First of all, Shooshig, I'm sorry for everything you are going through. But you are such a cool person and I pray things work out for you. Maybe you and I can now go to Armenia at the same time... :)

For 193, believe it or not, I was making phone calls at midnight that night filling up their voice mails. Except, for one of their offices (Jackson-Lee I believe), the person I was leaving a message picked up the phone. I'm sure it took every ounce of energy not to curse me out on the phone as he probably wasn't too happy about being there at that hour in the first place.

Last weekend was AYF Junior Seminar in Prospect, PA. It was also ACYOA Sports Weekend. I hear Sports Weekend was great and I know that Junior Seminar was FANTASTIC! We had 400 people from all over the Eastern Region and a few Canadians. It still surprises me that all these kids come to a Camp in nowhere (some driving 14 hours in a bus) to sit through 8 lectures all weekend long. It's wild.

What a success. The kids seem to have a rejuvinated sense of morale. All weekend long, some of us tried to figure out where this came from, but it very inspiring. I overheard one kid about 10 years old saying to a friend of his to speak Armenian. Another girl explaining to a friend of hers how important it is to read about Armenian issues and that reading is better than TV. All weekend, kids were discussing world issues, Armenian politics, asking us about the Parliamentary elections in Armenia, talking about which lecture they liked most. WOW, what a great weekend!

I'm flying to LA tomorrow night to give some lectures to ASA groups, AYF, etc. about the ANCA and how important it is for young Armenians to move to DC and work within the system. They seem excited to have me and I'm just happy that they wanted me to speak. There seems to be a lot of kids in LA interested in working in Washington. In general, there are more political science majors ready to work in DC. The more the better. Just being here for 2-3 months, I've learned so quickly how much of a difference it makes just being here and knowing what's going on.

Memorial day was nice... I had a pleasant drive through... Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and back to Virginia. I had some excursions on Monday... I witnessed true American pride in Smalltown, USA on Memorial Day. Red White and Blue EVERYWHERE. But I must say, the brief 20 minutes of driving through the very tip of West Virginia was scary... I saw things that I'm not sure if I believe. weird stuff. But it's pretty.

Anyway, more from LA soon.

This is going to be a messy log.. so try to keep up. First off... my good news in my prior log needs to be scratched. So my scan, ultrasound and bloodwork didn't match up with one another. My blood shows there's still something there...but since my ultrasound and scan of my neck were clear... then it must be from somewhere else. OH BOY! So this past week I've been visiting the great doctors and radiologists at UCLA almost on a daily basis, and by next Tuesday, we will hopefully know what's up with this "kharnvadz" vijag. But the good news is that I don't feel sick or anything... I'm doing ok.. just kinda worried as to what this could be and how dare it jeopardize my Armenia trip once again! EEEE!

Next Thursday I will graduate from the wonderful world of undergrad school at CSUN and hopefully move on to bigger and better things (after a little much-needed break of course).

YAY! H.193 passed... but I must say that those people were quite rude when I called them.... hehehe god knows how many calls they'd received that day!

Last Saturday I attended an ANC-Professionals' Network fundraiser for the DC Summer Internship at a home. Roupen Hakhverdian sang with his sidekick Dikran, and so did Shushan Petrosyan (I guess to give Roupen a smoke break).... and of course who gave Shushan a smoke break? None other than our Gor Mkhitaryan! It was really awesome hearing all three of them in one night. Gor had a concert the following night (which I wasn't able to attend cause I was at the AYF's 70th Anniversary), and Shushan has a concert at the Alex tonight!

Last weekend was also a busy weekend for the Armenian community out here, since ARS (HOM) was having their 2nd Annual Armenian Festival at the Glendale Civic. WOW!!!! I must say, they have this thing down! There were A LOT of people there, and something cool I noticed was that Armenians had brought their non-Armenian neighbors and friends, and everyone was celebrating the Armenian culture. There was all kinds of food from "soo-bureg" to "kuftes" to "choreg". There were vendors everywhere, games for kids, and most importantly a 45 minute presentation of a REAL Armenian Wedding (by a dance company). It was AMAZING! Sunday ended with a whole bunch of Armenian singers, but shame on Harout P. since he was a no-show.

This weekend is my sister's graduation in San Francisco... Congrats to Gaga! My family will be going up, but I'll be babysitting my gramma. :) On Sunday, I'll be going to Palm Springs for a day, so that should be fun. For now, this is all I have... but I will update you on May 28 happenings soon.

TSUH! :)~

It's been awhile.- The semester ended and the summer beings. I have the day job, but, now that I have nights and weekends free, this gives me some time to just relax and maybe work on a CD project or two. I've had some interesting inquiries from artists that may want to sign up with Pomegranate, but, we'll hold off on the names for now since my budget still isn't where I want it to be yet. But, the good new is that a new Hover CD will be released later this year. It's groundbreaking stuff. Go to www.hoverchoir.org to find out more about it. It will be called "Aigeksi Fables". I am the first to tell you that I had never heard of the Armenian parable writer from way back when, but, I've been getting an education about it through this music. The disc is music written by Stephen Babatorosian set to the fables of Aigeksi. Go figure... I'll be working Arinseh in the next month or so with the new Gor CD hopefully due out in September. Again, budget permitting. The BAMBIR- QUAKE CD just hit the stores yesterday and we've been getting a great repsonse from those who have purchased it. www.cdbaby.com/bambir if you are interested. It's great stuff. If you want to support Armenian music with a small investment of $20, this disc is for you.

