we get too old

i mention the fact that i'm old a lot. probably more than i should and probably more than it really bothers me. but today i was hit in the face with the realization that i really am old and completely out of the loop with the "young people" and it was sad. early this morning my husband and i were walking around the mall window shopping at stores that would not be open for hours, and we noticed a really long line leading to what looked like absolutely nothing. a security rolled by on his little segway and i asked him what they were all waiting for. his answer, "some singer is coming and they're waiting to see him. *tries to think of name* i dunno who, some pop star that the girls all seem to like." i thank him and afterwards comment on the fact that nothing marks you as old quite as much as not knowing who "the kids like" while going through my list of young singers for possibilities.

and then i see it. a sign telling people to come get their pictures and autographs with cody simpson. i saw the picture of the blond kid and read the name again, but i had never, ever heard of this person before. ever. so i google him, see that he's actually pretty famous and start to feel super old for "not knowing who the kids like." i comforted myself with the thought that he was a new face and suddenly found himself with enough popularity to do a mall tour and put it out of my head.

later we went to toys r us with my nephews to buy eid toys (happy eid by the way) and do you know what i saw there? t-shirts and backpacks and lunch boxes with cody simpson and his face plastered all over them. which made me come to terms with the fact that i am completely alienated from all the young people and what they like. so thank you, fifteen year old kid that i had never heard of, for making me feel so old on eid.

*Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol

there's nothing to do here

in the arab world, eid is celebrated for three days. you visit family, you have big meals, you celebrate. here in america, we can barely find enough things to do for one day, let alone three. to celebrate eid yesterday, i went out to breakfast with my sister's family and her in-laws. i then ran a few errands, went home for a couple of hours, and went to class. i know you're jealous.

class was actually a lot better than i was expecting. the professor is pretty awesome and it's a writing intensive course, which i usually do pretty well in. it's classes like these where the super IT-y people usually get into trouble, because while they can build you a computer in three point seven seconds, they have no idea how to effectively explain what they did in words, especially not written. so i'm hoping i can end my master's career on a good note since i do in fact know the basics of grammar, something not as common as you would think in this field. can you believe that this might be the last class you ever hear me whine about on this blog ever? that is, if i don't get into a phd program which i'm thinking is pretty likely (the not getting in).

anyway, one cool thing about the professor is that he works in the private sector. every other professor i have had in this program in every other class has worked for the government. so we were basically just getting our minds stuffed with public sector work stories and tips and experiences. i had almost forgotten that the government is not the only one that uses computer forensics. it opened a few more potential options for me that i had been not seeing before.

like most other professors, this one enjoys telling stories of things he's seen and done in the field. (the cool thing about him is that he only tells the interesting ones. do you know how many stories i've had to listen to that ended with the professor either laughing or smugly smiling while the rest of us were listening to the serenading crickets?) so he was telling us about his mentor and the importance of using analogies to explain things to non-computer folk and how impressive this guy was at thinking up what to say and delivering it. "plus," he added, "he had a british accent. and everything just sounds smarter when said in a british accent... at least in america." and isn't that just so true? i think there are few places where the american accent makes someone automatically seem smarter and more sophisticated. it's kind of unfair when you think about it.

*Hospital Beds - Cold War Kids

abdullah: ali woke me up this morning at four.
ali: yeah when i woke up i was so excited that i had to wake him up too.
abdullah: it was barely even four and he was screaming 'abdullah wake up! it's eid! wake up!' and i was having a wonderful dream about dancing with a pony.
me: ...?
abdullah: *sigh* his screaming didn't let me finish my dream.
me: umm... dancing with a pony?
abdullah: yeah, i dunno, but it was wonderful.

celebrate good times, come on

today was a commotion day and a very slow, boring day at the same time. first, it was eid. since the past few eids have been pretty pathetic, my hopes for this one weren't too high, and i wasn't disappointed. my sister, two brothers, nephew, and i basically sat at home all day watching disney movies and playing elefun. we couldn't come to a consensus on what to order for lunch, and the chinese and pizza delivery men met on our front step and basically called us fatties. that was fun. second commotion was that my sister had her baby today, so that's exciting. it's also my parents' anniversary.

on to jury duty story. after taking someone else's word instead of checking for myself and showing up at the wrong building, i spent a while running around in heels (i didn't want to go get my car). i met two old ladies in city hall who basically laughed in my face, told me i was never going to make it on time, and gave me retarded directions, before meeting this very awesome business man who walked me to the courthouse. i made it there fifteen minutes early. stupid old ladies.

