part 1 of 4

So its been awhile. Yesterday night I really wanted to blog, but for some reason I couldn't get in, so frustrating. argh. But I'm now aren't I? So like I said, its been awhile. I got a lot to catch everyone up on. So this will be a sequence of posts. I'll try to space it out by 2-3 days. Something along the lines of: 1) Decemeber trip back home 2) Pictures from the past 3) New Years resolution 4) Rasheed visiting me here in NYC Alright, so today is December stuff. It seems already a long time ago that I was home. I was home for about 8-10 days or so, so I got to spend a lot of time with mostly everyone. I saw a ton of movies while I was back or just before then. Narnia King Kong Memoirs of a Geisha Wolf Creek Brokeback Mountain Capote Fun with Dick and Jane I went bowling (gordon exploded for a huge game of 148, i mean gordon? 148? who would have thought haha). Went for pool a few times, demetres of few times, east sides a few times, bombay chopsticks, Tim Hortons!, can't even remember what else. But a lot of fun with friends and family and my cousins. Boxing day was fun, I went a bit crazy with the dvd shopping buying 8 new dvds. Funny dvds are pretty much all I bought during boxing day/week. Well I did actually I did buy 2 other things. 1 my dads birthday present and 1 other gift for one of my friends, though I wasn't able to give it so then it became a gift to myself which my mom then has borrowed from me. New Years was a quiet night. Its always a last minute thing with me. My initial plans never seem to work out. I went out with some friends for some pool, then just chilled at a friends house playing some games and stopping to watch tv near the 10 sec countdown. It was very relaxed and enjoyable. I actually didn't take many pictures at all during my trip. strange. I was able to see Omar and Aamir for a short time the evening I left. That was great. They had both gone on trips so it was lucky to be able to see them at all. I think they had got back just like the day before. We just chilled at Omar's place just catching up and talking about random things. I can't think of what more I want to say about that trip. It was overall, a very good trip. Today is Eid as well. Eid Mubarak everyone. One of my friends sent me this email. I think I'll share it here. Take care all. I dreamt that I went to Heaven and an angel was showing me around. We walked side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with angels. My angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said, "This is the Receiving Section. Here, all petitions to God said in prayer are received." I looked around in this area, and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people all over the world. Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second section. The angel then said to me, "This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are processed and delivered to the living persons who asked for them." I noticed again how busy it was there. There were many angels working hard in that station, since so many blessings had been requested and were being packed for delivery to Earth. Finally at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the door of a very small station. To my great surprise, only one angel was seated there, idly doing nothing. "This is the Acknowledgement Section," my angel friend quietly admitted to me. He seemed embarrassed. "How is it that? There's no work going on here?" I asked. "So sad," the angel sighed. "After people receive the blessings that they asked for, very few send back acknowledgements". "How does one acknowledge God's blessings?" I asked. "Simple," the angel answered. "Just say, "'ALHAMDULILLAHE RABBIL AALAMEEIN, Thank you, Lord'." What blessings should we acknowledge? "If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep ... you are richer than 75% of this world. "If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy. "And if you get this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity." Also..."If you woke up this morning with more health than illness ... you are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day." "If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation ...you are ahead of 700 million people in the world." "If you can attend mosque or attend religious meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture ordeath ... you are envied by, and more blessed than, three billion people in the world.If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, you are unique to all those in doubt and despair." If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you as very special, and, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all. Have a good day, count your blessings, and if you want, pass this along to remind everyone else how blessed we all are. "And Remember your Allah/Lord has declared that, 'If you are grateful then I (HE) will add more favors unto you'". (Ibrahim 14:7)