So it’s midnight, and i’m sitting here wading through the 43971361735 emails I’ve received in the address i use for my halaqa/BAMY (Bay Area Muslim Youth) emails. So much stuff i’m behind on, man. One week of studying for finals, plus another week of almost killing myself through MORE studying and actually taking the final exams has got me all behind on important things like food and sleep and…emails. :) So i shall spend the coming week of spring break catching up on all those, insha’Allah.

I’m also listening to a recitation of Surah Al-Dhukhan (the 44th surah) on CD. I started out a couple hours ago with Surah Ya’Sin (the 36th surah), so we’re making progress here. It’s nice, masha’Allah…good background recitation as i skim my emails and peruse online newspaper articles and hit “refresh” on my blog every 10 minutes (at least i admit i’m addicted!!).

I managed to catch about 2 minutes of “news” on t.v. sometime this evening. Don’t remember what station it was though. But the cameraman kept repeatedly panning back to a group of 3-4 young boys standing at the edge of an Iraqi field bordering a main road…little boys who were grinning widely, waving madly, and forming the peace sign with their hands as they triumphantly held up the bright yellow emergency food ration packages they had just received from U.S. troops. According to the U.S. t.v. channels, the Iraqi people love us. Nice, right? Riiiiight. So how come I just followed a link off someone’s blog and read an article on The Independent’s site about another group of Iraqi children who aren’t grinning happily. Why don’t our U.S. news channels talk about these children, dammit?? I see, so THIS is what we call “liberating the Iraqi people.” Suuuuure. It’s so damn frustrating.

I’ve also been sitting here reading The Guardian for the past hour or so. More specifically, i’m reading about Rachel Corrie, the 23-year-old American peace activist who was “crushed to death by a bulldozer as she tried to prevent the Israeli army from destroying homes in the Gaza Strip.” Last week, as I kept running across her story, I would see references to the emails she wrote her family during her time in Palestine. Tonight, I’m actually reading some of her emails as posted by The Guardian, and they’re so heartbreaking. May Allah swt have mercy on her soul, and may He grant her entrance into Jannat-al-Firdaus for her courageous efforts to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people. As Bill Speirs (General Secretary, Scottish TUC) said, “George Bush has been silent about her death, but she should be remembered as representing the best of America. He will be remembered as representing the rest.” Hell yeah. In case any of you have been missing out just as i have been, here’s some of the emails (if you haven’t read them already, please take some time to do so right now; if you have already, reread them anyway. I think it’s worth the time):

Rachel’s emails I

Rachel’s emails II

Rachel’s last email

Various reflections on Rachel’s death

We were up in Sacramento, visiting the psycho soap opera drama family (my relatives) for most of the day today. Something to cheer everyone up: I’m an aunt again! :) My bhabhi gave birth to a byooooootiful little baby girl last night, masha’Allah. My bhabhi is actually the wife of my second cousin, but our family is so close that we don’t really make distinctions like that. For example, Somayya is also my second cousin…and it’s HER first cousin who’s married to the bhabhi. But “first-cousin” and “second-cousin” and all that sound sooo cold and formal. Forget that, man. So anyway, i now have another adorable little niece. She was born 3 weeks early, but she weighed 7 pounds at birth…healthy baby, masha’Allah. We went to visit her and the mama in the hospital, and the baby is sooooooo cuuuuuuute and fragile. She’s all red. And she’s got a headful of black hair already. lol. Oh, and it was funny cuz we were walking down the hospital corridor and passed by this closed door marked, “Pediatric Audiology,” and i was like, ooooooh. I wanted to open the door and bust in and be like, Whassuuuuuup?? But then i decided to restrain myself. ;)

Anyway, it’s getting way late now, and my Daddy-o is probably gonna come along any second and scold me for being up so late now that finals are over and i don’t have any excuses to be pulling all-nighters anymore. Soooo…fi aman’Allah, everyone. Have a beautiful, SUNNY day tomorrow! :)