Coast to coast

We travelled overnight from Califonia to New York, and although it was a relatively peaceful and uneventful flight, I hated, HATED it!

See, I am not a plane-sleeper at all, it took me hours to actually fall asleep, even though I was completely exhausted and needed to sleep. Now, as I sit here in the airport, my sister has issued warnings that we are not speaking until I resume normal functioning, because apparently I am in a horrificlly (is that a word Koonj?) terrible mood!

What can I say – I like to be awake when I travel!

The trip was great though – details and pics soon!

A story for love thursday

As you are reading this, I am on my way to Blogher… and no doubt feeling pretty nervous, but very excited.

While I’m away, I thought I would share with you a story about my dad, as it’s Love Thursday and everything.

Since I was about 10 I’ve lived away from my dad, and although I have always felt his presence in my life, I always miss him, and now when I see dads with their daughters it makes me smile – I think that it’s a relationship that is special to me because it allows me to reminisce about the times with my dad.

Anyway, when I was a little girl, I think we were asked to build a circuit or something like that, and I had no idea what to do so I told my dad and he said that he would help me. My dad is a bit of a perfectionist – something I only realized in adulthood – so after about 2 hours I got really bored and left his side… The next morning when I got up, I was completely astonished to find that my dad had built an entire house with working lights!!

Now, as much as I was impressed with his dedication to my simple circuit, there was no possible way that I was toting that thing to school! I envisioned walking into my class with this huge house and decided that the embarrassment would be way to much to handle. And so, sadly, I left the house that my dad spent an entire night working on for me. Yes, I regret it to this day, but it made an excellent doll house, and all my cousins were really jealous of it!

Sometimes talking to strangers can be ok

Stranger from the train: May I tell you Salaamu Aliakum?

Me: Sure! Walikum Salaam.

Stranger: You know I always have to ask first because I never know how people will react.

Me: Hmm, yes, some people think it’s offensive.

Stranger: Which is so strange because why would “peace be upon you” be offensive?

Me: Well, it’s the times that we live in.

Stranger: True. Where are you from?

Me: Trinidad.

Stranger: Trinidad? Wow. Like Trinidad and Tobago?

Me: Yup.

Stranger: I didn’t know there were muslims in Trinidad!

Me: Haha, uh huh, a lot actually.

Stranger: Well, I didn’t know that! I am Suleman.

Me: Shazia.

Stranger: Nice to meet you then.

Me: You as well.

My life in points

1) Getting ready for Blogher – slightly nervous – please send me some good vibes so I do not totally suck!!

2) I read a novel for the first time in about 10 years! Like an actual novel with no pictures and hundreds of pages… I was shocked that I actually managed to finish it in 3 days, as opposed to the last book that I attempted to read, which has pictures, and I still haven’t even gotten half way, even though it’s been about 6 months!

3) I have tremendously ugly feet! Seriously. I feel you should know that. They are so ugly that my sister “lovingly” refer to them as shrek feet! BUT, let me say, that regardless of the appalling nature of my feet, my 4 year old remains unphased (is this a word??) by them, and still prefers to forsake the “prettier” feet of my mom or sister to stroke and caress mine! I love that he plays with my feet – it feels awesome – however, yes, it is slightly disturbing that my 4 year old has a foot fetish!

4) Kickboxing totally rocks!! I am really loving it. Although, my knees feel like they are slowly dying, and I look quite uncoordinated and awkward when I’m in a class with a lot of seasoned (and slimmer) kickboxing gals, but you know, it’s all good! It still rocks! Thanks iMuslim!!

5) I feel like I need a new bag – any ideas? I don’t really buy bags all that often, but it may be the one thing that I buy the most, and every time that I buy a new bag my 5 year old always asks me why I needed a new one and then tells me that I should not buy so many bags – he’s probably right!

What’s going on in your life these days?

Blogging FAQs

The panel that I am a part of at Blogher is called FAQs for beginning bloggers, where I am talking more about the technical side of setting up a blog, especially with WordPress. I really wanted to publish some guides on WordPress, however, life sort of got in the way… sadly.

BUT, Jennifer did an amazing series of posts on blogging for beginners and not-so-much-beginners it’s well-written and super informative… really worth a read. Thank you Jen!