New hijabis and your facebook pictures

First of all I'm proud of all you knew hijabis. I definitely recognize the struggle you girls have in making the decision and the courage you muster up in those first few days of adjustment. I definitely remember my first days filled with ambigious emotions and my highs and lows. I've always thought that new hijabis in the West don't get enouch credit for being gutsy. You go girl!

Now that my disclaimer has been stated, how many times were you annoyed to have to take down pictures from your very carefully put together facebook albums because of a new hijabi? You see it's quite the art to be able to narrow down 500+ pictures from a trip for example into 60 facebook appropriate ones. Lots of factors go into consideration when creating a facebook album viewable to friends that I can be satisfied with. I have to make sure I don't have too much redundancy and that every highlight is given its appropriate representation. There should be a little bit of beauty, a little bit of humor, a little bit of sentimentalness (is that a word? if not what's the right word here?), and not too much cheese. It takes skills people! So yes, it can feel like a pyramid of cards being knocked down when I have to remove even one picture...the most common reason is that a new hijabi is in town.

In the past it's happened to me with maybe three girls. Actually though now that I'm writing this post and giving it more thought I just realized I've still got some pics from my really old albums of uncovered girls who are now hijabis. For the most part though it was never more than a handful of pictures that are affected. This one picture I was rather bitter about because it was super funny. If I attempt to explain it it won't sound funny so I won't, but anyway I was annoyed and the girl's position in the picture made it impossible to just crop her out and still be funny. I have another picture where I was able to photoshop a hijab on the girl. It was a big family group picture from my cousin's wedding thus it was just her head poking out from the back row.

About 2 days ago I get a facebook message from a distant cousin of mine letting me know she started wearing hijab and if I can please take down the pictures of her in my facebook album. My first reaction was that I was happy for her especially because it was nothing I saw coming for her in the near future. There was a time when I was a little worried about her but alhamdulilah she's atleast made some positive changes for her to get to this point. My second reaction was "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"

This chick is in my prettiest albums! She went to Egypt with me, she went to Aqaba with me where we stayed in the Movenpick! Scuba diving, snorkeling, the world cup matches! We hung out a lot over the summer in Jordan.........my albums will be decimated, I might as well completely remove them. It's not even like I can photoshop a hijab on her cause she was showing a lot more than just the hair on her head. I'd have to photoshop a whole abaya on her and my art skills are too kindergartenish. I might as well draw a filled in rectangle over her which is easy to do using the paint program.

I should make a new facebook albums titled "remainder of albums taken down because of new hijabis" with the remnants of what is left. Damn her why couldn't she have been a mit7ajba then!

May 7th couldn't get here soon enough

My honey bunch takes his last final of his last semester of law school on May 7th and I can't wait. I'm going to be happier than him and maybe even happier than his mama and his grandma. You'd think I was the one who just a got a law degree.

Ok I admit my reasons are partly selfish. I can't wait for him to be not so completely consumed by something that has nothing to do with me....not so mentally preoccupied. And baby although you said you wouldn't, I really need you to do something about all of these traffic tickets other than telling me I need to pay them. Also I understand it's your graduation, but I think you should get me a present.

Regardless, I'll start the zaghareet from today......lalalalalalalaleeeeeeesshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Clearly you don't like me, I get it

You decided we weren't going to be friends from the beginning and I felt it by the way you looked at me. Well thankfully your approval matters very little to me. I can succesfully go about my business without it.

You'd like to pass yourself off as the tough girl, but your insecurities are so obvious to me. You always have to surround yourself with your alibis. You cannot sit in a room alone with me. You don't even have the guts to be direct with me. You've passively aggressivly tried to undermine my work. You've also singled me out.

Although I don't obsess over why, I think I know what your problem is. I have an idea or two. Something about me makes you sad. I'm not someone you can impress. Nor am I someone that finds the details of your life captivating. I also don't find the people you roll with interesting. Obviously it's out of your comfort zone to socialize with people like me; stories is all you've got. I remind you too much of what you don't have.

