My birthday is approaching in a few hours.. another year, another chance.. there are so many things that I am loooking forward to..
As you might've suspected, I didn't really make resolutions for the new year just yet.. Simply because the new year didn't really trigger my senses to make new resolutions.. all I could think about at the time was about my holiday and goofing off for a while.. so you see I wasn't motivated to plan or make anything at the time..
But as it happens I feel that it is more appropriate to make resolutions on your birthday.. as it serves as a better measuring stick on the time that you have actually lived and how things are going to change for another year..
This year I hope to have greater control of myself; better management of time (no more procastination I hope), money (lesser shopping sprees [note I didn't say 'no more']), studies, my health [Sasha and I are planning to make an appointment with the gym every Saturday morning], relationships (with God, family [I'll be back for a 2 months visit this summer] and those who I trust to be friends, my Ivy plant [which holds lovely memories of Kak Ija] and of course the birds and the bees [I just felt like adding that one on, no reason in particular] ).. Let's all hope that all the changes I make this year will turn out for the best..
Thank you for all of you who remembered and wished a day ahead of time with gifts and cards.. you really are true friends.. I'm truely touched, love you all..
May Allah bless you.

Assalamualaikum
hey baby.. what's up? I haven't heard from you for a long time..me? well I'm ok I guess.. things are pretty much picking up by itself over here for me.. nothing has changed much.. I'm still working in that cashier's office.. my roommate's telling me that I spend too much time there..and I'm starting to think that it's true.. every single one of these health freaks are starting to recognize me as I go around doing my usual thing.. it's not that they know me.. it's just that they see me often enough to recognize me..plus, I do get to talk to some of the people here.. being the cashier/ receptionist and all.. some of the customers here are getting kinda friendly to me.. visiting me each time they come over and telling me things about themselves, some of which I'd rather not hear.. some are nice though, I get to know about the places that they've been to and stories of their families. Yeah, I'm making friends here too.. which seems to be a good thing.. well it's inevitable for people to know you after you've been working at the same spot for more than a year and a half..we'll I'm not complaining.. it is nice to be recognized isn't it.. like this one time I went shopping, and there's people I don't know who comes up to me smiling.. and asking me if it's true that I'm the "gym girl".. I'm like "yeah!".. it's even more funny when you go to class for the first day and meet people that you don't even know and they come to you in class and ask you things like what time is the gym closed today..hehhe..
Anyhow.. less about 'moi!' how are things up at your end...school's started again right? well same here.. my classes started this Tuesday.. it's about time! I'm all pumped up for classes.. I wanna do well.. I hope I can do better than the semesters before this.. this semester will be my second semester as a junior.. The strange thing is, I checked my status up at the rec's cashier office and the registra seems to have put me down as a senior.. credit wise, I guess I have reached the senior status.. but mentally, not really! I'm taking a 15 credit work load this semester.. 2 labs: Organic Lab and also Analytical Lab, and then there's heat and mass transfer and also reactor and reaction kinetics or something equally terrifying like that..I kinda like the beginning of each semester.. it gives you something new to look forward to.. though this feeling usually exponentially decays as the semester progresses due to the work load..
I went to see my mentor, Amy, on Tuesday.. we finally had lunch together. We planned to meet at Village Wok at noon cause my classes was suppose to end at 12.05.. then it turns out that all my ChEn classes were cancelled .. so I took the time to buy school books, which I will later send back cause I already bought some books online, they just haven't arrived yet..Anyway.. Amy's working in General Mills and she brought with her some brochures about food scince and engineering.. it kinda made me think .. working here would be good, but I donno... anyway, we were talking about her after college experiences, career opportunities and stuff..
Hey, guess what I did yesterday.. I finally went back to the mall after my lunch appointement with Amy and I returned back those DKNY overalls that I bought, as you know they were a wee bit too short.. I wore 'em while I was in Orlando.. the thing is it looks good if you stand but when you sit down the hem of the overall crawls up your leg resulting in some unnecessary exposure.. so I sent them back.. I was thinking of getting a replacement.. but I had to get back on campus for my organic lecture class at 5..anyway.. i got home later that night and I told Sasha about it.. coincidentally she had an overall that's too short for her.. so she let me try it out and surprise, surprise it was the right size... so she gave it to me.. I guess you lose some, you win some..heheh
Anyway.. I should go now.. I have some stuff to finish off...
take care babe..
Write soon..
Tata..
~ Buttercup Baby~

A beautiful picture life could always be....
if people could only have more sincerity and faith in themselves.

