Another MatSci midterm today, wish me luck! I think I'll need it..

Still snowing here! I was surprised that my friend in madison told me that it hasn't snowed there at all...strange, I would have thought that it would snow heavily there too..

Anyway.. things are looking bright [my Orlando winter vacation plan...] I'm gonna call up my cousin this weekend [cause my Voicestream plan has unlimited weekend nationwide calls..] and ask him what he's doing this winter break so that we can plan some stuff.. I really don't wanna stay here in minnesota all winter long...

Anyway, I've just realised that there's about less than 20 more days to raya and I still haven't sent anyone greeting cards.. so I went online to buy some of the special EID stamps from usps and bought some cards so that I can send them to my family, cousins and best buds in Malaysia... This should be great.. anyway.. I better start writing those cards now.. before I have something else to do..

Usually I enjoy working without a supervisor.. but tonight I feel like allI want is to have someone with me so that I can explain some of these weird rules they have here at the gym to these customers.. I hate working on the evening shift cause I always have people bothering me every few minutes.. and then I'd get to ansewr calls from people with a thousand and one questions about the gym.. thank god I've memorised all the eligibility rules and fees for different memberships.. and the I never get to do all the things 've set aside to do at work.. oh well, all in the name of money!

I finally sent that letter to Amy, my mentor, today.. I have been procastinating that for so long.. I should start getting into the habit of replying emails as soon as I read them.. I think it's the only way I would ever get things done.. I MUST STOP PROCASTINATING!!! That has been my new year's number one resolution for the past 5 years.. I think this bad habit of mine is really bad.. I mean the reason that I take long showers, is because I procastinate getting out of the shower.. the reason I set all the clocks in my house 10 minutes earlier is because I procastinate and I know I'd be late for things otherwise [I'm still late occasionally though.. ].. so now.. I am determined to change all that.. [but don't test me on that just yet!]

It started snowing heavily yesterday, it was snowing all day.. it must've been about half a feet over that 24 hours.. I was watching the news today and the weatherman told us that in Windell, the snow was about 28 inches over 24 hours.. that's amazing! ..That's about 2.75 feet of snow.. what a blizzard! Last night my neighbours and I had a power cut for about 2 hours, the whole apartment sat in total darkness, even the heaters were gradually cooling down.. kak Ijah and I were watching Oprah at 4.20 yesterday when suddenly the television went off, then all of the lights went off.. at first we thought that it'll go back on soon.. we looked outside and saw all of the nearby buildings experiencing the same situation.. then after 5 minutes we heard our neighbours asking each other whether they have electricity.. the answers were nothig surprising, we were all living in the dark...my roommates and I felt our way around.. looking for torchers, candles and matchers or lighters.. fortunately I found the lighter that Redza left behind.. I didn't even know how to use it.. kak Ijah had to light the candles up for me.. I sacrificed my decorative candles [we needed light more than decorations at times like this].. we lighted up about 10 candles and put it all over the apartment.. 2 of them were used up completely.. we sat together eating under the candle light as we exchange stories from the past [sounds romantic, but what else were we to do in the dark?].. kak ijah was just about to give up, she needed to read something up for her classes or something, she was planning to go to Farah's house but it was snowing so heavy she didn't feel like going out.. I was getting sleepy.. the whole situation was settling the scene for me to dooze off.. then, all of a sudden the lights went back on.. we heard the sounds of music blaring from the next door apartment.. we were jumping with joy! We heard from the radio that some of the colleges nearby cancelled their classes because of the heavy snow..
today, we were all walking in muddy brown slush.. and it's still snowing! I took my winter boot out and woke my hooded coat and tied mufflers around my neck and covered my cheeks.. I think I've had enough of all this snow, and it's only the 2nd day.. the weatherman says that it might still snow in April next year.. oh, how I wish I'm in Malaysia.. take me there, I wanna go there!

I was suppose to tell my landlord about my housing status about 3 weeks ago, but at the time I couldn't make up my mind whether I want to stay or move [the rent went up by 80 dollars!].. I was going to move to the Seven Corners apartment on the west bank with Fajarrani's friends or to Dinnaken House with Annie and Heather.. Fortunately Sasha came to my house last night and she told me she wants to move out of the little cubicle over at Como somewhere.. she wanted to move in with someone she already knew, instead of some stranger.. so being a friend that I am, I think it would be beneficious for both me and Sasha if we stayed together, so I said yes.. she'll be coming again soon to sign the lease with me. The good thing is kak Ijah will be leaving her furniture behind and Sasha doesn't really have any furniture.. so things fit it rather well.. Sasha can just take over.. and she doesn't really mind my current roommate staying until the 11th of January too.. so we're all happy with things. I found out alot of surprising things about Sasha as we were talking to each other yesterday.. Fortunately all these surprises are of the good kind.. I found out that she had just converted into Islam about two weeks before Ramadhan.. [her parents still doesn't know about it].. that explains why she is wearing a scarf and fasting.. she was suppose to come over on Saturday .. then she called me up and told me that she couldn't make it at 4 o'clock cause she wants to break her fast.. I was shocked then cause I didn't know she was a muslim.. but I didn't say anything cause she might just be experimenting, then when she came to muy house yesterday wearing a scarf and everything, at first I though it was just to shield herself from the snow.. but then when she got in it tookm her a while before she took it off.. then out of curiousity I asked her if he had broken her fast.. she actually said 'yeah'.. which means she is still fasting just like the other day.. so I asked her the burning question.. and sure as daylight, she is a muslim.. [Alhamdullilah!] I was thrilled for her.. she explained her reasonings and her views about life.. it turns out taht she had been thinking about it for over a year now.. then she finally did what was right.. I also found out that initially she also came to us as an exchange student, just like Yasmin... then she had her tuition fees wavered by the U but she has to work 20 hours per week in order to survive.. that's really cool... I wish I could be an exhange student studying in Malaysia for one semester..[don't you just hate it when you wish for something you can't have, when will we ever be satisfied?]...

