OK, OK, maybe I was being a tad childish yesterday. I hadnt had any sleep at all and of course not taking a break at all yesterday and not having eaten anything started to take its toll. I feel a lot better, Alhamdullilah.
My co-worker and I went home and visited one of our other co-workers who is sick. She is having surgery today, please make duaa for her that everything turns out well with her operation.
First of all, the lady lives right behind my apartment but this was the first time I was in her house. So busy are times these days that I'd never gotten the chance to go in, I had dropped her off a few times before, however.
There's something stuffy about a room with blue carpet and over-the-top-Christian-propaganda and inevitable doom that leaves one feeling a lot more uneasy than comfortable and not just because I'm Muslim. She had more pictures of a blue-eyed, blonde-haired, fair-skinned Prophet Isa (pbuh), than of her own children. They are devoutly Catholic and I felt like I couldnt breathe. There were flowers everywhere. I hate to say this, but ever since my moms triple bypass surgery, Ive come to dislike flowers. I know its not the flowers at fault and they can bring happy or sad moods, but its times like this I cant stand flowers. For her, the past week has been severely traumatic. She has to have a tumor removed and there is a possibility it could be cancerous. Ok, so Im not really saying what I already know because I'm holding out hope that it will be a false alarm and that she will be back to work soon after her 6 wks insa'Allah. Leave it for a time like this to put perspective into your own life: staying up all night crying for tomorrow because of bugs vs staying up all night crying wondering if there will be a tomorrow.
In other news, the bugs didnt come back last night. I was really thankful. My other co-worker really liked my apartment --- that made me feel good. We watched a movie then called it a night both being exhausted from our visit with Alice and her entire family, extended and all. I dont think I've ever heard so much Malayalam in my life. Of course I dont speak it, and no I wasnt going to insist on Hindi for my sake, actually I dont think they even speak Hindi as much. So the whole time I kept trying to focus on other things so as to keep me from crying: colors, shapes, lights, etc. At one point they all got quiet and looked at me and I ended up doing the classic ignorant "Oh, was that english? My turn?" face. Somber. I now know what it "looks" like.
Anyway, I drove in to work this morning with my co-worker. Surprisingly early, we stopped for coffee at the bottom of the building I had the best time of my life in: my campus apartment building. She's Indian and we have the neatest conversations, always. She was relaying to me what her expectations were of her childrens' spouses. She said in India, she used to say to them, "Catholic is a must." Here, she used to say to them, "Indian is a must." At one point saying, "Opposite gender is a must." Did you just choke on your coffee? Hahaha, I did, too when I heard her say this, but she's right to be concerned. Her son is married now and mA he has a wonderful wife who adores my co-worker's family as her own, and they are equally kind to her and so-not-Indian when it comes to her well-being and happiness. They're both very lucky: the parents and the girl.
Co-worker's surgery is today. The sucky part of the department I work in is that we will soon find out the outcome. I'm not sure I want to know.
Here... there's no blue-eyed Jesus, no gold-trimmed art-deco pieces, no white flowers, but the mood is the same...somber.
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