homework/aftermath

well, semi-formal was fun. They're going to murder me for saying this, but I'm kind of glad that a lot of my friends were there. I'm glad that two of my friends were there, though, because one was loud and fun enough for it to be contagious. And if my other friend hadn't been there, I wouldn't have danced at all. I can't really dance, but my friend was good enough to be a really bad dancer with me.
I'm not sure whether I said this before, but i sort of sprained my ankle on Thursday. So I wore dancer's heels. I wore them in Wizard of Oz. They're really comfortable for the first three hours, which is really all you typically need them for, and they have a lot of support, so my ankle didn't hurt until I took them off. So that was good.
Well, I have notes to take. And here they are:
Arranged marriage has been practiced all over South Asia for centuries, although it has evolved. When many migrated to the US, they brought with them the customs and traditions that they had grown up with. Now that their kids have gotten to that marriageable age, the way they will be married (arranged marriage or falling in love) has become an issue. Studies have shown that they negotiated the matter. Duty was important, but love was too. Okay pause for a second. MY MOTHER IS BEING THE BIGGEST MEANIE ON THE PLANET!! She wants this whole project-PowerPoint, book review, research, finding the right "artsy language" things to work with, finding all the proper stuff under all the proper headings and having them all neat and organized and ready to go by TOMORROW. Really, how does she expect me to do all that? She really has no idea when this project is due, does she? FYI, it's due on MARCH 23RD. NOT MARCH 8TH. I have a free block at school to work on it then. We went to the library yesterday and found good poems. And tomorrow is SUNDAY, so I can't clarify with my teacher on a few points, so actually finishing by tomorrow is absolutely impossible because the things I have to figure out are really important. Like the degree of relevance to the topic that the artistic language things have to be. And how exactly I can incorporate the blog into this, because I heard her telling some people that a blog would be a good way to do this. HOW am I supposed to do all that on a SATURDAY to have it finished by a SUNDAY when I don't even have school again until MONDAY? GAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH. Mom isn't fair. I realize that she's looking out for me and stuff, but still. I know I have to study epically for my black belt test in a week, but that's okay. I have a free block. I can research then. I'm aware that our cousins are coming the week after that. That's okay. I can put together the majority of my project at school. Really. Because the SCHOOL has a person who is TRAINED to help with the technology bit of projects and stuff. And I'm pretty sure someone who is TRAINED to do stuff like that is going to be rather awesome at it. Or at least better than my mom. My mom went to school for something completely different. I don't see why she has to take over my life whenever I have a major project due. I get it. It's major. Doesn't mean I'm not capable of doing it without her. Just means that I'm going to spend a lot of time on it. She needs to understand that, I think. But really, I think that this project is the reason that I'm so mad all the time, because my mom's always bugging me to read this or study that or do this that way or hurry up and research or finish two weeks before the stupid project is even due. I think that it's causing a lot more stress than it's worth. Or maybe my English teacher designed it so my mom would annoy my brain out and then take out all my guts, too. If that's the real reason, then it's working absolutely perfectly. Anyway, moving back to the notes that I'm not supposed to be taking according to my mother who hates me....I can't focus on this. I just can't. I'm too worked up about it. I mean, I asked that I could have some time to chill so I could willingly start working on the project. Then I did. Then my mom wanted me to tell her what I was going to do with the project today. And then it all went downhill. So I think that my mom is being too involved in this. I think that she should make me work on it and then leave me alone. She shouldn't make me check in with her. That's the teacher's job. She's having specific meetings with us to check our progress. I prefer that way because that way you can say, oh I can't really find stuff for this certain thing, and then the teacher could be like, oh check this out, and then everything is okay because the teacher knows what she's doing and my mom is just looking everything up that might have the slightest relevance, and the teacher knows some more specific stuff that would have greater relevance. So I'm going to take the notes and ignore my mom if she comes in. And then I'll be done with the longest entry ever written by me. I'm going to a new website now... And here, the info is.... Some Indian Americans look down on Valentine's day, others love it, and others don't care but still pick up those tacky cards for their toddlers to hand out to their class. This variation is relevant to the Indian American population's feelings about love marriages and dating. The US census bureau cites about 1/3 of the Asian Indian population being between the age of 20-34, the largest age group, in other words. The young Indian Americans are in a tug-of-war between tradition and what they want, between arranged marriages and love matches. But among the Indian Americans there is this thing called "marriage phobia"-preconceived negative ideas about Indian American women born in the US, like the party girls and the career-focused super over achiever or the really independent girl. There are notions about guys-the guy who has dated everyone, the parent-idolizer who won't go anywhere with anyone without the say-so of the parents, or the I'm-better-than-you kind of dude. With all the misinterpretations, they don't get married until a lot later, and by then they are way to comfortable with their ways and have a hard time adjusting to married life. An Indian American woman complained that there weren't a lot of Indian American men in her age range that share her Vedic values (the Vedas are an epic collection of ancient Sanskrit writings that are important in Hinduism), but on the other hand, a lot of the Indian guys can't communicate well and can't handle a girl who might actually have a job. An Indian-American guy says that failing to live up to the pre-set-up set of values and society's censure and the loss of their authentic Indian-ness that makes a lot of parents and some young adults look for spouses for them/kids in India instead of America. That same guy broke up with his steady girlfriend of five years to look for a girl in India. Many Indian-Americans are in a state of unsurity because they don't know whether they should go with their parents, date, look for themselves, look for only Indians/Indian-Americans, only look for a certain religion, take advantage of their relatives all over or avoid them at all costs, search the internet or meet people on the street or something else on the probably epic list. That is it for that website, and that was probably the most useful thing ever. The link is http://www.khaasbaat.com/feb2006/mentalhealth.htm
So, moving right along...
this next link (I copied and pasted a load of links onto a word document, having only skimmed them while searching) I put as "best one yet", so if this link is so good, and since I don't want to bore my eyes out later when doing the actual compiling for the actual presentation, I am going to go into a new post. And I am going to work for longer than an hour from whence I started, because I got interrupted several times. So here I go.