Home

I decided to come home for a weekend, and I'm so glad I did.  When I got off the plane, I was greeted by the very familiar warm, humid nights of Columbia.  As I'm sitting at the desk, a refreshing cool breeze brings with it a scent of honeysuckle that reminds me of warm summer days of my childhood.  Tomorrow, I get to see my brother and two girls who I haven't seen in a long time and have missed.  Plus, I get to go to the beach, one of my real homes, and then back to greet my Baha'i family.  A busy day, but a refreshing and refilling one.

The smell of honeysuckle will always remind me of home...

Cinnamon Bun adventure

Today, I woke up wanting some soft, sweet, and tasty for breakfast. I got it in my head that I wanted a muffin or a cinnamon bun, so I tried the America's Test Kitchen recipe for quick cinnamon buns. I must say, it didn't turn out all that well. They definitely don't look so pretty, and they don't taste fantastic either. They taste better than any other gluten-free cinnamon bun I've had before, but I can do better. I learned some things about kneading gluten-free dough, the amount of flour needed, rolling dough out and then making it into log requires a certain amount of thickness. But now my apartment smells like cinnamon goodness, a good way to wrap up my take home exam!

Thoughts while working on a take home

"There are so many p's everywhere. I need another letter. There are too many letters on the page, I'm running out of them!"

"Exercise really does help the brain."

"What am I trying to show? It's good to know what you're trying to do before doing it."

The end and the beginning

Today was Slope Day, aka the last day of class. I had 5 whole students show up today, which was exciting. I just have a take home final and a final to proctor before I'm done. May 12, I will be done.

The other night when reading a Tablet by Baha'u'llah, I realized just how much it read like a mathematical proof. That was really cool, I'd never had that happen before.

I ran across this old post of Erin's, and it made me happy and miss Columbia at the same time. It was from Ridvan two years ago, and it seems so much longer than that.

Ridvan ended today. A new Universal House of Justice has been elected. The pictures are incredibly moving. I got home on Tuesday after a rather difficult day at the office and started reading the articles about the International Baha'i Convention in Haifa. My life suddenly had a new perspective, and things were okay again.

I'm sick again, surprise surprise. I've decided to ignore it the best I can. I've been eating lots and lots of mango wraps, since it's the only thing I feel like eating. I haven't even gotten to eat much of the delicious peanut butter cheesecake with chocolate topping that I made!

I have discovered a new favorite past time. It's called Dance Dance Revolution. Yes, I know I'm incredibly behind the times, but I only just discovered it last weekend. We had a dance party then, and another one tonight. I laughed so much I cried, got a good work-out, and had a great time with friends. I do have a couple annoying songs stuck in my head, but that's a small price to pay for a really fun evening. It didn't do great for my feeling ill though :-p.

My mom came to Ithaca to visit, and we had so much fun together. It was great to be able to show her around now that I know where everything is, to have a sleepover in my apartment, to have someone take care of me a little bit :) (the dishes were just magically washed, it was a wonderful break!), and to enjoy the fabulous spring weather that we had for a while. Everything has finally turned green and is in bloom.