The best antiques are old friends.

The best antiques are old friends., originally uploaded by Rabujee.

CC's post (right below) inspired me to finally make another appearance on our lovely blog...(so sorry for the neglect... and ill spare you guys the excuses)

While I was in CC's car today on the way to my house, she said something like "You do realize this summer will be our last, right?"....
I had to ignore that annoying (yet most likely true) statement....
I gave no response then but her words stuck in my mind and its the irritating kind of stuck, like when you were a kid and got gum all in your hair....(Actually, I never did I just always saw that on TV)

But honestly, no matter where your friends end up if you truly have a bond and respect and longing for one another then there will always be a way to stay connected. And in this cyber-world...pffft that's not even an issue...This is what I always say...

Like when you graduate High School, everyone buys those silly yearbooks and during the last few days together you spend time signing each others yearbooks, leaving phone numbers, email addresses... writing the same old "Stay sweet" or "Keep in touch" messages. How many of those people do you still talk to today?
It all depends on your own interest in maintaining a certain relationship... but it IS possible to keep ties....

One of my friends moved on to a different college than I did...We've kept in touch for the past 4 years through emails and once in a blue-moon phone calls (actually I think only ONCE in the entire 4 years)...a few months ago we even met up for coffee and that meeting turned into 4 hours of chatting, catching up, sharing stories and doing what I had always loved in our friendship: laughing.
I realized even though a lot had changed about who we were, our friendship and interaction was still the same.

Another one of my closest and dearest friendships was maintained mostly over the phone...even though my friend and I attended the same middle and high schools. In all those years we had maybe 1 class together and because our school (building) was small but population was large there were 3 separate lunches, so somehow I never had the same lunch-time as she did...STILL we remained best of friends throughout school. We parted ways after graduation ...attended different colleges...studied in different programs...she got married... i remained single ... she moved on to start a family, had a baby...i... still...remained...single...
OK lets not dwell on my single-ness...the point is we got even closer even though we had fewer and fewer things in common as time went on. There was always something that bonded us and that was our mutual appreciation of one another...

And so that brings me to this point: it takes TWO to tango and its a TWO-WAY road....I've had friendships that started off with a bang and we were always together and enjoying each other's company and then it all started to dwindle and die away even though we still saw each other everyday. So as long as the feeling exists in both people, the bond will continue no matter the huge physical distance between you or the small amount of shared time together....

Ok, now I feel better...do you?

Thoughts on change-(not the money kind)

I thought I should share this with our readers.
Simply Me, one of our authors, who doesn't write but nevertheless for some reason holds the title of an author, got married on Saturday.

Some of the authors on this blog and myself have all been really good friends with Simply Me for five years now, since Freshman year of undergrad. So the wedding was a an extremely bitter-sweet occasion, even though she's gonna be with us for another semester.

The wedding was a reminder to all of us. The time we spent with each other, learning to be better people or gaining a fashion sense, our useless jokes, getting high off of each others' stupidity, taking turns crying during finals, and sometimes seven of us relying on a single person for class notes of an entire semester (usually it's me, relying on Simply Me for everything concerning our classes... it worked in the end..usually)-this was all coming to an end, and fast.

The fact that we knew S.M. was moving away later was the painful part of the wedding. Even though it was later, we already felt like we were losing her-after all, a major part of her has changed. Some of us shed tears, others occupied themselves with things during the wedding, and others were just purely happy. It's not just S.M. that we know will be moving on, it's most of us-going away for grad school, or starting their careers or whatever else fate has in store for us.

Maybe it's not so much that things are changing, or life is changing, but more of us, people, changing.

Everyone goes through those points where their lives are changing, and they might be losing those who are dear to them, and it's easy to slip into a sulking mode or become overcome by the fear that change will bring to our lives. Like how I was terrified of entering high school, and then again when I was starting college (but both did turn out to be good experiences).

