United States is a gorgeous place! Why because of the diversity of its people. Just today I have talked to way too many people from way too many countries. Wonderful!

Day started out fantastic. I woke up at 6:30 A.M. to go running with my friend on a beautiful trail. We live right behind a lake so it was just convenient to take that path. It was gorgeous. We walked behind huge houses that were on the lake and the entire trail was filled with beautiful greenery. The weather was perfect and occasionally there was a wonderful breeze that would wake me up a little. There is nothing like waking up early and enjoying nature. Must do this more often.

Commencement Speech to the Havard Class of 2000

by Conan O'Brien

I'd like to thank the Class Marshals for inviting me here today. The last time I was invited to Harvard it cost me $110,000, so you'll forgive me if I'm a bit suspicious. I'd like to announce up front that I have one goal this afternoon: to be half as funny as tomorrow's Commencement Speaker, Moral Philosopher and Economist, Amartya Sen. Must get more laughs than seminal wage/price theoretician.

Students of the Harvard Class of 2000, fifteen years ago I sat where you sit now and I thought exactly what you are now thinking: What's going to happen to me? Will I find my place in the world? Am I really graduating a virgin? I still have 24 hours and my roommate's Mom is hot. I swear she was checking me out. Being here today is very special for me. I miss this place. I especially miss Harvard Square - it's so unique. No where else in the world will you find a man with a turban wearing a Red Sox jacket and working in a lesbian bookstore. Hey, I'm just glad my dad's working.

It's particularly sweet for me to be here today because when I graduated, I wanted very badly to be a Class Day Speaker. Unfortunately, my speech was rejected. So, if you'll indulge me, I'd like to read a portion of that speech from fifteen years ago: "Fellow students, as we sit here today listening to that classic Ah-ha tune which will definitely stand the test of time, I would like to make several predictions about what the future will hold: "I believe that one day a simple Governor from a small Southern state will rise to the highest office in the land. He will lack political skill, but will lead on the sheer strength of his moral authority." "I believe that Justice will prevail and, one day, the Berlin Wall will crumble, uniting East and West Berlin forever under Communist rule." "I believe that one day, a high speed network of interconnected computers will spring up world-wide, so enriching people that they will lose their interest in idle chit chat and pornography." "And finally, I believe that one day I will have a television show on a major network, seen by millions of people a night, which I will use to re-enact crimes and help catch at-large criminals." And then there's some stuff about the death of Wall Street which I don't think we need to get into....

The point is that, although you see me as a celebrity, a member of the cultural elite, a kind of demigod, I was actually a student here once much like you. I came here in the fall of 1981 and lived in Holworthy. I was, without exaggeration, the ugliest picture in the Freshman Face book. When Harvard asked me for a picture the previous summer, I thought it was just for their records, so I literally jogged in the August heat to a passport photo office and sat for a morgue photo. To make matters worse, when the Face Book came out they put my picture next to Catherine Oxenberg, a stunning blonde actress who was accepted to the class of '85 but decided to defer admission so she could join the cast of "Dynasty." My photo would have looked bad on any page, but next to Catherine Oxenberg, I looked like a mackerel that had been in a car accident. You see, in those days I was six feet four inches tall and I weighed 150 pounds. Recently, I had some structural engineers run those numbers into a computer model and, according to the computer, I collapsed in 1987, killing hundreds in Taiwan.


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After freshman year I moved to Mather House. Mather House, incidentally, was designed by the same firm that built Hitler's bunker. In fact, if Hitler had conducted the war from Mather House, he'd have shot himself a year earlier. 1985 seems like a long time ago now. When I had my Class Day, you students would have been seven years old. Seven years old. Do you know what that means? Back then I could have beaten any of you in a fight. And I mean bad. It would be no contest. If any one here has a time machine, seriously, let's get it on, I will whip your seven year old butt. When I was here, they sold diapers at the Coop that said "Harvard Class of 2000." At the time, it was kind of a joke, but now I realize you wore those diapers. How embarrassing for you. A lot has happened in fifteen years. When you think about it, we come from completely different worlds. When I graduated, we watched movies starring Tom Cruise and listened to music by Madonna. I come from a time when we huddled around our TV sets and watched "The Cosby Show" on NBC, never imagining that there would one day be a show called "Cosby" on CBS. In 1985 we drove cars with driver's side airbags, but if you told us that one day there'd be passenger side airbags, we'd have burned you for witchcraft.



