Remembering Jeanette Martinez

Here is the article I wrote for the Otter Realm on Jeanette Martinez. She will be missed.

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She was the tiniest girl with the biggest heart. Her big, bright smile lit up any room she entered, and she was always willing to lend a helping hand. A soft voice and petite frame belied her strong conviction to change the world and her devotion to bettering the lives of others.

John Martinez was sound asleep when a knock on the door brought a parent’s greatest nightmare. His eldest daughter, Jeanette, had died only a few hours before. After a long night, she was driving home to her East Campus apartment when tragedy unfolded. A 27-year-old woman had been driving drunk, struck two cars, and hit the CSU Monterey Bay (CSUMB) junior and Collaborative Health and Human Services major head on, killing her instantly.

The same morning, Ashley Rodgers, a Human Communications major and fifth-year student at CSUMB, woke to an incessant ringing. “The sorority sisters kept calling me and calling me,” said Rodgers. “So I called them back and [a sister] told me what happened, and I got dressed and went over there just to be with them.”

Jeanette was holding down three jobs and 15 units, all while supporting her sorority, Sigma Theta Psi, as an Epsilon class sister, coqueta, and ladybug. “[This semester] she wasn’t active, but she still came to meetings. She wanted us as sisters, she wanted to bring us together,” said Rodgers. “She had a special bond with everyone; I think we all have a little spot with Jeanette.”

One of her favorite activities was fund raising for breast cancer awareness, something her sorority promoted throughout October’s National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Jeanette was an active volunteer and attendee of her church from early in life. Her faith was important to her, and she read her Bible daily. She would memorize 13 verses during the week and read them aloud at Sunday morning service at Family Christian Center, which she attended with her family on a weekly basis.

Alongside her busy life at CSUMB, Jeanette remained close to her parents, two sisters, and niece at home in Greenfield, CA. She took care of her mother when she fell ill, driving her to doctor’s appointments and tending to her needs. “She was always there,” said her mother, Carmen Martinez. “She was never too busy for me. She was always there no matter what; she loved us.”

As the oldest, Ms. Martinez was the best friend to sisters Claudia and Jasmin. Even while pursuing her degree at CSUMB, she was always there to help with homework or to take care of her niece, Neveah. “Even though she worked three jobs, she was always there for us,” said Claudia. “Anything we wanted, she would get for us. We could always call her.”

There is little doubt Jeanette remains a bright spot among her friends and family. From happy child, to happy girl, to happy woman, Jeanette will always be remembered for her smile and presence. “She was like an angel to me,” said Mrs. Martinez. “She lifted me up.”

yahoo answers

My boyfriend got me hooked on Yahoo Answers. You get points for answering questions about anything you can possibly think of, and you can get lost for hours just answering questions.

I think it would be awesome if colleges were structured like that. You go to class, the professor asks you a question, whoever answers it the best gets 10 points. But if you're one of those annoying people who has to ask for clarification on something 25 times in the 5 minutes before class gets out, you get one point taken away for each question. Can you imagine? People would be jumping over each other to get the most eloquent answer in the shortest amount of times.

Some people would just post a link somewhere (or quote the textbook) and get a mediocre response, maybe a thumbs up or two. But those who thoroughly researched their answers (or at least had enough charisma to pull off looking like they knew what they were talking about) would get the best rewards.

Classes would branch off like wikipedia articles, everyone would talk about what interested them, and everything would somehow, some way relate back to the class at hand. No one would be bored, everyone would be engaged, because these points would be their entire grade, at least for one class period.

I think when I become a teacher, I'll hold classes like that with my students as a sort of review session. God knows it couldn't be any worse than those old, boring study guides we got in high school. I think if I had those growing up, review sessions would have been a lot more productive.

whaddlyatcha

One of my favorite memories from elementary school was sitting and playing hand and word games with the other girls. Some lyrics to bring you back...

Miss Mary Mack Mack Mack
All dressed in black, black, black
With silver buttons, buttons, buttons
All down her back, back, back.

She asked her mother, mother, mother
For 50 cents, cents, cents
To see the elephants, elephants, elephants
Jump over the fence, fence, fence.

They jumped so high, high, high
They reached the sky, sky, sky
And they didn't come back, back, back
'Til the 4th of July, ly, ly!

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Miss Suzie had a steam boat
the steam boat had a bell (toot toot)
Miss Suzie went to heaven
the steam boat went to
Hello operator, please give me # 9
If you disconnect me I'll chop off your
Behind the refrigerator, there laid a piece of glass
Miss Suzie sat upon it and broke her little
Ask me no more questions, tell me no more lies
The boys are in the bathroom, zipping up their
Flies are in the meadow, bees are in the park
Miss Suzie and her boy friend are kissing in the D-A-R-K D-A-R-K dark dark dark
Is like a movie, a movie's like a show, a show is on TV
And that's all I know I know
I know my ma I know I know my pa
I Even know my sister wears a 40 acre bra
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I think we were all mean little girls. Because you know Miss Suzie and Mary didn't deserve to die, but we sang about them every day.

Whatever. I wish my daughters (if and when they exist) still have handgames like these to play.

take this with a grain of salt

I thought I had seen it all.

Nuh uh.

Then, there was this.

As said by Brad Pitt in my favorite movie, Mr. and Mrs. Smith...

"Sweet Jesus mother of God."

Who lets their child do this? A sixteen-year-old child gets married to another seventeen-year-old child and the wedding costs $200,000.

Oh, my god. I'm eighteen. I want to get married, and probably will get married right after getting my degrees. But that girl (allegedly) hasn't been in school since the age of nine and is now throwing her life away to make more children in their trailer park in England.

And is anyone else supremely frightened by the little girls in belly shirts with fake tans and stripper heels?

Especially now, with the economy the way it is, I can't imagine spending that much on anything, much less a wedding resulting in a marriage that probably won't last more than a year.

On a side note, I was glancing through the Sacramento Bee this morning and saw that California has by far the most mortgages worth more than the actual property value. Surprisingly enough, the area with the highest percentage of mortgages like this is not Los Angeles, but Stockton.

On another side note, $330 to get a tv fixed?

The world is going insane.