"Hope for Haiti"

It’s incredible how it takes a disaster to recognize a nation. Now I’m not saying that I’m miss perfect over here and recognize all of the poverty that surrounds us in this world; I am just as guilty as the next person when it comes to not taking the time to educate myself on such things. If you were to ask me a few weeks ago where Haiti was or if it were even a country at all I couldn’t have told you or even taken a guess. Why is it that it takes a catastrophe, such as a 7.0 earthquake striking, in order to make a country known? Are we really that caught up in our own lives that we don’t recognize the poverty in the world or the fact that people all over the world are living on less than $2.00 a day, like those in Haiti, while we’re spending $5.00 every morning on our Starbucks fix?

We go about our daily lives without a care in the world, other than the typical drama we seem to always have floating around, while those in places such as Haiti are starving, infected with HIV or Tuberculosis, are completely illiterate and living in poverty with no hope of getting out. Now, I have never really been one to go out and take a stand on being globally aware, but this disaster has kind of smacked me in the head and made me think and begin to realize that we need to care about what’s going on in the world. It shouldn’t take a 7.0 earthquake killing thousands of helpless bystanders to wake us up. We should be active in aiding countries around the world before a disaster strikes.

There have been reports of over 150,000 people killed, some may still be buried alive and others are dealing with the aftermath of the quake, such as injuries and breakouts of infections. There is only one hope for Haiti and that is to rely on the strength, the kindness and the donations of others to get through this time. You have the information, you have the means— what are you going to do about it?

Ways to give:
http://www.worldvision.org/worldvision/eappeal.nsf/egift-haiti-earthquake-relief?Open&campaign=113655125&cmp=KNC-113655125

https://my.care.org/site/Donation2?df_id=5080&5080.donation=form1&s_src=171040000000&s_subsrc=redghaitiearthquake110&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=haiti%20relief&utm_content=careisproviding&utm_campaign=redhaiti5080

You can also send aid via text message and have it on your next phone bill:

Text “Yele” to 501501 to make a $5.00 donation
Text “HAITI” to 20222 to make a $10.00 donation
Text “Haiti” to 90999 to make a $10.00 donation


*Posted for credit for JRN 371

New Year's Eve: Fail

Everyone’s always looking for adventure on New Year’s Eve and most everyone comes back with some sort of tale of grandeur. Typically, as everyone brags about their stories to see who ends up as top dog, I tend to try to fade into the background and hope to not have to share my New Year’s Eve story of boring ho-hum. However, this year, I decided things were going to be different.

It started off fairly typical, so I decided to shake things up. I had heard that my friend, Alysa, would be down in Riverside, so I developed a plan to kidnap her. As I should have expected, things went horribly wrong and I ended up utterly lost and confused in the most dreadful apartment complex I have ever had the so called “pleasure” of encountering. After maneuvering between to the 20 plus buildings making up this contraption I had no choice but to call for back up, which also meant ruining the surprise.

Alysa was still shocked to see me, so I guess it didn’t all go to waste. We then proceeded to head to my house, dolled ourselves up and headed out to our favorite place, Yardhouse. The bar was pretty legit that night and the ever so enchanting acts of catching up ensued; beginning with break and school and leading down the ever so juicy roads of family and guys. Alysa and I were treated to a gorgeous waiter with quite possibly the most random name, Fabion- we called him Fabio.

Fabio was all too good to us during dinner and even offered to not card my friend or I for some of the house’s specialty drinks. My ever so sheltered friend stared at the brute in utter disbelief, so I quickly jump in informing Fabio we would be driving in a short bit so we shouldn’t have anything, but were deeply flattered by the offer. He then picked up the tab on our check and we headed out. Thanks for dinner, Fabio.

The long car ride of rocking out to Kesha and Lady GaGa followed our pre-game at Yardhouse as we headed south to visit the wonderful Miss Katie. We ended up lost; although I’m not really sure one could consider it lost. We were on the same street, the right street too I might add, but it took us 20 minutes to find the blasted house. Note to self, find friends who don’t live in the middle of nowhere, or at least have street lights to aide in finding addresses.

The party was pretty typical, the clock struck twelve and everyone immediately broke off into their ever so evenly paired off couples. Alysa, who just broke up with her boyfriend, and me, whose heart could not be any more confused at the moment as to what it wants, stood awkwardly and decided that was our cue to leave.

Final Count: Getting lost twice, one hott waiter, one free dinner, one rock out dance session, one majorly awkward moment, six drunk dials throughout the night and still a typical ho-hum New Year’s Eve.

Such is my life.


*Posted for credit for JRN 371