Flying to Chicago in a few hours for my brother’s Medical School graduation and was thinking about all things Chi-town related such as: deep dish pizza, Bulls, Blackhawks, Cubs, White sox, the Navy Pier, Wrigley Field, Magnificent Mile, Lake Michigan, Sears Tower, the L, Oprah, the Bahá’í House of Worship in Wilmette, and the city’s many misnomers, like the Windy city, Chicagoland, and Chi-city, when I started humming “Homecoming”, Kanye’s tribute song to his hometown of Chicago.

Chicago is the Heart of America, with a mix of the East coast and West coast caught up in the Middle. And it really is the place of Sana’s homecoming, as he is graduating from Chicago Medical School and attending family medicine residency program at Northwestern. Congrats and best of luck, my older lil brother!

Just got back from Coachella 2011 and am still overwhelmed. The sights, the sounds, the heat, the people, the fashion, and the awesome and unbelievable talent which not only wowed the audience but was so appreciative to be able to perform there. Festival-goers from all around the world were all united for the chance to see their favorite artists. Nothing was shocking but everything was amazing. Unbelievable. It was really an investment into our memories. Need to sleep now. Wake me up in time for Coachella 2012!

Inspired by some of my very good friends and their amazing pictures, I decided to take up photography. This lasted 72 hours, after I realized that the digital camera I owned was from 1998, the shutter speed takes longer than dial-up internet, and that I have no money to invest into this (expensive) hobby. Below are about a dozen of the hundreds of random photos I took from three days in Los Angeles last week. Thanks to Poladroid, I was able to make them look cooler than they actually are! ;)

These past couple weeks have been very overwhelming, emotionally draining, heartrending, and frenzied. But this morning my brother and are embarking on road trip oh seven across the grand ol’ US of A. Hopefully by the end of the trek we will relax, not fight too much about the music in the car, and remember to always enjoy life and make the best out of every situation… Thank you to the Atlantians who gave me much love and support over the past couple weeks. Y’all better visit this summer!

And a very very happy happy mother’s day. Being a mom is a truly 24/7 hard job – RESPECT!

I am a couple hours away from flying to Toronto for the weekend and just wanted to jot down a few random highlights from my time in Los Angeles last week :

• Going from LAX to Camden House to Republic to Il Tram.
• Watching Steve Urkel’s entourage fight outside the club (why does Steve Urkel even have an entourage?)
• Sneaking into the Four Seasons sauna and spa at midnight.
• Dining at Bandera, where appropriate attire is required, with not-so-appropriate attire.
• Sana’s birthday dinner turned party turned game night turned jam session.
• Stalking Brandon Davis and James Blunt at the Les Deux parking lot.
• Celebrating my grandmother’s life at a memorial dinner.
• Going to Paris Hilton’s house party.
• Two subjects (the movie 300 and the city election ballots) dominating every conversation.
• Having too much fun with family and friends.

A special shout-out to everyone (Alex, Arash, Arezo, Arya, Mona, Negar, Nima, Poya, Roya, Sepeedeh, Shaadi, Vargha) who came out for Sana’s birthday (especially Safa, who flew all the way from the east coast haha) and a super special shout-out to Nika, Monica, Farid, Bassim, Yalda, Samar, Rauz, Anna, Negin, Sam, Isaac – although more than half of you don’t even read this blog, I had tons of fun on our various adventures – and am looking forward to more in the summer.

It is 2007. And winter break was too too too too much fun. Now it is time to go back to reality. But before, here are some pictures...

My brother is the face of UCLA. This is not a joke. There are posters (and cookies) of him all over campus, courtesy of the fine people behind Happenings at UCLA, the “Headwaters of Hipdom.” These photos are from the Daily Bruin stand next to LuValle Commons. How appropriate – a Persian pre-med reppin UCLA – but when did Sana become so hip?





Jock ORL for stepping it up a notch and for once not shoving Diddy Riese cookies down freshmen throats (not that there is anything wrong with Diddy Riese, especially sugar cinammon cookies... mmm), but this is fershiz cooler.

Life’s a beach. And then its fall. More specifically, today is the fall equinox. To reminisce, here are some random summer oh-six highlights:

Sana Bull Riding

Probably the first time Sana has ever even attended a party on Sunset Blvd. was for his own graduation party at Saddle Ranch. Unbeknownst to us, there was a bull riding competition – with the first place winner receiving $100. Sana, Nima and I all entered the competition, and now I have bruises to prove it. During the course of the evening we ate lots of good, fried food, roasted s’mores, listened to guitarists and pretended we were cowboys. The best part of the night? Sana – novice bull rider – won the bull riding competition! View video above and pics below. I guess Sana found himself a summer job! Thanks to everyone who came out, and a big thanks to people who lost their voices while cheering for Sana (aka Sana’s fan club consisting of Nazanin, Kimiya, Negar, Nika, Shaadi, Alex, Mona, Roya, Bita, Wendy, Liz, Vic, Rauz and Trisha).