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room.
One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room's only window.
The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back.
The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation.
Every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.

The man in the other bed began to live for those one hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.

The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats.Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color
and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance.
As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene. One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by.
Although the other man couldn't hear the band - he could see it. In his mind's eye as the getleman by
the window portrayed it with descriptive words.
Days and weeks passed.

One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away. As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch,and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.
Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the real world outside.
He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed.
It faced a blank wall. The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased
roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window. The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall.
She said, "Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you."

Epilogue: There is tremendous happiness in making others happy, despite our
own situations. Shared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness when shared, is doubled.
If you want to feel rich, just count all the things you have that money can't buy.
"Today is a gift, that's why it is called the present."

A Wish
~Star light, star bright,
first star I see tonight

~A wish I make this very night,
a wish that all my friends sleep tight

~A wish that all good dreams come true
May God bless everything they do

~A wish that every day they'll wake
to find a helping hand to take

~Someone to trust, someone to hold,
someone to truly call their "own"

~For days they cry, for days they pout
A wish for peace without a doubt

~For days our happiness will thrive
A prayer to God I am alive

~A wish of joy, and peace, and love,
for these are all gifts from above

~For everything we do together
I pray that it will last forever

I was scheduled to work yesterday from 11am to 2:30pm, then my mentor, Amy, sent me an email afew days back and told me that she wants to see me for lunch on Tuesday before she goes on her trip to Egypt on the 24th for 10 days.. so I called Toni up on Sunday and asked her if she could fill in for me for 3 hours. It turns out that Toni has to sent her roommate to the airport at noon. So the other alternative was to call my supervisor, Phillip. I called him up and it turns out that he will be in the office on tuesday morning anyway. So he will fill in for me. On one condition, I had to fill in his Thursday morning's shift (5.45 am to 3pm.) So I agreed thinking that I really wanted to see Amy. Then as soon as I put the phone down I realised that I am scheduled to work from 3 to 8 on Thursday.. thinking that it was the only option I have, I guess I'll be working for the full day for once. I sent an email to Amy to confirm the date and time. Then she wrote back a day later to tell me that she has a meeting that afternoon and could only see me on the 22nd. So I had nothing to do on Tuesday.
Sasha had to go to work at 3 to 10.. Tom came to ask me to teach him some maths so that he could be ready for the ADVAC exam that he needs to take in order to join the Air Force. Personally I don't think he should go but he says taht he has nothing else to do. He hates his job now, even though he is self employed in a painting business. So he wants to try something new. Nevertheless, he is still unsure about this too.. Bazli also came to hang out for a few hours yesterday cause he was bored of staying at home while all his roommates are out. He came to see me last week but I was in Florida at the time. He has a favor to ask of me. Anyway, the day was not a total lost cause Sasha and I cleared up the house a bit more. The day before that we took some old clothes and stuff to Goodwill cause nobody else wants them. So the house is cleared up a little except for some big boxes which we need to throw into the storage room.

