Yesterday morning I was listening to the radio on the way up to school at around 7 a.m., and they were talking about the anti-war protests going on in San Francisco. At the time I tuned in, there were people protesting in the Financial District, the Embarcadero, and south of Market, and 20 intersections were blocked. People driving by would stop their cars in the middle of the intersection to show their support as well. It was a huge mess. I couldn’t help grinning. Let the people speak, yo! This morning I found out that at the demonstration’s peak, 50 intersections had been blocked simultaneously, and at least 1300 people were arrested. Same stuff going on today. Check out these 2 articles from the Contra Costa Times and the SF Gate.

The second article makes me kinda sad though. Not because of the peaceful protests, but, rather, the crazy mayhem that resulted when “pockets of protesters scuffled with police and splinter groups broke windows and heaved newspaper racks and debris into some streets.” Then, we also had “protesters hurl[ing] rocks, bottles and other debris at police.” Jacking up city property and privately-owned businesses is NOT a legitimate way to protest the war in Iraq. Neither is breaking fire hydrants, antagonizing the police, or showing up at a demonstration with the various weapons that were later confiscated by police: knives, hammers, slingshots, metal poles, rocks and gas masks. I’m afraid to even ask what people were planning on doing with those. Wield them at the pro-war peeps? The police? Each other? Yo, terror does not end terrorism. Get the point, people. We had a march and rally at my university yesterday too, and Shereen has also posted an awesome account of her experiences yesterday.

It would be pretty appropriate to post more about Iraq today…analyze the situation and share my own thoughts and feelings about the whole deal, but I won’t. There are many others analyzing it far more knowledgeably and articulately than I could (oh, and check out this blog while you’re at it). Meanwhile, I’ll just stick to my random babbling for now. So I’m selfish. So sue me. Or just go away. Whatever.

Yeah, I’ve been snapping a lot at people lately. Exhaustion does that to me…enhances my bitchy side. Oh, btw, I should take a minute here to add that self-pity really really REALLY annoys me…either from someone else OR myself. My philosophy is, “You have no right to whine about it if you refuse to do anything about it.” BUT this post might contain a lotta self-pity from the Yaz. I can tell already. :-p I walked by this guy on campus yesterday and couldn’t help faintly smiling at his shirt. Funky white script on a black t-shirt, reading, “I have issues.” I was like, Yeah, me too, buddy. The other day I walked through the university library and got some weird looks from people. I just quizzically raised an eyebrow and stared right back like, What’s YOUR problem?? Glancing at my face in the restroom mirror 5 minutes later, I kinda got their point: my face was all pale and my eyes bloodshot. I looked like I had been crying. The people probably thought I was about to burst into tears any second or something. Little do they know the Yaz doesn’t cry. lol. My dad peered at me over his cup of coffee the other evening and remarked, “Yasminay, you look half-dead.” I was like, Thanks, Daddy, thanks a lot. lol. That’s what I keep my dad around for; he’s just so forthright about telling me these kinda things. So THAT’S where I get it from! My daddy-o will deny it though. ;) [Side note: Had a funny conversation yesterday: Somayya and I were talking to Lamisse, this sister that I just met recently, so she doesn’t know me all that well yet. I said something sarcastic, and Lamisse was like, “Oh, I see we have attitude here.” I was all, “Yeah, I bust out with it pretty often too.” And Somayya jumped in with, “Yeah, Yaz has a tendency to tell it like it is. I do the same thing, but only if you piss me off enough. Yaz, on the other hand, will tell it like it is ALL the time.” I thought that was pretty amusing. And yes, accurate too.] Anywayz, Daddy just shook his head and said, “You’re only 22 and you’re ALREADY looking burned-out. That’s not supposed to happen until you reach MY age!” lol.

But yeah, it’s been a crazy few days. I have this tendency to run myself ragged during finals week. I could count on one hand the total number of real meals I’ve consumed during the past week. Ehhh, scratch that, I might not even need a whole hand, shoooot. The sad part is, I can’t even remember any of the meals. I know there have been at least a couple though. :-p Yesterday I had…ummm…*rubs face; thinks hard*…hot chocolate in the morning, and a yummy dinner when I got home. It’s kinda been like that all week. Substitute anything for the hot choco: candy bars, a bagel, some chips…the randomest food choices ever…whatever was handy. And then maybe a real meal when I got home. And sleep? Let’s not even go there. I’ve been getting about 3 hours of sleep every night the past week. It sucks bad. I’d go home, take a nap from about 9 p.m. to midnight or so, wake up and study all the way through til 6 a.m., get ready really quickly, then leave home at about 6:30 and speed-race my way up to school (since all my finals were at 8 a.m.). Crazy, huh? That just about sums up The Past Five Days in the Psycho Life of Everyone’s Favorite Crazy Child Yaz. Heh. And I think this post requires a little disclaimer here: I LOooOOOoooOOVE FOOD AND SLEEP!! I really really do. No lie, yo. I’m not on some diet towards achieving anorexia, nor am I trying to attain even greater heights of vampire-activity than I’ve already accomplished. Food and sleep are the awesomest things, masha’Allah. I appreciate them both. Ask anyone. Ask Somayya and Shereen. :) So please, no comments demanding that I eat and sleep more (except for daily reminders from Arshe). I already know I need to. And I will. Starting Saturday, insha’Allah.