Everybody's beautiful in their own way, express yourself in every way
Bodies come in all different shapes and sizes
You'rebeautiful too just realize it
Can't you see the beauty in you
Open your heart and set your mind free
And when you've got joy on the inside, it shows on the out
Be confident and you're beautiful, without a doubt
You're absolutely gorgeous, don't you know?
So you got the body beautiful flow

Beauty comes from within
whatever the mind can conceive and believe, you will achieve
Salt 'n' Peppa, Body Beautiful

Days go by and before you know it, it's Sunday once again.. and you'd look at the little list that you made on Friday of all the things you wanted to do and think " Where has my weekend gone?".. That's why Sunday is also known as "the last minute rush" as you spent the whole day on the sole purpose of preparing for the dreaded Monday that's crawling 24 hours away..This is the time that you'd sit back and think of a million reasons to assure yourself that you are not falling behind and actually do something to catch up... so if you wanna know what I'm doing today.. guess!

First I'm gonna et all these rebate forms sorted out.. The good thing about shopping during the thanksgiving break is that you'd get the best deal of the year.. last year I bought a maroon and gold bedding set which costs around $299.99 regularly but actually went down all the way to $99.99.. I was really shocked when the cashier asked me for that small amount.. I thought I'd really have to spent a paycheck's worth on that thing.. but hey, there you go! However thi syear I don't really have a shopping list cause I'm not going home anytime soon, so I went shopping with my roommate just for the mere purpose of helping her make all those essential decisions and also carry her stuff around. It's not really that bad cause I enjoy shopping, especially when you know you can afford the things on sale.. even if you can't afford it.. it's good to go shopping with someone who can, at least at the end of the day you feel that your efforts are worth the hassle.. that's why I really don't like shopping with someone who wants to window shop all day.. so anyway, this year we did some serious shopping.. kak Ijah has a list of all the things she wanted to buy and the night before we stayed up looking at catalogues and deciding where and when we are gonna go to all these stores. We actually woke up before the crack of dawn and ate our sahur together, prayed and got ready early enough to catch the 6.30 bus to get to Best Buy as early as possible. The store opened at 7 am but we got there 20 minutes later.. we rushed towards the CD/Computer section only to find that the 'Free after rebate' product that we wanted was all gone.. stashed close to someone's sweaty armpit somewhere in the line queing to pay or somewhere.. The store was so packed, I have never seen a store this full .. it was hard just to move around.. everyone was rushing in to get the best deals on this '5 hour early bird sale' .. so then we tried to get everything on our shopping list while one of us tays in the queing line which moves at the pace of about one customer per 20 minutes or something... there was alot of other additional temporary cashier points opened up throughout the store.. my roommate got her pocket pc, one for her dad and one for herself and I bought myself a new Nokia cell phone.. I have been wanting to have one for a while now.. so I thought this is the best time as ever to get one.. I'm not sure what the regular price was but I'm only paying $14.99 for it. We also bought some CD-RW discs and some blank videos. We also saw some familiar faces from campus and Pyan and his roommates...
Then we rushed to Rosedale and looked around for more gifts.. I was rather content with my little purchases, but my roommate still has a ton of things to buy.. I wanted to go to Victoria Secrets first.. so we headed to that section and we each pampered ourselves on some items (which I'd rather not mention here..).. then we surveyed some other stores for gifts, I didn't really feel like shopping for clothes anymore because I think I have more than enough clothes to last me the next year [and maybe the next one too].. we finally stopped at Herberger's to lok at some watches and bedding sets.. we saw some really good deals at the bedding section and kak Ijah bought 2 quilted sets one inpink and one in purple as wedding gifts for her brother and sister who will both be getting married simultaneously with their loved ones in March next year..
After that we went up to the cosmetics section, we must've sampled 4 dozen different men's cologne that afternoon, smells that ranged from cat's pee to lemon juice.. we finally agreed on the Hugo BOSS collection.. we actually prefered Tommy Cool but they didn't have gift sets.. My nose was practically contaminated with all these perfumes.. then we turned to our left to try out some female perfumes.. she wanted something from Lancome cause we would get a bag of free gifts.. they didn't really have a great collection.. I prefered 'Oui!' but my roommate liked 'Poeme' instead.. the smell reminds me of my mum cause she has 'Poeme' stashed up some where in her cosmetic cupboard.
With our load of two bedding sets, perfume and electronics.. we carried it all and braved ourselves for a trip to the Mall of America.. we got out of the mall just in time as the 84G express bus rolled by.. so we got in and sat ourselves right at the front.. I was so tired at the time.. I felt that I needed to eat something, I've never been shopping like this during Ramadhan before.. I'm just glad that it wasn't warm that day.. we saw some Malaysian juniors in the bus.. they didn't really buy anything big...
We arrived at the mall about 45 minutes later.. I slept through the whole trip, on the new soft bedding sets.. there was a streak of lines on my cheeks when I woke up.. but I didn't care.. we stored our stuff in the large lockers by the bus station in the basement and walked into the mall...we went into 'Linen and Things' to see if the embroidered quilt that we saw the week before was on sale or not.. unfortunately it wasn't.. so I bought a table cloth for my dining table instead. We went to SEARS to look at some CD players, bedding sets and watches.. kak Ijah bought a gold watch for her mum and also an embroidered pink quilt.. it was already 3.30 at the time and we were both exausted.. so we wet back home in a taxi..
We originally planned to go to the MSA Iftar at the Dinnaken House but we were too tired to go out again.. so we just ordered Papa John's pizza.. we were both content with the result of the day's shopping... I started charging my gold colored cell phone while reading the manual as my roommate explored the functions of her hp pocket pc.. we were both excited and forgot all about the tiredness that we felt before.. by 6 we went to pray at the Dinkytown mosque with Aza and Awin.. it's actually my first time there.. I was planning to go to Darul Farooq with Kak Zee but kak Jali told me that the place is packed, she was squashed by large Somalians the last time she was there..
Anyway, we were late for the bus so we missed the 6.14 bus, Aza told us that it was a 6.20 bus but she must've looked at the schedule wrong cause it's actually at 6.14 [we checked the schedule the next day].. we waited for the next bus which was scheduled at 6.44 [we thought it'd come at 6.55].. it started raining so we walked there in the rain.. it wasn't really as bad as the rain after we prayed though, we were soaked by the time we got home..
When I got home Tom called, he wanted to come over to give me the gift that he got me when he went to Chicago with Joann the day before.. so he came over for a while..he wanted to ask me to go out to eat.. but I was too tired, so he ended up finishing off our pizza, there was only a slice left anyway.. he must've very hungry..

