apropos of anything

I thought if I didn’t point it out, nobody would call me on my 101-in-1001 ending this past November. I got through forty-something items, which means I probably could have done better. Interestingly, one of the things I figured would never happen — #29, Get published — I did actually manage to do, and one of the things I figured would be easy peasy — #69, Spend a day at Stone Mountain and stay for the light show afterwards, regardless of how redneck it is or how much traffic there will be — I never got around to doing. Funny how things work out.

There were some things on the list — #57, #65, #71, #77, #101 — that weren’t easily quantifiable; and there were others — #10, #17, #34, #35, #77 — that I did partially but don’t feel comfortable crossing off because I didn’t do them completely or I didn’t do them consistently.

Still, I like the list. I love the idea. I’ve been tossing around the idea of starting a whole new list and doing it all over again for the next three years, but then I saw Lisa Schmeiser’s variation on the theme, and I can’t decide which is better. One of the things I loved about 101 in 1001 is that it let me add items that might take some time or planning, items that possibly can’t or won’t be done in the course of a year. One of the things I like about Lisa’s approach is that it’s more chunkable, and I won’t feel silly putting smaller things on the list. In fact, it’s meant for the smaller things.

So, here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to have my cake and eat it too. The timing couldn’t be better. After all, the new year is just moments away.

The 108 in 2008 are listed below. The second batch of 101 in 1001 will be on the same page as the first batch. I don’t think it’s cheating to have some duplicate items on the two lists, and of course some of the things I didn’t cross off the first 101 will show up in the second. I hope I have a higher completion rate this time around! And if you read The Rage Diaries, you’ll see I’ve borrowed a couple of things off Lisa’s lists too.

So, without further ado, in no particular order, the 108 in 2008:

