A New Era?

Considering it has been over a year since I last blogged anything, there have been a number of major events that have come to pass, most of which you, dear audience, are probably already aware of. Therefore, I am going to take the liberty of bypassing all of them and starting from the new beginning... that is, this summer. As a quick update of the summer's events:

• I have been working full-time at the store while at home.
• I went on a lovely family road trip from San Diego to Seattle.
• I traveled to Champaign for a leadership conference and learned how to do all sorts of things... like be an ethical leader. (And as my mother will tell you, since I came back all whipped into leadership shape, I am no longer afraid of the dark. That's right, I'm a Leader now.)

The leadership conference was pretty fantastic. My sorority sent me (yes, if you hadn't heard, I joined a sorority way back in November), and I met a whole assortment of fantastic people. Three of whom live in the great state of Washington. Since my return, I've begun working on starting my own not-for-profit corporation along with my three Leader friends... Anna, Sam, and Brian. We just decided on a name this weekend (although goodness knows there's only a slight chance that this is what we'll end up with seeing as we haven't passed it through the state yet): Music and Art in Refugee Camps, or M.A.R.C. for short. I'm very excited about it, and it's providing all sorts of opportunities to keep me busy planning events. We're hoping to put together our first benefit concert by the end of December. Hope to see you all there!

In any case, I'm afraid this re-introduction to my life will have to be short, as I need to be at work in approximately nine hours, which leaves very little time for sleep and preparation. But never fear faithful readers, my startling entry back into your lives will be long-lived (at least, that's what I'm presently planning on... who knows what will actually happen... I truly believed that I'd be writing again after that last entry...). Good night!

Peachy Chicken

My, it's been busy! The last day of classes was on Wednesday, so hooray for being done with classes! Alas, we must boo, for finals are still upcoming this week. Bah. It's been very difficult to focus on studying. Thursday night, the A/L crowd plus a few went and saw the midnight showing of Spiderman3, which I thought was much, much, much better than Spiderman2. I would definitely recommend it. After Spiderman, we headed over to Denny's at about 3:00am. It was entirely empty when we first arrived, but it started filling up after we sat down. The early morning crowd on a Thursday night/Friday morning is much sketchier than the weekend early morning crowds, apparently. There were a number of prostitutes with some very creative outfits, as well as a whole selection of lovely people...

On Friday night, David, Dylan, Cary, Erin, and I went and saw the Presidents of the United States of America over at PLU. It was quite excellent. I've never been to a concert before (unless you count Spice Girls when I was 10), so that was exciting. It was wonderful to see Cary and Erin again! After the concert we went to Dylan's room, where we proceeded to hang out until it was decided that we had better go to Denny's. The one out there is surprisingly less sketchy than the one out here... It had more a college crowd, as opposed to a prostitute/druggie crowd. Then last night, another A/L event was to be had, we all dressed up and went out to dinner at a small cafe nearby. It was quite nice. Afterwards, we all headed back, chatted for a bit, a few people wandered off to go watch the Beer Mile, and then David and I went to see Hot Fuzz with Cary and Dylan. If you enjoyed Shaun of the Dead, you will LOVE Hot Fuzz. It was fantastic.

And now, I really must go back to studying. :-) Ari

Ready for those sunny days

I am stuck on this paper; I feel like I'm not making any progress, and that's probably because I'm not actually making any progress. It's been a busy weekend. David and I took Soraya to the One-Acts on Friday night, as well as the student Art Show. Before that we went to Oma's house for dinner, which was delicious--what a nice change from SUB food! The One-Acts were great for the most part, very entertaining; although they did all seem to be of the same genre... The "faculty" One-Act was great; I really enjoyed it. It was really great to see Mr. Forier act in something too; it's a rare opportunity.

Yesterday, I had a waffle for breakfast. That was terribly exhilirating. It caused me no pain; probably because it's a waffle, which consists of fairly innocuous building materials--flour, milk, egg, etc. Then last night a bunch of girls from my hall, along with David and Cam, went over to my dad's house for dinner. We had a really wonderful time and another delicious dinner--two in a row! Party. We also made plans for our last couple weeks of schooltime. So much to do, really. I think we're going to go see the midnight showing of Spiderman3 on Thursday night. Then on Friday I'm going to a concert at PLU with David, Dylan, Erin, and Cary (and possibly Ryan, if he's in town for the weekend). I can't wait to see Erin! It's been far too long. She's going to give our fledling yearbook staff some tips on planning and organization too. That reminds me, have I mentioned that I joined the yearbook staff? We get paid some monthly salary, although I'm pretty sure it's not very large. Yet another project to add to my list. But it should be a lot of fun; I'm doing it along with the A/L girls... Christine and Maren are going to be the editors. Oh! And we convinced David to join the staff too. He's going to be the token sports guy.