But of course, I think there is some common ground between us. I remember well the great uncertainty of this day. Many of you are justifiably nervous about leaving the safe, comfortable world of Harvard Yard and hurling yourself headlong into the cold, harsh world of Harvard Grad School, a plum job at your father's firm, or a year abroad with a gold Amex card and then a plum job in your father's firm. But let me assure you that the knowledge you've gained here at Harvard is a precious gift that will never leave you. Take it from me, your education is yours to keep forever. Why, many of you have read the Merchant of Florence, and that will inspire you when you travel to the island of Spain. Your knowledge of that problem they had with those people in Russia, or that guy in South America-you know, that guy-will enrich you for the rest of your life.


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There is also sadness today, a feeling of loss that you're leaving Harvard forever. Well, let me assure you that you never really leave Harvard. The Harvard Fundraising Committee will be on your ass until the day you die. Right now, a member of the Alumni Association is at the Mt. Auburn Cemetery shaking down the corpse of Henry Adams. They heard he had a brass toe ring and they aims to get it. Imagine: These people just raised 2.5 billion dollars and they only got through the B's in the alumni directory. Here's how it works. Your phone rings, usually after a big meal when you're tired and most vulnerable. A voice asks you for money. Knowing they just raised 2.5 billion dollars you ask, "What do you need it for?" Then there's a long pause and the voice on the other end of the line says, "We don't need it, we just want it." It's chilling.



What else can you expect? Let me see, by your applause, who here wrote a thesis. (APPLAUSE) A lot of hard work, a lot of your blood went into that thesis... and no one is ever going to care. I wrote a thesis: Literary Progeria in the works of Flannery O'Connor and William Faulkner. Let's just say that, during my discussions with Pauly Shore, it doesn't come up much. For three years after graduation I kept my thesis in the glove compartment of my car so I could show it to a policeman in case I was pulled over. (ACT OUT) License, registration, cultural exploration of the Man Child in the Sound and the Fury...



So what can you expect out there in the real world? Let me tell you. As you leave these gates and re-enter society, one thing is certain: Everyone out there is going to hate you. Never tell anyone in a roadside diner that you went to Harvard. In most situations the correct response to where did you to school is, "School? Why, I never had much in the way of book larnin' and such." Then, get in your BMW and get the hell out of there.



You see, you're in for a lifetime of "And you went to Harvard?" Accidentally give the wrong amount of change in a transaction and it's, "And you went to Harvard?" Ask the guy at the hardware store how these jumper cables work and hear, "And you went to Harvard?" Forget just once that your underwear goes inside your pants and it's "and you went to Harvard." Get your head stuck in your niece's dollhouse because you wanted to see what it was like to be a giant and it's "Uncle Conan, you went to Harvard!?"



But to really know what's in store for you after Harvard, I have to tell you what happened to me after graduation. I'm going to tell you my story because, first of all, my perspective may give many of you hope, and, secondly, it's an amazing rush to stand in front of six thousand people and talk about yourself.


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After graduating in May, I moved to Los Angeles and got a three week contract at a small cable show. I got a $380 a month apartment and bought a 1977 Isuzu Opel, a car Isuzu only manufactured for a year because they found out that, technically, it's not a car. Here's a quick tip, graduates: no four cylinder vehicle should have a racing stripe. I worked at that show for over a year, feeling pretty good about myself, when one day they told me they were letting me go. I was fired and, I hadn't saved a lot of money. I tried to get another job in television but I couldn't find one.



So, with nowhere else to turn, I went to a temp agency and filled out a questionnaire. I made damn sure they knew I had been to Harvard and that I expected the very best treatment. And so, the next day, I was sent to the Santa Monica branch of Wilson's House of Suede and Leather. When you have a Harvard degree and you're working at Wilson's House of Suede and Leather, you are haunted by the ghostly images of your classmates who chose Graduate School. You see their faces everywhere: in coffee cups, in fish tanks, and they're always laughing at you as you stack suede shirts no man, in good conscience, would ever wear. I tried a lot of things during this period: acting in corporate infomercials, serving drinks in a non-equity theatre, I even took a job entertaining at a seven year olds' birthday party. In desperate need of work, I put together some sketches and scored a job at the fledgling Fox Network as a writer and performer for a new show called "The Wilton North Report." I was finally on a network and really excited. The producer told me the show was going to revolutionize television. And, in a way, it did. The show was so hated and did so badly that when, four weeks later, news of its cancellation was announced to the Fox affiliates, they burst into applause.