anyway, i signed in and went to sit in the jury waiting room with about a hundred other people. some lady named crystal came and gave us a jury orientation which basically consisted of "sit here until your name is called. if it's not called or you get taken off a jury panel when we limit them down, you can go home at one." so i sat there and read my book. three deputies came in and called out three different groups of thirty people. i was one of the twelve people never called, and i left at one, with only fifteen pages of my book left. this story was a lot more interesting when i started blogging it yesterday (and included a giant and a leprechaun).

there was this one lady that sat at the table across from me in the waiting room who sounded exactly like luke's sister from gilmore girls - her voice, the way she talked, and what she said. she even looked like her a bit, but shorter and a little fatter. every time i heard her i felt like gilmore girls was playing in the background.

anyway, the weather is blah today and my head is pounding. all of this really was going to be twisted into an entertaining story, but i just don't have the energy right now - which is probably why i'm blogging instead of writing my pathetic excuse of a novel. i did get a couple hundred words down, though. next post i write will be all about my novel in an attempt to motivate me to write (or make me want to saturate it with lighter fluid and set it on fire).

*Celebration - Kool and the Gang

i've been waiting a long time

yesterday was eid, and lets pretend i wasnt too busy and wished you all a happy eid, okay? this week was just full of celebrations and events and food. cake day (birthday), turkey day (thanksgiving), and sheep day (eid).

so my eid had a rocky start, or not really start but kinda in the beginning still. i went to pray like usual which was fine, saw all those people and whatever. then my family and my sister's family went to ihop for breakfast. we ordered. we got our drinks. we waited. we waited. we waited. a table next to us came, ordered, ate, left. we waited. my dad complained. the lady said, 'you guys ordered a lot of omelets and that takes long.' none of us ordered omelets. the table behind us (where everyone had omelets) got their food. we waited. my dad complained to the waitress again. we waited. my dad complained to the manager. you know what she said? 'go sit down.' yeah, i know. my dad got pissed, obviously and yelled at the waitress again, but without yelling. you know what i mean? she finally brings out the food, being all pissy with us. we get up and leave. she shoots us a murderous glare and tells the other waiter to take the food back to the kitchen. as we leave, the manager tells my dad. 'don't disrespect my staff unless you want them to disrespect you.' wth. we go to silver diner for breakfast instead. it was awesome.

tonight, we (my mom, younger sister, me, my grandma) went to see a chanticleer christmas at my school. my grandma has been telling me to see them forever. it was the first in their national tour of christmas concerts this year. the first half was not in english. the second was a mix. i was a little iffy before they started but oh my god i loved them. and they were so happy and smiley and glad to be there and proud of themselves and talented. as soon as i find a good youtube video of them, i'll post it.

sorry for the choppiness. my flowing abilities are mia.

*Waiting - Green Day

there aint no reason things are this way. it's how they've always been and they intend to stay.

so eid was actually a lot better than i expected. which totally supports my theory that when you expect something of something it likes to prove you wrong to make you seem like an idiot. you think you have way too much homework to ever get done in a century? ten minutes later it will practically do itself and you're left looking like a major drama queen. you think you're going to have a really bad day? it'll be a really good day at the least and you'll end up looking like a whiny brat. think you're going to completely bomb a presentation because you prepared for it for a grand total of three and a half minutes? you'll do better than the ones who practiced and seem like you were fishing for compliments. get the picture?? and don't go telling me that it's because you have really low expectations so when it turns out not to be the end of the world it seems great. it's a conspiracy.

what was i saying? oh yeah, eid.

so we woke up early and went to pray. came back home and then went to ihop with my family and my sister's family and her inlaws and husband's uncle and his family and aunt and grandmother. we eventually got kicked out of ihop for staying too long after we finished eating and we went back home. only to leave again for the mall where we took my brothers to watch cloudy with a chance of meatballs in 3d (remember how i really wanted to see it?). my sister wasnt too impressed with it but i thought it was good. we hung out at the mall for a while before going back home when my parents picked up my grandmother from the train station (she's visiting from connecticut). we were home for half an hour before we went out for an eid bbq (not very surprising) with the whole ihop crew. and now we're home and im hyper and tired at the same time.

and tomorrow is school again which feels weird cause today feels like vacation. and my first class feels especially weird because i went the first week, didnt have it the second week for labor day, i skipped the third week, so it's been a while.

oh, and while i have you here, help me decide. i need a new ipod and cant make up my mind between the ipod classic or the ipod nano. which one?

*Ain't No Reason - Brett Dennen