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Annnnnd protected post!

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As much as it pains me to say this, I think it might be time for a new blog. I love Xanga. Xanga is my home and I will always frequently check in on my Xanga family...but...I think it's time for me to move on. Too many people have access to this than I would prefer because of the past. New school year...new blog...I think so.

I'll keep you posted.

Happy Labor Day, all!

I will be heading to a barbeque/devotional with Baha'i friends this afternoon which I am very much looking forward to. We've had a week of gorgeous weather here in Wisconsin and I want to take as much advantage of it as I can before all that's left is a memory. In no time at all the leaves will be off the trees, my dresses and shorts and skirts will be packed away until next May, and I won't be able to leave the house without a coat. It was such a mild summer here that it's almost as if the season never happened at all. But here we are in Fall with school starting...

Speaking of school, the 2 days I had of school last week went pretty well. I love Persian! Turns out it's taught by the friend of my really good friend Roya who just graduated from the law school here. Her name is Shabnam and she's a total sweetheart. I'm a little scared of the approach UW takes to teaching languages because after the first 2 weeks no English is allowed in the classroom at all. Not from the teacher and not from the students. I hope it's an effective way of learning. Either way, the class seems like it's going to be really fun and hopefully by the end of the year I'll be able to have a decent conversation in farsi and understand a lot more of it than I do now. We shall see. I only went to my Philosophy class once so far and I'm not sure how I feel about it. The teacher seems like kind of a dick, and after doing the first reading assignment I wasn't exactly sure what I was supposed to get out of it and overall I felt really confused. I guess that's what I get for taking Intro to Philosophy which pretty much just covers the classic philosophers instead of discussing philosophy today. Oh well, gotta start somewhere I guess. I've had one orchestra rehearsal so far as well, and being principal definitely felt a lot different than not being principal. Professor Smith actually talks to me and has direct eye contact and communication with me, while when I played second I pretty much just didn't exist. The music for the first concert isn't terribly hard and I don't have any gigantic solos so at least I can ease into the role, but I definitely find myself needing to be much more alert in rehearsal. Also, I had my first lesson with Professor Fink and he really laid the work on me. I have so many things I have to do for my next lesson...there's just no way I'm going to have the time to figure it all out. It's even more frustrating because I really want to find the time to focus on my LSAT and figuring out all the getting into law school stuff, but as I'm still a music major I have to keep up with my responsibilities for it.

This weekend was really awesome. I don't have Friday classes but on Friday I woke up early to go to the gym and then I went to work. After work I went to the School of Music Mixer with Rucha to get some tasty free food and then her and I came back to my apartment and just sat and talked for over an hour. On Saturday Greg came and we hung out in the afternoon until I left for the football game with Rucha. Yes, I have finally attended my first UW football game and man! Had I known how freakin' fun and awesome they were I would've actually tried to get tickets both freshman and sophomore year. Our stadium holds 80,000 people and the student section is just an absolute blast to be in. All the cheers and dances have been passed down through the years and everyone comes together to have a really great time. I'm missing next week's game because I'll be in Milwaukee, but the week after that Greg and I are going to go to one together because I was able to find a cheap ticket. He's always wanted to go to a UW game and be able to sit in the student section. After the game Saturday, Greg and I went to Leslie's belated birthday party during which neither of us actually drank, but it was a good time. On Sunday Greg and I joined up with Steph and Kyle to go to Taste of Madison in the capital square. It's basically this huge festival where all the restaurants in Madison come out and they each have a tent or stand and all the food is priced from $1-$4. I had lemonade, crab rangoons, part of Greg's steak fajita, lamb kebab, and also gelato. All for under $20. Not to mention we got exercise by walking around the square. After going to that and running some errands, Greg and I took a nap and watched TV before heading to Rucha's fiesta birthday party which was an absolute blast. By my suggestion she had a pinata which was a lot fun. Then today Gregory headed back to Milwaukee. I'd call it a very succesful weekend.

Other than that...

The super exciting news is that my mom got me a plane ticket to Texas in October!!! Thank goodness. I was really begging to come home so I could break up the semester between now and Thanksgiving and we were able to find a flight she could use her miles on. I'm coming home the night of Thursday October 8 and returning to WI the morning of Monday October 12. I technically have Persian at noon that Monday, but I'm just going to skip it. All that matters is that I return in time for orchestra because I am pretty much expected to not ever be absent. Anyways, while being home I'll get to see my sister march at a football game which makes me very happy, and I'll get a couple of home-cooked meals and some time with my parents, so it should be a nice break from the world of school, work, responsibility, etc.