Eventually, though, I got a huge break. I had submitted, along with my writing partner, a batch of sketches to Saturday Night Live and, after a year and a half, they read it and gave us a two week tryout. The two weeks turned into two seasons and I felt successful. Successful enough to write a TV pilot for an original sitcom and, when the network decided to make it, I left Saturday Night Live. This TV show was going to be groundbreaking. It was going to resurrect the career of TV's Batman, Adam West. It was going to be a comedy without a laugh track or a studio audience. It was going to change all the rules. And here's what happened: When the pilot aired it was the second lowest-rated television show of all time. It's tied with a test pattern they show in Nova Scotia.


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So, I was 28 and, once again, I had no job. I had good writing credits in New York, but I was filled with disappointment and didn't know what to do next. I started smelling suede on my fingertips. And that's when The Simpsons saved me. I got a job there and started writing episodes about Springfield getting a Monorail and Homer going to College. I was finally putting my Harvard education to good use, writing dialogue for a man who's so stupid that in one episode he forgot to make his own heart beat. Life was good.



And then, an insane, inexplicable opportunity came my way . A chance to audition for host of the new Late Night Show. I took the opportunity seriously but, at the same time, I had the relaxed confidence of someone who knew he had no real shot. I couldn't fear losing a great job I had never had. And, I think that attitude made the difference. I'll never forget being in the Simpson's recording basement that morning when the phone rang. It was for me. My car was blocking a fire lane. But a week later I got another call: I got the job.



So, this was undeniably the it: the truly life-altering break I had always dreamed of. And, I went to work. I gathered all my funny friends and poured all my years of comedy experience into building that show over the summer, gathering the talent and figuring out the sensibility. We debuted on September 13, 1993 and I was happy with our effort. I felt like I had seized the moment and put my very best foot forward. And this is what the most respected and widely read television critic, Tom Shales, wrote in the Washington Post: "O'Brien is a living collage of annoying nervous habits. He giggles and titters, jiggles about and fiddles with his cuffs. He had dark, beady little eyes like a rabbit. He's one of the whitest white men ever. O'Brien is a switch on the guest who won't leave: he's the host who should never have come. Let the Late show with Conan O'Brien become the late, Late Show and may the host return to Conan O'Blivion whence he came." There's more but it gets kind of mean.



Needless to say, I took a lot of criticism, some of it deserved, some of it excessive. And it hurt like you wouldn't believe. But I'm telling you all this for a reason. I've had a lot of success and I've had a lot of failure. I've looked good and I've looked bad. I've been praised and I've been criticized. But my mistakes have been necessary. Except for Wilson's House of Suede and Leather. That was just stupid.


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I've dwelled on my failures today because, as graduates of Harvard, your biggest liability is your need to succeed. Your need to always find yourself on the sweet side of the bell curve. Because success is a lot like a bright, white tuxedo. You feel terrific when you get it, but then you're desperately afraid of getting it dirty, of spoiling it in any way.



I left the cocoon of Harvard, I left the cocoon of Saturday Night Live, I left the cocoon of The Simpsons. And each time it was bruising and tumultuous. And yet, every failure was freeing, and today I'm as nostalgic for the bad as I am for the good.



So, that's what I wish for all of you: the bad as well as the good. Fall down, make a mess, break something occasionally. And remember that the story is never over. If it's all right, I'd like to read a little something from just this year: "Somehow, Conan O'Brien has transformed himself into the brightest star in the Late Night firmament. His comedy is the gold standard and Conan himself is not only the quickest and most inventive wit of his generation, but quite possible the greatest host ever."



Ladies and Gentlemen, Class of 2000, I wrote that this morning, as proof that, when all else fails, there's always delusion.



I'll go now, to make bigger mistakes and to embarrass this fine institution even more. But let me leave you with one last thought: If you can laugh at yourself loud and hard every time you fall, people will think you're drunk.



Thank you.

Taken from: Site

I have been watching way too much CNN and therefore I have been exposed to the Virginia Tech shootings as much. That’s all I seem to be thinking about lately. I wake up and it hits me…I could be in a classroom and the same thing could happen.
I sit in my classes and wonder: what’s the quickest exit from this room, where is the best place to hide, would I fight back or play dead. Then I sit in my room and wonder the same things. It’s all too scary.

I am looking forward to summer. With the new job (I received the offer today) and I start in May, I am going to be crazy busy! But I want to enjoy any free time I will have. I am going to take this summer to learn how to cook some Sri Lankan dishes, go for lots of walks, play tennis, soccer, have as many barbeques as possible, spent tons of times with my family, get to know my city, and read books. Hopefully not too many textbooks but the books that are on the New York best seller.

