Eid Mubarak!

Eid is in the middle of the week, and thus away from family making it a bittersweet holiday for though the day remains special, you're away from those most special to you. Still, there's beauty in the holiday, so here are my three beautiful Eid things in no particular order:

1. Homemade Chocolate Chip pound cake: I grew up eating savaya on Eid morning, the sweet aroma swirling through the house but on my own I make this. Huda shared it with me years ago. Though she has since graduated to increasingly sophisticated confections, I still hold this as my favorite dessert. Its not my mother's Eid sweets, but its still good. If you're in the mood for a slice, come on by!
2. Eid Namaaz. Lots of girls I know don't go for Eid Namaaz, but for me there is no Eid without it. I miss the way it is conducted in my parent's city but I look forward to praying in our brand new Musjid that makes me feel so very proud.
3. Friends. My first Eid away from my family was in friendless, cold Michigan. I remember sitting at my breakfast table, a talk show low in the background, dressed up in my Eid finery, with no one to see, no place to go. An Eid unshared is no Eid at all. Tonight I remember that and remind myself to be thankful for friends to spend the day with, to not be alone at a breakfast table, the memories echoing louder in the silence.

Eid Mubarak to you and yours and happy Rosh Hashanah to those of you who may observe.

Why SNL loves Sarah Palin

Because she makes their job so easy. The parody they did of her, much of it is, WORD FOR WORD, her own words at the actual interview. My favorite quote from the ACTUAL interview:

That’s why I say I, like every American I’m speaking with, we’re ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Helping the—it’s got to be all about job creation too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans and trade—we’ve got to see trade as opportunity, not as competitive, scary thing, but one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today—we’ve got to look at that as more opportunity.

Kind of reminds me of the South Carolina Teen Beauty Queen:

I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some, people out there in our nation don't have maps and, uh, I believe that our, uh, education like such as, uh, South Africa and, uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and, I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, or, uh, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future, for our [children].

Seriously, watch the real Sarah Palin interview:

Then watch the parody on SNL:



Then make your own decision, or weep, or both...

As we close Ramadan....

Children and mothers get gassed by a chemical irritant several days ago in a Masjid. Apparently this is a backlash from the millions of Ob$e$$ion DVDs being sent in newspapers across the country by an organization seeking to ensure that freaked out folks will vote McCain. i find it fascinating that the same newspapers that distributed these millions of DVDs that helped spread the hate far and wide are the same ones not covering this story. I appreciate the St. Louis Post Dispatch, and the News and Record of Greensboro, NC for refusing to include this DVD and recognizing that hate mongering can only yield hate. Ohio is now showing sad proof of this reality. On a "what can I do about this note", the simplest step, clicking on the links to the two newspapers that didn't distribute and sending a quick e-mail saying thanks. If you live in a state that received this through your newspaper, call them, tell them you are canceling your subscription and tell them why. In a day and age of a quickly declining print media, your action will have impact.

Happy Friday

The economy is going to hell. There's no gas. Sarah Palin might be our next President. Its enough to make you want to hold a kitty and cry. If you're feeling similarly I thought I'd share this image of two ads, the editor apparently didn't look at before sticking side by side. Looking at it makes me laugh which helps with the "hold kitty wanna cry" issues, since my work likely frowns on animals in the workplace no matter how healing they would be. The image is from here which has other hilarious stuff. Happy Friday!

Rantings of a Gas Guzzler

Last night I drive down a 25 mile stretch of road filled with empty gas stations coasting my car into the garage with the needle fluttering at E. Then... I read reports that say there may not be any gas for quite some time. Then... I get up in the morning, call a local gas station who still has gas and get ready to fill er up. Then... I walk to my car to see two flat tires. Then... I proceed to tell my boss I can't come in but realize I have an important meeting I cannot miss. Then... I bumble over to a gas station, fingers and toes crossed (and FYI, a car on negative E with two flats? It drives funny). Then... I stop at the end of a mile line and watch folks fill up SUVs and multiple gas cans because who cares if the rest of the world runs out of gas as a direct result of your hoarding, at least you will be okay. Then... as I finally pump gas, sigh with relief at the sight of an air pump where I can fill my tires, and be done with the drama that is my car, I hear a plunk and watch my passenger side rear view mirror go for the gold and dives to the floor.

Murphy, I hate you.

Gas be Gone!

Gone baby gone. No gas at all. En route to my home from work on E I drove down a 25 mile stretch of road with gas stations on each corner and each and every single one dried up, devoid of a drop of gas, a plastic bag covering the spout. It felt like driving through a ghost town. Somehow I chugged my way home and tried to ignore the question my car would surely ask if it could in fact speak, as I put it in park tonight, Umm pardon me, but how on earth do you plan to get out of the garage tomorrow?

Ike messed up our pipelines but we're messing ourselves up with the way we're hording our gas causing price spikes and unecessary gas shortages. Sharing is caring, guys! Its a lesson we were supposed to have learned in Kindergarten.