Anyway.. yesterday turned out to be a total waste of a day.. I wanted to go to the Law Building in the morning to help MSA set up for the Islam:Uncensored II cause I already replied to Taqee saying that I'd be there after work to help out.. it turns out that I have to work from 10 to 4 instead of the regular hours so I should've gone to help before work but I woke up late.. so I went to work doing absoultely nothing but waste my time on LITERATI [which I promise myself I'd stay away from.. from now on], I was testing out my phone as I was walking home from the gym talking to Zack to ask him about his shopping spree and whether he went skiing or not [fathi told me earlier that day that he heard Amilin telling him that the trip was cancelled].. I saw two figures waving at mefrom afar.. I didn't have my contact lenses on so I couldn't really make out the faces of these wavers.. After a while I approached them anyway, it was Che Wan and Izrin on their way to Darul Farooq for Iftar. We started talking for a little bit, they told me that some of teh girls went out of their houses at 5 am to go shopping.. other than teh fact that zack and his fellow shoppers shopped til 10 pm, that really surprised me..
Well I hope everyone was happy with all their shopping.. I know I am..

I called Monina last night to ask her about our trip to Florida.. Nini was in Milwaukee so we couldn't confirm anything yet..but we'll get it sorted out soon.

Location : Rec Center's Cashier's Office.
Wish I could be : home
Feeling : Bubbly
Weather : Cloudy and wet. It's been raining non-stop since last night.
Quote of the day: Live...Be you...Enjoy...Love~Dr. Wayne Dyer
'Staying on the Path', Hay House Inc., Carson, CA 1995
Recently Ate : Zack and Kuceng's Thanksgiving turkey (very delicious!)
Drank : Lemonade and Mango Juice
Wearing : Pink scarf, Rec's maroon uniform, UNITEN's red t-shirt, Levi's black 501 jeans,Nike Tn Air sports shoes with POLO socks.
Perfume : Ex'cla.ma'tion! An European perfume that used to be the IN thing when I was in high school in West Leeds High, West Yorkshire, UK.
Latest outing : With Kak Ijah on a shopping spree to Rosedale and Mall of America for the day after thanksgiving sale.

It's my parent's 24th wedding anniversary today.. along with Zulfaa's birthday too (if I remembered right)..
Happy birthday to all the babies of 24 November...

I've been feeling kinda lazy lately, which explains the infrequent entries on this blog.. I hope things will change though.. I have to be more dilligent towards these last few weeks of the semester..

On Thanksgiving Day (Thursday).. I went to Kak Jali's house for Iftar with kak Farah, Yasmin and my roommate.. there were some other juniors there too.. everyone wore baju kurung except for us seniors.. Kak Jali cooked nasi lemak with big shrimps and baked chicken.. I cooked my green bubur kacang.. it wasn't really suppose to be as green as it was.. I made the mistake of adding too much pandan essence which also turns out to have high concentration of green food coloring.. I though it tasted good though..
We went to Zack's place for some turkey later that night.. it was a 16 pound turkey, all nicely cooked and browned
after 5 hours in the oven.. everything was very delicious, even the stuffings.. Compliments to the chef (Zaki and Kucheng).. I brought along my green bubur kacang.. it wasn't really the highlight of the night but at least it was finished at the end of the day... which is good.. !

