7:15p

not a holiday for me
'showed up at work this morning at 7:45.
was all by myself in that lonely office.
my bf visited me later in the afternoon since he didn't have work today.
Unfortunately, he visited a few minutes before I was leaving for the day.

quality time weekend
went to another photo exhibit this weekend.
my bf invited me to go along with his photography classmates.
it was quite interesting as they are almost 20 years older than us.

Before I got to the exhibit, I was a little nervous to meet all of them.
but when I saw them all and shook their hands, they instantly put me at
ease. The age difference really didn't matter.
In fact, we had a really nice conversation during lunch at spag. fac.
in Jack London Square.

I found it pretty amazing how we didn't let our age differences
or experiences get in the way of our common interest in photography.
I'm excited to see them again at the exhibit of their photographs at
their photography school.
It's just good vibes all around.

later that night, I went out to dinner with my family (mom, dad, brother).
my brother was originally not gonna be able to make it because of
his hectic school work load. thank goodness he came.

Once again, the vibe was good.
it seemed everyone was open to what everyone had to share.
Even I could muster enough patience to hear my
mom talk about religion..and that's not always an easy thing since we have
very opposing views.

i actually even felt that my mom was really listening to me
when I talked about how my job situation is going.
communication...at least the "listening" part of it...is always kind of a challenge within my family.

Afterwards, we headed back to my house and my bf was working on
his pictures.
I invited my parents to take a look at some of his shots.
they were really amazed at his work.
they truly enjoyed looking at it and appreciated his talent.
it made me feel so proud of my baby.
In fact, my mom wanted a copy of one of his prints.

good vibes once again.

The next morning, we had brunch with a few friends to celebrate
on of our friend's 30th b-day.
It was such a good time!
Oh, and the food was ALL GOOD! ALL OF iT!
There wasn't one dish that was mundane or ordinary.
Everything was so flavorful and delicious.

The atmosphere was also fun and inviting.
It's a small, quaint place...
the 2 chefs are totally down-to-earth and say hello
to the customers.
The wait staff are super friendly.
and there's even live jazz music played by 2 musicians and
1 singer.

check it out...it's called Alcatraces located on 24th Street in the city (between Noe and Castro streets)
You won't be disappointed.

stirring in my soul
for some reason or other, I had a lot of things to think about
and talk about with my bf this weekend.
and the wierd thing is, we actually had the time
to talk.

primarily on my mind this weekend was the situation with Iraq.
As much as I am against attacking, I dont' have a lot of information about
the specifics of why the government wants to attack.

Furthermore, I am curious about the opinions of those individuals who are
pro-war.
I actually read this flyer for a pro-war rally that happened on Sunday
which happened in protest to the anti-war rally that took place on Saturday.
The flyer said something about how disgraceful it is for anti-war folks to be
against our military..the men and women who risk their lives for our freedom.
This made me think....

first of all, I am not against them per say. I am against the decision making process
of our government.
To some extent, military folks follow orders because that's what they are trained to do.
That's not to say that they can't walk out on the military if their actions go against their personal
values. They do have a choice, so at some level, they are a part of the problem.
But like any controversial decision, this isn't as easy as it may seem, so
it would be inappropriate for me to place all blame on them.

More than anything, I was hungry to find out more about how the opposition feels.
...to find out Why the hell they really want this attack.
...and what does this "attack" really mean? Are we attacking civilians in Iraq or hitting up their military?

I decided to go on-line on Saturday night. I read up on a few sites that were pro-war.
I really wanted to read the article in Esquire magazine that Nico suggested, but they did not
have a link to it. Nevertheless, the description of the article peaked my interest even more. It read:

"174 The Pentagon's New Map
The author, a top Pentagon strategist, lays out a new theory of the world--and the aggressive departure in U. S. war-fighting strategy that goes with it. His map, illustrating a redefinition of the international order, is gaining influence in Washington and explains not only why we're going to war in Iraq but also where we'll be fighting next.
[ By Thomas P. M. Barnett ]
"

It's all very interesting to me.
And in light of the things i've been reading about in The Food Revolution,
it's pretty scary how the same concepts of world destruction
from our own actions continues to play itself out with this Iraq conflict.

Oh, and I'm actually a few pages shy of finishing this book.
It definitely gives me a bleak outlook on our survival as a human race
on this planet.
And more and more, I see how capitalism is the leading cause of our
self-destruction...and how blind we all are to it because of the
convenient, fast-paced, "technologically" advanced life we live.
And i am not an exception to that ignorance either, so I'm not claiming to be
better than thou.

"Living life to the fullest" has an even deeper meaning for me now.
For the most part, it doesn't only mean to enjoy one's self at any expense.
But rather, it means to do so with respect for people, for animals, and for the earth.
For even if we pretty much dominate this planet, we are still...at least culturally speaking,
the least evolved of all the species.
Because if we have truly evolved, then we wouldn't be at this point of a potential WWIII.
For the most part, we wouldn't allow corporations/money to dictate the quality of our life.

So maybe in some strange way, the meaning of life is to evolve into a human race that truly
embraces and puts into action cultural values that respect everything on earth.