Can somebody please....

... tell me how a walmart worker could be trampled to death by greedy shoppers on black friday. wtf is wrong with people? And i'm willing to bet that when the morning newspapers came there were more people who looked to see which stores had the best sales than read about the attacks in mumbai. 

ignorance is bliss!

no no no no!

we went to an indie club in the city last night and almost didn't get in because the guy knew we had been drinking. i tried to pinky promise him that i hadn't, but he just told us "No more drinking for you!" I wonder how he knew......

hahahaha

five random thoughts

1. when i google "maia almendral" the first five pages that come up are: the programs abroad office, kp core, peer counseling, spaces, and my facebook. haha. 
   
2. i've been home since tuesday night. i get to wear jackets, wake up to the sound of rain, and live luxuriously with two-ply toilet paper. life is good!
3. yesterday, after missing the freeway entrance approximately four times, i drove home from the city for the first time in my life. in heels. 
4. i have a nine page research paper due on monday morning. 
5. i asked sharon to change the password to my facebook so that i could stop procrastinating, but of course the first thing i do is write a blog instead. 

november again.

I can't remember what it felt like when November ended without the weight it carries now. it burns the same way it used to. and sometimes everything is as real as the moment it happened. and i can feel us being forced to grow up just a little bit faster after that announcement over the intercom.. when it didn't matter if you were a prep, a jock, or one of those guys at the end of c-hall because we all felt it the same. I keep telling myself that maybe this year it wouldn't happen that way, that it'll be easier... and really, in the larger scheme of things, it is, but there are still those moments where I can remember everything so clearly, and its always when i least expect it.  

last year it happened the night of his birthday. i was sitting in my room in geneva hall writing a paper when a stream of images flashed through my head:my seat in chemistry. the walk down the hallway. standing silently in the quad. everyone by burger king [each image getting more detailed as they progressed]. hesperian blvd. the little table infront of his house. all the shoes in the doorway. his soft spoken father. the sound of his mother's sobs from upstairs. the christmas tree in the corner they kept all year round [by this point i lose all composure and melt, in tears, to the floor of my dorm room alone, but i continue to allow myself to remember]. the viewing. his casket. nate's speech. his sisters and the the brother that looked just like him. the smell of the room. the lump in my throat and that hollow part inside of me i was suddenly very aware of. that monday. the wreaths. his mom [this one replays again, and again, and again]. the sun at the end of it all. the walk back in the heels that hurt too much. lunch at mc donalds like we used to do. just the crew, like it used to be. the fever. the release.  

there are certain events in each of our lives that help shape us into the person we are today. sometimes they are not easy to admit to. sometimes we'd rather forget. sometimes they help us measure how we've grown. and sometimes they teach us, year after year, about everything we have to be thankful for.

“If you want this, we can make it happen.” These words belong to my mother and I have always known them to be true, even before she spoke them last February. They ring in my ear at every crossroad I have met along my journey through life especially in the last few months. I value them more than anything she has ever said to me because of everything she didn’t say. These words carry the weight of our family’s past. Humbling moments that could have easily turned our family into the same statistic it seemed everyone expected to see.

            When we immigrated to California from the Philippines twenty years ago the odds were against us. My mother was a single woman with three young children escaping every comfort she knew to start fresh in a new country. She was either completely out of her mind, or completely driven. Lucky for us it was the latter. 

 A book launch, a research scholarship, three kids in three countries, and uncompromising love and support. Now, as we celebrate our 20th anniversary of coming to America, I couldn't be more proud of my family.

[my sister, bruce lee's son, and me during our first christmas in the States]

night

i feel like my life has been all out of sorts lately because i sleep so early. while i was taking care of the kids i would have to wake up at 7am to get them to school so then by 11pm i'd be fighting to stay awake. those sleeping habits just stuck with me. its probably healthier or something, huh? but i'm a night owl and i always have been so i function way better in the wee hours of the morning when the world is still and my mind is free to wander. 

today sucked, but at least i wasn't alone. 

that's all. but really that's everything, isn't it?

New Do

i need a new haircut. any ideas?

sometimes i think this stuff is getting out of control.

The Chillest Weekend of All Time

And I loved it. 

One of the co-founders of SPACES said something last year that really stuck with me.  I'm pretty sure he willingly dedicated all his spare time and energy to SPACES, but he said he had started to go to the gym as something he did that was completely for himself because it only benefitted him and "you can't lift weights for the world". Amen to that... referring to doing something for yourself, not for the gym because i don't do that. haha! 

In other news, I accidently washed my new black jeans with my white tee's. hooray for everything that was once white turning a light shade of gray! I rock at being domestic. 

Mr. President

I've lived in the United States for almost 20 years and for the first time I can say with confidence that I am proud to be an American. 

It is very easy to be critical of this country. Growing up in the liberal Bay Area with George W. Bush as President for almost half my life, pretty much all I heard were criticisms over his policies and people losing faith in the government all-together. It often made it hard to see why anyone would immigrate to this country in the first place. I had a moment today after I voted that made me want to start singing the national anthem or something. I am an immigrant and my vote counts exactly the same as people who were born here. A lot of people take this right for granted. What they don't realize is that in many other countries immigrants are not granted the same voice. 

Most of all, I used my vote to support a candidate who absolutely inspires me to continue to dare to dream for a better tomorrow. 

As for prop 8: the ballots are still being counted and its not looking too good. All I have to say is that, well, as disappointing as it is, progress takes time. 

Just some random thoughts

TONIGHT WILL MAKE HISTORY.

I'm beside myself in anticipation for the election results... like i seriously cannot concentrate on anything else besides the news.

I'm really proud of my roommates for making themselves apart of this election.

Today as i tried to write my take home midterm (due tomorrow. yay!) i discovered the hard way that Benadryl makes you drowsy = FML big time. 

Win or lose, I am an Obama supporter. This country needs someone who dares to dream so "radically" and who understands the needs of the middle class...... but i hope he wins. haha