Winter was definitely showing its true colors today.. It was 38.8 F when I got out of the house this morning, absolutely chilly... I think that those warm days are gone for the year.

Maybe it's intuition...

I just wanna start off with my all time favourite song:
'Build Me Up Buttercup' (Soundtrack from Something about Mary)

Why do you build me up, Buttercup baby
just to let me down and mess me around
and then worst of all, you never call baby when you say you will
but I love you still
I need you, more than anyone darling
you know that I have from the start
so build me up, buttercup, don't break my heart

I'll be over at ten, you tell me time and again
but your late, I waited around and then
I went to the door I can' take anymore
it's not you, you let me down again
baby.. baby.. try to find a little time
and I'll make you mine
I'll be home I'll be beside the phone waiting for you

Why do you build me up, Buttercup baby
just to let me down and mess me around
and then worst of all, you never call baby when you say you will
but I love you still
I need you, more than anyone darling
you know that I have from the start
so build me up, buttercup, don't break my heart

To you I'm a toy but I could be the boy you adore
If you just let me know
I know you want to I'm attracted to you even more
that's why I need you so

baby.. baby.. try to find a little time
and I'll make you mine
I'll be home I'll be beside the phone waiting for you

Why do you build me up, Buttercup baby
just to let me down and mess me around
and then worst of all, you never call baby when you say you will
but I love you still
I need you, more than anyone darling
you know that I have from the start
so build me up, buttercup, don't break my heart


Status :

Location : Bedroom
Wish I could be : somewhere warmer.
Feeling : Tired after studying Material Science all day.
Weather : Cloudy and wet.
Quoted : "The future belongs to those whose believe in the dream of their future"- Eleanor Roosevelt
Ate : Papa John's Pineapple and Mushroom pizza.
Drank : Sprite
Wearing : Abercrombie and Fitch's red top, black pajama pants and socks
Perfume : Lancome's Miracle
Latest outing : With Fajarrani and Jin to a Korean Restaurant called King Club in Fridley last night.
Last Movie : Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone
Favorite Actor : Johnny Depp
Favorite Actress : Catherine Zeta-Jones

Listened :

Music Match Jukebox :

Sarah McClaughlin - I will remember you
BBMak - Ghost of you and me
Staind - Fade
Afro Man - Cuz I Got High
Gorillaz - Rock Da House
Enrique Iglesias - Hero
Nelly Furtado - After Midnight
Destiny's Child - Emotion
Backstreetboys - Drowning
MIchael Jackson - You rock my world
Blue Cantrell - Hit 'em up style
Kinki Kids - Glass No Shonen (Japanese)
The Wiseguys - Start the Commotion

Recently downloaded (from www.audiogalaxy.com) :

Christina Millan - AM to PM
Five for fighting - Superman
Bon Jovi - Thank You for Loving Me
Lenny Kravitz - Dig In
U2 - Stuck in the moment you can't get out of
Gorilliza - Clint Eastwood
Sugar Ray - When its over
Jessica Simpson - A little bit goes a long way

New CDs :
Moulin Rouge - The Soundtrack
Train - Drops of Jupitor
Toni Braxton - The Heat

Who I Am sang by Jessica Andrews
(B.James/T.Verges)

If I live to be a hundred
And never see the seven wonders
That'll be alright
If I don't make it to the big leagues
If I never win a Grammy
I'm gonna be just fine
'Cause I know exactly who I am

I am Rosemary's granddaughter
The spitting image of my father
And when the day is done
My momma's still my biggest fan
Sometimes I'm clueless and I'm clumsy
But I've got friends who love me
And they know just where I stand
It's all a part of me
And that's who I am

So when I make big mistake
When I fall flat on my face
I know I'll be alright
Should my tender heart be broken
I will cry those teardrops knowin'
I will be just fine
'Cause nothin' changes who I am

I am Rosemary's granddaughter
The spitting image of my father
And when the day is done
My momma's still my biggest fan
Sometimes I'm clueless and I'm clumsy
But I've got friends who love me
And they know just where I stand
It's all a part of me
And that's who I am

I'm a saint and I'm a sinner
I'm a loser, I'm a winner
I'm am steady and unstable
I am young but I'm able

I am Rosemary's granddaughter
The spitting image of my father
And when the day is done
My momma's still my biggest fan
Sometimes I'm clueless and I'm clumsy
But I've got friends who love me
And they know just where I stand
It's all a part of me
And that's who I am

I am Rosemary's granddaughter
The spitting image of my father
And when the day is done
My momma's still my biggest fan
Sometimes I'm clueless and I'm clumsy
But I've got friends who love me
And they know just where I stand
It's all a part of me
And that's who I am