1. Email my out-of-town friends at least once a week.
2. Update the blog at least three times a week.
3. Make all five of my daily prayers on time.
4. Exercise three times a week. Ideally, at least one of those times should be a pilates or yoga class.
5. Visit Maimunah and Alia in D.C. [Completed February 16-18, 2008.]
6. Visit Sameera and Maleeha in NYC.
7. Visit Dan and AM in the arctic north.
8. Make the world peace cookies. [Completed March 19, 2008.]
9. Read two new books in January. [Completed: One Sunday Morning and Atonement.]
10. Read two new books in February. [Completed: Thursday Next: First Among Sequels and Coraline.]
11. Read two new books in March. [Completed: Run and One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd.]
12. Read two new books in April. [Completed: Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony and Forever in Blue.]
13. Read two new books in May.
14. Read two new books in June.
15. Read two new books in July.
16. Read two new books in August.
17. Read two new books in September.
18. Read two new books in October.
19. Read two new books in November.
20. Read two new books in December.
21. Finish the Quran during Ramadan
22. Make all the taraweeh prayers during Ramadan.
23. Figure out the logistics of Aamir’s valima (and shaadi events) so that everything goes smoothly.
24. Figure out the logistics of Mansoor’s valima (and shaadi events) so that everything goes smoothly. [Nikkah only since the valima got pushed to May 2009.]
25. Be an Odyssey of the Mind judge again. Remember to go to training so I am not stuck keeping time. [Completed March 15, 2008 in the midst of tornadoes.]
26. Create an electronic address book so when my phone dies, I don’t have to email everyone to get their numbers again. [Completed 1/6/2008 and uploaded to Google docs.]
27. Learn to knit BETTER.
28. Try one new recipe a month. [In progress. January: Dorie Greenspan's Midnight Crackles. February: Dorie Greenspan's Sour Cream Cookies and Martha Stewart's Chicken Curry with Mustard Seeds. March: Thai-style chili beef, Best Cocoa Brownies, and World Peace Cookies. April: My mother's kadhi, David Lebovitz's Strawberry Ice Cream (seriously y'all, I am in love with The Perfect Scoop), and Ina Garten's Lemon Yogurt Cake.]
29. Buy canvas grocery bags and use them instead of the plastic bags the stores provide.
30. Switch to Seventh Generation detergent and dishwashing liquid. [Completed: Since the point of this was to switch to eco-friendly soaps, I'm going to count my switch to the eco-friendly Palmolive.]
31. Send Eid cards.
32. Participate in Buy a Friend a Book Week.
33. Write prompt thank-you notes.
34. Find photos to put on the walls and get the prints made.
35. Go to the masjid for prayer at least once a week.
36. Donate a modest amount to one non-profit organization or cause I don’t already have on my annual donation list. (January) [Completed. The cause? Kiva.org.]
37. Donate a modest amount to one non-profit organization or cause I don’t already have on my annual donation list. (February) [Completed. The cause? Change I can believe in.]
38. Donate a modest amount to one non-profit organization or cause I don’t already have on my annual donation list. (March) [Completed. The cause? The Children's Institute via Dewey.]
39. Donate a modest amount to one non-profit organization or cause I don’t already have on my annual donation list. (April)
40. Donate a modest amount to one non-profit organization or cause I don’t already have on my annual donation list. (May)
41. Donate a modest amount to one non-profit organization or cause I don’t already have on my annual donation list. (June)
42. Donate a modest amount to one non-profit organization or cause I don’t already have on my annual donation list. (July)
43. Donate a modest amount to one non-profit organization or cause I don’t already have on my annual donation list. (August)
44. Donate a modest amount to one non-profit organization or cause I don’t already have on my annual donation list. (September)
45. Donate a modest amount to one non-profit organization or cause I don’t already have on my annual donation list. (October)
46. Donate a modest amount to one non-profit organization or cause I don’t already have on my annual donation list. (November)
47. Donate a modest amount to one non-profit organization or cause I don’t already have on my annual donation list. (December)
48. Catch up on Battlestar Galactica. [Completed March 24, 2008. I have no idea how I waited so long to watch this show, or how I'm going to cope with the week-long separation between episodes, or (horror of horrors) the split season that won't resume again until 2009.]
49. Continue building an investment portfolio.
50. Drink 8 glasses of water a day.
51. Get Tivo, or a DVR at least.
52. Take a photography class.
53. Buy a camera to replace the one that broke in November.
54. See a show at the Fox.
55. Watch at least one movie at Screen on the Green.
56. Volunteer with Trees Atlanta once a month.
57. Take the GMATs.
58. Pack my lunch at least twice a week.
59. Go hiking.
60. In September, donate anything I haven’t worn in a year to Goodwill.
61. Buy new black boots.
62. Reduce, reuse, recycle one item in January. [Completed. Phone books away!]
63. Reduce, reuse, recycle one item in February.
64. Reduce, reuse, recycle one item in March. [Completed. One brown Trader Joe's grocery bag full of milk cartons, cereal boxes, and juice bottles dropped off at the Sandy Springs Recycling Center.]
65. Reduce, reuse, recycle one item in April. [Completed. One brown Trader Joe's grocery bag full of milk cartons, cereal boxes, and juice bottles dropped off at the Sandy Springs Recycling Center.]
66. Reduce, reuse, recycle one item in May.
67. Reduce, reuse, recycle one item in June.
68. Reduce, reuse, recycle one item in July.
69. Reduce, reuse, recycle one item in August.
70. Reduce, reuse, recycle one item in September.
71. Reduce, reuse, recycle one item in October.
72. Reduce, reuse, recycle one item in November.
73. Reduce, reuse, recycle one item in December
74. Play Scrabble.
75. Participate in NaNoWriMo and actually finish the 50,000 words.
76. Go to bed by 11 every work night.
77. Floss.
78. Take a weekend off for myself and get out of town for a bit. Sometime in November might be best.
79. Get a Georgia Aquarium annual pass. Use it.
80. Make a quilt. Alicia has promised to help me with this one.
81. Go swimming.
82. See at least three of the Oscar nominees before the awards show.
83. Plan (with some help) the big 3-0 birthday parties. (You know who you are.) [Completed, with some unexpected results, on February 2.]
84. Send Rashaad my copy of A Thousand Splendid Suns.
85. Do at least one Three Beautiful Things Thursday a month.
86. Have a spring dessert party.
87. Have a summer dessert party.
88. Have a fall dessert party.
89. Have a winter dessert party.
90. Straighten my hair, just to see how long it takes.
91. Write a letter. An actual, physical letter to somebody.
92. Participate in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.
93. Send Sean and Adam Eid gifts.
94. Keep the house clean. How do I quantify this? The house is not clean if I am uncomfortable having somebody drop by at 30 minutes’ notice.
95. Learn to make pulao.
96. Vote.
97. Take hostess gifts whenever I am invited over for lunch or dinner.
98. Find a monthly halaqa. Attend and participate.
99. Go by the kabrastan to see Tariq, Imran, and Ebad.
100. Do something outside my comfort zone.
101. Have lunch with Aisha I.
102. Have lunch with Selma.
103. Have lunch with Aisha R. [Completed February 2008.]
104. Have dinner with Nausheen.
105. Maintain a regular skin care regimen.
106. Make somebody a birthday cake.
107. Stop eating like an eight-year old. After all, ice cream is not dinner.
108. Visit Dubai.

