missing.

"it is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."

...I miss Aristotle & his Nicomachean Ethics.

one of the thousands of reasons south dakota is the best.

today was a hard day for me, i think that the "high" of the last month has dropped and i was feeling low as hell and missing my friends, family and the pacific TERRIBLY. when i got home from work i took a nap in hopes of sleeping my sadness away and decided to take Baktash to one of my favorite fields in sodak. we packed a picinic dinner and a blanket and drove out into the country. we stopped at this place that is spectacular where you can see for miles, rolling hills of yellow sunflowers, cattle grazing and cotton ball clouds. i love it there.

then a big old pick up truck drives up to us, (we were nestled in his "road" pretty far) we were nervous he'd flash us his shot gun and tell us to get the hell out. well he turned out to be amazing and fascinating. we shot the breeze for an hour and baktash and i felt like were watching a movie or a magic show, b/c this man was the QUINTESSENTIAL cowboy/rancher. he was 21 and had gruff exterior with a super awesome drawl. and the best part, was that he was wearing a cowboy hat with a fake rose pinned on the side that had fake raindrops on it. it was amazing. i thought to myself as i stared at this man with complete adoration and awe, that only he could pull this off and still be a tough cowboy that we would entrust our lives to.

we were shooting it and he offered to take us for a drive in his pickup on their 2,500 acres of rolling hills and prairies. he wanted to drive us UP a rocky hill so that we could look out and see mount rushmore from his property. so we agreed (OF COURSE!!!) and off we went.

baktash was having the time of his life. we went up a huge steep rocky hill in this dudes pickup and he wasn't exactly going slow in the least bit. it was so exciting.

for a minute i looked over at baktash and couldn't believe what we were doing. and how the hell we got to where we are. who would have ever thought we'd be in south dakota rallying in Mr. Bishop's dodge pickup around his thousands of ranchland?? i laughed to myself and since then baktash and i have had such a huge smile on our face.

the last thing Mr. Bishop said to us before we got out of his pickup is, (he's 21, by the way, been ranching since he was 9) "yeah, well, i went to new york one time and some lady was like, i get my groceries delivered to my door, meat and everything. and i was like, 'lady, do you even know where you get that meat?' i mean, those people from california and new york, they think that this here meat just comes out of their freezer, i mean literally! and what people seem to forget is that that meat comes from hard working people like myself and my family."

after that, we thanked him and he dropped us back off at our car. but you wont believe how the fantastic evening ended with Mr. Bishop, he shook baktash's hand and tipped his cowboy hat to me. and he wasn't putting us on. he did that when i first met him too. he actually took his whole hat off to shake my hand.

you never know who the heck you'll meet and what they are like. this hard core rancher in a huge dodge pickup was telling us how amazing it is to watch the sunflowers moving with the sun and how alive it makes him feel, and how blessed we are to have mother nature treat us so kindly. he knew every flower and every plant.

just thought i'd share with you this cute little vignette into mine and baktash's life here in south dakota.

its pretty damn fantastic.

marriage

"Love is the most great law that ruleth this mighty and heavenly cycle, the unique power that bindeth together the diverse elements of this material world, the supreme magnetic force that directeth the movements of the spheres in the celestial realms. "

-Abdu'l-Baha

is amazing.

being married to baktash has been the best thing ever. and the thing is, that it doesnt really feel any different than before. i think i am just more calm and relaxed about everything and not frantic to make sure we have super awesome times every second of the day in order to get the most of our time together. b/c now we are together everyday for the rest of our livezzzz. kewl. it was amazing how calm i was at our ceremony. we both were. i thought i'd be nervous or something. but i wasn't i was totally at ease and felt this unearthly calm about the ceremony. being surrounded by so much love and support, i truly felt like all our best friends and family were holding us in the palm of their hand, supporting and protecting us. it was amazing.

my sister said something that was really funny..."layli, you got THE most crazy on the planet together and made them the most serious, stern people during your ceremony." i was so struck by that, cos its so true. i was so touched by that.

and it also feels so good to be married and know that our four year long distance fight for our love was worth it. i mean, i always knew it was, but to have a ceremony and a five day party is such an amazing way of solidifying it. and the way our families united was so special and amazing.

there was a point in the ceremony when my brother Na'im was reading a Baha'i writing on love and i felt as though i was floating, i know that sounds cheesy, but i really felt weightless. it was amazing. i wish i could get married all the time. na, not really. but you feel me, right??

our wedding was perfect, albeit unorganized at times, but it was exactly the way we wanted it. and the way i had always envisioned. i think i was most struck by the love everyone felt for us; friends coming from sooo far, some with such limited budgets, to spend this time with us, and hold us in the palm of their hands.

i love you all who were there and am so thankful and excited to start this next phase in our lives, as the Samimi-Aazamis of South Dakota.

p.s. we have a super huge back yard with a badminton net....come out!

love, love and more love.

forgive me for not blogging more...i had a little thing called a wedding.

ryan lash gave me the best present a friend could give me. a hot pink holga camera with a polaroid back. it is phenomenal. here are some of the photos from our wedding and such. pretty neat, eh??

we're the samimi-aazamis now!!!

more photos to come!!!