I found this somewhere:
A man was out in the wildness and he was hopelessly lost.It had been nearly 3 weeks since he had eaten anything besides what he could forage and he had been reduced to sleeping in caves and under tress.One afternoon, he came upon a really old mansion in the woods.It had vines covering most of it and the man could not see andy other buildings in the area.However,he saw smoke coming out of the chimney implying someone was home.He knocks on the door and it was openedby an old man, with a beard almost down to the ground.The old man squinted his eyes,"What doyou want?"The man replied, "I've been lost for the past 3 weeks and haven't had a decent meal or sleep since that time.I would be most grateful if i could have ameal nad sleep in your house for tonight."The old Chinese man said,"I'll let you come inon one condition:You cannot mess around with my grandaughter."The man, exhausted and hungry readily agreed,saying,"I promise i won't cause you trouble.I'll beon my way tomorrow morning."The old Chinese man countered,"Okay, but if I do catch you then I'll give you the three worst chinese
torture tests ever known to man"."Okay, okay,"the man said s he entered the old house.Besides, he thought to himself, what kind of woman would live out in the wildness all her life?Well,that night, when the man came down to eat after showering,he saw how beautiful the grandaughter was.She was an absolute pearl,and while he had only been lost 3 weeks,it had been many, many months without companoinship.And the girl had only seen occasional monk besides her grandfather and well;they
both couldn't keep their eyes off each otherthroughout the meal.That night,the man sneaked into the girl's bedroom and they had a quite time,but had kept the noise down to the minimum.The man crept back to his room later that night thinking to himself,"Any 3 torture tests would be worth it after that experience."Well,the next morning the man awoke to a heavy weight on his chest.He opened his eyes and there was this huge rock on his chest.On the rock was a sign saying,"1st Chines torture test:100 kg rock on your chest."."What a lame torture test,"the man thought to himself as he got up and walked over to the window.He opened the shutter and threw the rock out.On the backside of the rock was another sign saying, "2nd worst Chinese touture test:Rock tied toright testicle."The man,seeing the rock was too far out thewindow to grabbed,jumped out the window after the rock.Outside the window was the a third sign saying,"3rd worst Chinese torture test:Left testicle tied to the bedpost.

I am so happy that the weekend has rolled over again.. the week has been very strenous.. and I can see that things are gonna be the same (or worse, hopefully not) as the weeks move on towards the finals.. there's only one month left before the final exams are going to start.. I have a lot to study for.. which is why I cannot keep this blog frequently updated as before..
Last Tuesday, I registered for the classes that I will be taking next Spring. Jin and I will be taking 3 classes together ('Analytical Chemistry' lab, 'Heat and Mass Transfer' and 'Reaction Kinetics and Reactor Engineering').. I will also be taking the Organic Lab with Fajarrani.. Joe says he'll be giving me his lab reports so that I can use it as reference next sem.. that's really nice considering I didn't even ask for it..
Jin will also be taking 2 other classes, he registered for a genetics class for his emphasis (3XXX level) because he plans to do something with Biology.. Fajarrani is planning to take the 'Chemistry of Industry' class (3XXX level) for her emphasis while Vikesh is taking 'Advanced Organic Chemistry Lab' because he's doing a major in Chemistry.. As Chem. Eng students here at the U, we will automatically get a minor in Chemistry but Vikesh is doing double major. He's really smart, he got another 100 for his quantum kuiz.. the one where everyone else in the class could only average a 60 on.. Jin, Joe, Vikesh, Kiran, Fajarrani and I are starting to become really close friends now.. we're planning to go out tonight for dinner.. Jin is going to show us a new Korean Restaurant.. Joe couldn't make it cause his gf is coming up from North Dakota (his homestate).. so the rest of us will be going..
I was looking through the course guide catalog today trying to decide whether I want to take a Phy. Ed class next sem.. and at the back of the book was a picture of 4 people in their grad cloak.. Jin wrote our names on top of each character and labelled it "My bestfriends in May 2003".. I thought it was really sweet.. maybe in two years time I'd look back at this picture and think of us struggling on all those homework problems, walking together between classes and taking notes in class.. he asked me to take the genetics class with him but I don't really like biology. I think I'll be too busy next sem anyway.

