Take it down

First, I want to thank everyone who made du'a for my back... alhamdulillah it is healing (albeit very slowly). I ask Allah for it to continue to improve so I can stop taking medicine altogether--for now I've been able to cut back on the frequency and even amount of ibuprofen I take each day.

Now, because my home computer has decided to enter the netherworld of spare parts, I decided to get a new one--this one. It's an HP with some nice features that I found interesting (integrated mic and webcam, for example) without being extremely expensive. And instead of opting for the dual-core processors, I just got one that was really fast. After a brief study of the technology, I decided it probably wouldn't be the best choice for me. InshaAllah the pc itself will arrive by the end of next week. It's supposed to be shipped by the end of this week--I bought it online. Oh, and since vista is out... it comes standard, and that's what I've got. We'll see how that goes.

Another new gadget... I have had the same cell phone for over two years--about two and a half. Now the battery for starters was getting to be a problem, and it would freeze randomly. So this past weekend I got a new phone as well, and got a pretty good deal on it. It has bluetooth although I opted to not get the headset just yet (since I'm not spending a lot of time talking right now on the phone, and since it was a hefty purchase, I'd like to invest some more time in choosing one.) The PC is supposed to have bluetooth, btw... so I should have lots of fun stuff to play with.

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Not to interfere with school, though!! And school is for the first time in a long time finally starting to go my way. I think. I've spent countless hours at this point doing homework for my two classes--that's right, I'm only taking two! But they both have a lot of work, so I finish hw for one then start on hw for the next. But I did ace the first test I had in one class, had another test today in the other class I feel pretty good about, so things are looking up! It's nice to get into an exam and feel like I know what I'm doing!

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Leaving the sorority has certainly helped--also has not having a computer at home, most likely. But I still end up juggling my non-academic activities--MSA, classes at the mosque, ING speaking (this is new) and da'wah activities at the mosque. A few months back I took a training class when a representative from ING (www.ing.org) visited the area so we could establish an ING speaker's bureau. And so they had the training, gave us the kits, and we studied and took an exam. There is a refresher course for people to re-take the exam this coming Saturday, and the organizers asked me to use it as a chance to get some practice speaking, and the following Sunday I have a speaking gig booked (yes already!) to do my first one. That's kind of exciting, and scary at the same time... because it's at a church! And the presentation is geared for schools and that's what I've practiced. Presenting to an adult audience is a different beast and I'm not sure what else additional I need to prepare for it.

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I volunteered to help with the "interfaith" group of the da'wah committee at the masjid, and they have a meeting Thursday. Also on Thursday a girl is hosting an MSA event to talk about Muslim unity--lately this has become an increasingly important topic for me and I'd love to attend it as well. The first is from about 6-7:30, the next from 7:30 on. I get out of work at 5:30, but let's recall that Thursday morning I go to work at 3:30 am--it's a long day. So after work, two classes, work again, I have two meetings. I guess later on I can worry about actually eating dinner. The thing is, I'm not really interested in the interfaith meeting, which makes me tempted to not go.

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So that's my life lately, I guess. Lots of studying, not a lot of learning unfortunately.