Armenia has been on my mind a lot these days. When the weather gets nice and I have free time like this, I always think about buying a ticket and just going there for a few weeks. My parents are working in Tzaghkatzor with these orphan kids and it would be nice to see how they are all holding up. I am happy to hear that Mr. Kojian is finalizing his dacha. Reading Harout Der Hovagimian's description of the DJ Festival was fun. Never thought it would happen there. Sounds like a step in the right direction. Now, I want to hear more from Raffi N. and his new surroundings as well as my mate, Lena. What UP, Lena?

(oops, I accidentally deleted Arsineh's post... here it is again!)

Success on the Hill!!! Armenians claim another victory today.

Update: As I posted before, H.Res. 193 was introduced last month commemorating the 15th anniversary of the US implementation of the Genocide Convention. Of course, the wording includes mention of the Armenian Genocide. So we received word less than 48 hours ago that the resolution was going to be up for mark up and a vote by the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday (today). In other words, the office has been a mad house the last couple of days. Phone calls and volunteers flooded these walls. Very exciting.

This morning, we went to the Juduciary Committee hearing and just as I blinked, there was a vote that received no nays. It happened so quickly I didn't even realize it until they moved onto the next subject and we were walking out the door. Thank God I caught it on video, because otherwise, I wouldn't have been so sure it happened. The resolution passed as is. I'm actually a little disappointed, as I was all prepared for a blood bath fight, kinda like a good ol' episode of Jerry Springer, Congress style. But I'll take the win!

It is official. I am moving to Armenia with my family on May 19.
We have sold all our furniture. Given upour jobs here and booked tickets for Armenia. That's right, I will be moving to the other loggers' page, the ones living in Armenia.
I will be working with LCO and Lara, my wife has a few projects of her own. We will send Amassia to the French school and Varanta will have to be watched by a baby-sitter for parts of the day.
I have not logged for over a month. Ihave had so much tosay about the people I met in Armenia. Lots of people from France, Iran, Lebanon. They are suchcool people living, studying and working in Armenia. Then I wanted to tell you about my trip back with Austrian. Finally Iwanted to tell you all the stress I was feeling trying to put things in order in Montreal before leaving. But all I'll tell you right now is that I am very excited to get to Yerevan where I have rented an appartment for my family.
Please come and visit.

Bonjour Armenié!!!

Parev Amigos!!! Inch ga inch chi ga?
First of all, i apologize about being late with the post. This third year of Advocacy its getting really hard. Plus i am trying to sign a contract with Europe for my first album, its getting me out of time evreywhere.
Well, well, well...Argentina is going to have a new president this weekend. There is a Ballotage between Nestor Kirchner and Carlos Menem. The media says that Kirchner will win but in Argentina everything could happen.
Our community is getting very loco. The Church is in crisis and the ARF, too. Rumors, gossiping, money, and the same old s...t. Its time for the new community.
The avant premier of Ararat was really cool. I did not go but i am preparing myself to watch it 28th May, it is the day that all cinemas will be playing it for the first time. We have to reach 6000 tickets in the first week for the cinemas to keep on playing it.
I really miss Armenia and Yerevan. I would pay everything to walk at midnight at Apovean Street in summertime. I remember the stars on the sky...thousands of them!!! Here in Buenos Aires, the pollution and lights do not allow you to see clearly the stars in the sky. I would like to see the Botero Cat, it might be bigger than a cat from ancient armenian city of Van!
Maybe in September, maybe in October, i will be visiting Caracas, Venezuela for few days. Lots of Armenians live in Venezuela since early times of our Diaspora (After Genocide). There is a Church and a Club but no schools. I dont know any further information, but if i go i would share with you all the info about.
I have an idea, and maybe one of you can help me. Here in Buenos Aires there is a festival of rock with armenian bands called WOODSTOCK-IAN. hahaha, It is a festival with bands that one or all of the members in the band are armenians. What´s more, i found out lots of bands in the internet as Deti Picasso from Moscow and De la Caucase from Canada. So my idea is to try to make a WOODSTOCK-IAN in Armenia with the support of the MInister of Culture bringing bads as SOAD, and others that are scattered in the world. Like a Pan Armenian game of Rock and Roll...Any suggestions are welcome!

Ok, Au Revoir!!!

PS..Im learning French...ahhaha ;)

Eep, sorry Raffi!

Well, last week was a tough one. It started with an all-nighter, working from 10am on Monday to 6am the next morning, and then showing up at work again at 11am and again going until 2 am. That was the way of the week... until... I drove on up to NYC for my cousin's wedding... well, Long Island really. Quite an eventful weekend with Armenians as far as I could see. A wedding to remember, for sure.