One thing I will surly not do is: start a damn garden. Two summers ago I started one and it was disastrous! The location my mom picked for me was an absolute dump! It was the capital city for all the mosquitoes and I was its main attraction. And don’t get me started on all the rabbits that ate anything that resembled green. I’ll leave this gardening business to my other 4 family members. They seem to have luck with it. My mom was a cutie who really wanted to inspire me to get a garden but the location that she suggested was...so wrong for a beginner. So that kind of ruined the whole garden thing for me. When I get a house I might hire someone to get one going (maybe my sister or brother...just kidding)- because I do like flowers but I am not the one going to be planting anything.

Went to the science museum for the Race Exhibit but these dinosaurs were so cool!

Hi!
So busy. I am learning so much and having way too much fun. I’ll update this weekend when I have my digital on hand.

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!

Guess what! I signed the lease to my apartment starting in June. I am so excited! The three other girls I am moving in with are fantastic! I think we are going to have so much fun! It happened very quickly. We went apartment hunting yesterday and walked to a few places. But all of us pretty much fell in love with the first apartment we looked at. Four cozy bedrooms, two bathrooms, a beautiful living room with a huge window, and finally our own kitchen!

We did look at one apartment that had three small rooms and one room that was huge! We all just mutually agreed that we would fight over the bigger bedroom so we didn’t even take that apartment into consideration.

Did I mention how fast everything happened? I didn’t think I would find three others so quickly and already signed the lease.
Yikes!

Next semester is going to be so much fun. I heard that four other guys that we all know might move in to the same complex. Okay, that would be like living on campus all over again- but with our own bedrooms! I know two of the girls love to cook-this might be dangerous. But I am definitely going to cook healthy. Two of the girls were/are dating Indian guys so they love curries and rice. So this summer I have to learn to cook with my dad so I can cook them some dishes. Something simple and healthy.

Everyone must visit me!

I asked my dad a question this weekend.
Why can’t LTTE go the Mahatma Gandhi route-Non-violence?
My dad answered that it was tried for a few years but there was too many killings that happened that it was better to start fighting than wait to be killed.

I been watching the second season of The Office and it is fabulous! So funny! OMG, laughter never felt so good! A story of a boss, wants everyone to like him, yet in attempting to do so, becomes a big goofball and a little bit of a jerk. Love it!

I think people with British accents are so attractive especially the men. So, it’s no surprise to me that I started up a conversation with an older man just because he had the accent and he seemed like a nice man. Not like Simon from American Idol-whom I will never find attractive. If this man didn’t have the accent then I probably would have pretended like I was reading when he came down to wait for the taxi that I previously called for him.

He was so cute. I told him about the one day trip I had in London (yes, one day) and how I wanted to go back one of these days for a longer time. I asked him what he thought of his trip to the States so far.

“It’s nice…but I miss home” he said.

In his opinion he said American restaurants give way too much food! He couldn’t believe the size of the lasagna he ordered was the size his family eats for dinner! He pointed to my computer speakers to represent the slice of the lasagna. With the lasagna came salad and ice cream. The waitress kept asking if there was something wrong with the food because the UK group still had a lot of the food left. They were in amazement and frankly he seemed disgusted by our American way. And he said if anyone really finishes all of it….I said *ahem* “yes, yes, people do”

One night he forgot his passport in his hotel. Few friends and he went to a bar for a few drinks. This man clearly looks about early to late 40’s yet they would not give him an entrance to the bar because he had no way to identify he was 21+. He said that it was ridiculous! Finally, his friend had to give a bribe to have him inside the bar.

Now, I don’t know why these stories stand out for me. They are the usual stories-- nothing particularly interesting. Yet, because of his accent and for being a patient man (taxi was late...little bit my fault for this) I like his stories. He was straight forward- when I feel that I would have told more of pleasant stories. Okay, maybe I am thinking too much into this---maybe I just simply again liked his accent. There was something genuine about his tone – critical yet…

Is that time in my life.
Time to make resumes; get the experiences of a lifetime, and grow up!
Yea, I am actually excited to get out in the world.
I love embellishing the details of my past jobs and experiences.
Embellishing every mundane details to some extraordinarily heights.
When I twine words together that are just right to make it all sound super important....it felt a little weird.
But the more I read my resume...
It actually feels really good.
I feel important.
And
I am excited to see how my resume will be in five years.
I can’t wait!