So, we have two options when it comes to the changes in our life-taking it positively or looking at it negatively. Either way we know change is inevitable and change is never comfortable. And whether or not you want to accept it, life is still changing. So the only thing you can do is accept it, and turn it around for yourself. All because change is inevitable does not mean you don't have at least some control over it.

"The way some thing never changes shines a light on the things that do. Like when a new person comes into the hospital to stay or an old friend leaves for good.
Sometimes the biggest changes are the result of an impulsive decision.
And so here I am, a guy in an empty apartment, with a dead dog. And no that's not a tear on my cheek, that's just from a leak in my ceiling. And yes, change is scary but it's also inevitable. And so it's up to you to make the best of it. "
JD - Scrubs ( I just love Scrubs)

Only problem is, it's easier said than done. Hey, but if things were easy, it really wouldn't be much of a life. Just an easy one. Who's ever heard of that?

Wanted to share a picture of Simply Me's cake table :)

Introduction

I feel like writing about myself. Kind of like an introduction AFTER what? 20-something posts {that's it?}? Especially since I don't know one or two authors on this blog?

I was born and raised in Michigan and went to college with most of the people on this blog. I wanted to become a doctor but decided it was way too long for me with premed and not having a guarantee of getting in. What would I do then? So I decided to major in nutrition. Then the idea of doing med school outside of America came up and I thought about it and the pros outweighed the cons and I ended up moving to India for med school. It's been three and a half years and I'm almost done, God Willing. I'll be back in America for residency and everything.

Living in India isn't easy. It took me about two years to adjust to a comfortable level and I still doubt whether I fit in completely or not. The traffic here is crazy so it's almost impossible to drive {I have a driver} and the easy life I had in America isn't here anymore. Yes, I have a maid and a cook and can sit at home and have everything get done for me {aside from school} but it's not the same. I hate the dependency. I CAN be independent and do everything on my own but then that takes a lot more time. You have to live here, not visit, to know what I'm talking about.

My name is FallingUp. There are two reasons why I chose that name: I fall up the stairs, especially in public places; and I feel like I'm falling in life when I'm really moving my way up. I'm stuck in India while everyone else is graduating and moving on with their life and getting married and etc. But I'm still here. The same. When in reality I'm almost a year and a half away from becoming a doctor when most people my age are trying to get into med school. Don't hate me for reminding you guys. ::ducks::

Right now the weather in India is 79 degrees Fahrenheit. Jealous? I'm wearing a white t-shirt, fuzzy pants and a SWEATSHIRT. I'm cold. Is something wrong with me? I used to drive in winter with the windows down. I used to love the cold even though my hands would turn purple and zombie-like.

Right now I have the fan off, windows closed and am contemplating putting on socks.

That was a very brief history of who I am. Just thought I'd let you know. Any questions?

My day on Christmas Eve

I remember always making it a point to everyone that I would NEVER eat sushi.
I mean its raw meat! That's disgusting!!

Food is meant to be cooked! (At least meat is )
That's why the caveman (or woman) invented FIRE ! I mean the poor guy (or lady) went through all that trouble of accidentally igniting fire and realizing that food tasted BETTER when it was cooked. And here we are, trying to go back to the times of raw edibles.

Blech

And everyone's always talking about sushi. About how they love sushi, or it's their favorite food and its mentioned a couple thousand times in random books . And everytime I would wonder if the fact that it had raw meat just skipped past everyone.

Many, many, many years later(like a year ago), I'm told there's also cooked sushi. So I did some research about it couple months ago and found out it 's called "California Roll", and it was basically an American invention, because the thought of raw meat didn't sit well with American culture (which I really don't see, I mean everyone loves the infamous sushi).

Then a couple weeks ago, I'm starting to crave the taste of sushi. I've never tried it before, but something about the way a couple of my friends talked about it just triggered some random taste buds; and I really wanted to eat sushi-and I could, since America gave birth to the great "California Roll". The problem was getting sushi.

