My presentation went on fabulously! In this particular class presentation are redeemed good when it invokes a ton of discussion. Well, mine did. I shared a personal story of how my family came to the U.S. and have thrived in this country. So that got people talking about immigrant’s attitudes and black Americans attitudes.
It really pays off to practice. I practiced my PowerPoint so many times. Last night I was at the library until 1 A.M., stuck in a small room, and just kept doing the presentation over and over. When I got up there I was confident to begin with so that really helped.

Okay, life is definitely good for me. Haha.

More on my weekend a little later.

Do you ever read something in history books and immediately convince yourself that if you lived in that particular time, you would have helped in your own way, to prevent a small fraction of that event from happening? Well, the history is being written down as you read this—WHERE ARE YOU?

I use to read a lot of books on the Holocaust. And wonder “How could the rest of the world let this happen?” But now, I am the one, who is sitting and watching everything happen-without lifting a finger.

What can I do?

My weekend was so tiring especially Saturday night. I did some shopping but when I came home I really wanted to get my dad’s laptop hooked back to the internet. So to do this, I needed a CD. And Of course I could not find the damn thing. I was running around the house trying to find it, looked every corner of my room, every crap was lifted to see if the CD was there. When I can’t find something (which often happens because I am so unorganized and have a lot of crap) I get obsessive with finding it. I go crazy! Eventually I was exhausted trying to find the CD that all I could do was fall asleep.

The next day I called the company and they were able to get me connected in about ten minutes-no CD needed. The woman who helped me was “Annie” who had a strong Indian accent. She was SO helpful.

I am looking forward to next weekend!

My roommate and her boyfriend broke up. Who knew that was going to happen…ME!
Now he calls at 2 A.M. asking her to take him back.

I so need a vacation. But my parents keep telling me to wait until I graduate and get a career. But Hello, that’s when I’ll have a stricter schedule…more so than the current. This doesn’t make too much sense to me.

My classmate gave the best presentation I have heard in a long time. He had the audience captured for his thirty minute presentation and when he was done everyone had so many questions for him. His topic was the Somalian community in Minnesota and overall misconceptions Americans and Somalis have about each other.

It was awesome yet I am jealous of him!

What a gorgeous day! I like how all the snow is melting and the streets are drenched with water. I was secretly standing by the drains on various streets just to hear the water rushing down. It’s so peaceful. You should give it a try.

Yes, I had a very hard day today.

Grrr..I am feeling something I can’t even describe. Its annoyance, anger, and frustration all wrapped into one…frugeroynce. So the question I get a lot is “Why don’t you have a boyfriend?” And this question is said with a facial expression of sad/confusion.

Ohh my gosh! I really have to tell everyone, especially people who don’t even know me , who the hell cares? Is it really that important? When did women start to think that their lives are not completely fulfilled without a man or just any jerk to call a boyfriend?

My roommate asks me this question almost every week...especially when I come back from the library late at night. She probably thinks I am so pathetic to be spending few hours at the library. I usually say “I don’t know” and just try to actually get some meaningful work done.

Sometimes I just can’t even have conversations with people about topics that I have no concern with or because their lack of English will take me one hour to explain something that can be normally understood in 2 seconds. I don’t have that much patience when people can’t even have a conversation yet they take 3 hours to put on makeup everyday and make it their fulltime job to find a boyfriend. okay...a little off the topic.

One of the things that really annoyed me and I still remember this event very well:

To be a nice roommate I actually sat facing her and we talked about this “boyfriend” topic. Somehow I thought I could explain why having a boyfriend is the last thing on my mind...and I don't wake up to find a boyfriend. I mean I do pay attention to the opposite sex but I don’t look at them and think “I wish he could be my boyfriend…I need a boyfriend..…Please, please, please!”

Just to be amusing I asked her this question. What would change about me if I had a boyfriend?And you know what she did! She said “I would walk around all day with a huge smile on my face—all the time.” And she gave me the biggest smile that I have ever seen and held that simile for about a minute.

Puke…not at her smile (I am not that mean) but at her answer!

She also has a boyfriend back home and who knows where else. Oh yea, the first thing she asked me when we first met was “how are the guys here?” How could I even answer this question. Does one particular place have one particular breed? Isn’t the world filled with men who are nice, romantic, jerks, man-whores, etc…you get the picture. And is not like I got a report on all the men here to come up with a paragraph to describe them.

So I said “they are nice”
…good night.”

Color
Creativity
Busy streets with full of activity
Passport
Clean places
Clutter free
A good Song
A thoughtful movie
A wonderful piece of mail
Jewelry
A good book that keeps me up at night and then I reach for it the first thing in the morning
A cozy bed
Handbags – any bags -- luggage
Breeze
Children playing
Night

So, What makes you happy?

My favorite Sri Lankan dessert has to be kollukkaddai. It is so yummy. It’s filled with roasted and grinded sesame seeds, cardamom, coconut, and sugar. Outer layer is just all purpose flour mixed with rice flour steamed.

My mom and dad made it a few days ago and I had way too many. All of them were gone in just a few days. Damn.

A philosophy professor stood before his class and had some items in front of him. When class began, wordlessly he picked up a large empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks, rocks about 2” in diameter. He then asked the students if the jar was full? They agreed that it was. So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks.

He then asked the student again if the jar was full. They agreed it was. The students laughed. The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. “Now,” said the professor, “I want you to recognize that this is your life.”

“The rocks are the important things – anything that is so important to you that if it were lost, you would be nearly destroyed. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else. The small stuff.”

“If you put the sand into the jar first, there is no room for the pebbles or the rocks. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your energy and time on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out dancing.

There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party and fix the disposal. “Take care of the rocks first—the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”

Happy March!

I am so excited for this month! My first day of March is starting out fantastic even though is snowing hard. I just hope I don’t have too much of a bad time on the roads when I start driving.

Anyways, what I am so happy about is that I got a perfect score on my black community class paper. I wrote about the staggering unemployment rates in the black communities and how it is the biggest factor in the continuing fragmentation of black community. I am really surprised with my grade because I didn’t feel completely accomplishment with the task when I gave it to my professor. But, I guess I should just be happy with it and I am!

After spring break I have to give a presentation about the topic I wrote about. Yea, that is really going to be interesting. I must practice at least ten times before I am comfortable. Well, maybe a 100 times!