NOW WE EAT

Eid couldn't have come at a better time, kids. I was getting tired of Ramadan'ing. Judge me if you must for not bearing the difficulty of fasting with good cheer and patient piety but I'm just being honest here. Perhaps it's just age creeping up on me--the Nerd faces down the big 3-0 (uh oh!) next year, after all--but Ramadan is rough, y'all.

Thank Allah for Eid, however. My mom cooked enough to feed a small village and, like every year, we have an open door policy (translation: anyone who wants to waltz in and have some food can and probably will), so come on over if you're in town (and aren't a crazy-stalker-serial-killer type, okay, thanks).  So...

HAPPY EID, EVERYONE!

MP's Canada

MP and I recently settled into 11 months as a couple together. That we probably wouldn't have met each other had it not been for my pink-and-fabulous-yet-humble blog scares the nerdiness right out of me. I'm still pleasantly surprised by the thought of him and the fact that he is in my life. Where did you come from? I often ask him. The answer, of course, is always the same: Canada.

I've waxed poetic about Canada and Canadians in the past, dear readers, but having recently returned from a vacation in the land of ice hockey, poutine, and nice (yes, I mean the adjective), I'd like to continue waxing poetic.

Firstly, I was practically niced to death by the Canadians. MP's family, his friends, random strangers, storekeepers, waiters, waitresses, airport security, EVERYONE was so nice it hurt (but in a good way). In fact, the only rude person I encountered during the duration of my stay in Canada: the American customs official at the airport in Montreal, who was downright scary.

Canadians, secondly, are a calm and patient people (I suppose that calm and patience are essential ingredients for nice). Example: MP and I are driving up a narrow, one-way Ottowan street, lined with outdoor markets, when, suddenly, a truck in front of us stops in the middle of the street and two guys proceed to unload their market fares. These guys spend a good five minutes unloading and I stop having my "Oh-my-gaw-the-nerve-of-these-guys" moment long enough to listen to something extraordinary: silence from the long line of cars behind us. They're as quiet and as patient as MP is beside me and they seem to have no beef with these dudes holding up traffic. I am shocked.

Ottawa is beautiful. Check out the following pics:






Montreal is beautiful.





I don't think I'll ever tire of a Canadian accent (for the record, Canadian accents vary aboot as much as the American English accent does...I recently met one of MP's friends who hails from Saskatchewan and her "aboots" are "a-boats". Learn how to speak like a Canadian here. To be surrounded by polite aboots was lovely.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not planning on moving to the lovely north* and even though I'm extremely critical of the good, ol' US of A**, I do still love my country and plan on raising a famiy here.*** All that being said, I'm so glad that I've found MP and he's helped me discover Canada.

*I will be revisiting my plans if Palin/McCain dupe my not-always-bright countrymen into voting another Republican adminstration into the White House.

**as all good patriots should be

***see first asterisk

RAMADAN, IT'S PLAYING WITH MY MIND

I'm suddenly craving Pakistani food, readers, and I don't mean the few and (well, somewhat) uninspired vegetarian dishes, with which I have to resign myself at Pakistani gatherings. Oh, no, no. I would like nothing more than to stuff my face with kababs wrapped in steaming, fluffy, straight-out-of-the-tandoor naan. I want to eat a spicy chicken korma with parhatas . I want to lose myself in a delicious chicken pulao and delicious tandoori chicken.

Of course this is problematic, given that I'm a vegetarian and, yes, I've occasionally craved meat, but, goodness, the crave is strong today. Hopefully, my weekend trip to Pittsburgh where I'm attending a wedding where only the most delicious veggie cuisine will be on the menu will combat this sudden onslaught of meaty love.

RAMADAN: FASTING AND WHINING

'Tis the season of fasting, kittens, and like most Allah-fearing Muslims on the planet, I've been going sans food and drink from sunrise to sunset for several days now. Since the Islamic calendar is lunar, each year, the month of Ramadan is about ten days earlier than in the previous year. This Ramadan, sunrise and sunset are roughly 13 hours apart. To say that I feel famished and listless these days is a gross understatement. I hate to complain while happily undertaking a God-sanctioned religious duty but, man oh man, one week into it and it already feels like forever. I think most Ramadan observers will agree that while we can go without food during the day, it's the lack of water that gets us in the end. Plus, trying to squeeze a nice, long run in just before or after sunset these days can be either invigorating or muscle-and-bone-achingly exhausting.

Okay, that's it. I think it's probably in my best interest to refrain from whining during this wonderful month. I'll shut up now.

BLAME IT ON THE RAIN: I'm Around or How Relationships Take Away Critical Blogging Time

Sabila. Are you alive. What the shit are you doing these days...

I recently received the above comment from that best-loved reader of ours, anonymous. I understand that anonymous' concerns might be shared by many of my readers so I respond to all who are anxious about my whereabouts when I say:

Hi. I'm alive and well. I've been chilling these days.

The thing is, dearest readers, that MP is totally cramping my blogging style. Having a social life, I'm finding, is not very conducive to maintaining a blog (turns out it isn't very conducive to watching television either. I can't tell you the number of Mystery Diagnosis episodes I have languishing in my DVR queue. And forget about Gossip Girl. I gave up on that very early on). And, yes, while I agree that there are loads of bloggers in the blogosphere who maintain their blogs in spite of extremely hectic life schedules, I seem to be having a difficult time finding that balance.

In any case, you'll be pleased to know that, not long ago, your one and only Nerddd took a jaunt up to Manada with her favorite Manadian and I'm happy to report back that Daddy MP, Momma MP, and Big Sister MP are even more lovely and charming than MP!

Impossible you say?
Oh, it's possible, I say! Eh!

The moral of this post: sometimes finding a balance between life and blogging is difficult but it shouldn't be impossible. Oh, and Canadians are super nice, and even MP's niceness can be eclipsed in the land from where he hails! Plus, this post has nothing to do with the rain.