Artie Was Right

I’ve had the most depressing morning ever. Partly because Henry Potter is at it again. Some sneaky little shmuck of a rat (a female rat to be exact) has been feeding him wrong information about me. And of course, as professional as he is (NOT!), his thoughts and his temper tend to…well chiefly, affect his actions. Now it really wouldn’t have been so bad considering I have just recently begun on my I-don’t-care-as-well-so-there journey

(I am rising above as a better person…I am rising above as a better person…)

However, the chameleon insists on attempting to knock me off the chess board from time to time. Well, I’m no pawn and I so will not beg for mercy. I don’t suck up. I don’t explain. I don’t justify to those I don’t need to. So there!

*My! My! I’m surprising myself*

While Dude and Najia coax me into accepting the world as it is, I feel like young ‘Artie’ in Shrek the Third as he wails to Merlin:

“No! I don’t think you understand! There’s a mean person doing mean things to good people…”

The only great thing in my life right now is the national holiday tomorrow that coincides with Sunday!

(No offence Ms Benazir Bhutto, but I really really needed some time off from work which is why the happiness but may Allah bless your soul nonetheless. Oh and just for the record, I thought you were charming)

Life's Little Lessons #1

Never… ever… put clothes in the laundry without checking the pockets!

Not even when you’ve put in all the rest of the laundry and just waiting for the jeans that the Dude is wearing. Not even when you assume that the jeans he will take off, the jeans that he knows will directly go into the washer carry no items of absolute necessity.

Never, ever, put clothes in the laundry machine without checking the pockets!

19 Minutes

So in my endless endeavors of achieving homemaking, I came across several helpful websites that help you through organizing, cleaning, cooking, gardening etc. It was assuring to find out that it all at least is an “issue”.

*phew*

It all said how difficult it can be if you are a mother or working long hours. A helpful suggestion was that instead of thinking of cleaning as being a scheduled task in your life, break it up into several little easy things that you can cover in a few minutes after that place has been in use. Also, all the things need not happen altogether. Divide your tasks into daily, weekly and quarterly.

But I feel what is most important than desperately reading on at websites like www.ivillage.com or www.about.com (which by the way are very helpful) is the fact that you should create your own rules and your own routine. It is really important to find out what works for YOU and YOUR family.

For example, I was reading this article on CNN (it was actually sourced from www.realsimple.com) about how to clean your house in 19 minutes. It enlists a room by room checklist and things to do daily…however, it also calculates an average time that particular task might take.

With a refreshed energy and a Captain-Planet spirit, I returned home after work and began…

Let’s look at it this way now. It was motivating for about 19 minutes into the cleaning but severed for the simple fact that…

*Revelation…!*

...it’s NOT true!

I spent about 19 minutes only vacuuming the bedroom carpet! It had taken me 19 minutes to do the bed earlier (change sheets, fluff up pillows and cushions, dress ensembles). It took me a further 19 minutes to dust and polish the furniture and this had only been ONE room. I have 19 other places to look at!

*sigh*

I can never conquer it all…

Be Good, Quran Says

I wonder at people who profess great faith in God and humanity and yet deny the very existence of anyone who so dare wish the opposite. To be filled with love for God and goodness, to believe in angels and heaven, it seems but too forged to also believe in invading the authority of life and death. It seems almost pretentious when one decides to lay down rules for human survival. “Guided by faith”, they say they are. But what faith leads someone to extremes? Is it not too agreeably distinct what is good and bad? Maybe not…

I was reading through the second chapter of the Quran and as simple as it gets, I merely enlisted the advices mentioned there. No difficult words, no harsh language, the Quran is as fatherly (if I can call it that) as one can imagine.

Sura' Al Baqarah

• Lead a righteous life
• Do not confuse the truth with falsehood
• Do not conceal the truth
• Give charity, cheerfully, to relatives, orphans, needy, travelers, beggars
• Free the slaves
• Do good, think good and you will be rewarded

• Perform prayer
• Seek help through determination
• Do not follow Satan
• Stay steadfast in the face of hardship
• Keep your promises
• When death approaches, write a will for the benefit of parents and relatives, fairly

• Do not illicitly take each other’s money
• Do not bribe officials to deprive others of their rights
• Oppression is worse than murder
• Aggress only against the aggressors
• Be charitable! To declare is good but to be anonymous in giving is better
• Do not take intoxicants. There is benefit in these and also detriment. But the disadvantages are more than the benefits.
• Do not gamble

• Be good to orphans and bring them up as righteous persons
• Do not marry those who disbelieve, a spouse who believes in what you believe will only help you towards following the right direction
• Avoid sexual intercourse with women during menstruation. It is harmful.
• Do not subject God’s name in casual swearing to appear credible or pious
• Intentions are more important than mere utterances

• Wait for four months if you intend to divorce your wife. This will help in cooling your mind and help in making the right decision
• A divorced woman should wait for three menstruations before marrying again. One should not conceal what God creates in their wombs
• Do not take which you have already given away
• If a woman’s husband dies, she should wait for four months and ten days before remarrying
• There shall be no compulsion on religion. The right way is now distinct from the wrong.
• Be kind and compassionate

