Persian New Year

IMG_3888, originally uploaded by A Morld of Wonder.

Fire Jumping.

Dear Blog Readers,

This year I am helping save lives from cancer by taking part in the American Cancer Society Relay For Life in my community, and I’m hoping you will support me.

Each of us has our own reasons for caring about the fight against cancer … whatever your reasons, I hope you’ll choose to make a difference by making a donation online to support my efforts. I’m so grateful to have great people like you in my life who want to see an end to cancer in our lifetime. Together we can save lives!

Click Here to Donate

As a donor to the American Cancer Society you can provide support to cancer patients and their families in the community. With your gift, the Society will be able to offer a broad range of essential programs and services at no cost to the recipient, such as:

• Your $75 helps fund Gift Coupons for our “tlc” product catalog provide women battling cancer with a wig or other personal care item.
• Your $100 helps fund eight round trips to and from cancer-related appointments for patients in need.
• Cancer patients sometimes need to travel long distances and stay away from home for long periods of time at their treatment location. Your $500 helps fund seven nights of lodging near the patient’s treatment center.

Thank you, and I will keep you updated on my progress.

(PS You can learn more about Relay For Life here.)

Born in the USA

I recently did a research project and presentation about pregnancy and infant mortality in the USA. Here are some of the key findings:

- The USA has some of the worst infant mortality rates when compared with most other industrialized, first world countries. The USA is currently in 30th place in international rankings, with 6.9 deaths per thousand live births.

- If you are African American, you are about 50% more likely than a white person to have a premature birth.

- According to the last census, 12.4% of all children born in the US are born prematurely. On average, more than 900 late preterm babies are born every day in the USA.

- The USA does not utilize midwives; there is a lack professionals trained to assist normal, natural births in our health care system.

- There are approximately one million children born each year to mothers who receive little or no prenatal care. (Approx. 23% of all births in a year.)

- Approximately 13% of pregnant women have no health insurance when they become pregnant. 

- Maternal death rates int eh US are abominable! Times article here. 

What an embarrassment to our country!

It's coming! It's Coming to America!!

After years of being a success in Europe, the Fiat 500 is finally coming to America. This car has replaced my dream of owning the mazda miata MX-5 hardtop convertible. A) Because it is projected to be a cheaper car than the MX-5, which means I might actually be able to afford it one day. B) Because it gets better fuel economy. C) Because it is Italian and sassy. The Fiat 500 is going to be a cute, small, well designed, fun car to drive. It has even inspired me to learn how to drive a stick shift.  The first Fiat 500 model is projected to be available in the US by the end of this year.

For the last couple of days I have been following this guy's blog, called Fiat 500 USA. The blog has all sorts of cool information about my future car.

Cupcake vs. Cake

Vanilla-cinnamon cupcakes with chocolate ganache frosting.

I know people who are really huge cupcake fans. They will go out of their way to obtain a cupcake. They will pay lots of money for designer cupcakes at expensive fufu-cupcake stores. I can appreciate their enthusiasm for I too believe that a good cupcake can be glorious. I also enjoy making cupcakes. However, I prefer cake. I will always choose having a cake over a cupcake. I prefer the visual impact of a large, full-fledged, layered cake, and the lack of portion control. When it comes to a good cake, bigger IS better.

Great News!

I don't like talking about major life events while said events are still in process and are not yet a done deal. Call me crazy, but I don't want my plans to be jinxed. And, I don't want to have to give long explanations to everybody if my awesome plans do not work out quite as well as I want them to, which is often the case. That is why I have not mentioned my new, awesome, amazing, super cool job until now. I started working recently and it is time you knew, blog folk, that I have a new job and I am super happy. I am especially happy about my commute, which is a grand total of 13 minutes. 13 MINUTES! It doesn't get much better than that in the bay area, especially if you consider peak traffic times. According to Payscale, people in the bay area usually commute around 25 minutes to get to work.

