Power

"The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed."
-- Stephen Biko


I think we can pretty much apply that to anything in our lives.

The Framers of the Bill of Rights did not purport to "create" rights. Rather, they designed the Bill of Rights to prohibit our Government from infringing rights and liberties presumed to be preexisting.
-- Justice William J. Brennan

America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense, it is the other way around. Human rights invented America.
-- Jimmy Carter

Vote for Obama...cause he's black

I went shopping with my sister yesterday. They had an amazing sale of J Crew items. While not being a shopper (I detest shopping. Get me in then out as quickly as possible), I admitted to my sister that this was an opportunity not to be missed. While the cashier was ringing our items, she kept making ignorant comments which I was trying my best to ignore. And then right before we were done, she said "I'm sure I don't need to ask who you're voting for." Luckily for her, my sister was turned away on the phone and did not hear that comment. Lets just say that my sister does not suffer fools easily. At first, I just stared at her not really comprehending what the heck she was talking about. And then it hit me. Why does whom I vote for have to be a racial thing? Did that mean that she was voting for McCain because he's white?! Well, I told her, nicely and patiently, that I was looking at the campaigns and the policies of each candidate to make an informed and confident decision. She did not reply. I don't know why and to be honest, I did not care. I cannot stand to be reduced to a skin that just happens to be black. Why is my mind or my heart dismissed? I do get a lot of ignorant comments, and most of the time I understand that it's a lack of knowledge on their part. And that they need to be educated. It does not mean I am not annoyed or hurt sometimes by these comments. I do NOT have to do, like, or say certain things because I happen to be black. I love who I am and my skin goes with it. But my skin is just a piece of me. It is NOT a definition of who I am.

A daunting task

Here I was sitting in a chair next to my brother-in-law while he was hard at work studying at four in the morning, when suddenly, an amazing idea lighted upon my mind. What is beauty? It seems as if the world only finds beauty in physical things. I must admit, I have spend quite a bit of time admiring the beauty of others in a...physical way (there are beautiful men out there:) But while on a trip to Yellowstone National Park, I was taken aback with the fact that I am a very lucky girl. I begun to ponder about the people I admire. Not in a way that makes me feel the need to compare myself, but in a way that either challenges me to improve myself or just causes me to be pensive in some way or another. I have decided to feature them in this blog and explain, if I find the words, why I hold them, or at least one of the traits they have, in such high esteem . These people have lifted, encouraged, confounded, humored, challenged, and beautify me and others around them. This will be quite time consuming since I encounter and have amazing people in my life. And so I decided to divide the task. I will feature someone every time I can. I'm excited. They will be people who leave me in awe and take my breath away. We'll see what else I will add. I'm still uncertain about how exactly to proceed with this. But it is something I very much yearned to do.

To touch or not to touch...

Jacky was one of the men I met while volunteering for Les Petits Frères de Pauvres. We made an instant connection. I’m not sure if that connection was bad or good. You will understand as you read on. Jacky and me immediately made plans to spend time together (that was what I was there to do, spend time with them no matter what we did). The first couple of times were fantastic. I loved it and I loved him. He wanted to make sure I saw all the wonderful places in Paris and experience all the great restaurants. He was from the North of France and had a different accent from the Parisians. It was adorable. But Jacky had this one little problem; He love women. Not that that’s a bad thing, but…well…let me finish the story and you will understand. After it just being usually me and him when we went to our little outings, another volunteer arrived from Utah. From that point on, it was always Jacob and me. We rarely spent anytime separated from each other. Jacky was NOT happy with the change. Jacky could be perverted and vulgar, but he tried to restrain himself when he was with me. But when Jacob came it was as if there had been a treaty between Jacky and me that was broken. I became pretty uncomfortable with the things he would say and saddened because that was not MY Jacky.
One day, we went to Paris Plage. It was Herve, Abdallah, Eduard, Amelie, Jacob, Jacky, and me. While walking there, Jacky decided to walk next to me. He had been distanced and had not given Jacob and I a chance to visit with him. I was very sad. I thought for a minute that my Jacky was back, but I was so, so wrong. While we were walking, I looked to my left at the Seine and suddenly felt a weird sensation on my right breast. It seemed that Jacky had decided to give my breast a squeeze ( a long up and down squeeze). I was surprised and shocked. I looked over at him to see that he was bright red and smiling. I said, “Jacky, did you just touch something that did not belong to you?” And he was too busy smiling and being happy to give me a response. All that kept going through my mind was “I can’t believe I just got felt up by a 55 year old pervert!” As you can all see, I had quite a bit of adventure in Paris…sigh…I miss those days 





I use to have better pictures of everyone. And some...interesting pictures of Jacky, unfortunately, my laptop broke down on me after I downloaded the pictures and have lost them all. The only reasons I have these is because I e-mailed them to some friends and they were able to send me copies. As you see, most of the time, Jacky was fond of suits, trousers, and anything gentlemanly. It was just the way he rolled :)

Habeus Corpus

I consider our constitution to be one of the greatest written masterpieces. I don't think when the Founding Fathers were writing the constitution that they thought one day someone like George Bush would be president. Many unconstitutional occurrence have occurred in the last eight years and it is now people are waking up and asking questions? What saddens me is that they (or we, because I've done my share of overlooking)have become more interested in the government because of the state of the economy right now when they've realized that things are not going their way. But it seems they are still ignoring all the other things that's been going on. Things like the fact that other branches of the government have taken it into their hands to momentarily displace Habeus Corpus when it is only Congress that is allowed to do this and only under certain conditions. I feel tired and disappointed. How are we going to fix anything if we keep our blinders on about the state of our government? I hope we will truly be pensive about whom we vote for this election. That we will listen and search before we decide. That we will remember that we are not suppose to represent the government; the government is suppose to represent us.