I’ll keep the list updated as I get things done, and then revisit in December to see just how much I managed to cross off. Anybody else want to join the party?

I don’t know if I can finish The Five Red Herrings after all. There’s just too many times for me to keep track of, especially when I am not reading it all in one setting. Am I getting adult-onset ADD that I can’t focus anymore? Or is it just the book?

Updated 12/30/2007: Removed from the “Reading” section because I finished it, not because I chucked it. The parts that weren’t devoted to the timetable were classic Sayers, but the parts that revolved around trains and times got all muddled in my head. A more thorough review coming. Eventually.

When staying in Augusta for multiple days, PACK RUNNING SHOES.

Ahh, cookies. ‘Tis the season, you know.

(Although, really, I don’t understand that. Why is it the season for cookies? Why not cupcakes? Are cupcakes just a trend? Why don’t people churn out cookies by the dozen for, oh, Fourth of July? Or Arbor Day? Aren’t those perfectly good days to eat cookies?)

The last few pages of Tastespotting are full of cookie recipes. Smitten Kitchen has devoted a whole week to them. There are chips of all flavors and shapes on sale at Publix, as well as sugars brown and white, vanilla, and of course, Pam. (I have never used Pam. It kind of skeeves me out.) And I, of course I have succumbed to the tremendous peer pressure and have been baking up cookies all week long, in the evenings, mornings, afternoons. I have been measuring out my life with coffee spoons!

Mostly, though, it’s been the same cookie, Alice Medrich’s delicious and versatile chewy cocoa cookies as adapted by Orangette to include chocolate chips. I love these cookies. Love them so much I have memorized the recipe and can now mix them up while doing laundry and getting dressed for work at seven in the morning. They have become my go-to recipe for hostess gifts and sorry-I-made-you-run-that-script-eleventy-billion-times offerings and just plain yay-you-cleaned-the-garage snacks.

But, you know, sometimes you’re totally madly in love with Something and you want Something around all the time, and then suddenly one morning you wake up and go, Hmm, Something? I think we should start seeing other Things. And then you and Something are still friends, even gloriously so, but you’re now splitting your time between Something and its cousin Other Thing.

I think that’s where I am tonight after baking up two batches of chewy cocoa cookies (now with Heath bar bits!), my third such effort this week. I think it might be time to give thumbprints a whirl, or to cave and start the hunt for fleur de sel so I can finally bring about world peace.

Because honestly, I don’t know what it is, but right now, I’m not in the mood to make cakes or pie, or even cobblers or puddings. Right now, it’s cookies for me, so tomorrow’s semi-impromptu Eid bash/gathering might end up just being plates and plates of cookies.

After all, ’tis the season.

The night before Eid, I wrote briefly about this year’s hajjis and my envy that I was not among them, and I promised to explain further the next morning when I was not so tired. Three mornings have come and gone, and still I have not explained, and even now I am not going to, not fully, because envy, while in small doses has its place, is overall a waste of time and emotion.

Thank you Baraka and Yasmine, for reminding me.

I have been so caught up in work and weddings that I never found the hajji frame of mind. After all, I don’t have to be in Mecca or Medina to have conversations with God. I may feel closer to Him there, but He is here, too. The only difference is that there, I have no distractions, nothing else to do but talk to Him, whereas here… here, it seems I only stop moving long enough for the five cursory greetings He requests from me.

I do miss being a hajji. I miss the feel of being there, the overwhelming serenity of walking back to the hotel after fajr, the inimitable bond of sleeping under the stars of Muzdalifah, the intense emotion in Arafat. I miss all of it. But missing that shouldn’t mean that I also let slip by all the opportunities I have here to worship and pray in the comfort of my own home, surrounded by all the blessings God has chosen to bestow on me.

I wish that I could write my prayer here like Yasmine and Baraka do on their blogs, but that would require a level of self-expression that I have not yet reached. I see much in their prayers that I would ask for myself, and since quoting them is not self-expression so much as shameless stealing… but no, I can’t steal a prayer.