David tried on some sweaters from Baba today. Finally picked those up from Oma's house, along with my laundry of two weeks ago. Mom and Soraya are heading out for Poland on Friday--how crazy. And Mehran is showing up again in just over a week! So very excited to see him. Other than that not much else to report at the moment, serious lots to do. I really must start working on this paper in seriousness. More soon! :-) Ari

"Food sans Everything, Please"

Hello all. It's a busy week, that's for sure! I'm presently taking a short break from my research of the Minangkabau, a matrilineal group in Indonesia that also happens to be Muslim. It's due a week from today...! And not a single page of it has yet been written. I can't believe I only have five more class days--two of which I only have Individual Fitness--so really, only three more days of academic class until... well... Reading Period... Finals Week... and then summer! First order of business is to clean out my closets at either house. Partially because I want to, but more so because I need to. I don't think I'm going to have any room for myself and my stuff once I move back into home for the summer. That sentence was not even gramatically correct.

German is making sense at the moment, more or less. We're learning the subjunctive right now. So much homework to keep up with, yet there's so little time left...

The rest of my week is going to be crazy, pretty much. I've got work tomorrow, plus I'm going to a dinner my dad is putting on for the office ladies. Haha! I'm an office lady. Well, the PC term is Professional Administratives Day, I do believe. And even though they have declared that the event takes a full week, if it were to be a day it would be today, April 25. I only decided to go after Baba told me that I could call and ask them to make me something not on the pre-set menu, as the menu options were undoubtedly going to cause my stomach some distress. I don't think the lady believed me when I told her I had very specific dietary restrictions that came down to low-fiber, low-fat, no vegetables... I'm pretty sure she just thought that I'm a very picky eater. So it sounds like I'll be dining on a no-cream-sauce-no-marinara-sauce-no-vegetable-laden-low-protein-olive-oil-dressed pasta... Who believes someone who says that they can't eat vegetables? Honestly. I wish I could eat a cucumber... That sounds so delicious at the moment... Mmm...

Then on Friday I'm going to Oma's house for dinner, then taking Soraya to the Art Show and the One-Acts. David's mom is going to be acting in one, along with Mr. Forier and Mr. Stubbs--and it was written by David's brother-in-law (and Mr. Moffitt is directing it). And then of course Lindsay is directing a show too! Then on Saturday there are various events, including dinner at my dad's house in the evening. Then Sunday, I know there's going to be lots of homework along with something that I can't quite remember at the moment. Busy busy busy. But it's better that way.

In other news, it sounds like Deniz might be able to come and visit this summer, which would be amazing! It also sounds like Christine and Maren might be coming back to UPS for a few days in June for some sort of yearbook conference. Did I mention that I joined the yearbook staff for next year? Yes, I know I'm crazy and I have no idea what I'm getting myself into. Good thing my best friend happened to the editor for a couple of years--I'm counting on Erin to teach me something about InDesign or whatever it is they use here.

I had better get back to work. :-D Ari

Prom Night Sans Prom

Hello there. I'm in the library right now, working on homework. Well, actually, I'm writing this blog post right now, but I will soon be working on homework. Last night was the Hui O Hawaii Club's Luau. I ended up taking Soraya and her friend Ashley to the show, since neither of them were going to prom this year. But first we went out to dinner at Silk Thai, which was quite delicious. We showed up at the Luau an hour early to make sure that we had good seats. The Luau was pretty amazing. Although I was partially horrified that Soraya probably saw more naked-man-flesh at the Luau than she would hopefully ever see at any prom/dance. But then again this was a family show--there were children there. They had a dance with just kids too, which was pretty cute. Overall, it was very impressive.

Following the Luau, we had ice cream with a few of my hall friends. Then Soraya, Ashley, David, and I went back to my dorm room where we played M.A.S.H. until Baba and Angi showed up to pick up Soraya and Ashley. I really do hope they had a good time. I think Angi was going to make breakfast for them this morning.

This last week was very busy. I had a paper on Southeast Asian women & industrialization due on Wednesday for my IPE class, then I had an Econ paper on the milk market due on Friday. Is everyone aware that the price of milk is expected to rise nine percent (roughly 30 cents) by this upcoming October? There you have it. The truth is out. My next paper is due May 2, and it's on the Minangkabau of Sumatra (they're a matrilineal group). And then of course there are plenty of quizzes to attend to, and then finals! Goodness, I'm ready for those be over.

Not much else to report at the moment, hopefully I'll write again sooner rather than later...
:-) Ari