My Simple Life

This past Saturday is where my nightmare starts. Early in the morning I wake up and come into my living room. Ten minutes later all my electricity gets shut off. Puzzled, I call upstairs to my landlady's house and inquire about their electricity. Theirs is fine.

Uh-oh, I think. I call the electric company and for the next 3 hours scream, shout, bitch, complain, and threaten (ok no I didnt do this) them into turning it back on. Come to find out, Friday afternoon my landlady decides to switch over the electricity into my name, albeit 10 months later. Of course she cannot do this without my ok, so she tells them she will contact me and tell me to call in and have it switched over. God knows why, but the order is placed as a turn-off rather than a switch-over. The turn-off usually happens within three days, but because Im so lucky, it got done that same Saturday.

So there I am, in my apartment with no electricity. My immediate thought went to my refridgerator. I didnt have much in my fridge, but my freezer was stocked full of frozen items. I knew I had to do something about that, so I gave my landlady most of my fridge items when she came down to apologize. My first thoughts after that: I'll just watch movies instead of cable. DUH! The electricity went, not the cable. No electricity, no TV. Second thought: No AC. Thats ok, I'll just use the fan. DUH! No electricity, no fan. Third thought: Fine, this will force me to read Quran -- WELL I MOTHER FREAKING CANT DO THAT EITHER RIGHT NOW! Fourth thought (and this is the funniest): OMG OMG OMG. How will I sleep at night without a light???

We dont realize just how many things run on electricity until you slowly realize you cant use any of the items. Nothing.

But, Alhamdullilah, Im blessed to have a friend close by who invited me over to her house for the night, but I decided to go home to my parents'. My mom and sister were leaving for Canada for two weeks, so I really wanted to see them off.

Originally, I was told that my electricity would be restored Thursday, to which I replied that was out of the question! Screaming and bitching helps, I got it switched to Monday after threatening to walk outside and flip the "switch" myself.

I come home Monday afternoon, expecting a huge mess to be spilling out of my freezer, but it wasnt too terribly bad. The ice bag I had had only partially melted, but everything else was ruined. 15 minutes and four bags of trash later everything was cleaned up.

Ma: Well atleast one good thing came of it: it forced you to clean out your fridge and get rid of everything in your freezer that you had no intention of ever using. (That and then some!)

The one good thing that came of the darkness was that it forced me to stay out of the apartment for most of the daylight hours. I had a lot of fun, too. I went shopping to the little outside markets. I had pizza for lunch from my favorite place thats a drive aways but it was worth it. Then, I went to my favorite store ever: Barnes & Noble. I took my books and studied in the sunlight in one of the most comfiest chairs ever.

So, all ends well, that usually never starts well, SubhanAllah. I've come out of the dark, and back into the light. Electricity is a pretty cool tool.

Friday night was awesome. I met my father at my elder sister's house for dinner and I got to see the best children in the world! As they grow, they're growing into personalities and developing their own likes and dislikes and tempers. And... Im proud to say, they've inherited my family's genes for story-telling.

Idrees' story: There once was a King named Idrees. And a queen named Farah Khala. King Idrees went to the beach and he fought with a monster.

Fatima: There's no such thing as monsters! The monster fell into the water.

Thats right babes, you tell him! No such thing as monsters. Just dont ask Farah Khala why she sleeps with a light! :P

The funniest thing:

Baji: Idrees, beta, give the adhan.

Idrees: Now?

Baji: Yes, beta.

Idrees: But who's going to come?

(Cutee... he thinks there has to be a lot of people in order to make adhan effective. Kinda like, Im not giving adhan for JUST these guys --- thanks.. love ya too!)

Baji: Yes, beta, you give adhan and watch. We'll all come to pray.

Idrees: Really?!

Then he looks at me.

Idrees: Farah Khala are you going to pray, too.

Ah, hell. The ONE time he gives adhan and I cant pray. Perfect timing, really. Thank God he forgot all about me not being in the lineup after giving adhan. Thats another good thing about children: shorter attention spans.

:D