The pre wedding events included a night out on the town. We went to a nightclub, Intermezzo, where I believe the AGBU had a fundraiser for the Antranig dance group in New Jersey. There's always time to fit in a nice Armenian fundraiser event! Quite a show of faces. The party kept me up until 4am, only to allow 3 hours of sleep before I was up and ready for the salon session. Oh, I dolled myself up alright. If I didn't, it was quite possible that my cousin would have kicked me out of the wedding party... oh, I was a brides maid.

The wedding was beautiful, as was the bride. A perfect match. The groom was a friend of ours for long before the duo united. Now I'm just happy to have another in-law! There was much dancing, much singing, much toasting. Onnik Dinkjian was the entertainment of the evening. I gotta tell you people. I know Onnik is only really well known on the East Coast, but talk about a Frank Sinatra of Armenian Music. WOW that man has pipes. And it ain't every day he sings for weddings. It was like a wedding and a concert all in one day!

Well, not much else right now. It looks like the genocide resolution may be discussed on the Senate side tomorow, but we don't have official word yet. I'll post immediately the moment I know. Stay tuned!

Ok..... Raffi said I had to log.... so here it goes.. (he he he)

Yesterday I spent the day with the AYF Juniors from all over Southern California, since we had a Junior's Olympic Day for them. The weather was great... the sun was out and there was a cool breeze. Almost 200 kids showed up and we played soccer and basketball all day long... only stopping to have some "lahmajoon" for lunch and then kebab for dinner. The day ended with a DJ (who for some reason would not oblige to my request to play "shabadabadashdash"). Although all the kids had a GREAT time and we only had ONE major injury the entire day, I AM BEAT (beet red too). I guess the SPF 15 wasn't strong enough cause I look like I have immense amounts of blush on my cheeks and nose... and there's a V of redness on my chest, since I wasn't smart enough to put sunblock there. Not good. But it was nice interacting with all the different kids ages 8-16.

Other than that, there's really not a whole lot going on. Today is Mother's Day... so HAPPY MOMMY DAY to all the great mom's out there. In my book, mom's are up there with (and possibly surpass) chocolate ice cream and gooooood coffee.

K... gotta run before I'm late... I have a question for all the hayasdan people..... Do they have "coffee-to-go" in Hayasdan yet? (ding ding ding ding ding) Don't anybody steal my idea!!!! :)~~ Someone apparently already stole my laundromat idea! AY!

TSUH! :)~

Well.... I have some great news. First off, the past couple of weeks have been kind of difficult for me since I've been in this state of uncertainty and actually kind of nervous about the answer I would have received yesterday. Basically, this week I had a lot of tests done and yesterday after my final scan, I was able to see the "picture" of my whole body....and there were absolutely no indications of cancer left anywhere! It was great! I felt like a huge load had been lifted off of me and now I feel very free. I'm free to do anything I please. Sooooo going to Armenia this summer is a definite YES. And, I'm glad to say that I will be going with 5 wonderful ladies with the AYF Internship program (Arsineh... Girls Rule!) hehehe

That's pretty much what has been going on here on my end. Today I have 2 bridal showers to attend (which I don't understand the point of this shower.... do they mean it's just to shower the bride-to-be with gifts?). It's raining in L.A.... and basically all over Cali. This year "khent mard" continued into April and now May.

Just a couple more weeks of school left. I'm still trying to decide if I want to delay my graduation and actually work on a second major. I have to do a lot of thinking in the coming weeks. And the bad (or good) part is that I'm open to ALL sorts of ideas.

Haha.. Arsineh, my friend and I were talking about the very same thing you wrote about in your log about women being more active. She said that maybe it's because all the guys are out trying to make more and more money to impress all these "demanding" Armenian girls. Hahaha... uhhhh...MAYBE! :)

TSUH! :)~

The calm after the storm... things are a little too quiet on the Armenian front. However, the activity of college students trying to find something to do for the summer... yeesh. I get people contacting me about every internship on the planet. I think it's great! I like to see that kids are more and more looking to do free work. For my business, I just might have to bring on an intern to pick up my darn office space (my parents' basement... he he!)

The bizarre reality is that it's ALL WOMEN!!!! The other day some of the guys in DC were asking about who the ANC interns would be this year... I believe only 1 guy will be coming with 7 girls. The AYF internship, ALL girls. Camp staff... that always brings in more girls than boys. GUYS, WHERE ARE YOU?

A friend of mine shared a theory of hers with me. She believes that women are starting to move into the role of power quicker than men these days. She thinks women are better in management positions. Hmm. Perhaps women are starting to show more ambition now that the opportunity to do so is there. I don't know if this is good or not. Remember, I have to spend the summer with these ANC ladies intervening whenever there's a fight over make-up, boys or back-stabbing. Lord help me, please. If I have to break up a cat fight once this summer, I'm not giving birth for the fear that I might get a girl. I'll adopt all boys if I have to!