Lo and Behold! Kroger superstore to the rescue! Seriously Kroger is AMAZING (if you don't have one in your local neighborhood.....well you should). They're getting all high-tech/advanced now with their latest installments of a sushi bar, salad and soup bars and other freshly made food items and Much, Much More.

Anyways, so taking advantage of the fact that today(christmas eve) is my older brother's birthday I decided to gift him with Sushi from Kroger. You have no idea how excited I was looking at the little, colorful trays of sushi, and then carefully picking out the best looking California Roll and Vegetarian tray. Of course I knew he would have to share the sushi with us immediately after opening it. So I just had to give it to him right before dinner. Which I did.

As a self-proclaimed partial genius, of course my plan worked out perfectly. I just had to stop him from putting his sushi away in the fridge, and forced him to share it.

So there I was, happily staring at my little circular balls of rice. I even yelled out Itadakimasu ( a japanese saying before a meal-roughly like saying bon appétit)-convinced this was the closest I was ever going to get to Japan. Dipping it in the sauce that was given with the sushi, I popped it into my mouth and

BLECH ! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT? THAT'S DISGUSTING

Mother: What's wrong with you?! Don't be disrespectful towards food! That's very unIslamic.
Brother #2: Apparently you either love it or hate it. I think it's really good
Birthday Brother: What are you talking about? It's really good
Me (completely, but not purposely ignoring my mother): OMG! Get the taste out! Get it out of my mouth! Blech Blech! Eww waaaaaaahhh
Brother #2: If you don't want it, I'll take it.

Reaches over to grab the other sushi off my plate
I see my brother reaching over and pop the other one into my mouth

Brother #2: Hey! I thought you said you hated it!
Me: Waaaaaaahhhh. I couldn't help it, it was a reflex! Blech. This is so Nas....ahhh
It's cuz you guys always eat my food! Ahhh get the taste out my mouth!
(If this doesn't make any sense to you, it will if you have brothers that are substitutes for garbage disposals and you have to develop a self-defensive reflex for all the food that disappears off your plate, whether or not you want it to. Not to mention I didn't wanna miss taking the risk of maybe the next one tasting better)

So that was it, my horrible sushi experience. Apparently it was because I used the sauce and no one else did. Yeah, Ok.
But for the record, I am sorry for making rude commentary about it. I was just overwhelmed...by the taste..... of the sauce?

And I'm not the only weird one in my family if that's what you're thinking. I screwed up making the cake for my birthday brother, and so some parts of it didn't have icing. Not a big deal right?

I see my brother eating a piece of cake and he gets up to get some water. On his way he throws away the rest of the piece he was eating

Me: HEY! What the heck! What did you just throw away?
Birthday Brother: It was a small piece of the cake
Me: WHY'D YOU THROW IT?
Birthday Brother: Oh, because it didn't have any icing on it.
Me: Are you freakin kidding me?
Brother #3 (a.k.a. C): hahaha Oooooh you're gonna go to hell. God's gonna ask you on the day of judgement* why you wasted food, and THAT'S what you're gonna say??!! hahaha


So that was my day on Christmas Eve. If you're confused why we weren't spending the time at Church or a big family dinner, it's because Muslims don't celebrate Christmas. So the biggest affect Christmas Eve has on my family usually----having to deal with a closed Kroger.

*Day of Judgment: According to Islamic belief (and most other monotheistic religions) , this is the day we are all resurrected from the dead and judged for our actions and given accounts of all our good and bad deeds.

Sisterly Love

My youngest sister and I got into a fight today. This is nothing new. Nor will it ever get old.

I have four sisters (and one brother), and for as long as I can remember, we've always gotten into really stupid, idiotic, and pointless fights.

Just like all sisters do, I'm sure.

Today's fight was over who would clean the upstairs- part of the house, and who wouldn't. Youngest sister, Fish, insisted that I do it. I didnt agree, so I hit her with a bag. She retaliated by throwing apple juice at me.