Last night was a good start to the weekend too.. it's actually the first day of Ramadhan and all the Muslims throughout the world are fasting for a month from dawn to dusk right now except for those who are pregnant, breast feeding, too old, travelling, working hard or on one of those female monthly cycles..
Unfortunately my roommate and I are one of the few that's in the latter.. so I guess we'll be missing the first few days of Ramadhan.. I wish I didn't have to miss a second of this wonderful month.. but there are somethings you just can't control..
Anyway, I went home from class yesterday and I told her that Harry Potter movie is out that day..she said that she knows, Farah was telling me that she'll be going to the movies after her tarawih prayers tonight, Izrin had already bought 21 tickets for himself and everyone else who wants to go and see it too.. I can imagine the whole St. Anthony Reading Cinema filled with Malays, and smiled.. when I got home my roommate was asking me when we're going to see Harry Potter, since we're both not fasting, I said now.. it felt like doing something really spontaneous.. I dropped my bag and ate while I waited for my roommate to change and after afew minutes we were waiting at the bus stop for a bus, on our way going to the Mall of America.. We took the express bus number 52A cause we can't be bothered to change bus downtown. When we got there all the evening tickets were already sold out, and the latest we could go and see the show was at 7.45pm.. so we bought our ticket and wandered around the mall.. we ate first cause we were both starving, and then we started shopping.. my roommate bought some cards from Hallmark and got a free book about the famous Christmas poem called "Twas the night before Christmas".. I remember that poem so well cause I had to memorize it for a play that we were doing while I was in Middle School in Armley, Leeds in UK. Anyway, we carried on walking around, the initial plan was to go window shopping to survey the prices so that we could come back for the thanksgiving sale next week. My roommate wanted to buy a watch for her mum.. so we stopped over at this little watch store (where Wira and I went to buy his Guess watch last year).. and we looked around, then we were both interested at this one SEIKO watch..we asked the Thai sales lady to get it for us, she was really friendly.. she reconized that we were Malaysians and started talking about her recent trip to Thailand and Penang last September.. she gave us 35% discount eventhough the tag only shows 30% sale. Somehow Kak Ijah decided to buy the watch for herself instead of for her mum.. we later realised that the watch looks similar to my Guess watch, with the navy blue face, and gold and silver metal band.. she was happy, I was happy... we decided to go shopping for next week during the Thanksgiving sale to buy all the gifts that we have been planning to buy. We went to Linen Things and looked around there too (cause she wants to buy some bedding stuff for her sister and brother's wedding gifts) we saw this really nice quilted blanket.. it was really nice.. with red and pink embroided flowers... I might get one too.. we asked the workers there if they'll be having a sale next week and they said that they'll have one the day after thanskgiving.. well, just wait mister, you'll see us again then..!

Then after checking the time, we rushed straight to the cinema and took our seats to enjoy the next two hours of Harry Potter.. if you haven't seen it, rush over to your nearest cinema.. it is so worth going! There was some parts of the novel that was excluded, but it was a good movie never the less.. to see all your favourite characters in a book come to live.. I like to see movies that I have read the novel.. like 'The Shining', "Storm of The Century".. both by Stephen King as well as others too..

Here's a little summary of the last 5 days:
On Monday, I had a midterm exam and had dinner at Perkins (The Schrimp Boat Dinner is really good) in Hopkins with Tom.
On Tuesday night, I had dinner with my mentor who turns out to be a muslim Egyptian Chemical Engineering lady who's working in General Mills.. Her name is Amy Abouelinein.. I thought that it was an European last name or something, but Amy taught me how to pronounce it.. it's actually suppose to be like Abu Al-Lin or something.. she's pretty cool. It's her fifth year as a mentor, last year she was in the high committee of this program. She has alot to say, and we have a lot in common... I hope things are going to work out well for us in the next 6 months. I already like her even on this first meeting. I also saw alot of other familiar faces in this orientation meeting.. Adha was there, along with Che Wan, Jaheeda (kak Ijah's the Turkish lab partner), Sarah, Eric and other classmates..
Anyway, I watched Tom Raider on Wednesday night with my roommate (again- I've already in the movies before)..
Thursday, I did nothing.. no actually I cooked and ate at home..
Then Friday, we went to the movies.. any other time I was probably either watching tv, studying or trying to finish off my assignment..
I got kinda angry on Monday at this one girl who likes to talk about people's bad points.. I found out that she was talking behind my back from somebody, saying things which she wasn't even sure was true or not.. it turns out that it wasn't true at all.. when I told the person who told me what she said, all the things that I have heard about her reputation(it's so amazing how so many people have so many negative things to say about her, even people who she doesn't know and especially from the poeple who she doesn't claim to be her friends).. she confronted me and so when I told her why I was angry, she starts turning it into a big deal.. after a while I just can't be bothered with all her trash anymore so I told her to stop saying bad things about people cause if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all..(I think we learned that from kindergarten..)

Just before I went to sleep last night I called my parents up... my little sisters who are in high school are now on holiday since last Thursday.. they are getting 6 whole weeks off school.. wish I could get 6 weeks off too.. My sister, Nora, who is studying in UUM has already left to go back up north but my brother is still home.. my renovated house i salmost ready and they can move in on tuesday cause on monday the workers are going to polish the floor. On Thursday, my family will be having a homecoming celebration and they are going to invite all the neighbours and people from the mosque to read tahlil at the house.. it must be really tiring to move on tuesday and have that thing done so quickly.. but all the neighbours have been wanting to see the house.. my mum says that she will sent me some pictures of the house soon using our digital camera.

I woke up this morning, thinking that it was Sunday, but wishing that it's Tuesday so that I could sleep in
a little bit more.. it's one of those mornings that you wanna lie in.. in my dreams I dreamt that I was
doing my homework, I remebered thinking that the motion of a particle after 5 seconds is actually in
the turbulent flow regime and not in the laminar flow like I had written down in my homework that I did last
night.. and when I looked it up in my book, it is right.. that's strange but it's not the first time it
has happened to me.
Once while I was boarding school, I got so caught up with my Advance Maths course that I once dreamed up
the solution of the problem.. what happened was that I tried to solve tyhe problem but couldn't, then I gave
up and went to sleep and in my sleep I dreamt that I was doing my homework and just before I wake up I
would stumble on the right answer, when I woke up I would go straight to my table and write it down and
when I check it with the answer at the back of the book, I found that it was right! Strange..but it might
have been just a coincidence. Or lets just say it's the power of GOD!

