My list of the Ultimate Things I Want To Do

Do you remember at the end of Titanic when Rose gave up her old life and changed the course of her life into one of excitement and many memories? That's what I want to do;

1. Dubai - I want to visit Dubai, where?? Dubai is one of seven emirates in the UAE located in the Middle East. It is a very progressive area with virtually no crime, very liberal of foreigners and religions, as well as a tourist hotspot.  The flight is about $1,400 (yes I checked)  to me this would be my ultimate vacation destination.  Now if I just had a spare $10,000 and a travel buddy lol.

2. Skiing - I want to learn how to ski, not break my neck down hill skiing but just get on skiis and go down a very small slope.

3. Bible & Koran - I would like to read both of these books before I die, I own both but I have to calculate a good way to read them.

4. Classes - Even though I'll be earning my second degree, I want to take at least a class or two every year that I am alive. There are so many fun classes I'd love to take.

5. Drive Cross Country - I want to drive from one corner of the country to another with a friend or two. I've been all over in a car but not from one end point A to another end point b. I want to do California to Washington D.C. in one trip.

6. Learn Pottery - I've always loved pottery but I never got high enough in art class to take it. I want to learn how to make stuff.

7. South Dakota - I love Native American culture and history, I did a report on this state and I think it's a very over looked tourist spot.

Well these are my seven things I want to do that would make my life complete before I die someday. There maybe more but I will only allow myself 10 because anymore than that would be too ambitious.

  HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY! aka Monique's holiday

Yep, that's correct, this is my favorite holiday and if you know my last name you know I am Irish!  I truly think a lot of people don't know the true history of St. Patrick's Day or Ireland so let me let ya in on some things:

-St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland, he was originally captured and taken to Ireland from England by Irish raiders when he was 16 and lived there for six years. He made his escape back to England but was told by God to return to Ireland and bring Christianity to the Irish who were practicing a pagan religion (Druids) like worshipping the sun. So in a sense he did run the snakes out of Ireland, snakes meaning Paganism who worshipped snakes. He also wrote an Epistola denouncing the British mistreatment of the Irish. It is believed he died on March 17th around 460 A.D., hense this day for him.

-Celtic Cross is a Christian cross with a sun behind it, it looks like a cross with a circle in the middle.  The reason is that when St. Patrick started the conversion, he let them keep a symbol of their religion so it was the sun which was a powerful symbol.

-Shamrock is just a three or four leaf clover in Ireland. It is one of the most important Irish symbols in history. After British rule of Ireland, Queen Victoria would not let the Irish who were now Catholics practice or celebrate St. Patrick's day as well as speak irish so instead the irish wore a shamrock as their way of celebration and british protest. After she found out that was put an end too as well as any harp players who would be hanged on the spot. Music is very important to the Irish and to surpress it and their religion would be to surpress them and keep them under control.

-Parades for our holiday did not occur in Ireland but actually started here in 1762 by Irish soliders in the British Army.  Normally the British would put a stop to this but it was hard to recruit troops to serve in the colonies so they let it slide.

-Irish Invasion, nope not talking about my boys from U2 but when a massive group came from Ireland. 1845 to 1849 was the famous potato famine which lead to a million and a half deaths in Ireland which was caused by a fungus. The british government did not do much of anything to help. Many Irish came over but little did they know they'd be treated poorly in America as well. Many were not educated so there was much discrimination because America was predominately protestant, even Black people would be given jobs but not the Irish, the Irish were portrayed as monkeys. In stores it would say: No Irish Need Apply!  Irish were not only oppressed in Ireland but America too.

-Ireland didn't celebrate St. Patricks Day like we did for many years. Ireland is Catholic and St. Patrick's Day is just another Catholic holiday so up until 1995 pubs in Ireland would close and everyone would attend mass. Celebrating like we do today is new in Ireland but they have adopted it with a few days of parades and fireworks.

For more information please visit:  www.st-patricks-day.com or www.historychannel.com/exhibits/stpatricksday/ , www.trinity-dancers.com (world famous dancers, very very good)   Gangs of New York is a great movie which portrays how life was for newly Americanized Irish in New York.

So as you can see, it's not about a bunch of yahoos who aren't even Irish getting drunk, its about the change in Ireland and the strength of their people and it's ancestors which I am proud to say I am.

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields and,
Until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

  Bon Voyage Monique!

Sunday I leave for the Dells for my first ever conference NOT related to LPA lol. It is the Governors Conference on Tourism and it's looking to be a pretty packed few days (I'll be there until Wednesday).  They've opened the conference up to students which is nice because then we can network.  We are required to wear work clothes and then its up to us if we want to work the room. There are also workshops one can attend which I will be doing.  For students the only cost is $60 = conference registration, meals, hotel for 3 nights, is that a deal or what??

