Today is Family Night. My uncle believes that Family Night will help unite the family, that a game of apples to apples will miraculously cause us to forget a decade’s worth of psychological damage brought on by heavy-handed insults, and physical conflict that we are so easily reminded of by the brown and black that sporadically marks our arms.I want nothing to do with it.I’ve always longed for close kinship ties, like my friends have with their families, but I have given up that the family I was born in to will become that family.

It has been two hours since I began this post. Family Night turned in to 45 minutes spent stuffing my face with cinnamon spiced apples, and holding my tongue. The 45 minutes ended with me dropping my food on the table and swearing to not participate in family night, I ended up participating. We decided on Taboo and game night started by everyone drawing a folded piece of paper with either an “A” or a “B” scribbled on it. Consequently, it turned in to me and my two sisters pitted against my uncle and my two younger brothers. They cheated through out the entire game, and so I angrily lunged across the table and grabbed the taboo cards from their hands, cheaters. It wasn’t that big of a deal, but I had already lost interest in playing and throwing a fit was the fastest way to end this awful attempt at family bonding. Half an hour later, the game was all but finished as the females stormed out of the room, my aunt staring at me as if I belonged in a mental hospital for my outbursts, and my uncle coming in to my room to discuss my anger issues while a firefighting stripper removed articles of clothing whilst dancing provocatively behind him.

Hopefully, this means an end to this awful weekly gathering.

As everyone probably knows, I have abandoned my vegan diet for the last week or so. I have been using the lame excuse that I was stressed with finals so I grabbed whatever food I could reach for (which isn’t a lie but it isn’t enough of a reason to stop being vegan) Besides the point, I have gone back starting today, this moment to my vegan diet and to my healthy habits (Gym/low-fat meals).

I was planning to head to the gym today, but I’m probably going to lounge around and cook meals for the next few days. Seems like a better plan, yes!

Rep. Rush Holt, a New Jersey Democrat, introduced an amendment to a Justice Department appropriations bill that would have blocked spending on police programs found to violate the U.S. Constitution or federal antidiscrimination laws. The measure, Holt made clear, was part of his broader push to stop the NYPD’s counterterrorism and surveillance efforts focused on Muslims.

“My amendment would ensure that no federal funds are flowing to any law-enforcement entity that the [Justice] Department has identified as engaging in racial, ethnic, and religious profiling,” he said in introducing the measure.

It failed Wednesday night in a largely party-line vote, 232 to 193. Almost all of New York City overwhelmingly Democratic House delegation voted in favor of the amendment.

Only Staten Island Rep. Michael Grimm, the city’s lone Republican, voted against it. Two Long Island lawmakers, Republican Rep. Peter King and Democrat Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, also opposed the amendment.

The NYPD’s counterterrorism tactics have come under scrutiny as the result of an Associated Press probe into efforts targeting Muslim groups in the city and across the region, including in New Jersey.

Read the full story: http://on.wsj.com/KTlpA2