Wow. I really have to go practice now before Arezu comes to get me for devotionals. I'll do my best to update often this semester, but I can already tell I am going to be very busy. The good kind of busy, though :)

Shohreh<3  

I love how my roommates go out together and don't even ask me if I want to come. Awesome. And since they all have bedrooms together upstairs they also all talk and hang out up there without me. Don't get me wrong, the downstairs bedroom has its advantages and I'm actually really grateful for where I ended up in our place, but it certainly doesn't help me out in the department of forming strong bonds with my roommates.

In other news, I had an excellent weekend. My audition on Friday went pretty well I'd have to say. My Mozart had a couple of issues, but it's a damn hard piece. My actual excerpts went well overall and I really liked the sound of my reed, so I'll keep my fingers crossed for Chamber Orchestra. I should find out sometime tomorrow or at the very latest, Wednesday morning. After my audition I headed to Muskego to celebrate my 2 year anniversary with Greg. We went to see Inglourious Basterds and it was awesome. Typical Tarantino as far as the gore was concerned, but I really enjoyed the storyline and the film work. Afterwards we went home to get dressed up, and then headed out to Beni Hana for dinner which was absolutely delicious. Hibachi is my favorite type of food, especially for special occasions, so I really enjoyed myself. After dinner we headed to Greg's house in Milwaukee where we hung out and exchanged gifts. Greg got me a super cute star necklace from Zales that is white gold with diamond accents. Here is a link so you can check out its beauty: http://www.zales.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3756980&kpc=1

I got Greg some clothes from American Eagle including two pairs of cute boxers, a red hoodie sweatshirt, and a dashing grey button up that he looks reeeeeeally cute in. That was the first half of his gift. He doesn't know what the second part is, but it came today in the mail and I might as well tell you guys. Essentially, I paid $50 to the World Wildlife Foundation to adopt him a tiger!!! Greg's favorite animal is the siberian tiger, and with the donation comes a certificate of adoption, a picture of his tiger, and also a really cute tiger stuffed animal. Plus, he gets his own adoption page online with tiger facts and tiger backgrounds/screensavers which I know he'll like too. I thought it was a creative gift since it was helping out endangered animals in general, plus it involved his favorite animal of all. Initially I thought I would just get him a tiger stuffed animal, but then I came up with the adoption idea and I loved it. So when he comes to visit this weekend I will give it to him. I'll let you guys know what he thinks.

Anyways, so our anniversary was definitely fun. Then the next morning Greg and I drove to Green Lake, WI to go to the Green Lake Baha'i Conference where I got to spend some time with my dad. We got a little lost along the way due to faulty directions on the Green Lake website, but managed to make it there in time for lunch. The workshops we attended were good, and the night session was wonderful. However, power in the entire city went out in the middle of one of the speaker's talks so that was a little intense. She was able to keep going with the help of some flashlights and the finding of a battery-powered mic, and by the time she was done the Green Lake committee had sprung into action in getting glowsticks to help people find their way and cars to drive people where they needed to go. Greg and I ended up just staying the night on the pullout couch in my dad's hotel room, rather than driving back to Muskego with all the lights out in the city. We headed back the next morning after breakfast and saying goodbye to my dad.

I love my dad. He is the smartest man I know and I mean that literally. He graduated high school at the age of 16, came to America and took a couple of months of English classes, then went to college to get a mechanical engineering degree. Afterwards he went to medical school and he met my mom in residency. She was a nurse at the hospital he worked at, and they actually lived in the same apartment complex. My dad is an incredible doctor and all his patients absolutely love him. He's really great at explaining things to them. My dad is also a math and science whiz which leaves me wondering why I didn't acquire those skills from him lol. The good thing is that he has always been able to help me out when I needed tutoring. For both my physics class awhile back and my algebra class last semester, I called him constantly to help me with problems I didn't understand and he was a lifesaver. How he remembers how all of that stuff works I have no idea. My dad is also one of the kindest most generous people in the world. Due to his profession he makes quite a bit of money, but you wouldn't even believe how much of it he gives away to different Baha'i funds and other charitable things. Did I mention he also tells really lame jokes? In high school we didn't get along so well because he was big on keeping me away from boys and monitoring how appropriate my clothing choices were, but we have since developed a very strong relationship. Bottom line: My dad is awesome and I absolutely adore him.

Just thought I'd let you know ;)

Shohreh<3