My legs have been aching soooo much the past couple days. I really don’t know why. Those of you who work out or go running: You know how your legs ache when you first start running again after a really long time of sitting around doing nothing? THAT’S how my legs hurt. And it’s weird, cuz I’m so lazy that I haven’t worked out regularly or gone running since…ummm…last summer, probably. And even then, it was pretty sporadic. I kinda miss running though. Especially the good ol’ days when I was in middle school and used to outrun the girls who’d rather meander along and talk and the guys who thought I was just some little girl who didn’t know how to run in the first place. My phys ed teacher loved me. :-D It WAS fun though. Maybe next quarter I’ll go back to running, insha’Allah. I just need to be more disciplined. About EVERYthing in my life. Blah.

One of the things that helped me get through this week was Surah Ya’Sin. There’s a cassette that my dad brought back from Mecca when he stopped by to perform his second Hajj there on his way to visiting us during the time we lived in Pakistan. The first side contains recitations of Surah Ya’Sin and Surah Ar-Rahman, while the second side is a khutbah, I think. I forget who reciter is, but he does a simply amazing job, masha’Allah. Last Ramadan, I gave up on music for the whole month, and just played the Ya’Sin/Ar-Rahman tape over and over and over. And I was so amazed at myself because, for once, I actually had the discipline to give up music. That’s when I realized that I COULD do it for ever, if I put my mind to it. Funny thing about Ramadan: the antennas on my old car, and then on our other car that I started driving, AND on my dad’s SUV all stopped working around the same time that Ramadan started. So our radios were all jacked up and static-y. So I couldn’t really listen to the rock stations even if I wanted to. I think it was a sign. :) So I concentrated on the Quranic recitations instead, as well as Zain Bhikha and Dawud Wharnsby Ali and various anasheeds. It was awesome. But then, just a few weeks ago, I discovered that my radio works again. Even though the antenna is still jacked up. And, yes, you guessed it, I went back to the rock stations. *sigh* But during this past week, every time I turned on the radio, I’d get a headache. I was always exhausted and stuggling to concentrate on the road. Commuting didn’t help. Rock stations aggravated my bad mood. Music in general was annoying. Heard Linkin Park…switched the station. Heard Savage Garden…switched the station. Heard Matchbox Twenty and Third Eye Blind and still switched the station. I dunno, there was just this empty feeling inside me, and no, it wasn’t cuz of hunger, either. lol. So finally I gave up on the rock stations and my horribly expensive discman with the car-kit, and busted out with the Surah Ya’Sin tape instead. And life was much nicer. Alhamdulillah. I amazed myself…because during Ramadan I learned to recite a lot of Surah Ya’Sin along with the tape, and I found out this past week that I had retained quite a lot of that. Masha’Allah. So I turned the volume way up and kept reciting with the tape, and it was cool, cuz I could still recite long strings of ayaat with the reciter. I have a lot of it still down. I’m happy about that. :)

And I think I’m going to finally end this post now, cuz Sahar and Usman bro have launched a take-over of my tagboard for some time now and are engaged in nagging me until I put this up. Didn’t I ever tell you guys that nagging makes me want to do things even slower?? ;) Anywayz, this is a hella depressing post, man. I’ll try to be more happy-go-lucky and psychotically hilarious as usual next time. :-p It’s 70 degrees here in Nor-Cal today. So i’m gonna go and enjoy the beautiful weather, and try hard not to think about the ugly days that innocent people all over the world are experiencing. Yeah, i know i’m selfish. So sue me.

p.s. I added a link to my tagboard this morning, but it moves too fast and people might miss it. About the blog I linked up there…Check out this MSNBC article for more background info on the blogger (scroll down a little, to where it says “Live From Baghdad”).

backBlog(’91155305′,’RAMBLING MONOLOGUES:’)