At six that night, I joined Suraya, Anas,Mamat, Fazrul, Adha, Azwan and Kucheng to go to the Target Center to watch a basketball of the Minnesotan Timberwolves against the LA Clippers. Minnesota won once again 97-83 . We took the bus and got there at around 7, the game had already started. We sat way at the top, but we could still see the game down below. It was a good game. We were leading all the way. Anas seems to be happy to see the cheerleaders during the half time. The game ended at around 9.30pm. There was two couples sitting in front of us betting that the score will go over 100 points but it didn't.. so the girl infront of me was playfully beating up her bf in frustration. It was funny to see them act that way. We made our way to the main arena and Fazrul was taking pictures. Mamat seems to have a thing going on and he keeps reminding us all that Fazrul is the most eligible bachelor at the moment. We could see that he was shy but he didn't turn beetroot red like Rafique did before. At around 10 we went out and went to a Pizza and Sub. Mamat was throwing snow at me on the way there. I managed to dump a little snow on his head too, but I didn't do that for long cause I didn't have my gloves on and I don't want my fingers to turn purple like it always does when I'm cold. Azwan treated us all to a 20" seafood pizza, and I made Mamat pay for my drinks. Serves him right for shoving snow at me. :) We waited for the bus home. It was really cold and windy at 11pm. Snow had started falling again last monday. We stopped over at Mamat's house first as we took off from the bus and waited for Suraya to come back from Hollywood Video Rentals with Anas. She wanted to stay and watch Scary Movie 2 at first but changed her mind later when she realised that Fazrul, who's agreed to sending us home, didn't wanna stay that long. We were later joined by Kamal. Fazrul and his roommates went to Kucheng's apartment. They also wanted to see Zulfaa who just got back from Malaysia a few days back. So Suraya and I went to meet them there, we finally went home at around 11:30pm. Sasha was baking some cookies and the livingroom was only lit by the light from her candle lights.. it was a really good night. I haven't gone out with them for a long time..

ON a different note, I'm suppose to start work at noon today, but Toni called and asked me to come in a little early like 11 or something cause she's really sick. So I agreed to help her out a little. Phillip also called me up to ask what time I'll be getting here cause this is his last day working here. He and his wife are moving to their new house in Mihigan. So he wants to leave as soon as possible. I came about 5 minutes past 11 and he was already gone. So I went to get the Cashier's office keys at the equiptment room and got in. Phillip has left me alot of work to do this time to fill in the 9 hours that I'll be working today. Monday's shift was really busy since this is the first week for the new locker and membership sales. So I think today will be just equally busy. I was very tired when I got back from work on Monday. But that was just 6 hours. So today I shudder to think of the busy work load. The Aquatic Center had sent up a pile of deposits from Swimming classes that I have to ring up. Then I have a big stack of membership forms to alphabetisize and file, 150 locker cards to stamp and also about 20 annual/ alumni renewals reminder to put address on and sent it up to Kristi to be sent immediately. I had to get all that done and to top it off I have to pay attention to the customer's needs, and answer the phone calls. Today will be a hectic day for me stuck in this little cubicle. What really sucks is that they're doing a little renovation to expand the deli and the construction is noisy, which means that I have to speak up and sometimes repeat myself two or three times, and smelly..

My how time flies when you're having fun.. and I have definitely had fun for the beginning of this new year..
I went to watch A Beautiful Mind with Tom on Saturday night. The movie is unbelievable.. you must go and see it.. I liked it so much.

Location : Monina's bedroom, Madison, Wisconsin.
Wish I could be : Spiderwoman
Feeling : Cold
Weather : Cloudy and freezing.
Quote of the day: It's ok.. tomorrow we'll be in Florida!
Recently Ate : Aida's delicious nasi bryani for dinner last night.. and Shaz's scrambled egg breakfast
Drank : Strawberry milk..
Wearing : Denim Silvertab blue jeans, denim Guess jacket and a blue CMX sweater..
Perfume : Exclamation!
Latest outing : With Tom yesterday to come to Madison...

The truth is I have absolutely no reason for not updating this blog, except for the fact that I lazy..there's always something else that I'd rather do..
but it is a now a new year, and as it happens it is a custom for the world's inhibitants to make new year's resolutions.. it's taken me a day to think of anything and as it is I am still considering if its even worth making new year's resolutions.. I'll stick to it a day and then after a while I'll forget it anyway.. so I've decided to make simple small promises to myself..things like not cutting my hair for the next yearjust for the fun of it [I'd probably get sick of all the long strands clogging up my drain pipes that I'd skin the whole thing of or something..actually i only feel like keeping it long cause Monina's flowing hair looks beautiful at he moment]..
anyway.. I have to pray Maghrib and get ready for the senior graduation party tonight.. Monina and Shaz has already gone to get things ready cause their are in charge of things...I have lots more to tell so I'll get back to this laer, kay?

happy new year...