No more violence against women

I finally finished researching violence against women! YEAH!! My guy friends, who stuck with me through the month-long project, were all just as excited as I was when I made my announcement.

"Does this mean that you're not a man hater anymore," one of them asked.

I'm not a man hater but as I wrote before, this new knowledge has changed me. Knowledge usually does change a person.

I still talk about the project a lot and if you follow me on Twitter you'd notice that I tweet many of the statistics I've found. But other than that, I'm happy to not be daily reading about such topics as bride burnings, female genital mutilation, sexual abuse, and other forms of violence against women.

I do feel strongly about the fact that women need to educate themselves about these issues. We need to be sisters for each other and not threats. Statistics show that in sexual harassment cases at work, female coworkers sometimes fuel the gossip fires. To me that is just as unacceptable as sexual harassment by a male coworker.

But anyway . . . in other news . . . I've been sick for the past two weeks. As soon as I finished the project I caught a cough that I can't seem to shake. I've had to cancel two trips because of being sick and am coming up on a third trip that I absolutely CANNOT cancel. So, I better shake this soon. Prayers are MUCH appreciated!

Love to you and yours! :)

Suzanne Ocsai

Remembering that not all relationships end in abuse

After reading for hours and hours through piles and piles of statistics about violence against women around the world and in the United States, my brain and heart needed some cathartic relief. I needed something to remind me that not male-female relationships end in bride burning! And that not all marriages are unions of patriarchal men and brainwashed, uneducated, or helpless women.

However, I took a risk in choosing the book that I did: Traveling While Married: How to take a trip with your spouse and come back together. I was a bit worried that I might be delving deeper into man-hating through reading this book, but I was willing to take the risk since the cover design and cartoon like illustrations seemed to promise it was a comedic approach to the subject.

It proved to be a worthwhile risk. The author, Mary-Lou Weisman, tells her tales of traveling with her husband in an honest and light-hearted way that allows you to see both the flaws of her husband and herself but also the fact that there are humans out there in relationship with each other that do sincerely care about each other and after 30+ years of marriage can still have a good time together (wow . . . what a run-on sentence that was!). Good news for me, who after reading page after heart-throbbing page of statistics and stories of women being victimized at the hands of men and intimate partners, has contemplated swearing off relationships and marriage for the remainder of my life. Just kidding . . . but kinda not . . . life is real and so is abuse.

I have definitely changed my views of how one goes about love and relationships after all this research, but after reading this book I haven’t ditched the thought all together. Perhaps there are worthwhile adventures better experienced with two instead of one—perhaps there are worthwhile people to go on adventures with. 

Failing...

I think I'm failing Spanish...this is not good...I also got sick. 

Going under the knife

Today I went in for my first ever surgery! I wasn't too nervous...the scariest part for me had been whether I could afford it or not since I don't have insurance. But it was a lot cheaper than I thought and within my budget. Thank the Lord! No really...

I'd actually put off going to the doctor for over a year to check on the growth that was developing on my lower gum. I was avoiding it, hoping it would go away. Finally I couldn't anymore. It was getting larger and starting to scare me. 

So I made an apointment with the oral surgion my orthodontist recommended (a year ago when I last saw him...I stooped going to my orthodontist also so I couldn't be bugged about the growth! I didn't want anyone to know I wasn't taking care of it. I didn't even want to know about it myself!) 

Anyway I did the hard thing and called and then went in. Thinking I'd have to sell at least one kidney to get this thing off! Fortunately it was far below what I thought it would cost and just two days after going in for my apointment, I got the growth removed this morning. Praise The Lord! 

Here are some pics: 

The growth. Eww! 

Peace out! It's out.

Still really sleepy! 

Me and my still half numb/temporarily paralysed mouth! Lol 

Glad to be getting back on track with my health...and doing the hard stuff first. 

Mi Bien Día en Chicago (Composición #1)

This is my first Spanish Composition of the semester. Google Translate does a rough translation which makes some of the sentences sound funny. But if you can't read Spanish . . . I guess you could use it if you really want to know what I wrote about in my first paper. 

     Este año yo fui a Chicago con mis amigos Janelle y James. El día era perfecto porque yo estaba con gentes que yo quiero. Nos despertamos temprano en la mañana así nos podíamos tomar el tren. James y yo nunca tuvimos habíamos tomado la tren. Estábamos emocíonados! Primero nosotros comimos en Chipotle. Chipotle es el lugar favorito para comer de Janelle en todo el mundo! Me gusta Chipotle también. Después de que nosotros comimos, fuimos a explorar la ciudad de Chicago.

     En todos las ciudades que he vistitado, yo tomé fotos de hombres con barbas por el serie de “Men With Beards” en Instagram. En Chicago, yo tomé fotos de doce hombres con barbas. El momento mas divertido en el día fue cuando yo perseguí dos hombres en la calle para poder tomar fotos de ellos y sus barbas.

     Al final del día nosotros fuimos al zoológico en el parque de Lincoln. Pero los animales me pusieron triste. Al final del dia todo fue muy magnífico!

Life Is Busy

I thought my schedule was going to be really open since I'm only taking 6 credits. However, it has been anything but open and it's only about to get a whole lot more hectic!

There's school (part-time—but 3 of those hours are Spanish to it's like 6 credits in itself . . . to me at least!)

Work (on campus and freelance projects—including being a photographer)

Society of Adventist Communicators Conference coming up in October

Volunteer work with the NAD Youth Ministries Department (this has me traveling quite a bit doing promo work on the weekend and this is about to speed up as we near the Just Claim It prayer conference in Miami in February)

I'm also starting up my MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) training again

And having a minor surgery on Thursday morning to remove a growth on my gum (this will help my braces come off sooner than never . . . haha)

I think that's about it for now . . . I'm sure there might be something I'm forgetting . . . like personal projects . . . but oh well . . . this is my busy life. But I wouldn't have it any other way . . . I love it—even Spanish! jaja

Musings in Typography y Español

I've been trying my hand at some handwritten typography. I like it a lot but definitely need more practice! 

Yo necesito más práctica! 

P.S. I'm taking Spanish and need practice in that, too! So if I start posting in Spanish, you know why! Haha...I mean jaja (how you laugh in Spanish! ;)

P.S.S. These were inspired by: http://www.gearaffiti.com/2012/design/hand-drawn-typography/
AND: well . . . I'm still looking for that reference link . . . will add when I find it.