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"Whoever is spared personal pain must feel himself called to help in diminishing the pain of others. We must all carry our share of the misery which lies upon the world." -Albert Schweitzer

I've been thinking a lot about the imprisoned Baha'is in Iran ever since the news came out that they were to be put on trial. I've been thinking about how strong they are, how steadfast. In the past when Baha'is have been imprisoned they have always been given the option to renounce their faith. I would assume this time is no different. It warms my heart to know they have remained centered in their Faith and love for God.

I have read the letter coming from the sister of one of the imprisoned Baha'is. My heart swells with love and appreciation. " I asked Mahvash what are you doing at the breakfast time during the fast. They give us hot tea and they will warm up the dinner that we have kept from last night. But we have not memorized the Dawn Prayer. Please read it on our behalf and tell people to pray for us during these times. We do feel the warmth of their prayers. Please express our greetings to all."

However, I do not feel that what I gain ends with admiration and personal strength. I do not even think it ends with gratitude and prayerfulness. I believe that through these series of events one can as a community grow stronger and more unified.

When I heard the news of the trial I was visibly upset. Housemates started stopping by, asking what the matter was. I shared with them the history of persecution of Baha'is in Iran and the current situation. The next day two of the girls shared something with me in return. One had told her friends what I had said and they said their prayers were with those in prison. The other had shared it in two of her classes. It was to be a topic of further discussion in at least one.

In the Lawrence community we have had several prayer gatherings for the Baha'is in Iran. It has been incredibly heartening to see that members of other faiths have come to join, no hesitation.

I feel that through these events I have become closer to people in my community. That we have had a new level of understanding of one another.

I continue to think a lot of the situation of the Baha'is in Iran and I continue to share it with others. Not only is it spreading awareness, something vitally important to the protection of these beloved souls, but it is also cultivating a new kind of community.

So share.

3 Quotes that Have Got Love All Wrong

Alright, rest assured this is not some lame (please pronounce la-may) attempt at concealing some lame (pronounce lame) drama in my personal life. No, this was spurred by reading a love quote which is so not descriptive of love. That is why it is number one.

1. "Love means never having to say you're sorry." -love story, 1970

That should really be "Bitter hateful love means never having to say you're sorry because you don't respect the other person enough to tell them you are sorry."

2. "Why do I love you? Because you are and always have been my dream." <<<----I think it's okay if my significant other is not who I always dreamed him to be. Cuz then he would be Aladdin.

3. "Love is like swallowing hot chocolate before it has cooled off. It takes you by surprise at first, but keeps you warm for a long time."

Sometimes I feel like we try too hard at metaphors and such



So if you want an example of some nice love stuff click on the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-aNJTY6JtM&feature=related

Books books books!!!

So...I saw this everywhere...

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. Well let's see.
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Italicize and bold the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own blog so we can try and track down these people who've only read 6 and force books upon them. (If you have not read The Handmaid's Tale or A Prayer for Owen Meany, please go to your local library right away.)



1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austin
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible - God
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. 1984- George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

The Most Vaulable Thing I Teach is the 5 Second Rule

I work with two year olds. Rest assured I am not making a whiny comparison between my co-workers and toddlers. Its just that I work with two year olds (to be precise, kids ages between 24 and 30 months). I have a total of 16 students but no more than 14 on any particular day. That's a lot of potty training. Some days the number of diapers I change gets to the range of 40. For a safer estimate of how many diapers I change, lets say that I change 25 each work day. I work Monday through Friday. That's about 125 a week, about 500 a month. Give or take of course.

That's right, I work at a nursery/daycare/preschool.

The kids are darling and I don't think I could conceive of a better job for me at this moment in my life. The greatest hilarity of my job is my job title. Assitant teacher. Mmmhmm. Teacher. So every day we have circle time (and I know what you are thinking, but no, we don't sit in a circle, we sit ON circles) and learn about different things. We count to ten in English and Spanish, sing the days of the week attempt to talk about colors in English and Spanish, and then we learn something about our theme of the week. This week and next week's themes are A Bug's Life. Then we do art projects revolving around that theme. All that takes about 30 minuntes. Because, hey, remember, they are two.