I had so much fun today! I attended an event that had different halls competing at different sports for the title of All-Stars. There was a color theme for each of the halls (pink for me), prizes, and huge banners. It was SO much fun! Few of us, including myself, got extremely bored waiting for all the different sports to be set up. So we had to make some fun. We got whole bunch of pink bandanas, tied them together, and made ourselves capes. We were pink superheroes for the night. When I was playing kickball and needed to run one base to another, my cape would fly in the air! I felt powerful. I laughed so much that my stomach hurt by the end of the night. I stole a bag full of goodies that was free (whistles, ice scrapers, Frisbees, band aids with cool cases, gum etc.)

By the time, all the events ended it was about 10 p.m. and few of us were starving. Since it was beautiful weather outside we decided to walk about 6 blocks to Perkins. OMG, I haven’t been to Perkins for years and their menu has changed so much. They give you a ton of food for only about seven bucks. The dish I ordered came with three pancakes which I had for breakfast the next day.

I was exhausted by the time I got back.

I have been laughing A lot. Laughing where your stomach is in pain. Ahhhh….it feels so good!

I was watching a show on BET (Black Entertainment Television). While flipping the remote I heard something that disturbed me. This particular show had some rather, I guess well-known people in the black community (comedians or those who are willing to speak about black people). So this black guy said something to this affect… “The fear that once was seen when a black man enters a room/bus has been taken over. Now we got our Muslim brothers fighting that fight for us.

I don’t know what to think of it. I am just thinking if I am playing into this.

So I bought these flowers for my mom……and ME! I just love all the pink. Ohh and I love the red on the kitchen wall in these pictures!!

My day was so busy. I didn’t realize I had planned so many things. I forgot actually. So, my day started with receiving a beautiful, handmade, valentine card from my friend in the mail. It was HANDMADE and pretty! I hopped to class instead of the usual slouch.

As soon as my classes were finished, I attended the Vagina Monologues series. It was definitely an unique event!!!

I didn’t stay for the closing speech of the vagina monologues because I was running way too late for a get together. I met up with a few girls and had ourselves a small party (single and happy…). We ordered too many pizzas, bread sticks, and ATE way too much! For our movie selection we watched The Notebook.

Wangari Maathai

I went to hear 2004 Nobel Peace winner Wangari maathai speak. Maathai founded The Green Belt Movement that helped women plant more than 30 million trees across Kenya. This helped these women improve the quality of life and conserve the environment. She was the first women to earn a doctorate in East and Central Africa and the first environmentlist to be awarded the Nobel Peace.
It was a packed auditorium; people were given permission to sit behind her on stage and when that wasn’t enough, a live feed of her speech was transmitted to a second auditorium!
She mentioned one thing that stood out for me: As she travels across the globe many often complain that the United States did not sign the Kyoto protocol treaty. She told the crowd that she is impressed with the United States on the efforts they take to reduce global warming. She has not visited one country, even the countries that signed the treaty, where individuals are aggressively involved in recycling and being aware of global warming. United States is number one in that.

We don’t have to wait until we can do big things. We can do little things like planting a tree. Anybody can do that. But if so many of us in the world did it ---and especially in areas where trees are needed---we can make a difference,” Maathai said.

Avocados ANYONE?

Currently we have about forty avocados at the house. It all started with my parents seeing a cooking show on SunTv and in that particular episode, they discussed nutritional benefits of avocados. So they told my brother and I to buy it for 29 cents each. My brother was not sure if he can buy it before the coupon expires so I went and bought it. When I came home my brother had twenty and I had twenty!

They are high in calories but they can lower cholesterol.

Today I blended one in milk and sugar. Too good. Must stop!

Yet to be Beat by Little Girls!

If time permits, I could get really obsessed with soccer. Our team is called: Little Girls. The reason behind this name: If we beat a team then they have to say “we got beat by little girls.”
Okay. Someone thought it would be funny.
I have yet to miss a game. We are not doing that well so far but it is just fun to be aggressive and competitive (two of my favorite things…most of the time). It’s definitely a stress reliever. I SO enjoy team sports.
Let’s hope for a win next time.

I run from one end to the other end getting the ball away from the other team as much as possible. That is my job. And I do my job to the best of my ability.

The entire team. can't all be on the field so we take turns. Two girls have to be in the field at all times.

Limited Visibility!

My drive this morning was the worst! I am just glad I got to my room safely. Most of the drive I felt like I was on a plane. All the snow that continuously fell did not settle on the ground but was flying around which gave the impression of --clouds. All I could do was stay behind other cars that SOMEHOW managed to see where they were going. With all this difficulty I still made it back here by the usual time-which surprised me.

I didn’t see a “Limited Visibility” sign until right before my exit! That really helped!