I expected prices to go up, I expected long lines, but no gas? None? Nada? Zip? I love the show Lost, watching people on a stranded island as they struggle to make sense of their new reality. Now, today, I think of them as I sit in my isolated house in the suburbs, rendering me inaccessible to the outside world without my car... I feel an absrud sense of camaraderie, to feel a taste of how little in life we can truly depend on, and to understand that in the smallests of ways, the ways we least expected, we often find ourselves most helplessly vulnerable.

Thoughts of a Third Drafter

Lately I've been devoting most of my typing resources (outside of working away like a busy bee) to my novel. Re-reading it, Revising it, cursing it, flinging it across the room and running away weeping loudly, you know- the usual. I am now on draft three and anticipate my final version ready to go before agents and/or publishers by December and I can't help but feel excited, nauseated, heart stoppingly panicked by the thought. I picture the agent with his short cropped hair, a light mustache and a pencil over his ear, reading my work, throwing his hands up in the air and then either running around in excitement or... horror. I really can't decide which it will be.

These thoughts are troubling because they tend to hinder my progress because I know that my heart will break if every agent and publisher who meets my novel flings into the vertical filing cabinet (read: trash can). In some ways the fear of this makes me prefer my own rose colored daydreams of seeing my book at Borders while I sip a latte and sign books to the more realistic reality... *gulp* I think I can write okay but then in the same breath my insecurities threaten to engulf me. A co-worker offered to read my manuscript and though I lent him and his wife my first 50 pages, when he sat down to give me his feedback, he asked me why I was suddenly the color of strawberry. The fear is natural because I have put myself in it. My characters are all pieces of me, my good and my bad. To reject my work is to reject me. In some ways when I read the work of other published (and successful) writers who I cringe at as I read their adverbs and stilted dialogue, I shout, I can write better than this! and proceed to want to give up since clearly you need to be well connected to get published if this could see the light of day. But that's not true all the time. JK Rowling, Dr. Seuss, and many other writers nearly fell into obscurity because people didn't get their work. But finally someone did, and then everyone did. I have to cling to that hope and I have to remember that even if no one but my friends and family read my book, it was still worth something. It was not written in vain.

Vote for Change

If you'd like to register or want to just make sure that you're registered click here. Deadlines to register are fast approaching in most states!

Why the laugh/cry saying is true here

Because I really do laugh...







to keep from crying...



Sigh. KARL ROVE thinks its wrong how he's running his campaign. This is an important election indeed.

Ramadan

Ramadan is halfway over. Despite the common laments of how my brain turns to mush three hours before the sun sets or how the scent of warm apple crumb cake makes my stomach grumble, my taste buds alive without a taste to my tongue, the fact remains that I love Ramadan. I love being up before the world awakes, stumbling downstairs to eat food that I will appreciate increasingly as the hours will tick by. I love the peace I feel when I bow my head in sajadah, my forehead to the ground, feeling for a moment alone and complete in the same breath. I love the first taste of the plump sweet date as I open my fast with millions of others around the world each with their own lives and circumstances, all of us so different yet briefly, sharing a common moment. I love the bananas in my fruit chaat, the mango juice, and parathas fresh from the sizzling pan. For these reasons and so many more, I love Ramadan and this Ramadan I pray that my heart's prayers are heard, and I pray the same for you.

Three Beautiful Things Thursday

Ramadan. This is the first year with no iftaars. Usually the community feel of iftaars are part of the beauty of Ramadan. Still, its only a part of Ramadan. I hope to find peace, closeness, and patience, and hope during this holy month. The fact that it is within my reach if I but am strong enough to grasp it, is beautiful.

Hawaii. Because its beautiful, and haunting, and spiritual and uplifting. How can you feel anything but when you find yourself standing on the cliffs of the Na Pali Coast surrounded by mango and guava trees on either side, flowers blooming and waves crashing in an aqua blue ocean in the distance while butterflies play by your hand? Or running your hands through a black sand beach? Or standing on the rim of a canyon, completely alone? Or discovering secret hideaways and wonderlands you could not have expected because you never imagined they were even possible?

Birthdays. Another year gone. Part of me feels wistful at all the things left undone, but then I remember and I try to be grateful. On the Big Island, I walked across one mile of crunching black lava with flashlights to a place where I could sit and watch the molten orange lava fly into the air and into the sea creating new land before my eyes. I remember sitting and watching it while stars, more stars than I even knew to exist scattered across the sky. As we walked back, I saw in the clearing, near our car, a boy in a wheelchair, alone, looking up in the sky, seeing only smoke, not the firework of lava we witnessed. I complained about my feet and when I saw him I remembered to be grateful for my aching feet. Today I will remember that, instead of whining about turning a year older, I will choose to be grateful that another birthday did arrive. That I was here to honor it. That though there is much that remains to be done, I am still here to accomplish it.