So it's another Friday, another rented movie..but today we not only rented one, but two...Final Fantasy and Legally Blond.. Both of them are new releases on video and DVD today, so since we both haven't seen it, we just rented it to watch.. On our way back from Blockbuster today, we stopped by at Harvard's Market to buy juice, bread and a cucumber [I want to cook chicken rice tomorrow because I'll be fasting].. I managed to scoop up on some celebrity gossips while we paid at the counter. It turns out that Ally McBeal has a lesbian partner, Chelsea was happy that Hilary called off the divorce to Bill Clinton, Prince Charles has broken off with Camilla since Prince William warned him that she will just split up their royal family even more, and emm.. what else...oh, yeah, OPrah Winfrey is suffering from a fatal disease... but then again who knows if any of these headlines are true.. since the media have a reputation for exaggerating and making up anecdotes and tales from the crypt.

It was Farah's Birthday today, I didn't know until Iman and Pitis approached us and said it to her.. well Happy Birthday Farah.. It's also Roy's birthday [Fajarrani's bf], they are celebrating with a bunch of friends tonight.. yesterday we went to order a cake from ben&jerry's ice-cream store.. she was planning to go Appleby, I suggested they go to Olive's Gardens cause if you go there and tell the people there that it's somebody's birthday, they will get everyone at the restautant to sing and the whole group will get either free appetizers or free desserts. Cool eh? Jenny's roommate once had a birthday there, she invited me but I had made other plans.. I was there at her apartment in University Village studying for our Biology finals when they planned the celebration..

Back a work right now.. trying to finish off my thermo homework at the same time.. good thing it's not too busy right now..
Dia called me up this evening and told me that they're having a little party this Sunday and they are inviting me and some other close friends to come..
Just before coming to work today I went to see Heather and Annie in Dinnaken Hall.. I have to see Anne again tomorrow..

I renewed my CPR certificate yesterday.. the CPR certificate expires after a year while the American First Aid certificate expires every three years.. so if I'm still working at the gym next year, I would have to do both my CPR and First Aid next year... Since this is the second time I'm going through the course, I breezed through it and answered all the questions right 100%.. I did he practical exam with Kathy, it was easy..

When I got home Kak Zee called me up and she said that she wants to come over tonight ..
she came about 15 minutes later and we watched 4 hours of '10th Kingdom' on my computer. She gave me a new white scarf and some pictures that we took in the summer when we went to the farmer's market, Kak Ijah also gave me some new pictures that she had just developed from last weeks forum and our little photo session around campus..
I did absolutely no studying last night.. the movie was good so I think it was worth it.. I woke up early this morning instead to make up for the lost time.. I needed to finish off my Thermo homework so that I could start studying forthe exam next Monday..

I also talked to Maria, Adriana and Abang Rezal last night, they called me up to invite me to come over to Ohio again for Thanksgiving.. Rizal (yes, I have another cousin called Rizal, this one's living in Daytona Beach, same University with Gonjeng and everything.) might be joining us in Ohio along with Rezal's sister in law, Atika (or something, Sanusi Junid's daughter, who is studying in UIUC).. The tickets to go to Toledo is about $400 at this time of the year so everyone is going to meet at Chicago O'hare airport on the 17th and Rezal will come and pick us up and take us to Toledo. Sounds like a good plan but I don't think that I will be joining them this time cause I want to save my money for my trip to Florida this december.. plus I have already gone to Ohio two times this year already.

I had lnch with Tom today at the Vietnamese Lotus restaurant, I told him that my cousin invited me to go and spend Thankgiving with them and he said that he wants to drive me to Chicago to meet them.. afterall he is taking Nad and Dia to visit their friends in Madison, so he said he's drop them off then take me to see my cousin. Sounds tempting ut maybe not...

"Crush" by Mandy Moore
You know everything that I'm afraid of
You do everything i wish i did
Everybody wants you, everybody loves you

I know i should tell you how i fell
I wish everyone would disappear
Every time time you call me, I'm too scared to be me
And I'm too shy to say

Ooh, I got a crush on you
I hope you feel the way that i do
I get a rush
When I'm with you
Ooh, I've got a crush on you
A crush on you

You know, I'm the one that you can talk to
And sometimes you tell me thing that i don't want to know
I just want to hold you
And you say exactly how you feel about her
And I wonder, could you ever think of me that way

Ooh, I got a crush on you
I hope you feel the way that i do
I get a rush
When I'm with you
Ooh, I've got a crush on you
A crush on you

Ooh, I wish i could tell somebody
But there's no one to talk to, nobody knows
I've got a crush on you
A crush on you, I got a crush

You say everything that no one says
But i feel everything that you're afraid to feel
I will always want you, I will always love you
I've got a crush...

Spent the whole day studying and downloading new songs on the computer..
Kak Ijah baked croissant breads for tea and we are both taking a little break right now.. The last time we baked was about a few days back.. I think it was the night before harrie went back to Malaysia..cause he called me up to chat for a while... yeah, that was Halloween night.