Well chika, you've picked the wrong girl to hate on. You're only making things hard on yourself.

Ironically, my best friend admitted she felt some of the same things from some of the same folks. I can't wait for tomorrow when she comes back to work after her vacation. It'll be my first day working with her. Asoom & Angela Takeover!

LADIES I introduce the best eye makeup remover out there

Spending more money doesn't always equal higher quality products-many times it does, but this is one of those instances where it doesn't. As a gal whose routine eye makeup includes concealer, primer, base, gel liner, pencil liner, at least 2 shadows, and mascara I testify that this stuff is the best I've ever used. I never have to use more than one pad on each eye, and it never leaves dark smears that looks like I cried mascara.

You know, because sharing is caring :)

A Message to The Office Martyr

If you're the one at work that likes to create extra work for yourself to do all the while whining about how much work you have to do. If you like to constantly remind everyone that you're the first one in the office and you stay later than everyone else and even come in on days off. If you're constantly huffing and puffing and banging your head down on the desk. If you think it's your responsibility to redo other people's menial tasks in case they made some kind of mistake that your holiness can correct and the universe doesn't explode. If you spend time making and posting fliers on everyone's space that says things everyone is surely unaware of like "date papers", "correctly fill out time sheets" and "breathe air"....I have a message for you:

YOU'RE FUCKING ANNOYING AND YOU NEED TO GET A LIFE. SERIOUSLY, YOU'RE NOT A BRAIN SURGEON, YOU'RE JOB REALLY ISN'T THAT IMPORTANT!

Not only are you not so special, you should be scolded for your lack of efficiency.

I can't believe I volunteered to come in to work and help someone get some things done on my day off. I did it because I really didn't want to have to come in Monday and listen to this person whine about how he/she had to come in all by him/herself and do all this work because we're so behind and he/she works more than anyone else bla bla bla bla. If I don't come in now after I said I would I know I'll never hear the end of it. What's ironic is that it probably annoyed this person that I did volunteer to help because now he/she won't be able to play the office martyr on Monday-the life role he/she lives for.

P.S. I'm sure there will come a day when I'll have to delete this post....maybe soon

Staying up=Late to work every single day

Loooooooooooooooooong day at work. Didn't get to leave the office until 8 today.

I embarassingly found out yesterday that I was in fact hired as a full-time employee and I'm being trained to take the place of the only full-timer on the support team. My lazyass cannot wake up early and has been coming in at like 11 and 12, apparently I'm supposed to be in 9..........how embarassing!

The problem why I've been finding it so hard to get up early is probably because I've been staying up so late. At 10PM I'm in the mood to watch TV or talk on the phone, not sleep! However, I don't want to be known for coming in to work late every day-so that's got to change. Luckily today by 9:00 PM today I was just soooo sleepy. I guess that happened because I played mind tricks on my own brain and convinced myself I will be up at 7:30.

So by 9:45 I was in my pjs, Isha prayed, face washed, and teeth brushed. I was getting pretty excited just thinking that tomorrow I'm going to have no problem getting up early and making it on time to work. I'm going to reward myself with a tall sugar-free vanilla soy latte. Nevermind that that's what I get everyday anyway, tomorrow it'll feel super special when it's actually being consumed in the morning.

I was checking my email as I do before going to bed when when the phone vibrated. It was Suzy! I haven't seen her for some time cause she was out of town and just let me tell you.....when Suzy goes out of town so does my social life.

Suzy: Wanna go to IHOP?

How could I say no? I had like the most boring weekend ever. I just don't get to see people anymore....everyone's gone! It's depressing when you go for too many days without getting to see friends. So of course by the time I got back I lost all feeling of sleepiness, and now I'm sitting here on my lazyass blogging about it.

If I end up going to work late tomorrow, I'm going to make up a story about how I got in my car to find that this stray cat had found its way into my car and gave birth to a litter of kittens. So like I had to spend time trying to look for their mama because they missed her and then I couldn't find her. So I had to go and take them to the shelter which wasn't open yet. So I had to wait for it to open and then I had to take my car to be emergency cleaned because it was nasty...and that's why I was late to work.