One time my oldest sister, Marjnhomer, and I were playing Monopoly. I think while playing it I was the "banker" or something and was supposed to distribute the money. She found out I was giving myself more money. She got mad at that. And at the fact that I was obviously winning. So she started shouting at me.And had the audacity to call me a cheater! I told her the game was getting boring and got up to leave. And I couldnt stop laughing at her. Like I was seriously laughing hysterically at her and the fact that she had to put all the monopoly pieces back in the box. All by herself. And I was just going to watch her do it. She wasnt too pleased with being laughed at, so she attacked me. And we started fighting.


And remember K.Ci and Jojo? And their song "Crazy". Well a long time ago, sister # 2, Chuckle, accussed me of being obsessed with them and their song. I have never been, nor will I ever be, obsessed with K-Ci and Jojo. Sure their one hit wonder was pretty good, but other than that, I dont care much for them. I got irritated with her saying that and started shrieking that I wasn't. Anyways one thing led to another and the next thing I know, we're trying to kill each other. I think I grabbed her hair first. I always go for the hair.

Hair pulling has usually been my tactic.(Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm such a girl. Get over it.)

Of course, they have tactics of their own though.

Once Chuckle pulled the chair out from under me and I fell. Hard. And I was extremely embarrased. So, I punched her in the nose after that.

She also threw an OPEN bottle of syrup at me, another time.

It took me a LONG time to get that syrup out of my hair.

And another time, Muth, my second to youngest sister, threw a battery at me.




<----That kind of battery. I acted fast though. I was like George Bush when the shoes came flying at him. She missed and broke my mom's china cabinet instead. I would much rather have had the battery hit me in the face, then deal with my mother's wrath. Hell hath no fury, like a mom scorned.

Another time, Muth kicked me. Kicked me in the mouth.

The result of this: I have a chipped front tooth.

We're not violent people though. I swear. And I can prove it.

My sisters' latest tactic: Hugs.

This is probably their best tactic thus far, because I'm not much of a hugger. Dont really like hugs. Especially from them.

You see how this will work to their advantage?

Farewell

Life is kinda dull right now, isn't it? Or at least it has been here at Symphonic Discord. Well, just to let all of you avid readers know, we've been a tad busy with exams lately.


But alas, finals are done. Grades have been posted. Tears have been shed. And life can go on.

And we can get back to more important things in life---like writing and entertaining all (four) of you!

My semester ended rather, interestingly. Student teaching finished a week ago. And I left the school with five bags of gifts, a balloon, and $100 worth of gift cards. It was like Christmas.

It was more or less, an amazing semester. As far as student teaching is concerned. Thank God. And I'm glad student teaching ended the way it did..


So without further ado, I would just like to share with you the amount of money I spent this entire semester on anything and everything student teaching related..So here it is: My last student teaching post!!!

(I know you all have been waiting eagerly and patiently for it.)


Tuition Bill......$6000 (I had a heart attack when I saw the bill. I thought " Well I'm only taking two classes so it cant be that much. Can it? But it turns out, its not how many classes you take, but how many credits you take! DUH! It only took me FOUR years to finally comprehend this)

All the supplies needed for my professional portfolio.....$150

Endless shopping for hot "teacher" clothes.......$300

New coat to match my "teacher" clothes.....$80

Ink cartridges for the endless lesson plans that needed to be printed..........$65

Putting gas into my car for the past four months with my pathetic "salary".......$300

Candy and treats for the brats.......$200

Food for my "Farewell" Party......$75

Gift for Ms. D, my cooperating teacher......$30

Parking ticket because I'm too cheap to pay $2.25 to park in the campus structure........$20 (This is what happens when you're frugal)




Asking my students if they would miss me when I left, and having one girl respond "Nooooooooo"...................Priceless

A student asking me to write to her when I get back to my home country of "Balilidish"...........Priceless

Getting over my fear of driving by commuting to this school for the past four months..........Priceless

Presenting my professional portfolio to the College of Education, only to have the faculty member nod off during it............Priceless