I don't think that I could have a much better entrance into work. I open the door and I hear a chorus of attempted "Madeline!"s none of which actually come out that way. And then a herd of toddlers running full speed towards me for hugs and kisses. And my exit from work? They leave one by one, blowing kisses and giving hugs and saying,"Byebye, love you Madeline" all in that fantastic toddler accent.

I can't be a good student right now. I mean it. See, for some reason my university site that has all my assignments is down. Since I can't do my homework, I just can't be a good student right now. But that is alright. I'll post instead.

We had a speaker come to my Intro to Education class a while ago. He told us that fifty 80-year olds were interviewed and asked what three things did they wish they had done more of during their lives. I only remember two of them but I feel like that's because they are probably the two best. 1. Reflect more. Reflect more on the good moments you have, replay them, because you don't want to forget them when you need them most, when you are old. 2. Take more risks. The more risks you take the less you will regret and the more great memories you will have to reflect on.

So I've been reflecting a lot lately on fantastic moments I've had. And its been really fun. Now I'm ready to start doing things that scare me. Taking those risks. I've got some fantastical things lined up which I'm looking forward to in that slight scared way.

I realized that many people have these different ways of reaching out to others and encouraging them to do the things they never did. I did a google search and found some websites. Here are snippets of my favorite advices.

Save a life

Remember that a smart and sarcastic response is not called for in every situation!

The greatest source of misery and hatred in this world is clinging to past hurts.

Waiting to do something until you can be sure of doing it exactly right means waiting for ever.

The quickest and simplest way to wreck any relationship is to listen to gossip.

Smoking is just dumb.

Wish I'd valued my work more highly earlier in my career

I wish I had shown more ‘unconditional love and acceptance’ of my family.

I would have eaten more ice cream. There are so many varieties and so little time!

All these mistakes you’re going to make, despite this advice? They’re worth it.





www.bspcn.com/2008/02/18/20-things-i-wish-i-had-known-when-starting-out-in-life/
http://www.lifestorywriting.net/woulda.htm
http://www.cameronmoll.com/archives/000036.html
http://www.writing.com/main/campfires/item_id/693282

Shells

Surreal is the only word, however overused, that I can think of that can adequately describe my sense of being. Here I was, walking on the beach belonging to Florida's coast, my footsteps slightly slower than this boy I watched grow up. He's nearing thirteen which sounds incredulous to me. His mother comments on how along with this approaching age also comes a somewhat cantankerous attitude. Her choice of words remind me of a species of crab crawling out of its shell ever so slightly before returning to its dark home. In all seriousness we can see this boy being one of the most courteous, family conscious teenagers this side of the Mississippi.
I look down at my feet, the sand runs in and out between my toes and the waves lick my calves. Broken pieces of shell cover the ground like a mosaic. I look above me a ways and see the pieces make a design. At the very beginning of the beach they are whole shells, this subsides into large pieces which eventually breakdown into tiny pieces almost but not quite resembling sand. Once you are able to wade in the ocean, the shells are whole again. I pick one up.
It is my mother's shell. It isn't as whole and perfect as I wish it could be, but it belongs to her. While wet, the black, grey and white seem to mix perfectly into a marble. I smile as I grasp the shell in my palm. I glance at the sun which is not quite ready to make its rapid descent. I have time. I climb up the sand towards the full shells and smile at the boy as he runs a little too far into the ocean. There! I see it, it is such a strangely shaped shell, certainly not one that would be sold in a shop. It has rounded spikes colored coral and purple, white masking the rest. 'Werf' is the word that passes through my mind when I pick it up and it is Afsaneh's.
I glance up and breathe in the semi-salty air. I am almost positive that I am one of tens of thousands of people who have made the comparison, but holding these shells in my hand I cannot help but think that they resemble people. They are washed ashore as whole shells and gradually break down and return to the ocean. Each shell is an individual,though you might see several clam shells they are all different.
This thought ran rampant in my mind and I saw a blindingly white shell, perfection. That is what I want to grace her life, its been a difficult several months, so this shell is hers.
I knew that I could walk forever on this beach naming a shell for every person in my life but I stopped. My name was being called, my attention drawn to the sunset. Our eyes darted over the horizon wondering if the dolphins remembered their cue of the falling sun. I turned to his father, speechless for several breaths. His smile rippled into laughter at my obvious excitement of this moment. I know I am hooked. Hooked on this feeling of ecstasy and ease that took me over from my limbs to my soul. I feel if I stayed here long enough that I could find the whole meaning of life in that ocean.

