Valentines day. It's about...Love.

When I was a child Valentines day always meant new socks. (Who wants flowers, anyway, when you can get something practical like socks?) My mother or sisters might correct me on this one, but from what I recall, each Valentines day for several years we each got a pair of socks and a note from Mom detailing what she loved about us.

For me, socks became the defining symbol of Valentine's day and, in a larger aspect, love in general. Love = socks. Socks = love.

It was a real disappointment to come to college and no longer get socks for Valentines day. Plus, for 3 of the past 5 years on Valentines day I have been in countries where they don't even celebrate the day of love. Lame. No socks = no love in my life. (No wonder I am having such a hard time with graduating from BYU single! I need to get married so I can get socks on Valentines day!)

Anyway, just a couple of weeks ago, on Valentines day, I came home and found this waiting on my doorstep:

It's not quite like a pair of socks, but I could tell that this had been given with love, too. In fact, it was this girl (and her boyfriend) that had left this thing of beauty, this symbol of love, on my porch for me to see:

Remember that random couple from temple square on New Year's? Yeah. Actually she is my old roommate. Who just happens to also be my current next door neighbor.

Isn't that one of the most wonderful things you've ever heard? It falls in place right behind the announcement made when Kinder chocolate was available in the US and when laptops were first introduced. My (ex)roommate, who already has a boyfriend of her own and already probably got flowers on V-day, cared enough about me to get me flowers (since she knew I wasn't getting them from anywhere else!).

She's great. And I realized. V-day is not about flowers. It's not even about socks.

It's about love.

Just to celebrate, I thought I would leave you with a picture of (one of) the love(s) of my life:

My nephew. Can I just say that he just started saying my name, and now I am in love. He is even more adorable now that he wakes up and says, "Ahh-Bee?" (which is toddler for Aunt Breanne) while looking around for me.

Love that kid!

The Middle East: Some Helpful Links

The other day I was talking to my sister and she started asking me some questions about what is currently happening in the Middle East. She noted that if you don't get in on the action right away (by reading the newspaper), it is hard to jump in in the middle and know what is going on.

I will admit, it is quite overwhelming, trying to keep track of which countries are protesting and what kinds of governments they have and why they are protesting. So today I found this great link from the New York Times that I thought I would share with you. I found it helpful.

Also, there is a great link on CNN.com, and if you are in the mood to just read about it on a blog (from an intelligent sounding American--she and her husband were on my Jordan study abroad), you can click here.

Good luck!

The Girl Effect

I thought after my rather depressing post of yesterday I would post this clip about "The Girl Effect." I think it's pretty powerful because really, women CAN change the world.



(You can read more about "the girl effect" here.)

Lara Logan and Thoughts on the Middle East

Today I read my blogger-friend Bridget's blog (I've never actually met her, but last week I had a dream that I finally did--does that count?) and found about what happened to Lara Logan in Cairo in the wake of the protests.

I really appreciated Bridget's blog post about her own experience in the Middle East, and since I don't think I can write about my own experiences in the Middle East quite yet (it still makes me too angry), I think Bridget did a wonderful job of explaining many of the problems that come with being an American woman in the Middle East. You can read her blog post here.

And, as an additional note, there is an article from NPR discussing harassment of women in the Middle East (both native and foreign), in the wake of Logan's attack. You can find the article here and another article and recording here.

Valentine's Day Elevator

Today I got in an elevator in the library, hoping to go from the 5th floor to the 3rd floor. I was unpleasantly surprised when, a few short seconds after the doors closed, there was a grinding sound and a quick drop (during which time my stomach flew up to my mouth), and then the elevator jerked to a halt in between floors 4 and 5. At least, I think it was between 4 and 5. The doors wouldn't open and the elevator was just sitting there. After my stomach dropped back to its usual place and I realized I was stuck, I calmly pushed the 3rd floor button repeatedly, figuring that this was the best way to get the elevator to move (and not fall all the way to floor 1).

I guess it must have worked, because after about 30 seconds (I was just about to call the operator!) the elevator started moving again and stopped on the 3rd floor. I was unpleasantly surprised a second time when, after a valiant struggle, the doors opened about 3 inches and stayed there. I pushed the "door open" button repeatedly and then tried to pry the doors apart by hand (which tactic has worked every other time I have been stuck in/outside of an elevator), but once again, it was to no avail. The doors closed and I was once again stuck inside the elevator.

Thankfully someone pushed the elevator button on the 6th floor before I called the operator, so I just rode it up and then back down to the third floor. This time the doors were sluggish, but they did open wide enough for me to squeeze through.