I really do believe there is an inverse relationship between time spent in the car commuting and quality of life, where your quality of life increases as  your commute-time (and thus time spent in traffic jams) decreases. My old work commute was well over half an hour; my new job is a major improvement in that area. Yay!

Jeopardy

Category: Crazy Culture

For 1000 points: "Dude, don't put your beef on my chicken!"

Answer: What is, things overheard at a Korean B.B.Q. restaurant, in California.

The Internet is Made of Cats


As usual, when I find something horrible on the internet I feel compelled to share. Enjoy!

By the way: I hate cats.

What is poetry?

Is it what I read in a book?
Is it what I feel?
Is it life?
Is it a baby?
Is it a well made meal?
I don't know what poetry is. I don't think I ever will.
And yet, I do.

Earthquake

This morning, around 10:09am, there was an earthquake. Nothing too big, but nonetheless noteworthy. A 4.1 will definitely shake your second story apartment built more than 30 years ago.

This is a reenactment of what happened (in my brain), when the earthquake struck:

I'm sitting at the kitchen table.
Shit. Its an earthquake.
Everything is shaking. Hard.
How long will it last?
Should I duck under the table? Naw, that table is from Ikea. I built it.
Earthquake over.

I should seriously consider getting a sturdier kitchen table. But, at least Alan and I have an earthquake safety kit. You must have one if you live in California. You never know when the big one will strike!

Meaty Confession

When I realized that I was going to Venezuela, I knew that staying a vegetarian during two weeks of travel through the country would be a challenge. While there I was faced with the choice of eating an extremely unhealthy diet of fried cheese and cornmeal, or include well prepared and seasoned meat in my diet. Eventually I succumbed to the pleasures of chivo en coco. I think I made the right choice. Chivo en coco is one of my favorite Venezuelan dishes... along with hallacas, pan de jamon, carne mechada and pollo frito. Did you know that chicken in Venezuela tastes much better than in the US? I don't know what to attribute the taste difference to, but chickens in the US taste so bland in comparison.

As soon as I got back to the US I was inspired to cook more Venezuelan food. After all, it wouldn't really be Christmas or New Years in my house without hallacas or pan de jamon, so I made them. Then I ate them. They were delicious. Alan is very happy about my conversion.

La Playa

Ok, so Christmas in Venezuela was not all that bad. Things worked out well. Alan and I managed to get out of Cuidad Ojeda and escape to the beach. In fact, we went to one of the best beaches in the country: Parque Nacional Morrocoy, Cayo Boca Seca. The only way to get there is by boat. We also passed by Coro, Punto Fijo and Maracaibo.

Christmas Doom!

I will be in Venezuela for Christmas this year. I will be staying in a little town called Ciudad Ojeda. Ciudad Ojeda is the most un-touristy, boring, hot and sweaty town of the entire country. I grew up in this town and my mom still lives there. Part of me wants to visit my mom. But, a larger part of me is dreading Ciudad Ojeda. I really hate that town, and I have spent a good part of the last 8 years of my life avoiding it. Originally my plan to visit Venezuela was built around nice beach towns and historical locations. I planned to avoid Ciudad Ojeda, and Zulia state, entirely. Unfortunately, there has been a change in plans due to events that are out of my control. Now I must stay in Ciudad Ojeda for 12 days; my Venezuelan vacation does not feel like a vacation anymore.

I have this horrible feeling that a life-altering event is going to happen once I get there. I sense that a higher (universal?) (evil?) power is sending me there, to my doom, despite my better judgment and fighting it is pointless. There is nothing I can do to get out of visiting Ciudad Ojeda. I do not have high hopes for a Merry Christmas. I know this sounds a bit dramatic, but it is how I truly feel.

To make matters worse, my husband is coming with me. I don't want him to see the horrible little town and the horrible little house where I grew up and spent some of the worst years of my life. It's embarrassing. On the other hand, I don't think I could survive the trip without him... so I am sort of glad he is coming.