| shut up christine | |
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Friday, October 31, 2008 ( 9:33 PM ) shut up christine painful okay. it is impossible to have this conversation in person so i will let it out here. for time's sake i will cut out years of background info and begin the story with this: i wish you would go back to church. i pray everyday for you... oops i should preface this with a flashback to first grade. i will gently remind everyone that at the age of six i had decided to commit my life to God. i wanted to be a nun. i pretended to be one. i used to carry a little black pocketbook with my miniature bible and rosary and i would park myself under a tree and pray. and without getting too deep into the details, i stopped going to church somewhere around 2002 i think. i remember being so livid that i was ready to walk out of mass, but i forced myself to listen to the whole thing. and at the end of the homily the congregation gave a standing ovation, and my legs were shaking. hate speech, under the pretense of religion, is still hate speech. and christine bulaoro is not okay with that. so i stopped going to that church where i grew up and went to school, and i don't think anyone really cared except maybe the two people i live with, also known as my parents. and even though they can't talk about it, i want them to know that i never stopped believing in God. i always believed, even at age 6, that God is love. LOVE. that's it. treat others as you would want to be treated. love your enemies. love your neighbors, period. NOT love your neighbors if and only if they fit into this box.... for the most part, my beliefs have remained the same. To quote the Dalai Lama, "My religion is kindness." i never stopped believing that, its just that the message at this particular parish no longer resonated with my voice. and over time, we fit less and less. i'm not trying to bash Catholics. Me and Catholicism, we go way back. and although I'm not Catholic anymore, its not like i can forget who i am or where i came from # Thursday, October 30, 2008 ( 12:37 PM ) shut up christine  i am never not in awe of you... last thursday just before midnight i glanced to my left and 4 of my friends were sitting around a laptop, engrossed in thought. they had spent the last 50 minutes carefully choosing words. so much care went into these 4 simple sentences: The volunteers at Seva Cafe came here for one reason: to serve others. on saturday i looked over at Naga and he was running up and down the cheese aisle, blowing on his hands to stay warm (they keep the freezer room at Restaurant Depot really cold) i will always remember this. on wed i spent 5 hours reconciling our finance registry, item by item, again and again. i still cant figure out why we are off by $6.17 i'm going back to work (for real this time). when prospective employers ask me what i've been doing and why i haven't worked in the last year and 4 months, these are the things that come to mind first: jumping up and down in cheese aisles and failing miserably at number crunching :) i hope someone will hire me. crossing my fingers ps my friend Rahul made this video! Karmacy is the group that headlined our benefit concert last june. this song is from their album Wooden Bling. listen to the lyrics # Sunday, October 26, 2008 ( 9:28 AM ) shut up christine ahh today we launch our restaurant! in a failing economy. with a menu that has no prices. holy freakin moly. trust. so many emotions are running through me right now. i am exhausted but the butterflies in my stomach are keeping me awake & carrying me up if you're not doing anything today.... Seva Cafe 340 E 4th St,Long Beach,CA 90802 every Sunday, 5 - 9pm The Seva Cafe is an experiment in the joy of giving. It is very different from most restaurants specifically because there are no prices to any of the meals, it is run completely by volunteers, and every meal is prepared with one single-minded focus: to serve with love. At the end of the meal, every guest is also given the opportunity to participate in the circle of giving. Guests can give from their heart whatever they wish, and those donations are used to pay for future guests' meals. love love love. this is love # Friday, October 24, 2008 ( 12:04 AM ) shut up christine hm. i can't know for sure, we only realize these things in hindsight but i think this might be the best time of my life :) # Monday, October 20, 2008 ( 12:46 PM ) shut up christine TODAY OCT 20 is the last day to register to vote in the state of California! download a voter registration form ps this video is awesome. # Thursday, October 16, 2008 ( 8:45 AM ) shut up christine An act of kindness in 1988 # Friday, October 10, 2008 ( 1:56 PM ) shut up christine A great silence overcomes me and I wonder why I ever thought to use language. - Rumi THIS is what i mean. do you believe me now? this was sent to me last night, four hours before i read Kat's email. i missed it the first time because i thought it was spam. my hands are kind of shaking. who are you? thank you, whoever you are. thank you. thank you. this will be used for good. Dear Christine, Someone you know gifted you money through Giving Anonymously www.GivingAnon.org The gift will be sent to you as a check. When you receive the gift please call our toll free number (888) 855-GIFT (4438) to leave a message on our system confirming you received the gift and to also leave a thank you message for your friend. Calling our toll free number is the way we confirm with your friend that we actually sent you the gift. We will email your message to your anonymous friend as a voice file. Then please deposit the check! There are no strings attached or obligations. It is a flat out tax free gift to you. If you have any questions, please send us an email or call us on our toll free number. It is our job to make sure you receive this gift so a quick response to this email is always helpful. Share with others this new wave of giving. Come visit our site and give to someone that you know!