It was looking iffy a few days ago, I had another sudden attack of sinitis, ohhhhh I am sooooo freaking blessed.  Basically if you didn't know I have allergies which I only developed 3 years ago, but it means my nose seems to be permanently stuffed a little bit. I've gotten used to it though and I can still breath fine. However sometimes during your monthly friend, your body gets worn out which makes you more suseptable to infections and inflammations, hense me ending up with inflammed sinuses (yes it's true, my doctor explained the whole schpeel to me).  Anyways so Tuesday morning I wake up perfectly fine, a lil tired though, by the time I got home from school my head was packed, my hearing in my left ear became muffled, and I felt like I had my energy knocked out of me so I slept. This is what I did until last night.  I am supposed to take Allegra-D and nose spray everyday however I don't have insurance that covers meds plus the last time I had a bad episode like this was a year ago. Luckily though my doctor gave me a ton of free samples of those medicines so I use them when it seems like I'm going to have an episode. However this thing came on so fast Tues I was totally caught off guard. I got my energy back and my head seems less packed, however it's still pressing on my ear drum so it still sounds like I have an ear plug in there. 

Let me tell you, I'd rather get a horrible case of the flu once a year than deal with allergies for the rest of my life and these sudden sinus inflammations. On the other hand this does beat the hives I used to get and let me tell you, chicken pox are like a walk in the park compared to hives. Forget frogs and locust being used as the great plague, a great plague would have been hives and sinus inflammation.

Anyways, my body has turned wimpy on me, so I just bombard it with good stuff.  Hopefully this will clear up by the week and off I go to my conference!  I don't have a weight update, I had to skip Wednesday night because I felt horrible. There hasn't been a change though.

Candy, let me know what fruit you are up to in making your fruit & veggie salad, so far you have lentil beans and raspberries, I am curious!

Monique's Book Review

1. War on Christmas

2. Everything You Wanted to Know About God But Where Afraid to Ask

3. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas - An American Slave Written By Himself

I just finished the book on Frederick Douglas, it was a wonderful book. He wrote it in 1845, years before the Civil War and a few years after he ran away to freedom in the North. I learned a lot about the Civil War and slavery in school but I never read anything from a former slave's perspective. It was wonderful in the fact that he wrote about how he felt in slavery. He didn't understand why he was a slave and why others were free, why shades of color mattered. He talked about how Christian slave holders were more harsh than others because they used their religion to justify slave holding. He was not against Christianity, he believed in God, but he felt they twisted Christianity to fit their inhumane needs. He spoke about his experience on the plantation as a child where slaves basically received one outfit to last them through out the whole year. Children because they grow through out the year were out of luck so they'd either be naked or half naked though out the year. No beds, no blanket, hardly any food. Frederick conned the neighborhood kids, when he was given to a family in Baltimore, to teach him to read and write, something he and other slaves had to hide.  He eventually escaped to New York but that did not necessarily meant he was safe. Some people in the north would wait for a vulnerable runaway slave, kidnap them, and take them back to the south back into slavery where their punishment would be very harsh and the kidnapper would be rewarded. There were still prejudices in the north as well so it was not like everything was perfect. It was very hard to find people to trust in the north but Frederick was able to find a network and eventually live the aristocratic life and influenced the course of abolitionism.

The next book I am reading is the Hobbit by J.R.R.Tolkien. I am a fan of the Lord of the Rings movies and it has been said they differ from the books. However before you read the trilogy it is suggested you read the Hobbit which is the prologue to the trilogy.  JRR Tolkien was in World War I and that impacted him greatly which is reflected in his books. He hated war and lost many friends in World War I (the war supposedly to end all wars). He also wrote all the books about Middle Earth because he saw how Greece and Italy had mythology but Europe was without one so he decided to make the "history" of Europe. I consider him a true literary genious and I look forward to reading not only the Hobbit and LOTR but other books in the Middle Earth saga. It's weird because I always classified LOTR with Star Wars or Star Trek but its nothing like that. My mistake there.

  Addiction

Yes, its true, I should share with you all, I am addicted to Honey.  Honey is my new favorite staple!  I put it on my peanut butter toast, put it inside my pita with hummus, put it on my BBQ, on my finger, still coming up with other foods to put it on. Every year at Statefair I always stop by the honey booth to buy a honey bear (bottle shaped as a bear filled with honey) and honey sticks. You can get many flavors of honey but I prefer the regular clove honey.

Did you know:  -From June to August honey bees will fly around 55,000 miles to collect nectar which only makes 1 pound of honey.  -One colony will make over 200 pounds of honey a year. -Honey can be beneficial to those with seasonal allergies because honey is made from the nectar of plants one maybe allergic to yet honey consumption of locally  made honey can help. -Never give kids under 2 honey, it has to do with digestion.

Great honey site with many cool facts:

http://www.bees-online.com/HealthBenefitsOfHoney.htm