Harijan

I’d like to meet Nikki cos she has such a way with words… she writes with feeling and humour and shares a lot about her life

(((((Nikki)))))

_{Thanks for being you :)}

i feel like a lot didn’t happen, but when i look back, my husband and i got a lot of little things done which inevitably brought us to a more mature stage of our lives. we spent the first half of the year working cruddy jobs to make ends meet and did what we could to survive, but it turned out to all be building blocks of who we are now. we didn’t travel as much as i’d like. in fact, i went the whole year not even leaving the state. but california is big and we did get to travel around much of southern california. there are only a few things left that i’d really like to see in southern california before we start conquering northern california.

my hopes for 2008 is that we start tackling the bigger projects like moving, accomplishing some of the educational things i’ve had sitting in my 43things list since 2006 and of course, start working on making babies. i love 43things, it helps keep me on track. even if there are some that i haven’t accomplished yet and have been there for almost two years. that’s fine, it’s not like i’ve really been procrastinating. it’s just finding the time, place and money to do the things i want to do. after seeing the numbers like completing 286 goals this past year, i realize that this year was a lot more fruitful than i originally thought. that makes me feel good. i hate feeling like i’ve wasted time. because there were so many smaller goals that needed to be completed this past year, i have no idea if i’ll actually be able to complete another 286 goals in 2008. but, perhaps it has to do with the year just starting. and as i accomplish goals, new goals will be born. those goals are unforseeable so far. this will be a tough year, but a good year. a year where hard work pays off. sounds good to me.

as requested…
#AN UPDATE

Life in California this past year has been eventful, stressful, wonderful and…a mouthful. my step-mother-in-law gave birth to her beautiful baby girl, Nur, in january of last year. to think she will be turning one already boggles my mind. and not too long after, my sister-in-law got married and quickly announced she is pregnant. so, the family grows… and my womb aches to be filled with the same joys and blessings, but there are things we’d like to take care of before then.

we’ve lived in the same crappy apartment that i wrote about earlier, except this time it is not so crappy and gross. i made my way through my uncle-in-law’s endless piles of useless, old and broken things that he claims are “antiques” (the eloquent words of an obsessive junk collector). and i scrubbed every grimy corner and revealed the true colors of the cabinets, the sink, the floors and the bathroom. but the goal, originally, was to move out of the apartment in March of 2007. THAT didn’t happen. instead, we were dealing with one set back after another that fell like dominos. but we’ve managed to stay strong. through out the year, we worked horrible minimum wage jobs to make ends meet, although ends not exactly meeting, so food stamps filled the gap. until marvellously, my husband made it into the police academy and we no longer needed crappy minimum wage jobs nor food stamps. so he worked, and i went back to school after missing out for a year. i bought a car to get my way around so i didn’t need my husband to drive me everywhere and things are finally coming together. i’m close to getting my early child care certification and come spring, we will begin the process of buying a house. i taught belly dance for a little while, but it got too hectic with my schedule, so i dropped that. i did keep on dancing though, i took some modern dance and world dance classes at school along with the classes for my majors.
i have two dogs and a cat, although trying to get rid of the last dog we found because we just have too many animals in such a small place. we found her roaming around our apartment, so we took her in to try and find her a home, but we failed. so we tried to keep her but it’s just made life too hard. especially since we’ve wanted to get a nicer apartment, and we can’t now because most apartments only allow one or two pets. so now we’re back trying to find this pup a home. ::sigh::
we’ve done little travelling due to our financial and occupational situations, but we did manage to go to catalina island for our first wedding anniversary. what a joy! it was beautiful and the vacation was well needed. we’ve also done our best to visit as much of california as possible. on day trips, we’ve been as far south as Tijuana, mexico, and as far north as bakersfield and almost everywhere in between. to really finalize our SO-CAL adventures, we want to go to six flags, sea world and disney land. then, all we’ll have left is northern california!
there are plenty of things to look forward to in the near future. and we’d definitely like to add a baby to the mix sometime between the summer of 2008 and 2010.

i am going back to the east coast in january to see my friends and family i haven’t seen since my wedding. i haven’t been back there since july of 2006. it will be nice to see a place with so many memories.

if all goes well with the house buying, my husband and i are gonna try to go to san francisco or vegas for a week for our second wedding anniversary. but if it doesn’t work out, that’s alright. we have another bigger trip planned for november. we want to go to michoacan, Mexico for my husband’s birthday since it falls on el dia de los muertos. not to mention to migration of the monarch butterflies, the volcano, the ocean, and all of it’s other beautiful atractions. AND, depending on if i’m pregnant and just how pregnant i am or if there are other things that get in the way, we are going to go to Alaska for my birthday. my birthday falls on the day that the sun rises for the first time. so i want to go there and see what a few days of darkness is like and then get to see the sun rise on my birthday. that would be pretty sweet.
so there are tons of things that will be happening within the next year, and God i pray that we will have the chance to get most of these big things out of the way, especially the house buying. i also look forward to tax time… lots of things have happened since then and i have a really good feeling that we’ll be getting a nice check in the mail, YAY!!!!