Sincerely, Giving Anonymously, Inc. Email: info@givinganonymously.org Tel: (888) 855-GIFT (4438) #( 2:20 AM ) shut up christine i don't know if i should post this here, but i'm going to. this is an email from my friend Kat. this is what my friends are like. what can we do, and do you want to be part of it? hi kids, i know that we're all in a tizzy with respective work/service/everything that we inundate ourselves with on a day to day basis, but i just was told a story that i knew i needed to share with my be the cause family. tonight my friend told me a story about his friend n. a couple of weeks ago, n was leaving a bar when he was stopped by a few men who apparently were somehow offended by him. they proceeded to beat n until he was unconscious, and continued to do so even after it was apparent that n had lost consciousness. n was left with fractures all over his skull, and is most likely going to be blind in one eye. he also is awaiting donor eardrums so that his can be replaced as they were pretty much shattered in this brutal, unaggravated attack. miraculously, n did not suffer permanent brain damage. however, despite being physically able, n is incapacitated. he has been and will be unable to work for quite some time. it is to the point that he cannot afford to pay for groceries. the perpetrators do not have the means for n to receive any form of settlement - he is in a desperate situation strictly because of the depth of cruelty humans are capable of. he is shaken, timid, afraid of people (even his friends). he is ashamed to admit he cannot hear, ashamed to suggest he cannot see properly, and unable to take steps toward normalizing all because of the hatred these men poured upon him. what can we do? how can we remind n of the kindness and compassion that the human spirit possesses? i really don't know what would be best - so i'm posing this to you, my great family in be the cause. what kind of random, anonymous acts of kindness can we give to him? thank you for reading this.. i hope that we get something going soon. i know we are all running around for the walk for hope, but i know we can channel some of that toward n. wouldn't it be amazing if we could somehow transfer all of that amazing energy to n, to overwhelem him in the midst of this terrible time? i love you guys so much. i hope you all are well, and i look forward to seeing you soon, whether it be this saturday or next. EDIT: we're pooling a small fund to at least cover groceries for a few weeks. i don't know who reads my blog, but if you want to pitch in, can you send me a message # Wednesday, October 08, 2008 ( 5:43 PM ) shut up christine After Bailout, AIG Executives Head to Resort Less than a week after the federal government offered an $85 billion bailout to insurance giant AIG, the company held a week-long retreat for its executives at the luxury St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, Calif., running up a tab of $440,000, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said today at the the opening of a House committee hearing about the near-failure of the insurance giant. Showing a photograph of the resort, Waxman said the executives spent $200,000 for rooms, $150,000 for meals and $23,000 for the spa. AIG Fights Back on $440,000 Resort Trip; Says No Corporate Executives Attended The CEO of the giant AIG Insurance Company, Edward Liddy, today defended spending $440,000 on a retreat at a luxurious California resort as "standard practice in our industry" because it rewarded independent insurance agents who were top performers for the company. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, obtained by ABC News, Liddy said "not a single corporate executive from AIG headquarters attended." According to Liddy, only 10 of the 100 guests at the retreat worked for AIG.
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), who chaired yestersay's hearing on AIG, was not impressed with Liddy's letter to Secretary Paulson. Waxman told ABC News that, "It defies common sense to spend over $400,000 at an exclusive resort a week after the government bailed out AIG. It shows a reckless disregard for the shareholders, who are now the U.S. taxpayers." standard practice -- is that a justified response? how dangerous is unchecked capitalism? ( 12:42 AM ) shut up christine support groups text from: Brian Omg. U wanna get carne asada fries? Right now? 12:16am reply: NO! Go eat an apple from: Brian Omg!! I'm on yelp, and they keeep saying this place is hellla goood. Its in Cypress 12:18am reply: Make something healthy from: Brian I didn't eat dinnnner 12:22am from: Brian I'm driving there. I have no self control 12:30am from: Brian Ok I'm goin home now. I couldn't do it 12:31am reply: Hahaha from: Brian ty kit! 12:39am reply: good job # Thursday, October 02, 2008 ( 11:45 AM ) shut up christine woah the image that comes up at 3:19 i can't get it out of my head # |
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