Living in a country that is at war....

It was in March 2003 that America lay seige on Iraq. I remember praying a few hours before the attack and hoping that the President would call the attack off at the last minute. i know that it would never happen but it was the least i could do. Really, i guess no one thought that it would take this long. Not even me...and i was against it. the government said 6 months. that is a really looooonng six months...we are in 2006 now. how about trying 3 years. maybe one day later on in my life, i would look back and tell my grandkids that i lived through some really pressing times in US history. I remember an english teacher saying that we would look at history books with the pictures of people wearing gas masks and protective "astronaut-looking" suits looking for anthrax in buildings and wonder what was wrong with us back then.
i guess that is what it is like to live in "terror." now if one has ever listened to american news, there is a lot of sensationalism involved. some of these reporters get really excited when telling a story so i guess there was a lot to report...there still is. i am enthuastic about working but there is a limit when you are explaining things to others. you try not to let it out that you are really out to scare the daylights out of us.... for us living here, there was life before 9/11 and there is life after 9/11. before september 11th, we read the numbers 911 as the emergency number and we said "nine-one-one." most people today see it and read it as "nine eleven." it registers in my brain first as "nine eleven" now. i remember seeing that there was a newsflash on our local news while the reporter reported....something that went like....the US acted on pearl harbor on dec 8, 1941 (a day after it was attacked) and the station was counting how many days after september 11th had passed and it compared how nothing was done to retaliate.....
I have not changed my view from the seige on Iraq as yet and i have yet to change it. it was throwing a red herring at the american public. i just saw a video about conspiracy surrounding the attacks. I feel as if we...all the dwellers here have been lied to. Really, even if we have not been lied to, we have learnt to not trust as much as we used to. We cannot really trust what the government says...even for the most trivial thing....like what happened to the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship that was set up to pay for education.???????
i really love this country. the regular everyday people...who one does not see in the news, are really a joy to meet. they really are trusting people and they believe anything that is told to them....not because they are gullible but because they genuinely trust you and trust is a good thing to have from others. I try to do the same for others, not because i am being stupid, but i know it means something deep inside to know that you have someone's trust. however, the elites, i do not trust them. i cannot believe everything that they say and i will question because i believe that we are being lied to......
yesterday, for the first time in my life, i saw a military plane. it was flying in my neighborhood and flying really low. i told ami the minute i saw it that it was a military plane. as fate would have it, the day before, i was watching a movie that showed the differences between ordinary commercial jet planes and military aeroplanes. and yes, there was a lot more engines than an ordinary plane. i think there was two on each wing as opposed to the regular one on each side. and it was painted in the army green color. i do not know what it was doing in our neighborhood but the sight of it was disturbing....see, before, at the store, i first noticed that many of the people were not spending money as they used to and i kept telling my bosses that the country was entering a recession....seems more like on the verge of a depression (and mind you, south florida has a really strong economy...separate from the rest of the US)...but yesterday when i saw the plane it really visually drove in the fact that we are living in a country that is at war..........................

Stone Mountain, Ga.

Sun sets over Turtle River, Ga.


Well i've returned to South Florida. I think i am addicted to the beauty of Georgia. I will not want to live there but it surely is a beautiful state. there is much history and Georgia seems to be well marinated in the history of the southern United States.
The trip took 9 hours of driving and by the time we got to Atlanta that evening, we were tired. However, seeing the city livened us up really quickly. It is beautiful at night. The city is full of hilly streets; something that we do not have in Florida. it is surely something. I didn't take pictures of atlanta because vinod was recording when we entered the city and the digi cam needed batteries. We only have atlanta on tape. But by far, stone mountain captivated and mesmerized us. i think i got pictures of the best part....although i wouldn't have minded getting pics of atlanta also. if we had stayed another day, we would have been in the city for Correta Scott King's burial. I guess it is an historic event....the first lady of the American Civil Rights movement...her funeral. It is because of her and her husband that we have rights as minorities in the US.
We stayed in an inn in the city. it was an experience. there wasn't all the luxuries of the last stay but i cannot complain....it was the city after all. it was cold too. monday morning, the temperature dipped close to 32 degrees farenheit. we are never that cold in florida so we were definitely freezing.
the cold did not prevent us from getting out at stone mountain though. it was truly something to see. it was raining cold rain on us and we still came out to take pictures.
The mountain is the largest exposed mass of granite in the world. About 850-something feet in altitude. It really was something. We could have come out and walked to the top but there was rain and we were worried that if we got caught in heavier rain, it would be hard for us to come back down...so we settled for driving around the entire park. for $8, you can enter the park and take as much pictures as you like. it was truly something. I felt as if i was in a piece of history. i guess the weather added to the mystery and intrigue of the mountain. in the summer, we may not have felt what we felt on this cold day. the night before, when we first came to atlanta, we drove to stone mountain but there was no one else there and the park was isolated. felt as if someone would come out of the woods and kill us!!!!! it was eerie. the next day was fine...it was gloomy because of the rain but it was something. ......
On a second note, we drove back home on monday instead of tuesday. we only drove through st. augustine for about an hour or so. we saw some of the historic places but it wasn't much to write about because we didn't get to see much. everywhere was closed for the day when we got there. we have decided to go up agian....for a whole day only to st. augustine. then i would get to see all that i want to see there. in the mean time, the pictures from stone mountain are here. i had my fun......i loved it in georgia. for a vacation, it is a beautiful state......to live, i love south florida!!!!!

St. Augustine.....here we come!!!!!

