Mark October 28th On Your Calendars!

The last time I probably dressed up for school on a certain occasion was in high school, when we would have those "Eid/Diwali" days and everyone had to come wearing their cultural outfits. I would don my beaded shalwar kamees, renew my "Bollywood attitute" and strut the school hallways like they were catwalks (pre-hijab days).

So yesterday when I finally had the chance to wear something specific again, I loved it. I love having someone tell me what to wear on a certain day - it makes the pain of standing in front of the closet for half an hour so much easier.

This one was effortless though - just wear a pink hijab. I didn't even know there was such a thing as Pink Hijab Day until last year, when I entered one of the buildings on campus and saw our MSA Execs wearing pink hijabs (the female ones, of course, or that would have been a little weird) and selling cupcakes to raise money for breast cancer research - which is what Pink Hijab Day is all about in the first place.

I was happy to see so many sisters at school wearing their pink hijabs yesterday as well. Like 70% of them were, which is what the statistical side of my brain tells me. I also never realized how many different shades of pink there are. I have some shopping to do.

And for all those people who say oh what is the point of Pink Hijab Day blah blah, well let me tell you wearing a pink hijab works. At the end of the day when I finally came home after having no one question me all day for why I was wearing a pink hijab, my sister is like, "why are you wearing a pink hijab?" and I got into my Pink Hijab Day mode and was like, "well, because it's Pink Hijab Day," and she narrowed her eyes and was like, "what? There's no such thing." Then I gasped and looked quickly between my mom and her like how a little kid does when he's accused of lying, and said, "Of course there is - wallahi!"

Then I explained to her what Pink Hijab Day is and why we, as Muslim women, wear the hijab. I had to explain the purpose of Pink Hijab Day to her like I would have done it with anyone, so I explained it clearly, even if she already wears the hijab.

After a moment, she narrowed her eyes again and was like, "Open your coat."

What a random question right? But I think I knew where she was heading, you see, because I had secretly taken the brand new PINK shirt she bought the day before, from her closet that morning.

Ah, the blessings of sharing clothes.

For When You Need A Break

Do you ever have those points in your life where you just NEED.A.BREAK?

Well, I do.

I am honestly so tired. I feel tired all the time. Maybe it has something to do with the lack of iron in my system (which my dentist kindly pointed out to me the other day), but I honestly feel like I have had too much of everything.

Too much school, too much textbook reading, too much studying, too much driving, too much waiting, too much many errands. I feel overwhelmed with my schedule and it feels like the best thing to do to take that away would be to whisk myself away on a vacation to a place I've never been before, to people I have never seen before, and just to relax undercover. Kind of like a Masked Man, or woman, in my case.

Sometimes I envy those people who live double lives - simply because if they get "too much" of one life they can just don a wig and live the other.

But since I don't have any "wigs to don", all I can do right now is recite this:

"Allaahumma innee ‘abduka wa ibn ‘abdika wa ibn amatika, naasiyati bi yadika, maadin fiyya hukmuka, ‘adlun fiyya qadaa’uka, as’aluka bi kulli ismin huwa laka sammayta bihi nafsaka aw anzaltahu fi kitaabika aw ‘allamtahu ahadan min khalqika aw ista’tharta bihi fi ‘ilm il-ghaybi ‘andak an taj’ala al-Qur’aana rabee’ qalbi wa noor sadri wa jalaa’a huzni wa dhahaaba hammi"

O Allaah, I am Your slave, son of Your slave, son of Your female slave, my forelock is in Your hand, Your command over me is forever executed and Your decree over me is just. I ask You by every Name belonging to You which You named Yourself with, or revealed in Your Book, or You taught to any of Your creation, or You have preserved in the knowledge of the unseen with You, that You make the Qur’aan the life of my heart and the light of my breast, and a departure for my sorrow and a release for my anxiety.

And that will be more than enough.

Someone now thinks me and my Dad are crazy

This has to have been one of the funniest conversations I've ever had on the phone.

A Little Background:
My Dad had gone on a trip for a couple of days and was supposed to be coming home that day. I didn't have school that day and so was at home all by myself. He arrived while I was in the shower.

The Phone Call:
(In our house, the phone rings three times and then automatically goes to the answering machine. When the phone rang after I got out of the shower, I rushed to pick it up and made it just in time before the third ring ended).

Me: Hello?

*Pause*

Dad: Hello?
Me: Uh yes...
Dad: Who is this?
Me: This is Ayesha (My name is not Ayesha, by the way).
Dad: Oh, Ayesha! This is Papa speaking (I call my Dad "Papa", lol)
Me: Assalamu Alaikum Papa! How are you?
Dad: Good, Alhumdulillah. What about you?
Me: Yeah I'm good too! When are you coming home, Papa?
Dad: I'm already at home.
Me: Wait.. what?
Dad: Yeah, I reached home just a while ago. Why, are you still at school?
Me: No... I'm at home too. I don't have school on Fridays, remember?
Dad: You're at home? Where are you?
Me: I'm in my room. Where are you?
Dad: I'm DOWNSTAIRS in the KITCHEN.

Then we started laughing a lot for like five minutes straight at the irony of it all, until suddenly I remembered that someone had called, which is why we were on the phone in the first place having this crazy conversation.

Me: Wait - if you're downstairs... then who called???

All of a sudden, we hear a loud *click* as someone quickly hangs up.