• Charging usury, putting interest is condemned
• If the debtor is unable to pay, wait for a better time. If the loan is given up as charity, it is better.
• When you transact a loan, have an impartial person write it down in detail, in front of witnesses.
• Do not harm witnesses

I Fight Like A Girl

So I am minding my own business taking care of things when an email comes. A publicly addressed email claiming that I have lacked efficiency in a couple of official situations. Not that they were correct in any way (not that I am being immodest of course). But the fact that they were untrue, and the fact that it was publicly addressed, and more than anything else, the fact that the condescending sender was Umbridge herself finally did what no one could have managed to do in a long time. She had made me go red in my face with anger. So much so, that I was trembling with rage when I asked permission from my direct boss to go strangle her. He said as long as I did not leave any visible traces of brutal persecution, I could do whatever I wished.

Off I went, storming up the marble stairs. By the time I reached the floor, my heart was racing (I really do need to exercise…).

I knocked. She said “Hii…” (cheeky monkey!)

*Riinng*

Fight!

About twelve minutes later, my friend was laughing herself crazy at the punch line I had thrown out… (“You can’t do things like that, it’s not nice.”)

Good Start, Bad Day

In an ideal December world, we would wake up on a cold winter day, get into cozy fleece gowns, put on our fluffy bright socks and make breakfast.

Delicious, lovely smelling breakfast.

And then when we have gulped down yummy chocolate milk…or cappacino, although chocolate milk is so much healthier and there’s nothing like reviving childhood memories…anyway, so when we have done that, we scurry through getting ready. Hair pleasingly fresh, the perfect set of clothes; not the ones that you hurriedly mix and match or the ones that you smell to check if you can manage another day or not but good ones, safe ones. And ofcourse…the walk, the kind of confident I-made-a-good-start-today-walk. What do you know, you’re even almost on time at work! Wow!

I had that wow.

Until…I find out half of my blog posts are suddenly missing, compliments of yours truly herself ofcourse. I went over and over again through the blogspot fiddling I had done this morning and I still sit clueless, amazed at my inability to function my own intelligence. I mean you’d think that memory can go only so far behind the ‘back of mind’. Oh but no, I conquer all I tell you.

Maybe it’s the blogspot itself. It malfunctioned. So there, it malfunctioned.

*smacks head*

I still lost three of my posts which I remarkably forgot, again, to save in my pc. There was the ‘Dear Diary’ one and the ‘Umbridge’ one… AHA!!!! Umbridge, it is!! It’s her! She did this. Evil, evil, evil.

*sniff*

I will now retrieve to my planning (Dude has his birthday on December 18)

*joy again*

Channo... no more

Dear Channo,
I am sorry I had to sacrifice you last week on Eid-ul-Azha. And I'm sorry I couldn't give you a proper burial (for obvious reasons).

But for what it's worth, you were a joyful and handsome bakra, and I miss you.
May you be playing in fields of green in lands high above, Amen!
p. s. Eid mubarak

p. p. s. I’m sorry I gave you a gay name…

Wicked, Wicked, Wicked Four Months

So I know I haven’t been doing what I love best (ok, one of the best things that I love doing best really), which is simply penning down my heart and mind (and my Allah, did I need to do that ever so often in this time); only so because I was exhaustingly and unavoidably detained.

On the sadder front, we’ve lived through half a grand of bomb blasts, suicide bombers, psychopath expeditions and the because-this-world-was-cruel-to-me-so-i-will-take-a-couple-
of-hundred-with-me-as-i-go-myself syndrome.

Lives have been lost, families torn apart with grief and through all this, unnoticeably, the trees have all died.

Seasoned through generations, years and years of experiences later, both have passed on, to lands of green, blue and white.

On the professional front, I’ve apparently most luckily avoided both Umbridge and Potter through much of my annual leave.

The latter’s been his cheeky self ever since I have returned. However, for the love of Allah (and his life), and because I am obviously rising above as a better person, grinding my teeth while I do so, I have decided to avoid his cocky remarks. If it weren’t for the bitter fact that he agreeably does have a smart ounce of grey matter in him, I would have denounced him into my list of but-why-would-you-waste-your-precious-time-in
-making-THEM-Allah list.

Note: I am usually NOT this mean about people because I don’t like mean people who are mean to people myself but trust me; you have NO idea how hypocritically sleazy some of these can be.

On the personal front, I got married.

Yes, yes, it all happened, the drama, the water works, money money money, familial strains, the you-have-changed lines and what not.

At the end of the day…actually no, the end of THAT day doesn’t bring back good memories *alas*...

At the end of it all, marriage happened and as of now, I am very happy mashAllah. Life is different, magical, and difficult at times when I realize the level of responsibilities and especially when I have to figure out a way to get to work on time or when I have to learn how to manage two sets of families or when things go amiss…but I’m learning…and it’s my life and it’s lovely.