know what exactly was going through her mind in her last days, but when a person’s last words on earth are ‘hallelujah’, you know she was thinking about meeting God.

Mama, I will always love you. I will never forget you. I know you’re looking down on us all from heaven. Rest in peace, you’ve earned it.

2 years later. I still miss her greatly.

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Thursday, 5 June, 2008 by Omo Nyja.

I’ve made a few attempts to start blogging again… I usually end up writing a few lines then abandonning them. I really hope that doesn’t have to me now…

Over the last couple months, I’ve thought of 1,001 things I could have blogged about. But for some reason, I tend to lose interest before my ideas bear fruit. Today I was given an idea and I think I’m gonna go with it…

Growing up in Nigeria, I had numerous encouters with ghanians. In high school, I had a ghanain english teacher. There was a strong ghanain prescence throughout the Educational system. There was even a ghanain french teacher… they were everywhere.

I noticed from a young age and I was reminded recently that when nigerians and ghanains come together, there is definitely something different in the air. It’s hard to put a finger on it though. It’s almost as if an inate competitive streak comes out and we all try to outdo each other. This is never more evident than in sports, more specifically, football (soccer… for those of you who call it that).

I haven’t been a witness to many of the encounters between the Super Eagles of Nigeria and the Black Stars of Ghana, but the 2 recent meeting have been interesting. Nigeria lost both games, one a friendly in London and the other an African Nation’s cup match in Ghana. For both this games, I was put through a build up that would have convinced many people that the world cup final was about to be played. After the game my phone was constantly buzzing… my ‘friends’ just need to gloat and I obliged them.

But the rivalry doesn’t stop there. I’ve found myself, on more than one occassion, arguing about which country was better at something or just better in general. In the end, most of these arguments were rather pointless. But the ferocity with which the national pride was guarded could not be questioned. I recently argued that Nigeria made better movies that Ghana. I would never have pictured myself doing that though. First of all, I not the biggest fan of Nigerian movies, I’m probably one of the biggest critics. Secondly, I’ve only seen about 10 minutes of a Ghanain movie… But I still rose to the defense of my people.

In my experience, our rivalry has not spilled over to hatred, far from it. Ghanians are some of the nicest people I know (sometimes too nice… )… I guess they’re like a twin brother… We may argue and fight, but at the end of the day, we’ll come back inside and just chill…

PS: I wrote this post while I was half asleep and I didn’t proof read it…. If it makes no sense, I apologize… lol

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Monday, 2 June, 2008 by Omo Nyja.

Why can’t life be simple? You spend weeks making plans for something and when it finally comes time to execute your plan, nothing seems to work… It’s almost like you’ve planned for every scenario but the one you’re in.
Sometimes I wish I didn’t care about certain things… unfortunately for me, there is no on-off switch for feelings.
Sometimes I just want to bury my head in the sand and coast through life… where are all the answers? why does it seem like everyone else has things figured out? Am I alone in my dispair?
At this moment, I just wish I could get it over with… but it’s not that easy… How will all this end? I can only hope that it ends well…

PS: Don’t worry people, I’m not contemplating suicide… just felt like ranting… figured I’d do that here… hell I pay for the damn site… lol

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Saturday, 8 March, 2008 by Omo Nyja.

In football, and life in general, you don’t always get what you deserve. Most people that know me will know that I am a big fan of Manchester United… I wasn’t planning on it, but jet lag meant that I woke up at about 5am local time today. So I decided to watch my beloved team play a tricky FA Cup game at home to Portsmouth. The game is almost over now and I can’t believe my eyes. We’ve totally dominated this game, but through a series of bad decisions, bad luck and one bad mistake, we’re on the verge of being eliminated from the competition. Nobody, likes to lose a game, but if you play badly and you lose, it’s easier to take because you only feel the disappointment of defeat. Right now, I had the added feeling of being cheated. Don’t get me wrong, we only have ourselves to blame. We had a host of chances that we would normally put away with ease, but today, that killer instinct was missing… I really hope this is a one-off occurence.
(FULL TIME - Manchester United 0-1 Portsmouth)
I don’t even feel like writing anymore… :(….

PS: Here are the links to my pictures from Nigeria.

(Pictures of Nigeria 1)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2056300&l=793a1&id=39701790
(Pictures of Nigeria 2)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2056302&l=8945f&id=39701790
(Pictures of Nigeria 3)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2056303&l=b14cf&id=39701790
(Pictures of Nigeria 4)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2056304&l=f5175&id=39701790
(Dad’s Birthday 1)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2056305&l=07c7c&id=39701790
(Dad’s Birthday 2)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2056306&l=3f7c3&id=39701790

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Tuesday, 4 March, 2008 by Omo Nyja.

I’m back in Everett now. Got back from Nigeria on Sunday afternoon. The two weeks I spent at home were great… It was crazy hot and NEPA (or PHCN if you’re picky) was so useless they might have as well not existed. The entire time I was there, we were running the generator. We probably had power for about 24 (non-consecutive) hours during my time there and when there was power, the voltage was only a fraction of what it should have been… but even with all that, I had a wonderful time. I didn’t have to work for two weeks, which was great. But more importantly, it was the first time in almost 9 years that my entire family was together… I had to take the opportunity to get a new family photo taken (the previous one was about 15 years old)… All in all, it was a wonderful holiday. Pity it had to end… I’ll probably write at least one more post about my trip in the next few days. Watch for that and pictures (on facebook)…

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Saturday, 16 February, 2008 by Omo Nyja.

that I get to go home! Yup, I’m on my way to Nigeria in a couple of hours… my whole family is gonna be there… first time we’ve all been together since 1999!!!!

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Thursday, 3 January, 2008 by Omo Nyja.

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/in_the_know_situation_in_nigeria

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Wednesday, 2 January, 2008 by Omo Nyja.

Eku odun tuntun!!!
Bon année!!!
¡Feliz Año Nuevo!!!
新年好 !!!
Gelukkig Nieuwjaar!!!
Glückliches neues Jahr!!!
Nuovo anno felice!!!
새해 복 많이 받으세요!!!
Ano novo feliz!!!
С новым годом!!!

Just want to wish everyone a Happy New Year!!!

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