Ramadan Fever

Growing up in a country where my holiday was always a side note, its strange to turn on the TV and see advertisements geared towards me. The ads promote new drinks, snacks, religious books, etc. And then a shopping trip that would be menial and annoying on any other hot, sweaty August afternoon became... so refreshing to experience. The hustle and bustle of getting ready for the holiday season is very exciting for me. 

I've always been an extreme participant in the Christmas season working in retail. I was there Thanksgiving night preparing for the mad sales. I usually didn't get to experience a day off until ten days after Christmas. But this is my first time to be really a part of the holiday season.

For once I don't need to request off to celebrate my holiday. 

The market today was packed. Everyone was stocking up on suhur (before fast meal) items and iftar (after fast meal) treats. After hitting up three spice shops we finally made it through a crowd to buy black pepper. And hailing a taxi was a feat today. Every single one was busy taking somebody who bought something somewhere. Two days ago I bought 3 pairs of shoes and 2 cute tops for very cheap. The before Ramadan Sales here are great. I'm told the Eid sales will be even better. 

But the shoppers here aren't consumerist enough for me. They buy essentials for the holiday season. I'm more interested in the fun things that make it a festive holiday. So I bought string lights and hung them in the living room. My two-year old cousin is estatic. And around the outside of the house I am hanging colorful streamers, from our balcony to the neighbor's. We never got around to these types of decorations in the states. Hanging lights in the off-season is definitely inexcusable and probably a violation of some city ordinance. 

I'm sure that I'm feeling a little nostalgia for the Ramadans of America I am accustomed to. No one has called me yet to say "Did you see the moon?" or "Will you be at the mosque tonight?" or "Will you break your fast here or there?" I haven't had the chance to be super excited internally. I haven't had an opportunity to plan how I will celebrate, fast, repent and purify while outwardly appearing the same to my coworkers and neighbors. 

Instead I'm outlining my spiritual plan for the month. This month will be the first in almost 10 years when I want to finish reading the Quran cover to cover. This year I won't break my fast on the run via a frozen TV dinner at work or a Snickers bar during class. (I will, however, miss the PF Changs and Buca di Bepo deliveries.) This year I want to breath in all there is to breath in around this holiday. Every aspect of being the majority faith is mine now to treasure. Everyone else around me seems to take this for granted because they have always had it.

I have a quarter century worth of lanterns to light, prayers to read, visiting, fasting, cooking, shopping, etc. to catch up on. I am going all out with Ramadan Fever, at least this once. 

Kitty Blog

My precious Nuqta won't eat. She hasn't in a few days. She hasn't eaten well in a few weeks. And today she won't drink water. 

I spent an hour online reading what everyone says about feline anorexia or other eating disorders related to feline illnesses. I'm not completely sure what to do. But I guess she really can't control her life lately, because I am barely in control of my own. I still am not in a place of my own and so Nuqta is always subject to a random kid petting her, which she hates but tolerates. And more terrible (to the cat) than her expanded social network is her choice of cuisine. She is usually so happy with Alley Cat or Friskies. But we don't have the luxury of cheapo catfoods. Instead she only gets tuna or sardines or some other assortment of fresh fish. 

But she doesn't want fresh fish. I can't blame her though I am the big fan of fish who now hates to smell them or eat them. So today I wanted to get a vet to look at her. Maybe she has worms (haven't seen any) or fleas (nope) or something else (please no). But whatever is wrong I want to fix it and I don't want my kitty wasting away. Her chubs have all melted and now you pet a boney spine when you want to cuddle. Yuck. But yeah, the vet no-called. And he's the only one in this town.

So I got a syringe and some gerber baby food and mom gave me advice over the net; and dad helped me squirt it down her throat. So she has 6mg of Gerber in her as of 1:45am and another 3mg of baby vitamin juice. Around 4am we'll try to get another 6mg of Gerber down.

So far so good. I will keep you posted. I'm sure everyone is on the edge of their seat and praying for my kitty to get well soon. Don't send flowers, send dry cat food. ;-)

Frankenstein Ouchie

Not that this merits a blog posting, but I figured I needed to update and say what I am up to. 

I have been swimming several times in the Sea. It seemed for a week I went every day challenging myself to go farther and farther. Sometimes the waves actually kind of suck you in and its scary for a second, but everyone should know I love the water. So, I finally got stung by a jellyfish.

It felt like all of the sudden I was stabbed with a butcher knife through my foot. Then I had to swim against the tide to the shore, which took forever, with this imaginary knife jutting out of the top of my foot. I limped across the hot sand to see what can simply be described as a red puffy line across my foot, maybe 4 inches long or so.

So this new thing on my foot is starting to look like a scar from getting a bunch of stitches, kind of frankenstein-ish. And its all I can think about right now because it itches so much.

Its kind of comedic because there are no jellyfish in the Sea right now supposedly. They all leave this area in late June early July. So I got stung by a lazy jellyfish who somehow didn't move with the migration. 

So the big joke is that the only jellyfish in the Sea came after me. Great.