Reasons To Rejoice

abby about to hit the water
Originally uploaded by j_jyarbrough.

Check out that plunge. I also hold my nose. This is what I would like to do every time I walk out into the DC heat.

I am happy for falls, pools, lakes, streams, sprinklers, ice, oceans, and all other forms of water.

I am happy for animals like dogs and birds, seahorses and turtles.

I am happy for fruits and vegetables, those yummy morsels that spring miraculously from the earth each season.

I am happy for honest and joyful children, that absorb everything like a sponge and are capable of amazing feats.

I am happy for the wisdom of Maya Angelou, the inspiration for this post, who prays for each and everyone one of us every day. She told me so last week at the DC charter school named for her. When you imagine such an amazing and elegant woman thinking of you every day, you have a reason to rejoice.

Bunnies

rabbit portrait
Originally uploaded by littlestudio.

Bunnies are cute but they don't make very good pets. Speaking of bunnies, I really need to donate some blood. I haven't gone since last August.

My summer plans:

June: Work, and then California for a week to see my grandma that lives in the Philippines, and more work in DC.

July: Finish work in DC, then home to California for 2 weeks (last time I'll be home for a year).

August: Living in Balto and commuting to DC to take a class. In late August, I head to Italia.

I will be in Italy from August 2006 - June 2007, so you better buy your tickets for Europe now.

Family Tree

My cousin is working on our family tree, and I'm pretty excited to see what she comes up with. So far we have only traced my mom's side of the family to 1900. Just knowing their names is so cool to me. Our family name is "Dans." I think it's an awesome name. Thanks, cuz.

Heard On The Street - NW DC

"Man, my balls are sweatin'. And I put powder on 'em too."
~A young, overheated man, while I was walking to the metro near my house

You Are The Apple Of My Eye

This has been an eventful week for me. I've only been home long enough to get some sleep, and not nearly enough sleep, which means I haven't had time to cook. But I just made a bunch of spaghetti for dinner so I'm carb happy now.

I received a huge complement this past week. A Trinity 06-er asked for a copy of my senior thesis because she plans on doing work in Tijuana about artistic and cultural movements, which is part of my thesis. I couldn't email it all to her because the file is huge--5.5 MB. But I'm so happy I have been contacted about my work. I'm very proud of that baby. I worked on it all senior year, and used the same topic for my Spanish thesis as well as my International Studies thesis so I had to write a version in Spanish and a version in English (they're pretty different) and one is 75 pages and the other 50. I even filmed and photographed the Tijuana-San Diego border area because I was going to make a documentary, but it ended up being too much work for me to handle at that point.

I'm so proud that my work was remembered by a professor and recommended to a student, and I'm so happy it will be used! Maybe this is a glimpse of my future--research, writing, and being used as a resource.

Today I...

Carried 2 boxes of donuts for 4 miles
Consumed 200 calories in donuts
Served a Nigerian princess
Saw two birds hashing it out in a gutter
Got asked "What the f--- I was doing 'here' - yeah, you heard me"
Looked through the sewer grates to see stagnant water, leaves, and litter
Got yelled at for no reason at all
Was asked for money more times than I can count
Ate 6 servings of fruits and vegetables
Bought my ticket to Italy
Consumed 600 calories in donuts
Spent 77 minutes on the phone with my boyfriend complaining about people
Became more optimistic and a little excited for my future

Ode To An Ex

D is for dancing like a clown on crack
A is for awesome beans and rice
V is for valor in the face of injustice
I is for his interest in our mundane lives
D is for the roommate we've lost and the friend we've gained

Sweet Juicy Spicy Tart

I cook for 3 people every day. It is my hobby and my escape.

Top flavors of the moment:
1. Vine-ripened tomatoes
2. Lime juice
3. Chili-garlic "rooster" sauce
4. Sweet vidalia onions
5. Corn on the cob

We have many, many bottles of sauces and condiments that I would like to use up before we move out of this apartment at the end of June. It will be fun finding uses for capers and relish, mole and caribbean heat, blue cheese dressing and spicy brown mustard.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I just watched someone spend $15 on lettuce and tomatoes. That's all she got, enough lettuce for 3 days of salads and a container of grape tomatoes. Does anyone else see anything wrong with that? The grocery stores in DC charge SO MUCH for food. I bought 2 zucchini, 4 tomatoes, 2 apples, and .8 pounds of spinach and was charged $11. I guess that's a little better, but I still feel like farmers should be paid like surgeons and fresh produce should be cheap enough for every person to get the daily suggested servings of fruits and vegetables.
Oh, and I found a way to beat the system RE: spinach. At my local grocery, the baby spinach in a pack is $7.98/lb. The salad bar is $4.99/lb. So what you do is stuff as much spinach as you can manage in the salad bar container. That's what I did, it came out to .8 lb of spinach, and I ended up paying a lot less for my baby spinach.

GYSD Guinea 2005

GYSD Guinea 2005
Originally uploaded by Youth Service America.

At work I'm in charge of uploading pictures and adding captions to them. I work to promote National & Global Youth Service Day. This is the best work-related photo I have seen so far. It was taken in Guinea, West Africa. I am obsessed with this picture.

She Did A Bad, Bad Thing

strawberry mojito
Originally uploaded by Lariffic.

I actually did a nice thing just now. My roomie Big D is moving out tomorrow, going back home to Tejas, so he invited some friends over for a hot tub party. They drank wine and had some rum but no mixers, so they couldn't drink anymore, and I felt bad for them so I refreshed some of our leftover 5 de mayo frozen punch and served it to them in the hot tub. They were grateful. My other roomie and I were in there with them for a while --our roofdeck hot tub rocks -- but we're going to bed because we have JOBS and we have to WAKE UP AT 7am. I rinsed off, I'm smelling like my new body wash, and I'm feeling good. Good night!

Sleep

It's time to go to bed. On Friday night, after our Cinco de Mayo fiesta, I slept 10 hours. After our eating fiesta on Saturday night, when I came home bloated and dehydrated, I slept 11 hours and continued to be sleepy all day Sunday. Then on Sunday night, I slept 12 hours and I felt like I had the flu. Will I sleep 13 hours tonight? Will I be able to wake up at 7 for work? I'll keep you posted.
I've also been having some freaky dreams. I'm going to try to remember them to blog about later. I wish we could record and watch our dreams like movies.

Cinco De Masho

tummy soft kissable huggable squeezable warm
what are you writing, silly
cantamos al amor
cantamos a la paz
buenas noches
you're publishing that
why not
why yes
why not
because it doesn't make any sense

Quite Exciting This Computer Magic

Originally uploaded by tamjpn.

Everything is gonna be alright,
Everything is gonna be alright,
Everything is gonna be alright,
Be strong,
Believe.

This is my new mantra, and also the chorus of a Yellowcard song. I'm having money-and-school anxiety so this is what I try to repeat to myself. Yesterday was a Sunday, and Sundays are wonderful. When I was a little girl I used to think that Sundays were so named because they were always, always sunny. But I think that turned out to be a combination of coincidence and the fact that I used to live in sunny Southern California. Yesterday turned out to be a perfect sunny Spring day. We had a friend over for fish tacos and Tecate and we ate so much that we decided to try to take a nap on the roof but ended up in the hot tub instead. I was soooo ready to go to bed at that point but stayed up watching "This is Spinal Tap." It's really funny. So funny, in fact, that I'm watching it for the second time right now.