The Answer to the Question that Hasn't Been Asked

sitting on a ledge
legs swinging to tap out the beat
of confusion and pain
and I see you on the other
side of this chasm
back turned towards me
though this is nothing to do with me
wish I could finish this bridge that we started
but the pieces we valued seem to fall through
and break
my mind gets worse, most every sentence broken down
rearranged before understood
I'm exhausted from this circus of thought
but I will gladly shoulder any speech you would hand me
Arm stretches out,
trying to help you
wanting you to know how endlessly I love you
Its always autumn that causes the fall
know this and treasure our summer
but like the 1950's husband
you leave me in my home
mind only on business
I take the dishes and throw them off my ledge
watch them fall
wonder when they'll shatter

they say it comes in three
so i wait, my heart bumping into my ribs
with the horrid anticipation
the eye is captivated when it rains
how a single rain drop joining the lake
affects everything
movement awakening each molecule to the newness
and the weight in my heart feels as if it could drown me
because I realize that just as a drop adds to the depth
and beauty of the water
eventually another will evaporate, return from where it came
the first shocked me with ferocity
and my careless hands burned against the heat of the pain
it is the sinless that never drop
my body seizes itself in the memory
and I wait for the rise of the call
I sit, watch the flower that had begun to uncurl its clasped petals
hour after moment pass
find myself wishing I was more numb than I am
the idea of twelve hours runs rampant in my mind
the amount one can accomplish in that gasp of time
how insufficient a timeline that is
and I stagger back into the mysterious grief
that is not my own
a messenger of joy comes in three
at least, that's what he warned me
were I stronger would I not deplore the loss so?
or would my heart be lost if it didn't grieve
and you already know that you ascended with love all around you
you beautiful stranger to this world
grow in the mysteries of that world
and we will pray

Explanation

What is it that is defitionaly categorized as guilt or blame
In those moments that are snowballing into hours and days
I crave no explanation as my soul seems to cradle the situation
for the mystery of what it is
Only afterwards does my overly analytical self seek absolution
from actions my senses are almost positive are not crimes
and yet those analyzing warps of time like to trace over the
many lines of so many different paths that entered the realm of my possibilities
and I fall into bed with a mind running around in confusion
this is however, everything you are afraid to ask for
no dress-up or practicing of parts needed
no assembly required only a natural sense of being
A glaringly obvious parallel situation to another
I will continue to build up the sand castles knowing full well
their fragile state and not worry about the mess

Guess what guess what guess what!!!

Melon learned how to drive a stick shift!!
It was crazy fun...my new friend jon taught me on his car. how brave! After my first classes we are going back out to practice, this time in a bigger parking lot. I'm excited! Everyone else...you have been warned...

I'm falling faster than I ever remember having before
can't help to think how foolish since I don't know what I'm landing on.
Momentarily wish for the familiar childhood phrase "falling into cotton candy"
to once again be reality
And I think of my childhood and every moment leading up to right now
there are mistakes I have made that lay heavy around me like chains
Though words say "Let no excessive self criticism or any feelings of inadequacy,
inability or experience hinder you or cause you to be afraid." I drown in the weight of my deeds
Others seemingly have no qualms reminding me to wear these chains of pain
What we view as practical seems silly and constrained to me
I dream of transporting myself to an age where jolly ranchers make dreams come true
But in my actuality of being, I instead make wishes on bent pop tops and hard to open film canisters
I get nervous, flustered, discouraged and find a right to feel this in actions that now lie rotting
in forgotten fields
My mind reels at the statement I am refusing to make with my hiccuping words
For a battle that has barely started my body feels unjustly worn and frayed
Quick heart! Fight for yourself and I and wonder where we will land

so what if im a girl?

Sew up your lips,
I'm coming around the corner
Play the man everyone falls into trust with
Be the friend who never fails to say hello
who holds your hand after a bad day
warn me who is about to hurt me for all the wrong reasons
tell me you would never have me decorate your apartment
waste over a year of my time
sailing on a ship built with rotting lies
And then it all rips up
I'm not the girl who puts herself on that shelf
Should have known sooner
Listened to my list of stereotypes
You could've fought harder
to be a man worth knowing
Couldn't you have tried harder
to live up to the words you spoke?
And I feel just a little too numb
the question floats to my mind
what does my gender have to do with simply being a friend?

tagged by my brotha

SEVEN RANDOM FACTS ABOUT ME.