Looking through the personal messages/cards from students and reading one that had "I love you with all my heart and soul" erased..........Priceless

Being compared to a cheerleader.........Priceless

The students asking me "Since it's your last day, do we get to see your hair?"..........Priceless

Consistently being asked if I was Indian, from India, spoke Indian or anything else India-related.....Priceless

Seeing (and smelling) my fair share of kids using the bathroom on themselves......Priceless

Ms. D trying to explain to the students that I look like someone from Aladdin (without my hijab/headscarf), only to have one of the students cut her off and ask me "You look like Aladdin?"...........Priceless

Being asked by one of my students if I had to take a plane home.........Priceless

Being told that I look "creepy" with that thing on my head........Priceless

Often times being mistaken for a dedicated parent (I cringe at this thought) as opposed to a student teacher.........Priceless

Having something to complain...err....write about on this blog for the past four months......Priceless

Freaking out and spending an endless amount of time on a portfolio that was not even touched or perused through, by my evaluators........Pricefreakingless

Being told during my portfolio presentation by my evaluator that I speak "really good" English............Priceless

And lastly, being told that I was going to make a fine teacher by the former student teaching director..and finally FINALLY believing it myself............ Priceless

There are some things money cant buy. For everything else there's humor.

And sarcasm.

Med School Diaries: The Lockout

It was 9:45 AM and I just finished climbing the stairs to the room opposite the exam hall. Something tells me I should check to see if the Head of Department of ENT is there, so I take a quick peep into the exam hall. He's sitting there with a bored expression on his face. I know him well enough to not keep him waiting, even though everyone else is. So my sister and I go and sit in the hall and wait for the exam to commence.

As soon as I sit down I hear him tell the attender to shut the doors. He starts reading the exam questions out loud and tells us to write them down. I was confused because there were only about 30-40 of us in the room. I turn around behind me after the dictation and see about 70 students waiting outside trying to get past the glass doors. It was such a sorry sight. I know who missed the exam. These are people who work their butts off and probably didn't sleep at all the night before while I passed out at two.

I really felt bad. I thought he'd let them in after half an hour or an hour. But no. I walked out of the exam two hours later and it was sooo depressing. I'd hate to be in that position. I lucked out big time. I think only a third of my class was able to take the exam.

It was sad but really funny at the same time. Just humorous in that SO MANY students got locked out and I kept looking back and they were standing there for sooo long outside waiting, hoping for a sign. They got one. The Head got up, walked out to them, yelled a bit and told them to go home.

But I didn't get away without some scratches. He's deducting five marks from all but four students who took the exam for not coming "on time". He started the exam early!! How can he do that? This is India. And these are the crazies in it.

Girls, just play dead !!!!!

So I found this video that I think is cute, funny and sheds light on a very serious issue.
Fine, it's not that serious of an issue but it could be!

Basically without any of us realizing it, Disney has been teaching us how to get a man from a very early age.
I mean, I guess I would want to thank Disney for helping us all out with this highly imperative task. I mean all these years, and women are still looking to magazines for help on how to catch the man of their dreams (.....or at least some of us are) and Disney movies were like our training wheels.

For those of you who missed out on your training wheels or need a refresher course, or just a cause to march to Washington (or Orlando) about, have I found the thing for you!
I discovered this ingenious video on How to make a guy like you-Disney Princess Style !

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My favorite thing is the wind, she said, & my second favorite is chocolate but I just do that so I don't get too skinny & blow away...

My favorite thing is the wind, she said, & my second favorite is chocolate but I just do that so I don't get too skinny & blow away, originally uploaded by Rabujee.

~Story People

Human Rights

Today is the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, i.e. International Human Rights Day. I found this video that explains all of this better than I could, so watch it and reflect.