He found my blog!

Me: u found my blog didn't you

Him: why do you say that babe

Me: Come on I know. why didn't you tell me

Him: No I didn't find anything u r paranoid.

Me: Swear to god that you didn't? I'm 95% certain you did

Him: Why do you think this

Me: JUST ADMIT IT



Yup, he found it!

If anything good comes out of this babe, it'll be that you now feel pressured into getting me a ring from Tiffany's.

RELAX, because I was just kidding.

How did you become friends?

If you're like me, you have friends that if you met for the first time today you woulddn't choose them as your friends. You might even decide that can't can't stand them. Or maybe you have nothing in particular against them, but you just don't have very much in common. So how are we such close friends today?

The awesome feel-good chick lit book that I'm currently reading right now, Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah, got me to analyze some of my current relationships and think about what it is that builds strong friendships. It chronicles the lives of two best friends forever, the lively attractive Tully Hart who grows up to be a famous, successful workaholic and the family girl homebody Kate Mularkey who has little dreams beyond falling in love and getting married, and then lives a life that completely revolves around her family.

When the new hot girl across the street, Tully Hart, was taken advantage of by a boy as a young teenager she felt lonelier than ever. She bumps into the weird girl across the street in her moment of desperate solitude and was grateful for the company. Insecure teenager Kate was over the moon for the opportunity to serve as the shoulder to cry on for the chick all the girls at school wanted to be and all the guys wanted to be with. At that moment they each provided what the other so badly needed and so began the legacy of TullyandKate, or KateandTully-best friends forever.

Like Tully and Kate, some of my closest friendships are not based on having common interests or similar backgrounds or personality types. Some people I've grown up with and known my whole life so although we have the most essential differences today-we'll always be friends. For some people it was a moment of special bonding that occurred by chance which softened your heart to someone and sealed a lasting friendship.

For example I have this friend "Sam" who I've known for years as friends of friends of friends. For most of this time I didn't care for her and her whole entourage (mainly sisters). She was always very perky, talkative, and kind of laughed at everything. I thought her conversations were superficial and her almost flawless makeup and accessories just added to her fakeness. Noone can be that pretty and that happy all the time, it was annoying. I started to see more and more of her as she became close to one of my close friends.

I was usually dry towards her and often gave her the cold shoulder because I could do that easier than pretend to want to be friends. Despite that, she never gave up on the act. She always found something to compliment me about and asked me personal questions in attempts to start conversation. Of course in time I softened up because I would be a total bitch if I didn't-she never actually wronged me. So she's a little fake, I could still enjoy her company in a group.

One day she shared a private story with us, one that most people might be too embarassed or have too much pride to say. I appreciated her for that and felt trusted. It was shortly after that that I got over it and decided she's just a genuinely nice and friendly person. It's her instinct to compliment people...and she just talks alot about superficial things because she attempts to be friendly with everyone around her and those are safe subjects when getting to know people. She's not fake. She's not putting on an act. She's genuine but just operates differently. Now that I've gotten over that I can see us becoming good friends. After hanging around her for years we exchanged cell numbers for the first time last weekend and the next time I send out a mass text she'll definitely be included.

Sometimes, recognizing that you didn't become friends with someone because of instant connections can make you more thankful for having them in your life.

Working 10 hour shifts makes you fat

Would you rather work an 8 hour shift for 5 days a week or 10-hour shifts for 4 days a week? If you asked me a week ago I would have said certainly I'd work 2 more hours a day for having an extra WEEKDAY off! Having a weekday off is so much cooler than having a weekend day off. It's not nearly as relaxing if my dad and brother are home too. In fact, I think I'd rather be at work.

However, now that I've spent a week working 10 hour shifts I'm realizing quickly there are some pretty significant cons to that schedule

1) I'm the only female in the house so by the time I come home I wouldn't say the house is in total disarray, but there is a touch of chaos around that would be more under control if I came home 2 hours earlier. My lazyass brother is neglecting his chores, there is a pile of mail that needs sorting, and there's always some dishes in the sink.