1. I met one of my oldest dearest friends at my brothers baseball game...she had My Little Pony ponies...so I had to join in...
   
2. I have a weird puffy scar on my knee I got when I was three or four. I got it at the park after running around in circles after a dog.
   
3. By August 12th I will have moved five times in twelve and a half months.
4. I am known at several coffee shops as that girl that gets a medium sized chai. can you think of a better claim to no where near fame??
   
5. I made a pact towards the end of my freshmen year with my four closest friends that we would go to the island of nantucket for our senior spring break (we weren't interested in the drinking and such scene of most spring breaks, we wanted to do something meaningful ) We promised that even if we weren't friends anymore, we'd all end up there for that spring break...the next winter they were all still friends but I was not...senior year I graduated early...they did not. I do not know if they went to nantucket but i didn't have spring break....so I don't really know...
   
6. I ate too much honey dew melon at Louhelen Baha'i School so that I am now allergic to it. We only ate what was left in the fridge from the sessions and the chef went on a throwing all food out kick so we only had fruit for a while. I ate an entire honey dew melon for dinner one night. My throat gets extremely scratchy when I eat it now and the feeling lasts for the next day or two.
   
7. I have written songs about bathrooms, brushing hair, pasta, coffee, writing songs, israel, among other things...
   

octopus

i was driving along and a truck pulled in front of me. not just any truck, but a cement truck. he started spraying black smoke into the air and immediately i saw the likeness of an octopus. so of course, i felt like a Morre eel trying to hunt the octopus, but the octopus was trying to get away!!


the octopus won.



oh animal planet, how you pervade my life...

Carving

Summing up a full circle
Means breaking it into sectors
And as I struggle to break apart my service
To describe how I have grown
A few choice moments, phrases, colors and actions
Come undone, transforming into clarity.
"A wide latitude for action must be allowed them,
which means that a large margin for mistakes must also be allowed."
After these words shoot through my mind
I am transported from a destitute city
To a college town rich in something I am unsure of

All the while I am carving
Mindfully carving
who I am, what I will decide to be
and the path I will tread to get there.

I am taken, and I melt into a new family
Where the arts are used to show my potential
And I am revived for this next phase of my journey
My singing is resusictated, echoed in the voice of a child
And as I beg for more to be laid on my plate
I receive looks of incredulity, as they already know of my belongings,
5 circles, 2 classes, prayers and talks beside fire

All the while I am carving,
Mindfully carving,
Who I am, what I will decide to be
And the path I am trying to read to get there

While attempting to persuade others I always need to be in motion
I become stagnant with a cracked bone
New parts of myself are built up as I find I need to ask for help, chauffeurs,
Overcome with inactivity I realize this is just another lesson, and a blessing
That the Almighty has placed in my hands to mold as I will
And as the jewled words say
"If I could tell the world just one thing it would be we're all okay, and not to worry
cause worry is wasteful and useless in times like these. I won't be made useless,
wont be idle with despair, I will gather myself around my faith, light the darkness most fear."
I drive into a new home

All the while I am carving,
Mindfully carving
Who I am, what I will decide to be
And the path I am endlessly walking

I my new space there is a battle between ego and sense of service
Others judge and from the look on their face and waning interest
It is clear--what mark could I leave with my simple service?
I almost give in but a friend's words echo the truth
"A woman had a near death experience...went to the Abha Kingdom,
Baha'u'llah asked her what she thought her most important service had ever been.
No pause was needed as she stated her teaching trip across Central America.
Baha'u'allah smiled and asked if she remembered when she helped at a summer event
for autistic children. That that day, when she spoke so kindly to that boy, it was the first time
anyone had been sincerely kind to him. It had touched his soul. That was her greatest service."
I am reminded these ten months are between God and me.
It's a perfect day to be interuppted from thought at Caribou Coffee to be told I'm an
angel,
It's a perfect winter morning to be stopped in my tracks by a woman begging to talk
with me.
It's an extraordinary afternoon to be cut off while reading to be questioned about
my faith.
It's an ideal evening to be stopped because of the language that I speak.