For more information visit: www.humanrightsactioncenter.org

I think there's something wrong with me

So finals are coming up and I am oddly not stressed. Whatever I got this, i'm taking International relations and Chinese- so yeah finals aren't that bad. But what is sort of driving me crazy is that for the past 4 days i've been fantasizing about baking these delicious butter cakes (butter cupcakes), with a buttercream frosting and I swear everytime I make up my mind to do it, something comes up. So you might ask, what's the problem you'll get to it when you get to it? Well it's bigger than just baking these cupcakes, I don't know if any of you noticed but i've gone on hiatus from politics- and for me that was my drug I mean I literally got off on reading up on the politics of the day and then reading up on the commentary of the politics of the day! I know, sad. But I think I burnt myself out with this past campaign- seriously for 22 months I knew exactly what was going on, who it was going on with, and if it would work. Now, i'm just like GET AWAY FROM ME!

So you can see my problem now is I have no idea what to do with myself. I mean I have hobbies and stuff but it's like I need my politics fix, but the idea that I need to read the news makes me think that I should wean myself off of it. So I guess i'm just going through some sort of withdrawal at the moment- which involves lots and lots of baking! Sorry if this made nooooo sense what so ever but I did have an eventual point for this post, Walnut Raisin Rice! (lol).


I love rice, and I love to snack- so I thought why not find a rice/snack recipe?? So I did, and it is yummmy and oh so simple.

Cooked long grain rice - 2 cups, I used Basmati
Walnuts - a big handful
Raisins - 2 tbsp
Olive oil - 1 tbsp
Lemon juice - 1 tsp
Salt - about 1 tsp
Pepper

Put the walnuts in a zip lock bag and crush them lightly using a rolling pin. Place the crushed walnuts in a pan and toast on medium heat till they are slightly browned. Be careful not to burn the nuts. When the nuts are done, add all remaining ingredients to the pan and mix well. You could use any combination of nuts and dried fruit, like pine nuts and cranberries for example and it would still turn out scrumptious :-D

Dance Around the World

To those of you who care (which is probably no one) I am sidetracking from my usual Student Teaching post..

Currently all of us Symphonic-discord authors are overwhelmed and stressed to the max with upcoming finals and presentations and papers and endless last minute assignments that professors like to torture us with. How we are going to survive the next two weeks, I have no idea.

Most of us get depressed. Some have anxiety attacks. And I want to say all of us even shed a tear or two (million).

It gets that crazy around finals and exam time.

Sigh.

One way I relieve stress is by watching the following video that my sister shared with me. It's a video called "Where the Hell is Matt?". It was put together by a couple of people. And it's about a guy named Matt who traveled to 42 countries in 14 months. And he takes (or someone else does, I think) a video of himself dancing in each place he's visited. It's so cute to watch. So yeah, just watch it..so you know what I'm talking about it.

(I hope everyone hasn't watched it already. Because I always end up being the last one to watch these youtube videos.)

So when I'm down in the dumps and freaking out about my final portfolio presentation or exams, I watch this.

(But it also makes me envious of Matt, because he's been to 42 freaking countries!!!)

(And I love the song too. It's called "Praan", or "Stream of Life". But I have no idea what they are saying. Even though, I think its in my native language: Bengali/Bangla)

It always, ALWAYS makes me smile though. :)

Anyways, hope it brings a smile to your face too.

Please keep us all in your prayers during these torturous two weeks.

Some people need a push..maybe I needed a shove.

I was sitting in the movie theatre when I get a bunch of phone calls. A shooting has occurred; bombs and grenades have been found. People urgently telling me to go home and stay there. Just go home. I was told it was a fight between 2 shopkeepers, I hear another one about it being terrorists, the third person tells me that they don't know what's going on. What is a fact though though is that the guy got away and is God knows where. My city is suspected to be the next target. I didn't know what to believe. We decided our lives are more important than a movie and even though we didn't think anything would happen we couldn't helping thinking what if? So we left. In the middle of the movie. Which happened to be quite funny, I might add..but it wasn't at the moment because after all those calls I kept thinking about what I would do if a bunch of people were to come in and shoot everyone and whether I'd feel the pain if a bomb exploded or not.