look at where hard work gets you… :D

things i achieved in my list this past year:

got married
take a year off
drive cross country
(only three things!! SO LAME!!! alright, for next year, i NEED to get 4 or more. i need to be more freakin productive and stick with my plans! MAKE MY DREAMS COME TRUE!)

things i aspire to achieve by june 2008:

go back to school
buy a good digital camera
get my driver’s license
give 1000 cheers on 43things
get a passport
buy a car
host baha’i devotionals at my house (consistantly)
go to mexico for dia de los muertos
go to catalina island for my one year wedding anniversary
visit 5 more states to add to my 50 state goal
earn my ECC credits
move into a nicer apartment

just moved to palmdale a few days ago after a 2 week long road trip cross country and my wedding. moved into my uncle-in-law’s apartment and it is GROSS. it will take me a year to clean through it. MAN. to give people an idea…
-moved the garbage and found a dead bug the size of my large toe
-moved my uncle’s underwear from behind the toilet and found a large spider
-removed the pots from the oven and they were all sticky with odd red gumpy grime
-about 6 containers of pickled olives… still pickling… probably pickling more than anything has ever pickled before.
-odd growths in the fridge
-an excess of obsolete appliances… like 4 coffee makers, every “as seen on tv” kitchen thing, 5 sets of dishes and nothing matching, tons of chairs that don’t match, a rotting baby carriage and things on the porch, tons of small corner tables, not enough actual life furniture like… dresser drawer space and shelves….
i swear i’ve moved into a circus. i’ve yet to really gallivant palmdale. not to mention i am halfway through getting over elavation sickness while dealing with menstrual woes, mental in-laws and the incapacities of sub-par family members like a pregnant step-mother-in-law and a recovering sister-in-law from a not so pleasant surgury… when it rains… it pours. and after every time i drown… i realize i haven’t died yet. i don’t know if thats a good thing. but that cyclic taste of eternity has me never wanting to… live forever. but still somehow appreciating just how much life can drive a person insane. ain’t it good to still be breathin’...

things of my 43 things that i aspire to achieve by june of 2007:

get married
become a reiki master
see matisyahu live
start a business
get my driver’s license
take a one year off trip
give 1000 cheers
get a passport
drive cross country

A SONG ABOUT THE THINGS I LIKE TO DO

i’z like to eat bugs when deyz big and crunchy
i’z like flowers when deyz big and bunchy
i’z like to be naked cuz clothes dey feel frumpy
but frumpy or slumpy i’z must not get mumpies! (das kinda bumpy)

i’z like to sing and write da poem and songs
i’z dont needza booze or da bubbly bongs
i’z crazy but normal in dis world i belong
i’z sing along, i’z little but strong, and when i’z say 12-4=92, i’z never wrong!

i’z like da improv and makes peoplez laugh
talk in silly accents to my pet stick named maf
don’t judge me, i’ma hoot-and-a-half!(biznitches!)
hold yer holy calf, my brain’s half-staffed
and i like to eat SAND-whiches.

you heard me, fool! now stand up and dance
i’z like to dance, to move in my pants
hey, i’llz take ‘em off and give ‘em to de ants
lets all march to France
gimme all yo’ buscuits and dat pointy lance!
I’m not dangerous with weapons. shifty eyes

as told by Muriel Ives Barrow Newhall

Abdu’l-Baha, in appearance, was a man of medium height though to all who met Him, He gave the impression of such majesty that He seemed much taller. His beard was flowing and white; His head covering, whether a turban or tarboosh, was white also. But, meeting Him, none of these details were even noticed. It was only the spirit one felt and the outpouring love. Love filled Him and flowed out from Him to bathe and encompass everyone in His presence.

He was, as we all know, the Mystery of God. His Station is unique. There has been no one like Him in any past religious era, nor will there ever be such in the future. Baha’u’llah had bestowed upon Him the assurance of God’s guidance in His explanations of anything in the Teachings that needed clarifying for the believers and, when He was but ten years old, His Father, Baha’u’llah, addressed Him and referred to Him as ‘the Master.’

He was the perfect Exemplar of the Baha’i Teachings: He lived by prayer and wished only to be known as ‘Abdu’l-Baha the servant of the servants. He made no mistakes.

Yet, with all this, He needed, as we all need, the constant attitude of prayer to renew and revivify Him, and, urging us ever upward. His constant adjuration was, “Do as I do. Be as I am.

she stole my wallet on the streets of calcutta. i had to chase her past herders and fruit cart merchants for over 2 miles before i cornered her in a back alley. where she properly trounced me and stole my left sock. as i went home to the US i found a package containg that sock with a phone number written on it. i called it, and it was her. so we made plans to go see a movie. and we did. that’s how we met.