2) It's much harder to keep in touch with people. By the time I can get around to making the friendly phone calls it's kind of too late in the day. I haven't talked to my mom, sister, grandma, and aunts on the phone since I started working. Pretty much every phone call I've received in the daytime I have yet to return.

3) The absolute worst drawback of these 10 hour shifts is that IT'S MAKING ME FAT. It especially sucks because because I've just been able to get back on track with my weight loss and am pretty close to my goal.

Although it's only been 3 days I swear I can feel the difference in my jeans. a) I haven't been able to make it to the gym on the days I work. b) Also, in the office there's just too much bad food that's way too easily accessible. If you can ignore the bag of Twix and Skittles stashed in the file drawers you still have to be able to turn down the fresh, hot donuts someone brought in or the gourmet petit-fours being passed around. c) Furthermore, I've been eating dinner at 9:30 PM; it's usually a big dinner because I get home hungry from not having eaten a real meal at work.

So those are the major setbacks to my new job, other than things have been enjoyable. I'm haven't actually been hired as a full-time employee; however, a lot of people were out this week so I've had to come in for the full days. There will probably be a lot of weeks like this which is totally fine with me cause I've got reasons to be saving up some cash.

My new cool job Y'ALLLLL

Well folks I'm back home now temporarily. I'm taking a much needed mini break from graduate/professional (or whatever the PC term is) school. After weeks of reading lots of books, working out, watching every episode of Entourage netflix has to offer, developing a shisha habit, running up one big cell phone bill, and having lunches with Suzy I felt a dire need to feel productive and decided maybe I should get a job.

Today I got hired!

The interview was this morning and I start tomorrow. I now work for a non-profit disaster relief organization whose name I'm very proud to be associated with. I don't know what my formal title is but I'm part of the "support team". We help people reeling from the series of devastating hurricanes and storms that have struck this area by hooking them up with the appropriate resources. Those who who followed my old blog may remember my family suffered personally from a recent hurricane, which makes this job extra cool to me. However unlike my family who turned out to have a great insurance policy, the vast majority of people we serve are low-income residents-many of whom didn't know help like this was available because they're used to being screwed over. We're basically one of the subcontracted organizations born to take care of what FEMA didn't or couldn't do.

The other thing I really like about this job is that we're encouraged to be resourceful and creative. We don't just do routine office work. Our job is to also do research and find out about more resources to offer clients whether they come in the form of new legislation, private grants, or other charitable contributions that people we help qualify for.

The pay? of course it sucks because that's how it is with all such cool jobs. Alhamdulilah though it's enough for me to be able to put some money aside considering I have very little expenses. I've definitely had worse paying jobs not doing anything near this cool. Anyway, I wasn't looking for a job that pays well. I have all my post-grad years for that! I was looking for something I'd genuinely enjoy doing during my short free time. My best friend Angela works there part-time, she kinda hooked me up.

The office hours are 10 hours a day 4 days a week; however they're very flexible as long as the assigned work is getting done between all the members of the support team (currently 4) and we don't go over the budget with the number of hours we work. So I probably won't get to work 40 hours every week. I'm considering taking up another part-time cool job.

Imam Suhaib Webb's Message For the Seeker's of Guidance

I stumbled upon this on Imam Suhaib Webb's blog.

It's a free online class taking place this Saturday 5 EST/ 4 Central titled For the Seeker's of Guidance. Imam Suhaib Webb is basing the 1.5 hour mini course on Imam Zaid Shakir's translation of "Risalah al Mustarshideen"-I'm not sure what that is but if its the works of Imams Suhaib Webb and Zaid Shakir it's going to be worth my time inshallah.

I credit Imam Suhaib Webb for the passion I developed to learn more about my faith as a young teenager. For me Imam Suhaib Webb's lectures were the most exciting thing about those Chicago ISNA conventions. Unfortunately as an adult I don't always carry the enthusiasm and passion I once had for learning, but I look forward to reigniting that fire! God knows those were good days.

So check it out with me!