I helped pick out a bouquet of flowers today.
As a single, random act in and of itself, buying flowers really isn’t all that hard. “Ooh, look, these are so pretty,” we said, and grabbed an armful of three different types. As the lady took apart the bunches of flowers and skillfully re-did them as one […]

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(a.k.a. corrupting the youth of tomorrow)
I was starting to feel old for a while this morning. And you know that never happens.
It happened this morning, while I was sitting on a little wooden chair reading to my cute preschool kids. We were making our way through a story about a farmer who planted what turned […]

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what? what? what?
Just got done spending almost two hours checking out 115 tables worth of college/university reps extolling the virtues of their respective graduate school programs.
After all those questions descriptions conversations brochures pamphlets smiles quizzical glances handshakes endless filling-out of information cards, I have only two things to say:
- If I thought I was […]

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For all my joking that my mental age is in the single digits (and, hey, it is, okay), all I really want is to be fourteen again.
I was still two weeks shy of my thirteenth birthday the year I traveled to Pakistan, in the midst of Ramadan, for what would ultimately become an eighteen-month stay. […]

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break time, naptime
Seeing as how I’ve recently been accused of doing nothing more than “pulling all nighters or driving around or munching munchies,” I’ve decided to consider that a point well taken and therefore do nothing more than spend this weekend sleeping as much of my life away as possible. I know y’all must be […]

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don’t underestimate me (too much)
A: I’m all up for equality, but women don’t wanna be equal, they just wanna rule the world
Yasmine: Oh is that so?
A: uh huh. I mean, do you go to get your car’s oil changed? Or does daddy do it for you?
A: Do you even pump gas in your car?
Yasmine: I […]

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Tonight, I have here at my elbow:
- One canister of Pringles
- Two bottles of cranberry-apple-raspberry juice
- Five assorted candy bars
Now let’s see if that’ll be enough to get me through the night.
Tomorrow, I have a midterm exam and a paper due, both of which I forgot about ’til now, because I’m oh-so-smart like that. […]

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We’ve just spent an hour of our lecture time watching a film called Real Women Have Curves, and another hour discussing our reactions to this movie about a Mexican family in Los Angeles, about a teenaged girl moving between two worlds. As usual, I throw out a few thoughts about identity as fluid and impermanent, […]

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“oh no, I’ve said too much/I haven’t said enough…”
I am sitting in the café’s patio, alone, surrounded by mosaic tiles and empty wrought-iron furniture, late afternoon sunlight slanting across my table, classical music streaming from the speakers.
Just this morning, exasperated at running out of lined paper during my lecture and having misplaced my favorite […]

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“waiting on me when/i come home…”
So far, eight missed calls on my cell phone.
Who are these people? More importantly, why don’t they leave messages after the beep?
How hard could it be, eh?

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it’s all love (sometimes not, but mostly yes)
[Phone coversation, this morning:]
D: Hey, rebel child.
Me: Hey, nerd. Where you at?
D: On campus. You here, too?
Me: Aww, damn.
D: Why, what’s up?
Me: I’m studying in the library and it’s hella cold up in here. I was hoping you could bring me a sweater or light jacket of yours […]

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When I fall asleep during lecture, do not wake me up.
When I shrug into my sweater - mentally kicking whoever raised the air conditioning unit to such a high level - and then sink down into my seat with a long-standing, comfortable disregard for good posture, don’t you dare so much as blink.
When I put […]

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what is this dude on?
What the heck kind of professor gives his class a handout with the following reading assignment? –
- Skip from the bottom of page 74 to the middle of page 78, from the middle of 89 through the top of 90, and from the bottom of 104 to the […]

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[Acknowledgement for this post must go to Somayya, without whose generosity and understanding I would not have made it to yesterday’s program, who has successfully put me on several guilt trips over the past week and who has, yes, been quite justified in doing so, but who (I hope) understood why I had to be […]

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i want a wide-brimmed panama hat!
Waiting to buy stamps at the post office, I smiled – briefly, impersonally, or so I thought – over my shoulder at the tall elderly gentleman who appeared in line behind me, then turned back to face the front.
His voice, rusty and deep, came from behind me: “You have […]

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