As I reflected on this incident, I realized that the elevators must be programmed to respond to certain holidays. Since today was Valentine's day, the elevator was most likely giving the guys a chance. I mean, what could be more romantic than getting stuck in an elevator with a guy after you have almost dropped to your death and then the doors don't open? It sounds like destiny on so many levels.

The only problem though? I was alone.

Cheese

I recently decided that in order to ease my financial burden (at least partially), I could no longer buy cheese. It's just too expensive.

But I love cheese. Especially toasted cheese sandwiches. And so my body has been going through withdrawal for the last few weeks. I think about cheese all the time.

*Sigh*

The other night, I came home from campus and I was starving. If I had cheese, I would have made myself a toasted cheese sandwich. But I didn't. I was out of strawberry jam, too, and I just bought peanut butter last week but it was disgusting. It tastes like the peanut butter in Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, and I don't like Reeses Peanut Butter Cups.

You see the problem.

No cheese. No (edible) peanut butter. No jam. No frozen dinners (which are almost as expensive as cheese). Actually, in an effort to ease my financial burden, I have cut back on everything except cereal and fruit snacks--and food storage.

I realized I only had one option. I opened my cupboard to see what random assortment of cans I had in there that I could throw together to make something edible.

Canned salmon. Pineapple chunks. Garbanzo beans. All things that are great with cheese, but not so great together.

But then I saw the ramen. Ramen + Kidney Beans + Corn + Tomato Paste = dinner.

Doesn't it look delicious? My roommate was almost jealous of my delectable dinner, but she had made her own dinner of Thai food. I decided I wanted to eat international food, too, so I ate this with chopsticks.

Everything tastes better with chopsticks.

Egypt

I've been thinking for a long time how to blog about the events in Egypt. Because, even though I never lived there, I lived right next door for 8 months and I went there twice. It's like hearing that your neighbor's house from that place you lived last year is burning down. Or maybe, that they are remodeling and somehow, when the wrecking crane came in, it knocked down the gas line that unfortunately hadn't been turned off, and then it started a fire and the house has been burning for hours, and the neighbors (including those in your old home) are afraid that their homes will catch on fire too.

Yeah. I don't know if that analogy worked, but that is kind of how it is for me.

Not to mention that I have some friends currently living in Egypt, and I kind of worry about them, even the ones that have already left the country.

When I first heard about the protests, I was excited for the Egyptian people. Whether there are better options or not, and whether Mubarak has done good things for their country or not, it was exciting to see Arabs uniting to bring about change in governmental policy. There are so many things that could be changed--especially when 40% of the country lives below the poverty level of earning $2 a day (even in my poorest minutes I spend more than $2 a day!).

As the protests continued mostly peaceful, my excitement grew.  Other Arab countries were noticing and doing things to effect changes in their own governments, and it seemed like Egypt would be a model for a peaceful change to democracy. I almost got a Twitter account, just so I could keep up with the action like the rest of the world.

Of course, when the pro-Mubarak protesters charged in with camels and machetes, all of that changed. With the rest of the world, I watched in horror as the protests turned violent and people strated getting seriously wounded and dying. Horrific images and videos showed up on youtube, and then journalists started getting harrassed, beaten, and arrested.

Now that it has been several days since I started writing this post, the protests have become mostly peaceful again. The people in the square seem to have no intention of leaving anytime soon, and several concessions have already been made in government structure and wages. It seems like perhaps once again this can be an exciting day for Egypt. Perhaps the horrors of watching Egyptians fighting Egyptians (with molotov cocktails and rocks, no less) will help the other Arab nations to keep things relatively peaceful as they, too, are demanding change. And perhaps the Western countries will be able to breathe a sigh of relief when change happens and they can still buy oil for acceptable prices. Because really, isn't this struggle about the American economy, anyway? (please excuse my sarcastic tone here.)

Anyway, here are a few very helpful links if you are just jumping onto the Egypt protests news:

Sherwood Family Blog: Her husband works for the embassy in Egypt. She and her children were evacuated. She posted several of her journal entries from when the fighting broke out. This one is a very personal, and heart-wrenching, look at what it was like to be there.

Al Jazeera English: Yes, their station hasn't been available in America because it is driven by an agenda that is quite different than American news stations (and American government policy). But let's admit it, they really do have the best coverage of what is going on in Egypt. And, they can actually pronounce the Arab names of cities and people, which is always a plus.

Google Crisis Response: Did you know that google has launched a crisis response page? What will they think of next?