Vaginas

For Lee Ann's 23rd birthday, our friend Madeline got us tickets to go see the Vagina Monologes (front row center, baby!). Having never seen it before and knowing very little about it, I came out of the show very impressed, entertained, and empowered. The monologes were all written very, very well, and provided many instances of comic relief as well as times of seriousness. In the end, I think the most powerful aspect of the production is that it made you think. It makes you think about the power that a woman hold in society as well as how misunderstood men and women are when it comes to something that's very fundamental to womenhood as well as to human nature.

For me, one of the things I gained was that I am no longer shy of saying the word vagina anymore. Vagina! :-)

Along with that, quotable quote for the night is from Stephanie: "My vagina says, oh yea!!" It's a long story that involved a certain cover band at the Bird.

As well, it's 3:30am and I am incredibly full from eating a slice of pizza and many many breadsticks from Rockets - aka one of the best pizza places in Bloomington. I think I'll need to stay up for a bit longer in order to digest...

Good night.

Vagina.

Power of the Blog

In my journalism ethics class, we've been talking a lot about blogs and bloggers this semester. Specifically, if bloggers are the new journalists and how they have prematurely ended the careers of individuals like Dan Rathers, Jeff Gannon, Eason Jordan, etc. In fact, we've been talking about bloggers so much that there was even an essay question on my midterm today about it! Go figure I had to skip it cuz I couldn't come up with a good answer... Humph.

One more thing...

The New York Times today as two articles on blogging. One on the trend of people in congress and DC blogging and another on vlogs and moblogs. It's a revolution!

Ahhh!!!

Does anyone have any advice on how to deal with overbearing parents that likes to run your life for you?? Anyone???

If my life was like a train, I feel like a passenger watching it roll by, not having any say in where I want my life to go...

Something Weird is Going On

I have reasons to believe that for a long time now, there's been a character in my life that has been hiding in the shadows while playing with my life. There's been some weird trends going on that have raised my suspicions, but it has not been until very recently had I started piecing things together. I might be paranoid, but like Stephanie said, I would be extremely naive if I had believed that she has not had a hand in all of this and all that has gone down. As well, experience has taught me that there's some pretty messed up people in the world, the kind that's almost ficticiously manipulative...

It's a pretty sick thought and if all's true, it's a pretty sick person if it's all true.

But whatever, I just want to stop thinking about it and go to sleep - hopefully I won't feel like death tomorrow.

Rowdies RoKS 2005

I try to never go into situations with a lot of expectations, for what actually ends up happening is never what I expected. My last Rowdies RoKS conference is no exception - I would have never expected or predicted all that's happened. Even since I've been back, it's hard for me to process and assess all that's happened.

Being on the OC for my last Rowdies regional conference was definately not what I expected. Of course, when it's a small group of people being placed on the pedestal with all kinds of things being thrown at us, it had its ups and downs (for one, trying to figure out what to do for the night and how to do it has never been so difficult!). But in the end, it's definately a good experience for me (and I believe for everyone on the OC).

It was definately really nice seeing some old faces. It's funny because I don't consider myself one of those AIESECers who's friends with everyone, but at one point, someone from my LC made the comment that it seems like I knew everyone. How funny! I guess when you've been around for so long, you do start getting to know a few people!

And speaking of old faces, got an apology that I should've gotten two years ago from someone that has dissapeared for an equal length of time. Perhaps I lack the maturity (or society has just jaded me! Ha!), but honestly, what's the point of getting an apology so late in the coming when all the damage has been done and consequences felt? It's not like after an apology so late in the coming like this, that things can go back to being merry and all wrongs forgotten. Plus, even though the apologies were delivered, almost everything about it reeked of cowardness - from its lateness, to why it was finally delivered, to the whole aura this weekend - weak. In the end, my stance is with an apology so late in the coming like this and considering that no ideas for a solution was ever mentioned (and considering how low the whole wrong was in the first place to someone he "cared" for - bull shit), the apology was nothing more then a conscience clearer for the person and meant almost nothing to me. But lesson learned (well, learned 2 years ago to be exact), a required quality for guys I date: some damn BALLS!

And speaking of dating - :-D - I thought the Date Auction was a blast!! The image of Eric and his Zoolander moment is definately seared into my brain. Ha! The other high points were the quadrouple auction at the end, Josh singing, and selling off Kathey and Stephanie. I hope everyone had fun too!! I definately enjoyed dancing on the tables! ;-)

Horse-y and Tubby definately flabergasted me for the weekend as well. Anytime I see the two sets, my jaws never fails to drop and I just wonder what the hell is going on with the world.