Really. I never thought I would have think twice before I went out to eat or shopping or a movie. I never thought I'd have to think about my safety.


I'm at those moments in my life where I'm like, "So this is what it feels like" for all the people out there who live in dangerous, war-stricken lands or even generally violent places. Except obviously their condition is a million times worse. I'm in no way comparing myself to their condition because I can't compare. It's ridiculous to try. I don't think I've ever felt fear until recently. And I don't think it's real fear. It's like almost-there-fear. But it's enough to scare me. The shootings I spoke of happened right in front of my college. The bombing in the mosque that occurred a year and a half ago happened less than a minute from the hospital I go to. Another set of bombings happened a while ago. I pass those places everyday on the way to or from school. So I think I have enough reason so be a teeny tiny bit scared

Muslims believe that there are four things written out for you on the 40th day in the womb: your sex, age at death, provisions, and whether you'll be blessed or not. So basically, I'm going to die whenever it was written for me to die. I don't know when or how but I know that that time is already set. The amount of time I'll be living has already been decided.

So no matter what I'll be doing at that moment, when it's time, it's time. And I'll be gone. So why live in fear? Why not enjoy the moment? I think that if we knew when we were to die most of us wouldn't spend them partying. I think we'd spend it worshipping God, asking for forgiveness and a place in paradise. Being nice to people, our parents, spending time with family. Doing things that count and give us those extra brownie points on the Day of Judgement.

But we don't know when we're going to go. And if, by chance, somehow we know for sure, it'll be too late. So we might as well make most of our time now. I'm not saying praying 24/7. Being a good Muslim/person doesn't mean worshipping all the time. It's about working for your family and loved ones, caring for people, being honest, etc. And with the right intention all of this gets counted into worship anyways. So it's really not a matter of WHEN we'll go..but are we ready to face our Lord?

The Prophet Muhammad, Peace and Blessings of God be upon him said, "The deeds most loved by God are the ones that are consistent, even if they are small." So consistently be honest. Consistently listen to your parents. Consistently pray the five daily prayers. Consistently help people. Consistently NOT constantly. Just form little habits. It's better than praying for 24 hours straight and then not doing anything the other 364 days of the year.

I hope this fear is God's way of reminding me that I should be trying a little harder, doing a little better. And I hope I can remember to listen and take heed of what I have just written and follow my own advice. Making God happy isn't hard. Being a good person isn't a tough job. Sometimes we get a little distracted or need a little push {or shove} once in a while.

I love soup.

Especially potato soup, probably because I love potatoes so much. Anyways so it's cold, and i've been craving potato soup and clam chowder but i'm too lazy to try making clam chowder so i'm going to make warm, creamy potato soup! It's actually really easy to make so I thought I would share :).


Ingredients
1 medium onion, diced
4 cloves garlic
2 lbs. potatoes, diced
4 cups broth (chicken, turkey or vegetable)
1 cup milk or cream
Salt and pepper, to taste
Cheddar cheese for topping if desired

In a large stock pot over medium heat, saute onions and garlic in 2 tbsp. oil until soft. Add diced potatoes and broth and bring to a boil. Turn heat to low and simmer, partially covered, for 20 minutes or until potatoes are soft. Remove from heat and add milk or cream. Pour the soup into a blender to blend until you reach a consistency you want, I like it lumpy. Salt and pepper to taste and voila! You have very simple potato soup!

In Honor of World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS Day, an epidemic most of us have forgotten, or take no heed to. So I thought why not shed some light on the subject? So here it is: At the end of 2007, 50% of all AIDS victims were women. And in Sub Saharan Africa, women accounted for 59% of AIDS victims. There are 11.6 million AIDS orphans in Africa. People under 25 account for half of all new HIV infections worldwide. The number of people living with HIV has risen from around 8 million in 1990 to 33 million today, and is still growing. Around 67% of people living with HIV are in sub-Saharan Africa.