I spent the whole day yesterday at the Islam:Uncensored forum.. I was surprised to see so many non-Muslim people attending the event. I arrived with my roommate after our little photography session at around 2 pm.. Abang Ghazali and Kak Zee was there looking after the exhibitions and selling religious books. Kak Siti and Abang Roazman's family were there too.. along with Rafique and Izrin. I met Sumaiyya, Jaheeda, Zaharat, Stacey, Romineh and alot of the people that I met at the MSA dinner the week before too.. I made friends with Andrea who just converted and got married about 2 months ago.. she's only 18 but she looks so much older.. she was so happy when she told us that her mother had just converted too last tuesday... Alhamdullilah..
What surprised me the most was that HE was there too.. and his table was exactly next to mine. He gave salam to me when he saw me coming, then Kak Ijah blurted the secret to Kak Zee [on purpose..] They both had a good time teasing me throughout my presence there.. after a while I was too shy to even look at him.. We smiled whenever our eyes crossed the same path and that was probably all that happened..[I talked to Bilal more than I talked to HIM, I was so shy!] But Kak Zee told me that he looks over once or twice when I wasn't looking [yeah?]

This week seems to have just breezed past me .. where did my Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday go?
Basically I think I have been busy with all the midterms that have been thrusted over me.. I want to do well, to patch up all the grade slots with something better than what I have achieved in the past. At this point, that is easier said than done.. but then again, Isham did it last year didn't he? I'm sure if I try hard enough, I'll find that I could do it too.. I must admit it is getting harder and harder.
These midterm fevers are acting up my literatiholic, even Kak Ijah noticed that I am absolutely addicted to that game.. whenever I feel that I need a break, I would turn that game on and sit there for about half an hour as I multitask with other small matters [writing checks, organizing my papers into files etc..]
On Thursday, I watched Isham, Mizie, Farah and Kak Ijah's holiday video on my computer.. this is the one where they went around the west coast last year.. I can still remember Isham calling me up to ask me if I want to join them last year because they wanted to go in a five so that the car rental and accomodation cost could be equally divided into 5 instead of four but I have already bought my ticket back to Malaysia for the winter break at the time.. Before that they also invited me to go to Vancouver with them for Thanksgiving or something but I didn't have enough money then.. Watching the home movie has intrigued my interest for travelling once again.. this time I want to go to Florida for the winter break.. I know at least two people who will be going with me.. I think I want to find another 2 people so that we could cut down on the costs.. I'm not going anywhere for Thanksgiving though, just because I want to save some money and catch up on all the academic stuff, who knows maybe I'll even start on my finals prep... I know that I'm definitely going shopping with my roommate this Thanksgiving sale, cause I know for sure that she's piling her shopping list for all the goodies that he's taking back with her for her brother and sister's wedding next year and also some gifts for herself and everyone else back home..She bought a new camera last week..we're gonna be going around campus later today to test it out.. she wants to finish a roll up this week so that she could see if she's satisfied with the camera or not,if not she'll just send it back.. Anyway, this Thanksgiving, I won't be doing much shopping myself though.. [I think I have everything I need..]
There's a 'Harry Potter' craze going around here.. what with all the Halloween stuff going on this week and the movies coming out next week, the radios are blaring promotions for the this novel based movie.. Shrek was out on video and DVD yesterday, I wanted to buy the DVD so that I could watch it on my computer but BLOCKBUSTER didn't sell the DVDs yesterday, so we rented it instead. We also rented Pitch Black.. I haven't seen it yet because last night I went out to watch The One with Tom at the Mall of America.. the new movie with Jet Li in it.. we met lots of other people there too: Marcel, 2 Malay guys [juniors who I have met so many times but yet still have to remember their name].. John, Joann, Tin and Tim and a few other people.. even Tom's brother was there. I think it was ok, a little bit like Matrix. I wasn't planning on going to the movies last night cause I'm saving up my money for something. I was only going to Holy Land to buy some beef and chicken with Tom, but he was so insistent.. well, since he's paying.. we went to Rosedale first but the ticket was sold out there so we went to the Mall.. we got there at around 7.30.. but the next showis at 9.50, so we drove to Cub Food to do my groceries first. I got home at around 11 feeling rather happy that I have all my groceries done for the week.. I'm gonna be busy getting ready for Monday's Fluid Midterm for the rest of the weekend so I don't wanna spend anymore time unnnecessarily.

I found out that Farah's [Pyan's gf] mother passed away by cancer on Thursday..

WHY DON'T YOU GET A JOB by Offspring

My friend's got a girlfriend
Man he hates that bitch
He tells me every day
He says "man I really gotta lose my chick
In the worst kind of way"

She sits on her ass
He works his hands to the bone
To give her money every payday
But she wants more dinero just to stay at home
Well my friend
You gotta say

I won't pay, I won't pay ya, no way
Why don't you get a job
Say no way, say no way, no way
Why don't you get a job

I guess all his money, well it isn't enough
To keep her bill collectors at bay
I guess all his money, well it isn't enough
Cause that girl's got expensive taste

I won't pay, I won't pay ya, no way
Why don't you get a job
Say no way, say no way, no way
Why don't you get a job

Well I guess it ain't easy doing nothing at all
But hey man free rides just don't come along
every day

Let me tell you about my other friend now

My friend's got a boyfriend, man she hates that dick
She tells me every day
He wants more dinero just to stay at home
Well my friend
You gotta say