Well this weekend, providing that all goes well, i will be taking off to St. Augustine, FL. it's where Ponce de Leon came looking for his "fountain of youth." really excited to be taking off. I guess i really do not give up when it comes to any issue. my mom must really be exasperated with me sometimes! i never take no for an answer. but at the same time, i just wanted to do what i really like. i love travelling. i love seeing new places; especially cities that are very old. St. Augustine is about 4 hours north of where we live in S. FL. Ami is probably online right now looking at places where we can drive to also while we are up north. i know when he and vinod are together, they get crazy. they get along well when they are on the road. hopefully, this will be like this too. a lady told me today that if i liked savannah, ga as much as i did, then i would like st. augustine too. i am excited now about the trip. for us, going on a trip depends on if our time off comes on the same day.
i guess i feel a little bit tired. i argued a lot this week to have my way. i mean, i am happy that i have the go ahead from my parents now but i feel as if i really caused too much of a stir. they are adjusting to us being young adults and living in a new country. that is hard for any parent...even if they are in their own home land. i can only imagine....
today i had lunch with my friend at work. i have gotten her to eat all these so-called "health foods" that are really what my diet is like. she was having a soy burger and she told me that she liked it more than the real burgers. my secret was the olives. olives add a distinct flavor to anything...especially when it is with cheese. at least i know that i can make a sandwich that tastes good. i was happy. she doesn't eat meat much anymore and i actually saw her develop the taste for the soy burgers. in return, she has taught me how to eat less carbohydrates. Indian people eat from a diet with a high carb content and later on in life, most of them develop type 2 diabetes. for us, it's all about lifestyle and if the changes are made when we are young, it is for our own good. For me, it was imperative that i stop eating carbs but i couldn't do it as i wanted to. when you see someone not eating the carbs as much though, you eventually stop. sometimes all we need is that little push to get rolling. so now, my meals have less flour and rice (although i LOVE rice) and more of the protein...whether they are the soy burgers or dhall....and you never really notice it but carbs make you sleepy. they fill you up too quickly and then you just feel like sleeping after.

being a blogger

it took me a while to realize that many people actually blog. didn't quite pay attention to it until i went on to cnn.com and saw anderson cooper's blogs as well. i wonder if stephen colbert blogs? that would be interesting stuff to read. i love the show..."the colbert report." really hilarious....it is satire and although there is a serious undertone, you just cannot help but laugh when he says it. he's even funnier than "the daily show with jon stewart."
so anyway, my boss has been avoiding me lately because i asked him for a raise. he calls and if i answer the phone at work, he hangs up. it doesn't bother me really. i guess even if i get the raise or not, i will be leaving soon...it doesn't matter. maybe i will stay until august and then i will leave. i do not know if i could really go through another book season working with him. i am preparing myself from now...mentally...which means that it is becoming a task really. time changes everything and i guess i have become too old for the job there. i have been there a long time and the only thing i will really miss is the chats i have with the customers. i will miss them.
my venezuelan friend is moving back to her country in november. she wants to start her career and her son will be ready for pre-school next year. i guess she is thinking of all of that. i do not blame her really. so even if i stay for another book season, i will not stay beyond november. there comes a time when one has to move on and i am almost at that bridge now.
i suppose the trip we are going on will be to visit st. augustine, florida and a few cities further north. we usually decide when we get on the road what we are going to do and where we are going to. however, we look at cities and see what is interesting. vinod fell in love with st. augustine so i guess we definitely are going there. he wants to spend two days there but it's really a stop and go thing that we do. we try to cover as much places as possible when we go on road trips. i have to remind the boss that he gave me the time off already now. he usually acts up when the days are drawing closer. hopefully, there will be no problem. it is already past 3am and i should be getting to sleep. there is much to do tomorrow at work and it's my early day tomorrow too!

the cell phone syndrome......

This past weekend, i ended the service on my cell phone. I've had that phone for the past almost three years and i never really noticed how dependent i became on it. it was something that i always carried around. imagine, it was so important that i never forgot it anywhere in that time. how did we live before? even when i slept, i left the phone on. cannot really remember when i intentionally ever turned off the phone.....i think it was in august last year for my chemistry final. when i graduated, i had my phone with me. my friend and i ended up in a predicament when we had to walk across the stage and there was no one to hold the phones for us. the only thing we could think of before walking across the stage was to slip it in our dresses below the gown. i wish if graduation was not so formal...then all i would have done was what i usually do...slip it in my back pocket of my jeans. even for graduation i never turned off the phone. the other times, it was because it fell so many times and i had to fix the battery and then turn it on again. so i upgraded. nan wanted me to join her with some deal that she was getting from the university so i said "why not?" turns out that i am getting a camera phone....don't exactly know what i would want with all that but it's extra added features. no, my technology skills go as far as checking my email and using my cell phone....and boy, can i use my cell phone!!!! yeah, i'm always talking. spend a long time talking to ami and yet, we never really talk for long on the phone. it's not like those relationships where you talk about nonsense for hours upon hours....nah, ami doesn't like to waste time like that and i would much rather talk to him in person than over the phone.....why waste valuable sleeping time anyways! in any case, nan has me on a minute plan now. the last company spoiled me. i had unlimited service and i could call anywhere in the US for one fixed price. i took advantage of it. nan used to say that the people at MetroPCS probably were banging their heads on the walls because of me...so imagine if there was another one like me! I've confiscated nan's old phone in the meantime while coping with not having mine. there is a little game on there that i like playing. i like the sounds. with my old phone, i learnt to bowl like a pro. this one is teaching me to fight off offenders in space.......where can i use these skills????? jeezum crow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!