My life is little things that make me happy – like tomatillos at $1.99 per lb.
Originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007 – Beautiful things: The mid-week edition
one: flickrphotos. I get to work, check my emails, and the first thing I find is a facebook message from my sister’s friend, which makes me laugh and pretty much makes my day.
two: hanging-out sessions! There will be dinner with the lovely A this Sunday, and a hanging-out session with rockstars in San Francisco the Sunday after that. And, even better, when I email 2Scoops with yet another small-world connection I have found which concerns him and our mutual friends (“So check this – this is a funny story [well, sort of, since I am easily amused]…”), he replies to say he will indeed be in the Bay soon, and ends with the best postscript ever: “Work is stinky and overrated and you need a break which we will be taking the week I’m there.” Yes! I foresee gelato in my near future.
three: touching base. I have not mentioned my friend H on this weblog in years, I believe. He was always part of what I called our “core group” while in college, but then he graduated the year before I did and returned home to Los Angeles, leaving behind those days of shuffling our belongings from table to table, trading batteries and CDs, sharing books and lecture notes, practicing Arabic calligraphy on white boards meant for neurobiology review. We initially remained in close contact, but lost touch in the last year and a half or so, after he settled back into life in LA and stopped returning our emails and phone calls. Then, last month, after I forwarded an email to “my favorite SoCal buddies,” he unexpectedly replied back with his new email address. I was elated, but, in my usual Yasminay way of doing things, never got around to emailing him back.
Today, H comes up again in a conversation I have with Somayya. “He couldn’t have changed,” I tell Somayya. “In that email he sent me last month, he still started off by calling me ya Yasminay.” It has always been one of my favorite things about H. “I’m disappointed in him,” she says, and I remember all those months when we were worried sick, not knowing where our friend was, and how to reach him. “I know,” I reply, but I also understand what it’s like to be disappointed in yourself, to distance yourself from those who know you until you feel you’ve made something of your life.
I sit down and email H back to say hello and catch up, and, as a pointed reminder, give him my cell phone number again. During the course of the day, I have two missed calls from him. The next morning, he calls again while I’m driving to work, and I answer the phone, laughing: “H, my friend! How goes the life, buddy?” Even now, years later, there is no one else I know who can say “Alhamdulillahhhhhh!” [All praise is for God] with such gratitude and enthusiasm as H does. I am so glad to have this friend back in my life, this young man who still speaks so quickly and punctuates his breathless sentences with the same familiar shout of laughter.
four: chapstick. I have just enough time after work to swing by Target and pick up a couple of my favorite Dr. Pepper-flavored chapsticks. Lip gloss is too much of a process sometimes, and I don’t believe in lipstick, so chapstick it is. I do believe in color, though, which is why I always buy the Dr. Pepper-flavored chapstick, which has a nice reddish tint to it. But I always peel off the blatant Dr. Pepper wrapper, otherwise I’d feel like a twelve year old. Still, I’m amused I’m not the only one who’s thought of this. Months ago, visiting my lovely Hindku-speaking buddy N one evening, we sat talking on her living room floor, and she stared at me when I pulled out my chapstick and quickly swiped it across my lips. “Where did you get that?” she asked, almost accusingly.
I stared back in bafflement. “Umm, from my bag?”
“Oh,” she said, relaxing, laughing. “It’s yours? I have those, too! I was so confused.”
five: citrus scents. Against my better judgment, I also stop by the earrings section at Target, but nothing catches my eye. So I buy citrus-scented perfume instead, because I love citrus-scented things, and I believe in smelling good, no matter what idiotic boys say. This one’s called Tuesday. What are people thinking, I wonder, when they decide to name perfumes after days of the week?
six: meditation. This one deserves a separate post of its own.
These little glimpses into your life are so fun to read. :)
Thanks so much, Preeti. =) I’m pleased with myself, because I turned #1 and #5 into individual weblog posts of their own! And #3 is long enough to practically count as a post, too. (Well, okay, so #1 was more of a copy-pasting session, but vatewer! I’m trying to work on this ‘posting more often’ business! Maybe Ayan will stop harassing me then. =))
three things: one, i am SO excited about sunday! two, I spent a longggg time talking to our dear friend H, things are so NORMAL and it felt like he’d never left! i love himmmmmm!!!! and three, after my convo with him, all i could think about was my disappiointed in him comment and feel guilty about it! i’m not disappointed in him anymore lol not just because he called and emailed so quickly, but that he’s just himself, doesnt treat us any differently and just as wonderful as always!
no scented soaps or perfumes. NO!!!!! :-)
Tuesday will *always* be a day of the week to me. The one that comes after Monday.
Adnan, are you on a rampage or something? You are leaving crackedheaded comments all over the Internet.
Not that they’re not fun … but. Why the sudden change of character?
fathima, a change of character? not sure I follow. I think I’ve been fairly consistent. I’ve hardly ever contributed serious comments on anyone’s blogs. So if I start seriousing then that would be a change of character, albeit not sudden.
yasmine, does fathima get extra points for using the word “crack” as part of the word “crackedheaded”?
Z: They’re HARAAM! =)
Adnan: Seriously. Why make things complicated?
fathima: “Crackheaded” is right, but Adnan has never struck me as non-crackheaded, so I don’t see how he’s any different today.
Adnan, once more: fatima does indeed get extra points – not just for using “crack,” but for using the word “CRACKHEADED,” which is one of my personal favorites. Highfive to you, however, for using “albeit” in a sentence. I’ve never been able to slip that into regular conversation.
“practicing Arabic calligraphy on white boards meant for neurobiology review”
OMG, my friends and I have totally done that at college!
And dude: I ENVY your photos.
p.s. Why are you checking your blog at work? Okay, why am I checking out blogs at work?
Rawi:
1. Anything is better than studying (stuDYING) for midterms.
2. Dude, I’ve always liked your photos, but you haven’t uploaded any to flickr in MONTHS. Do you know, I can see your March 2006 (!) photos on your flickr front page? We need new stuff. Get to it, buddy! (PS: I love that you always comment on the photos I post alongside the weblog entries. Thank you. =))
3. BECAUSE I CAN. Also, because this seems like the longest week in the world. And I am sleepy. And I’m horribly behind in replying to everyone’s comments, even with this rockingly fancy schmancy spiffy commenting system I have now. *sigh*
no, it’s not the crackheadedness of the comments that is out of character, it is their frequency and their regularity that is so unAdnanlike.
and yasmine, you spelled* my name wrong the second time.
*my god, the spellcheck is underlining “spelled.” that …. hurts me.
fathima, I agree. The frequency is and regularity is unAdnanlike. Also ‘unAdnanlike’ is scheduled to be included in the Oxford Dictionary in the 2nd quarter of 2008. Defined as:
“like that which is is unlike Adnan”
Usage in a sentence:
“I don’t like him, he’s unAdnanlike”
I notice now that there are two instances of ‘is’ in the definition. That error is not mine, I was quoting verbatim from the Oxford Dictionary.
haha, I did my 3bt early this week too :)
“practicing Arabic calligraphy on white boards meant for neurobiology reviewâ€
OMG, my friends and I have totally done that at college!