like a fish needs a bicycle...

not even sure what it means, but i'm pretty sure it disturbs me

purple!

so i was WAY overdue for a new look. here it is, friends. purple is one of my favorite colors. (when i was little and i would draw rainbows, i loved green and purple, and i loved them together -- but i hated blue, so i would just leave it out of the rainbow. that way, green and purple would be touching and it would be great). so yeah, the purple is good, i think. and i'm also liking the new 3-column layout. and yet... i'm not sure if i'm going to stick with it, because...

i've been wondering about the future of my blog lately. i've been considering ending my parasitic dependence on lay-c.com and perhaps switching to blogger or typepad something simpler. i'm getting more familiar with and better at movable type, of course, but i was thinking getting my own site might be good. and some of those services are definitely easier to use.

generally, though, i've been wondering if a switch is even worth my effort, because i've been pondering the distant future as well as the near future, and i'm not sure how long i'll be blogging. it's hard for me to imagine myself blogging 5 or 10 years in the future, especially if i have a real job and there are little kids running around the house (scary thought for me at this point, but nonetheless...). i suppose shokufeh does it with baby in tow, but i don't know if i can see myself doing it yet.

maybe blogging is something that is fit for a certain period in my life, and not for other periods of my life. i don't know if i'll always find it something i enjoy doing. particularly since, even now, i often get frustrated with some of the issues i've alluded to before. in particular, an incident that always comes to mind for me is one that occured in the very early days of my blogging when someone took offense to a word that i had used -- it caught me off guard, upset me on numerous dimensions, and threw the problems of blogging into sharp relief for me at a very early stage. initially, i struggled with whether to keep blogging at all, because at that point, it seemed like such a perfect way to be misunderstood and attacked in an impersonal medium. it still is, of course. but i got over my dejection and pessimism about the whole enterprise at that point and i feel like my nearly 2 years of blogging since then have been a very positive experience overall. but sometimes, i still wonder if it's worth my time and energy.

as lacey, my blog mom, always says, blogs are a great way to document and look back on your own growth as a person -- just like journals, which i've long used and loved, and which i'm sure i will always use and love. so i suppose i can always benefit by looking back on my blog, even if i decide to stop blogging at some point.

i don't know what i'll end up doing ultimately, but for now, i'm still here, i'm still on lay-c.com, and my blog is purple.

it'll make a good story later

and now, it's time for a special guest entry from the fabulous mona, aka moni love. enjoy.

Last week, I was patiently waiting in a long line for a flu shot. I was already a little more conscious of my hair that day because of the rainy weather and the 99% humidity. As the line moved along, I realized that the two ladies standing in line behind me were loudly and obviously talking about my hair. Eventually, one of the ladies behind me tapped me on the shoulder...

random old lady: Excuse me, young lady, I just want to ask you a question.
me: Hi. Yes?
random old lady: Well, young lady, my friend and I here were just talking about your hair and we just could not figure out which one of your parents is black. So we just wanted to ask you, young lady: which one of your parents is black?
me: Um, actually, neither of my parents are black. My parents are from Iran. I'm Iranian-American.
random old lady: [completely shocked] Really? Neither of your parents are black? [pointing to my head] I mean, with that hair? Really?
me: Yes.
random old lady: Really?
me: [smiling] Yeah. [turning back around and leaving them in shock]

an observation about married life

every morning when i get out of bed, within 10 seconds, greg has rolled over and stolen my pillow.

the little pleasures of reading con law

so i was sick again this week and missed lotsa school. but we won't talk about that, because frankly, it's getting really freaking old.

in other news, this is perhaps one of the best things i've ever read in my life:

"Justice BREYER, concurring in the judgment.
I concur in the judgment of the Court though I do not join its opinion. I join Justice O'CONNOR'S opinion except insofar as it joins that of the Court. I join Part I of Justice GINSBURG'S dissenting opinion, but I do not dissent from the Court's reversal of the District Court's decision."
Gratz v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 244 (2003), BREYER, J., concurring in the judgment.