My date with Adam

Adam was one of the most fun and creative dates that I have had in forever. For our date we went on a hike and photographed anything and everything that caught our interest. He brought his tripod for this activity. Poor guy carried it around for quite some time, but it was wholly worth it. These words that I'm using to describe the date do not begin to describe the quality of the date itself. He was a blast to be with. And my favorite part was that he kept me laughing the whole evening. Here are some pictures that are a result of this adventure of ours.

Seizing the Day

Okay, I'm finally going to do it. I'm going to take the MCAT! Med school is something I've wanted to do for years (since I was a child, actually). But one thing or another kept veering in my path and I swayed away from realizing that dream. I want to be a wife and a mother. That is my number one priority . But this desire is not waning and I feel it is something I am guided to do. I know Heavenly Father will help do what I need to do to for Medical school and for my family. Thank goodness He knows me better than I know myself. I can completely trust Him and His guidance. In my list of things to do before I die that I made years ago, applying to med school was number one. No longer will I drift with the waves of the sea. I will act; I will seize the day. I am filled with excitement! I can't begin to tell you how calm, content, and charged I feel. I feel like the kid in this picture (↑). I'm being taken for a ride and boy am I enjoying it! :) I'll just have to make sure to maintain a social life. Friends and family, I'm counting on you guys to help me with this no matter what I say.

Now, one of the most stressful part; studying for the MCAT.

Sleepwalking

This morning was my last morning at work (I work the graveyard shift for seven days and then I have seven days off). On the morning after my last graveyard I usually stay up for about 26 or 28 hours. Well let me tell you, it is exhausting! Well, after my bellydancing class, I started talking to a friend on the phone. The next thing I know, I was sitting on my bed. I have a vague recollection of starting my walk home, but everything else is unclear. How can half an hour be wiped out of my mind? I have no idea what my poor friend thought as we "conversed". But this made me realize how amazing the human body is. My body knew where to go, eventhough my mind (my conscious mind) was not there to guide it. It also obviously knew what to say to reassure my friend that I was still listening, when in fact, I was a million Zs away. The other thing is that, my body needed sleep, so it went into some weird hibernation while I was still, supposedly, active.

In 1987, a 23 year old male killed his parents-in-law while he was sleepwalking and was found not guilty. I wonder if my friend will forgive me as easily when she finds out that I slept (?) through half an hour of her telling me how horrible she feels when her feelings and words are not acknowledged or dismissed? I think I'm way beyond tired now. I'm going to bed, hopefully I'll remember writing this in the morning:)

My grand performance

A couple of nights ago(or mornings, days and such gets complicated when you work the graveyard shift)I decided to stay awake by listening to love songs. I, sometimes unfortunately, am a hopeless romantic. I blame this on the fact that as a child I was always surrounded by my aunts (there are eight of them). It started out simple enough. I wanted to listen to “I’m not that that girl” from Wicked. From that point it moved to Aida, Rent, then Olivia Newton-John. Sadly, everything went downhill from there. And soon, I was standing on my bed singing my heart out (as quietly as possible since my roommates were asleep)with my imagination creating a theater filled with people who were there to see me perform (in my PJ's no less). You know how they say we all have guardian angels around watching over us? Well, my guardian angel must have been rolling around on the floor laughing and calling others to join him in watching me make a fool of myself. But I had a great time! I really should do it more often.

This is a picture of me making a fool of myself as, once again, my imagination took flight. From this picture, you can imagine exactly what I looked like that sad, long ago night (okay, two nights ago).

My love affair with Paul Newman

When I was seven, I saw “Cat On a Hot Tin Roof.” I fell instantly, madly, and helplessly in love. Gosh, I didn’t know what hit me. Imagine your favorite dessert and that initial taste where your taste buds are bursting with pleasure and sensory overload, then perhaps you will be able to imagine how I felt as I watched Paul Newman. It was originally a play but they had to change a few subject matters in the process of making it a movie.
How do I love Paul Newman? Let me count the ways... Okay, obviously, there was his looks. I melted when I looked at him. But besides that, he was an amazing actor who truly enjoyed his craft. He was a good guy with a great heart. He created "Newman's Own", which is a company that donates all of it's proceeds, which has been more than 200 million dollars, to charity. He was politically involved, something that many people in the U.S don't seem to be. And he was a devoted family man. I read in a couple of places that when asked about infidelity he usually replied, "Why go out for hamburger when you have steak at home?" What is there not to love about this man?
I’m posting a clip below of one of the scenes from the movie. I’m not saying it’s the best scene, but it is a great scene. I hope you will all go out and rent the movie. If you do, tell me what you think.

This is the movie that also started my admiration for the acting capacity of Elizabeth Taylor.