In the end, I just hope that everyone had a great time - it's definately unreal to come to the realization that this will be my last AIESEC conference. I can't believe I won't be going to a conference come October! I'll miss it!!

An Analogy

Here's a good analogy from Mikey Yoo tonight:

Imagine that every person starts out as being a blank wall, with no dents, no scratches or any marks. If any experience that a person goes through is like a nail being driven into the wall, it will create a hole. When you take that nail out, there will be a hole. Even if the hole is filled in and worked on, there most likely will still be a bit of a scar left.

I sometimes feel like everyone's life-wall is filled with holes, bumps and scars. But in the end, that's what life is about, right?

A-Team Leader

Looks like I'm back on being A-Team Leader at Rowdies RoKs! My partner in crime: April!!! Even though I don't know most AIESEC dances and chants, you know it'll still be a great time!!

Plus, date auction will be Saturday night!! Woo!

The Year of the Rooster

To whoever reads my blog, I want to wish everyone a very warm & heartfelt...

Gong Xi Fa Cai!!!

Happy new years!!!

Good Ridence

There comes points in my life (and I'm sure it happens to everyone) where I just realize that I really do not like someone I know. Not only do I think their personality sucks, I do not like what they represent as a person as well. While I do realize under some circumstances, time and experience changes people. But there are other situations when I've just been blind. The worst part of the latter example is when I've been given plenty of fair warning by other friends or acquaintances. So whose fault is it that warnings weren't heeded and things progressed to such a exacerbating realization? No one's but my damn own.

Chuckles

I saw an email from Andy Brock (all the way from PRC!) in my inbox today and this part gave me the chuckles:

"So how are you doing anyways? and how's your friend? I don't remember her
name:( but she was cute, and about as lucky as you when it came to finding good
guys. Hopwfully you're kickin ass still..."

Hahahaha - indeed, though Stephanie and I have different issues when it comes to finding a good person of the opposite sex, we have about the same level of luck...a very low one.

However, that never stop us from rockin' and rollin'. Will definately continue to do so in the year of the Rooster! :-) :-) :-)

St.Louis Mardigras

Cheers
Originally uploaded by sheilaz413.

A year and a half after we first met in Porto Alegre, Brazil, my @PA friend, Vivi came to visit her host family in St.Louis. So on Saturday, I drove to St.Louis with Virginia and Kathey. Saturday also happened to be the big mardigras celebration in St.Louis - I believe it's the 2nd largets in the country.

We first arrived in the 'burbs of St.Louis and met up with Vivi and her host family. Really nice people and an even nicer 15 year old son who cooked us three visitors a very good lunch (one can never go wrong with salmon, couscous, ravioli, and meatballs).

Vivi's friend, Yael, and a few of her friends later came to her house. We left soon afterwards for the city. And that's when the craziness really started. I think it'd be too long of an entry to write in full detail of everything that happened, but below is a short list:

- Vivi's friend is a terrible driver. I almost got into a really bad accident following her when I had to cut off a guy in order to make the exit ramp. She also made a left on a street when she was not on the turning lane. I had to follow her as well.

- Don't remember all of what happened during the real mardigras. Do remember one of Vivi's friends flashed a beer seller so Virginia and I could get free beer. I ended up with a lot of beads, though I'm not sure how I ended up with most of them. Mind you, I do remember that I did not bend my integrity to get them.

- Walked almost halfway across the Mississippi river before we realized that we were heading in the wrong direction. FYI, The Landing is not in Illinois.

- The fire alarm at our hotel goes off at 3am. By the time we went outside of our room, the hallway was thick with smoke. Ran from our floor (the 17th) to ground level. Turned out to be a false alarm - someone sprayed the fire extinguisher all over the place. When Virginia called the fire department, they said no one ever called them about the fire alarm going off at the Grand Reneissance. I believe our campus dorms have better evacuation and safety measures.

- Drove back to the 'burbs at 4am. Got lost in downtown St.Louis - could not locate the on ramp to the parkway. Downtown St.Louis at 4am - pretty damn scary.

Conclusion for the weekend: even though it was great to see Vivi and I had a overall good time, St.Louis does not like me and vise versa. Am not looking into going back to St.Louis anytime soon.

The Ironies

I manned a table for Salaam all day at my school's internship fair yesterday. I found it ironic that Salaam got placed right next to the Fox News table. Oh, the ironies - someone has a pretty sick sense of humor.

Some people also gave their CVs to us. I was glancing over them at the end of the day and noticed that this one person had a Princess of Jordan as a reference! Out of control...