The Blog

I think I need a cigarette! I’m not sure if I can even remember how to smoke one anymore but I so feel like one today. I’m just so freakin’ depressed today. Argh!

I don’t know why its so hard to live a balanced life: you can’t always do everything you want to do as well as you want to do it. Its always a struggle, somehow. For instance, I want to do the following:

1-Go to the Masjid for daily prayers, as often as possible
2-Read daily Tasbeeh (Zikir see above)
2-Read the Quraan w/Tafseer and re-memorize the last 10 Juz
3-Develop web site(s), newsletters etc.
4-Study and acquire some new skills
5-Eat Healthy and avoid unnecessary snacking
6-Play Tennis, Badminton and Cricket every week
7-Control Finances
8-Manage Relationships with family, relatives and friends
9-Stop wasting too much time blogging/web surfing
10-Start using the To Do Lists I spend so much time creating

However, its hard to keep focus on so many things and even harder to prioritize. To add to that, things come up unexpectedly that have to be taken care of not to mention events that you have no control over!
I played Tennis yesterday at 8:00 in the morning – it was total fun until it started raining. We had a really good game! I think I’m going to do that every Saturday, inshaAllah! I put my name down for it. It’s amazing how fresh you feel after a good work out. I ended up working on a Quran web page for our masjid’s web site for a couple of hours, while I listened to a lecture by Maulana Omar Palanpuri which I’d downloaded and wanted to listen to for the longest time. It was unbelievably good, mashaAllah. I slept for almost a couple of hours after that. For some reason, I wasn’t feeling very well We went to Wal-Mart to do some shopping and I ended up buying a sleeping bag which happened to be on sale. Maybe we’ll go camping one day, who knows.
Later at night, we watched Phone Booth. It was kinda stupid, even though there was something about it that made me watch it to the end. Major waste of time. Today I woke up at 5:45 am and barely had a chance to pray fajar and went right back to sleep. I didn’t get up until 9:30 am, with a bad cold. I totally missed our tennis game that we’d planned for right after fajar. The guys showed up at the masjid and went home after the prayer since I wasn’t there. I called to apologize…
I haven’t been playing Halo. I just haven’t had the time for it. On the bright side though, I have been finding time for real sports like Tennis and Cricket as much as I can.
I love these pan cakes for breakfast. Probably not something I should be eating too much of, but they are simply impossible to resist.

I think I may have to hire a secretary to blog on my behalf! Sheesh! I have been so busy, tired, lazy, overworked, sleepless, restless to do anything. And I feel fat. I need a freakin’ vacation. At least its Friday. Yay! I will get to play Halo on Saturday! I am on the 4th level but I haven’t been able to play since Monday, I think. I did get to play real cricket on Wednesday afternoon (looks like its going to be a regular thing from now on, at least I’m hoping!). This Sunday we may even have a real match, if the weather cooperates! I played a singles tennis earlier today but lost. Oh well. Tomorrow, we’re playing tennis again. InshaAllah
Life is so fast, even in this small town. I was a late several times today:
-I woke up a little late, so I couldn’t go to the masjid for fajar and had to pray at home
-I was a little late at work too
-I was late at the masjid for maghrib and got there when they were done praying and had to pray by myself
-I was late for my tennis match after maghrib
-I was late for the isha prayer after the tennis match
Had too much pizza for lunch at work. Took a nap in the afternoon after coming back from work. Had too much Pulao for dinner. And frozen yogurt. I am going to be a fat slob by this time next year.
Jumma Mubarak Everyone!

This photo was taken by Sadia on a nice summer day last year on Lake Huron beach. This is the 12th in a series of 20 photos with similar theme. Click on the photo to enlarge into its full size.

A long time ago, before the world was created and humans set foot on it for the first time,virtues and vices wandered bored,not knowing what to do. One day, they were all gathered and bored more than ever when Ingenious had an idea: Why don’t we play hide and seek? And all of them liked the idea, and immediately the mad Madness shouted: I want to count,I want to count and since no one else was crazy to seek for Madness,Madness leaned on a tree and started to count, 1, 2, 3! And as Madness counted,the vices and virtues went hiding.
Tenderness hung on the horn of the moon. Treason in a pile of garbage.Fondness curled up between the clouds. Lie said he would hide under a stone but he lied and hid at the bottom of the lake. Passion went to the centre of the earth. Avarice entered a sack that he ended up breaking….And Madness continued to count, 79, 80, 81, 82.
All the vices and virtues were already hidden by then, except for Love,whom as undecided as he is, did not know where to hide. And this should not surprise us because we all know how difficult it is to hide Love.And Madness was already at 95, 96, 97. Just at the moment when she arrived at hundred, Love jumped into a rosebush and there he hid out.And Madness shouted “I’m coming! I’m coming!” and as she turned, the first one she saw was Laziness, thrown to her feet because he didn’t have any energy to hide. Then she saw Tenderness in the horn of the moon,and Lie at the bottom of the lake, and Passion in the center of the earth…
Discovering them one by one, finding all of them but one, Madness was getting desperate, unable to find the last missing one, until Envy,envious for not having been discovered, whispered to Madness “You are lacking Love,and he is hiding in the rosebush.” And Madness took a wooden pitchfork,and stabbed at the rosebush, and stabbed and stabbed, till a heartbreaking shout made her stop. And, after the shout, Love came out covering his face with his hands, and from between his fingers run two threads of blood,out of his eyes. Madness, anxious to find Love had took out Love’s eyes with the pitchfork “What have I done?, what have I done?” she shouted. “I have left you blind! How can I repair it?”And Love answered, “you can’t restore my eyes. But if you want to do something for me you could be my guide.” From that day on, Love is blind and is always accompanied by Madness.