a very good day so far

Woke up late this morning and then rode my bike to the neighborhood farmers' market. It is a beautiful day with plenty of sun, blue skies, and cool breezes. Bought a couple of empanadas, white nectarines, apricots, pink lady apples (fuji apples are out of season now), and fresh figs. The apricots are sweet but I shouldn't have bought them since they're not really my favorite fruit! Rode back to my apt with my goodies in my backpack and decided to ride my bike to campus because my apt is a little too warm. There's not as much traffic on Sundays so my ride was more enjoyable than it normally would be.

I'll try to do some work this afternoon before going to the gym for a bit, then home, shower, and church in the evening! What a great day!

I spent most of yesterday being social--first, a much-too-short-trip to the Huntington Library and Gardens, then rushed back to catch an independent M'sian film back in Westwood village (the movie wasn't that great), dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant (with plenty of leftovers in my fridge), and then drinks at a different restaurant in W_st H_llywood with another set of friends, in "celebration" of two postdocs' departures.

I'm going to miss those two cuginas (Italian for "cousins"). How did I come to care for them in the short time that we were together?? It hasn't even been 10 months.

Well, I'm very glad to have most of the day to myself.

crazier and crazier

Unbelievable. The right to bring guns to church??

On another note, Michael Jackson is said to have been brought to the U_LA medical center and helicopters (probably news) have been circling all afternoon. Is this really THAT important????

This is what happens when your veins are too small and the nurse tries to "adjust" the needle multiple times. It has limited my arm movement for about a week and a half now and seems only marginally better at this point.

my camping trip seems so long ago now . . .

Enough

Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey, January 8

Often we want to be able to see into the future. We say, "How will next year be for me? Where will I be five or ten years from now?" There are no answers to these questions. Mostly we have just enough light to see the next step: what we have to do in the coming hour or the following day. The art of living is to enjoy what we can see and not complain about what remains in the dark. When we are able to take the next step with the trust that we will have enough light for the step that follows, we can walk through life with joy and be surprised at how far we go. Let's rejoice in the little light we carry and not ask for the great beam that would take all shadows away.

still blah

Done with most of my grading now. Waiting for a few of my students to turn in their papers because they've been sick and I gave them extensions. It'll feel good to turn in grades next week.

Going camping for a few days starting tomorrow. A friend from church and I will be taking it easy in Malibu Cr__ State Park. I think I got the name right. I'm really looking forward to this because I need a break. No talk of work and all the other things that I still need to do.

Really struggling not to worry so much and this surprises me because I've been doing really well. Not sure why I feel this way now. It could be because we've had a couple of weeks of clouds and overcast sky. :) But I suppose I shouldn't complain about the cool weather because I don't have air-conditioning in my apt.

wouldn't you know it

Just when I thought I was coasting, I get news about a couple of things that is challenging me to hang on the growth I thought I was experiencing recently. I suppose it's easy enough to walk on water when there isn't a storm. And no, I'm not in the middle of another storm. It's choppy water but not a full-blown storm.

I'm just shaking my head, really. Just shaking my head. I'd like to be that little brown puppy in the picture above, right about now.

just in case you missed this one . . . :)

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pics of Santa Monica beach

More pictures of SM beach on FB. Takes too long to upload to the blog--maybe because the pics are 12mp.

conversations

I went to a very interesting roundtable yesterday that composed of representatives from the Abrahamic religions: A Rabbinic professor from the American Jewish University, Richard Mouw (the president of Fuller Theological Seminary), and Dr Saddiqi (scholar and president of the North American Fikh Council). Each representative both insisted that they believed that their interpretation of the scriptures is the right one but all three also insisted that they were there to work for peace. Very interesting.

I was especially interested by Mouw's mention of an event at Fuller where they brought Islamic scholars to campus so that their students could learn more. He thought that Christians have the responsibility to speak for truth and that they would bear false witness if they allowed slanders against Islam to pass.

(I don't remember the Rabbinic prof's name because I didn't know how to spell it and she was also the youngest of the three.)