All the while I am carving
Mindfully carving
Who I am, what I will decide to be
And the path I have formed

I look at my hands that have handled all these tests and bounties
And I place the sectors back together but they form a different circle than before
They proudly speak of detachment, perspective, new arenas of paitience,
and the stories of those that touched my heart, and those that I touched in turn
though the latter remian a mystery for the sake of my mind
I understand every moment better than I was scared to think I would
And I look back at my full circle with only love in my heart
"For, as the body of man depends for life upon the rays of the sun,
so cannot the celestial virtues grow in the soul without the raidiance of the Sun of Truth."

And all this while I've been carving,
And I offer you my heart thus far...

Tremendous loss hovers around my soul
I feel it so acutely it might as well have been a slice of my heart
                Do you feel that?
Its the waves of possibilities nearly washing over us
You look at me,
    eyes so intent,
        smile playing on your lips,
            comfort seizing your muscles
I wonder despite your air of ease if your mind is
a crashing space of thought like mine
You are still and your eyes are begging to be met by mine
When they do you read me so completely
                  And against my wishes I look away,
Riddled with confusion as to why
The intimacy of being seen after so long being the servant in the background
You haven't waited till the last moment to let me know I matter
                                                            The challenge
of telling your humble self how you are my year culminating to its end,
to say to you how I tried on innocent fantasies
             so in the deep of night I might survive   
                        I am here
and I consume bits of your essence, ever hungry
for the knowledge of what and who you are
In moments of truth you trick me with kindness to tell you my secrets
I put things simply,
you see them truly.
Panic ensues when I realize the boat is coming into port
Your eyes close,
My heart stops.
You hold me long enough to say goodbye
And that is when I break,
                                      nay,
                                            shatter like ice to the ground
my hands shake as I feel you writing the last sentence in the book
of my year
I am here and I sip away at my nameless loss
                           and realize I am not finished

A Departing Update

My service goals include:
finish book 1 study circle-well...we didn't finish the book as they were too concerned with the fact i was leaving
finish book 2 study circle-finished the book!! now the partcipants are doing home visits weekly! yay!!
finish book 3 study circle-partcipant moved away...
finish book 4 study circle-yes!! finished it!!
do a book 6 intensive-okay, didn't really happen. It was open to people..but no body came...
teach three more children's classes at the Baha'i Center-yes sir!/maam!
go to two more devotionals at Tom's house-did this, they were fantastic...I shall miss them...
go to Rose's fireside three more times-I will dearly dearly miss this...my heart sighs at these fantastic people I will not see on a weekly basis anymore..
have arts and crafts virtue classes three more times- oh man, today was the last one...didn't quite work out as the students moments before I got there decided to play in a mud puddle...instead they took a bath while I shared music with their parents.
have three more junior youth classes-my last one is this friday. I will miss those kids!! I'm making bracelets for them as good-bye gifts! I have to leave my little sister...sigh...
have a few random devotionals- we had one last night and it was great! Tom, Lev, Nicole, Anna and myself were there and then we went to denny's afterwards minus Tom. When we were there we ran into Mike and Rachel. Rachel and I were estatic and ran to each other as earlier that day we thought we had said our last goodbyes.

Other goals, and their likelihood, are as follows:
Arboretum-98% likely-Success!!! Anna and I had a picnic and worked on book 4 here...it was quite lovely..Lev joined us for book 4, Lev pointed out that the arb is more like a tree muesuem.
The Ark-okay, i already went...but I wasn't even living in the Ann Arbor area yet! 92% likely-did not happen...pinball petes and hookah instead...sadly...
Crazy Wisdom-once again, have been here...but would like to go again...90% likely-still a possiblity, we'll see
Kerrytown-89% likely-I kinda drove through it...and I realized as I did that I had been there before...the day the women came off the street to meet me.
Purple Rose Theater-19% likely-yeah, not gonna happen. tickets to that thing are mucho dinero. well. more than i am willing to spend at the moment.
Botanical Gardens- 98% likely-Oh man, it happened but how can I explain how much not like a garden this place was? I swear, it was like being back in Kansas...that's how much praire this place has. Flowers I saw? None. None!! Not even little sprouts threatening to come up. Just long grasses.
Stucchi's-97% likely-Not yet...but I'm not too concerned...
Zingerman's-80% likely-Probably not going to happen
See Joe Reilly's show-98%-twice!!!