In my own prayer, I would ask Him to keep my brothers happy always, happy in their marriages, strong in their deen, healthy, and successful. I would ask Him to help me be a good sister, and a good sister-in-law to my bhabhis so that there will never be a day they would need to call a friend to vent about me. I would ask Him to keep my parents healthy, independent, and content in their lives. I would ask Him to ease the burdens of those who are suffering: the people on the other side of the planet as well as the people on the other side of the city. I would ask Him to take special care of the Youssifs of the world, and their mothers too. I would ask Him for rain but not flooding. I would ask for His blessings for my lovely and amazing friends, the people who serve as my surrogate family. I would ask Him to give us the wisdom to care for the planet He put in our care and the strength to always stand determinedly for that which is right. And I would ask Him to forgive us all for the slights we have given, the mistakes we have made, and the hurts we have caused.

As for what I would ask specifically for myself, that I can’t share, not yet.

Ameen.

Eeks, y’all. I’m tired. It’s December 19th, which means I’ve gone twelve whole days without a post. I can’t believe it’s been so long. Also, it’s Eid — happy, happy Eid to everyone, and especially the lucky hajjis in Saudi, who I hope are praying for me, particularly as I am doing my best not to be overwhelmingly jealous that they are there and I am not. That’s actually a post I’ll be writing in the morning (also known as later today) when I’m not facing the prospect of being up at 6 for prayer at 8 (because if you are late, you miss the takbeers, and the takbeers are the best part, especially when Mansoor and Nadeem are doing them).

I’ve been working, and making cookies, and working some more. How have you been?

As I drove home Thursday evening, having just spent a good twenty minutes pressing the complex and heart-wrenching Atonement on my book club as our next assignment, I had to wonder if maybe I was taking this “adult” business a bit too seriously. After all, despite much evidence to the contrary, growing up doesn’t have to mean anguish and heartache around every corner.

So tonight Aisha and I went to see Enchanted, the new Disney movie about a cartoon character that suddenly finds herself in real live New York City. The first time I heard about the film, I dismissed it as a Roger Rabbit-wannabe I’d never watch, but after catching a full-length trailer I changed my mind and cajoled Aisha into ditching Kashif for the night and coming with me.

Patrick Dempsey and Amy Adams in Enchanted

It’s a movie that should have been rolling-your-eyes cheesy but was instead so endearing I couldn’t stop smiling, not when the roaches and rats swarmed into Robert’s apartment to clean it, or even when the six brides and grooms magically appeared and began dancing in formation in Central Park.

It’s predictable, of course. A little cliched. You should not think there isn’t an adorable motherless moppet because this is the kind of movie that demands one, nor should you be the tiniest bit surprised when the ballroom dancing begins. What kind of live-action Disney movie would this be without ballroom dancing?

But in spite of all those things, or possibly because of all those things, Enchanted is more full of joy than anything I’ve watched or read in a long time. It’s delightful. It’s exactly what an animated movie would be if it came to life in the middle of Manhattan.

I loved how everybody except the Amy Adams character knows something funny’s going on, but they’re all just too swept up in the magic — and again, it really does feel magical instead of contrived — to wonder why. And speaking of Amy Adams… while the Patrick Dempsey character could just as easily have been played by any other Hollywood pretty boy, Amy Adams is wholly responsible for making this film both lovable and believable. She IS the movie.

(James Marsden is all kinds of fantastic too. Of course he likes himself. What’s not to like? Although, really, just once I wish Marsden’s character could get the girl he sets out to get…)

Back in February, when I asked for book recommendations, this is what I meant. Something joyous. Something that would, in the end, fill me with gladness and make me believe, even if just for a little while, in hope and tomorrow and the idea that there is happily ever after.

So I’m wondering, does it make me a bad person that I read the 2008 hurricane forecast — seven hurricanes, three of them “major” — and thought, “Halleleujah”?

You’d think on a day I did nothing but laze around the house, watch The American President for the twelfth time, and make chicken broth, you’d think on that day I’d sit down and write a real post, wouldn’t you?

And yet, you would be wrong. So sorry to disappoint. It seems that when I get a day of downtime, my brain runs off to…. Maui, and I don’t have anything to say to y’all except that maybe the next day I’ll make risotto with my jars full of chicken broth.

Instead, I’m going to let other people speak for me!

Time wants to know if we can save the world by 2015 (I am skeptical), Ben McGrath argues Scott Boras is good for baseball (again, I am skeptical), and Nikki Finke keeps us up to date on the writers’ perspective of the strike (she claims to be unbiased, but I am — you guessed it — skeptical).

Also, if you have photos of Muslims being Muslim? Send them over to HijabMan at Muslim-A-Day so he can spread the love (and technically, the dawah).