Hello World

I wonder if anyone actually reads my blog these days... that's what happens when you don't update for a month... oh well.

Some things have bothered me or interested me lately, and some of those I'll keep to myself (mostly the complaints). But some things are encouraging...

I work with a few Muslim brothers, in this building, and you can never tell how dedicated one is. But when I started wearing the scarf, declaring to the world my faith anyway, it got a little bit of attention. Now there is a brother here, who has talked to me a couple of times about Islam theologically, and has invited me to have dinner with his family. He has two twin daughters, neither of whom, nor his wife, wear hijab. They like Islam, he says, they just don't wear the scarf. He wants to introduce me I suppose as an example, somebody a little bit older than they who thought Islam was something special--special enough to seek it out and change, disregarding society in that way. And to don the scarf, ignoring remarks and cultural norms, to dedicate myself to religion in a way that is kind of rare to see, especially not being born into it. So I may be meeting with them sometime in the near future, inshallah. He's told me that he wrote a few articles for Arabic newspapers about Islam. Right now he's just taken the PE (professional engineering) exam, which is pretty important in the engineering field. He told me though that if he passes he might go to graduate school for engineering... maybe... or Islamic studies. :-)

Second thing... we had a bad thunderstorm here a few days ago. Before it started, I'd gone to the masjid to pray maghrib. And it started raining just as I got there, and so of course we prayed isha in jama'at as well. Then I met a sister--Amira--who sort of unofficially invited me to some party or something in September (I can't keep up with these things lol). And it was pouring down when I left but I wanted to go home, eat dinner, and go to bed. So I start driving home... and it's raining... and I come up to this big-ish intersection wondering why there is such a line up of cars going the way I am (I was on the side street), and I notice that the power is out!! And the police are directing traffic! (I am so grateful for cops that direct traffic in the rain during thunderstorms. People just don't understand the concept of a multiple-lane 4-way stop.) So I get through the intersection and start cruising down the street... all the streetlights are out... until I get to my apartment... all the power is out... I didn't even go upstairs. (What's the point, I'm just going to get wet and couldn't see anything inside anyway.) Definitely couldn't cook. Now, I thought maybe I'll go find someone to hang out with, lol.

During the prayers I leave my phone in my car, but my bro's girlfriend had called a few times and they weren't doing anything so I called them at this ponit to see what's up, and I head out to Holly Springs to see the fam. Out there, though, a something had been hit (always neat, because it flashes this teal turquoise color...) and power was out in most of the neighborhoods I passed until I got to my parents' where they did have power! Pretty cool, alhamdulillah. So I fixed dinner there and had the conversations I described in my last post about Brit getting married and all.

So when I finally go home, my roommate is watching TV with her friend and these two guys I don't know. So we talked about the storm a little bit and the power going out (she'd slept through it). I'm not sure how it came up but she asked me about praying, one time. She knew I went to go pray roughly at sunrise, and apparently thought that we (Muslims) pray to the sun. She asked if we prayed outside or if there were windows in the mosque so we could see... lol.
So I tried to clear that up and explain the 5-times a day and why. There were more questions from her though her friends weren't so interested. Of course I jumped, I love to talk about it, haha, and did for a little while before finally going to bed.

My roommate herself isn't all that bad, you see. It's her friends I'm starting to think that bother me so much. As it is, I'm looking for places to move... inshallah something good will turn up soon.