T Minus 19 Days

'19 days?' you wonder while reading the title of this post. Yes, 19 days until I retreat from the harsh ever present clouds and wind of Michigan. 19 days until I return to my home in Overland Park Kansas. With so little time left, I need to be using my time wisely.

My service goals include:

• finish book 1 study circle
• finish book 2 study circle
• finish book 2 study circle
• finish book 4 study circle
• do a book 6 intensive
• teach three more children's classes at the Baha'i Center
• go to two more devotionals at Tom's house
• go to Rose's fireside three more times
• have arts and crafts virtue classes three more times
• have three more junior youth classes
  
• have a few random devotionals

Other goals, and their likelihood, are as follows:

• Arboretum-98% likely
• The Ark-okay, i already went...but I wasn't even living in the Ann Arbor area yet! 92% likely
• Crazy Wisdom-once again, have been here...but would like to go again...90% likely
• Kerrytown-89% likely
• Purple Rose Theater-19% likely
• Botanical Gardens- 98% likely
• Stucchi's-97% likely
• Zingerman's-80% likely
• See Joe Reilly's show-98%

It was the Buzz that would not End!

I awake to find myself completely exhausted. It seems I have not been able to have a good nights sleep in months.

But this is no problem, this tiredness, because I have the power of coffee! And the day before I had just purchased said coffee. I drink two cups of joe and head, do yoga for quite some time, make a fruit salad and go to a picnic.

After a couple lazy hours in the sun with friends I realize I am still tired. Not only that but I am going on a home visit at 4 and then have a study circle at 7:00 so I need some sort of energy. Anna and I go to Portofino's Coffee House (I finally found a coffee shop!).

I consume a good amount of coffee there and then am ready for my home visit! And what a visit it was! We started out with dinner, homemade Ethiopian cuisine. Nigsty is very worried about her English so she had her two daughters stay and tell me stories. It was fantastic. Then Nigsty began to roast her own coffee beans, a custom when having guests. We watched a Canadian version of Candid Camera while drinking coffee. Very delicious, very strong.

There were so many different flavors in this small cup. What I didn't know about the custom, as she offered me more, was that after my second cup she would boil the coffee again and then I would have another cup of coffee. When that third cup was done, she would boil the coffee a final time and then serve me one more time. So when I was finished with this fourth cup it was 7 and I was completely wired. I was not aware of this though and said my goodbyes and thank yous and rushed on to my study circle.

The study circle is at Caribou Coffee and my two participants are inside waiting for me. I run in and explain the situation to them. Unfortunately it came out something like this:

"Sorrysomuchiwasatahomevisitanditstheircustomtoservecoffeeandfirstsheroasteditandthenihadfour
cupsbecauseyouhavetoboilitthreetimessoi'mreallysorryiwaslatei'mjustgonnagetsomethingtodrink
butidon'tthinkthati'llhaveanythingwithcaffeinecuzithinki'vehadenoughsorryagaintokeepyouwaiting."

Now, not only my table, but the girl next to us started laughing. I don't mean a few chuckles, i mean, trying to stay on their chairs laughing. They took out cell phones and started filming me. I turned around jumped (according to them) 12 inches in the air and ran the two feet to the counter to order. The barista was highly amused and suggested decaf. I accepted.

When our study circle was over, the participants were worried that my jittery foot would get me in an accident on my way home. I called a friend and we hung out until I chilled out...a lot. I couldn't get to sleep for quite a few hours and then woke up much earlier than I had intended.

At least I made people laugh.

Moving, its my new hobby

That's right. Three moves in seven months! How awesome, and not at all stressful, is that?! Plus, I'm going home really soon...as in two days from now. That's really all I have to say...except that in case anyone is concerned my tail bone is almost all the way healed. Yay!



Neda and me all dressed up during intermission of Respect-a musical written by a Baha'i Dr.

This is when we went to the hookah bar. Ahang & Neda
Char and I attempt to read Ahang's palm

And apparently his palm was really funny...I don't remember why

Then Ahang got on the phone, trying to hurry up his phone conversation, Neda took many photos...