Let’s go home, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
By Tuesday or so, I had already realized this week needed to be over. My GMail status:
Dear God: Please make it be Saturday already, because this week kind of sucks. Thank you.
Love, Yasminay
The responses were hilarious:
Anjum, channeling God:
Dear Yasminay,
*sigh*, I get this request every week from you.
[…]

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A chessboard awaits potential players in an Oakland park, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
The Lovely L Lady asked me this evening, “So, what do you do during this meditation?”
“Well. I just close my eyes and concentrate on dua [supplications] and dhikr and any other prayers I have memorized.”
“Oh, good,” she said in mock relief. “I thought […]

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Mid-day meditation, orginally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
From Wednesday, September 26, 2007:
D text-messaged me again late on Tuesday night: Can we please go to meditation group tomorrow? She is in graduate school now, and I detected a hint of desperation.
So, we did. And it was beautiful, as always. D drove down from Vallejo, S came from San […]

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For Baji, my favorite robot monkey pirate, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
A few things, re. Talk Like a Pirate Day, which was on Sept. 19th (must mention them now, before I forget, because they amuse me):
one. My phone shows the following outgoing text message to Baji on August 11th, as I was walking down through San […]

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Gelato! (Back to business), originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
Wandering around aimlessly in downtown one day, I stopped by one of my favorite little shops, only to see the following sign on its door: UNOPEN. Which is a hell of a lot better than the deliberate finality of Closed, you know? UNOPEN means, We’re taking a little […]

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My life is little things that make me happy - like tomatillos at $1.99 per lb.
Originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007 - Beautiful things: The mid-week edition
one: flickrphotos. I get to work, check my emails, and the first thing I find is a facebook message from my sister’s friend, which makes me laugh and […]

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Trying to be difficult at the Berkeley Marina, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz
Yesterday morning, I checked my emails and found the following facebook message from my sister’s friend and classmate (this makes her my friend by default, too, I think). S wrote:
hooooly, lardki!
omg omg omg, i just discovered your mad photo hobby. ummmm, what?? you take […]

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“Not that I’m a handwriting expert or anything but that handwriting looks kinda needy,” originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
I came across the above Urdu sign last fall while wandering around with friends on the infamous-amongst-Desis Devon Street in Chicago. My buddy, Zana, calls the sign “dodgy.” The translation reads: “Girl needed for computer work.”
Speaking […]

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When I came in to work yesterday morning, I checked my personal emails and found this one - accidentally, I’m assuming, sent the evening before by an administrator from my alma mater, to the University’s pre-health sciences listserve, of which I’m still a member (yeah, don’t ask - I don’t know why, either):
Hi, P!
Hope you […]

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Raindrops keep fallin’ on my head, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
The heat wasn’t working at the office today, which means I spent most of the day being aggravated about the cold and - of course - engaging in monologues with God about how much I disapprove of this winter business.
“It’s all in your head, Yasminay,” […]

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Originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
I first got an inkling that Halloween this year was going to generate funny conversations when my buddy Z IMed me at the beginning of October with, “I’m gonna go as Ahmedinejad for Halloween.” Seriously, I didn’t even have a comeback to compete with that. In true Yasmine fashion, I believe my […]

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I went to sleep the other night and accidentally left my AIM on. The next morning, I woke up to find the following IMs from my buddy Z, indicating quite clearly why we are friends:
Z: Yessiree bob, she likes her crackZ: Always has something funny to shareZ: _____ is her younger? sister [The question mark […]

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Originally uploaded by yaznotjaz
“Everyone’s a critic, yaar,” said my friend over IM. “Let’s just call ‘em all biatches.”
I started laughing, which was a good thing, because I had just spent most of the morning cursing a stranger I knew nothing about. This was two Fridays ago. It started with an email: GMail automatically refreshed my […]

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Originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
The Sunday morning before last, I accompanied my sister to Berkeley, where she - along with a group of other students at her university - had designed outfits (seven, in her case) for a fundraising fashion show being held at the campus later that day, once at 3pm and again at […]

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Don’t worry, it’s on silent. Yes, yes, I know, as usual, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
This afternoon, I checked for new voicemessages on my phone, and afterward stayed on the line long enough to hear the robotic lady intone, “…and you have twenty-four saved messages…”
Twenty-FOUR? Holy freakin’ smoley, I didn’t even know my phone was capable […]

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