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Looking for Comity in the Muslim World
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:(

Haven't really been blogging much because I've been feeling really fatigued and also out of sorts. I will teach my last class this Friday and my students turn in their finals next week. My postdoc group had our last seminar yesterday and we're meeting for lunch with one of the deans today. I usually have trouble sleeping after a seminar dinner because it's too stimulating and we usually end around 10pm. As much as I've enjoyed their company and as much as I will miss them, I will happily hunker down and become a hermit for awhile . . . without guilt or condemnation.

It's been an amazing year where I've learned a lot and I've also learned to do a lot of difficult things; difficult for me, that is. After this final push, I need a break so that I can reflect on the past year. I can't take a long break though because I need to write two chapters this summer!!!

LCW and Taufik!

video that is more fun than the last one

travel tips from Nicholas Kristof

In response, here are 15 tips for traveling to even the roughest of countries — and back:

1. Carry a “decoy wallet,” so that if you are robbed by bandits with large guns, you have something to hand over. I keep $40 in my decoy wallet, along with an old library card and frequent-flier card. (But don’t begrudge the wallet: when my travel buddy was pickpocketed in Peru, we tried to jump the pickpocket, who turned out to be backed by an entire gang ... )

2. Carry cash and your passport where no robber will find it. Assuming that few bandits read this column, I’ll disclose that I carry mine in a pouch that loops onto my belt and tucks under my trousers.

3. Carry a tiny ski lock with a six-foot retractable wire. Use it to lock your backpack to a hotel bed when you’re out, or to the rack of a train car.

4. At night, set a chair against your hotel door so that it will tip over and crash if someone slips in at 4 a.m. And lift the sheet to look for bloodstains on the mattress — meaning bed bugs.

5. When it gets dark, always carry a headlamp in your pocket. I learned that from a friend whose hotel in Damascus lost power. He lacked a light but was able to feel his way up the stairs in the dark, find his room and walk in. A couple of final gropes, and he discovered it wasn’t his room after all. Unfortunately, it was occupied.

6. If you’re a woman held up in an isolated area, stick out your stomach, pat it and signal that you’re pregnant. You might also invest in a cheap wedding band, for imaginary husbands deflect unwanted suitors.

7. Be wary of accepting drinks from anyone. Robbers sometimes use a date rape drug to knock out their victims — in bars, in trains, in homes. If presented with pre-poured drinks, switch them with your host, cheerfully explaining: “This is an American good luck ritual!”

8. Buy a secondhand local cell phone for $20, outfit it with a local SIM card and keep it in your pocket.

9. When you arrive in a new city, don’t take an airport taxi unless you know it is safe. If you do take a cab, choose a scrawny driver and lock ALL the doors — thieves may pull open the doors at a red light and run off with a bag.

10. Don’t wear a nice watch, for that suggests a fat wallet and also makes a target. I learned that lesson on my first trip to the Philippines: a robber with a machete had just encountered a Japanese businessman with a Rolex — who now, alas, has only one hand.

11. Look out for fake cops or crooked ones. If a policeman tries to arrest you, demand to see some ID and use your cell phone to contact a friend.

12. If you are held up by bandits with large guns, shake hands respectfully with each of your persecutors. It’s very important to be polite to people who might kill you. Surprisingly often, child soldiers and other bandits will reciprocate your fake friendliness and settle for some cash rather than everything you possess. I’ve even had thugs warmly exchange addresses with me, after robbing me.

13. Remember that the scariest people aren’t warlords, but drivers. In buses I sometimes use my pack as an airbag; after one crash I was the only passenger not hospitalized.

14. If terrorists finger you, break out singing “O Canada”!

15. Finally, don’t be so cautious that you miss the magic of escaping your comfort zone and mingling with local people and staying in their homes. The risks are minimal compared with the wonders of spending time in a small village. So take a gap year, or volunteer in a village or a slum. And even if everything goes wrong and you are robbed and catch malaria, shrug it off — those are precisely the kinds of authentic interactions with local cultures that, in retrospect, enrich a journey and life itself.

Again . . .