What time is it?... Oh Scheisse*

Some people can step out of bed, into a horrendous tracksuit, and still manage to look decent. For those less fortunate, mornings consist of alarms, shoddy breakfasts, and too much hair product. I am most assuredly of the second group as my second day of Ramadan tale will show.

The way things go at case de Nasiha these days is: 1) My vibrating cell phone alarm wakes me up but not my roomate. 2) I do the usual suhur (pre-sunrise meal), scarf a day old muffin I took from the cafeteria, get some fruit on the bottom action, and down a bottle of Dasani. Lastly, 3) I Pray.

The way things actually went at casa de failure yesterday was: 1) my vibrating cellphone woke me up. 2) I was like, "wha? who? no..." and went back to sleep. 3) My alarm for class woke me up and I said aloud, "oh merde..." - pardon my French. And, 4) I tried my best at damage control by eating the muffin, drinking the water, and making a good niyat (intention) for fasting.

The remainder of the day went smashingly, if by smashingly you gather intense sleepiness and a grumbling tummy. For iftar, I had leftovers from the first iftar and, an authentic fave straight from my mama, pulau. A normal night ensued, with a new - and not gonna lie - pretty intense episode of Project Runway.

Growing up in our family, Ramadan had better mean a damned lot, or else. And, for me, it does. Aunties raised me right, y'all.
Ramadan means eating too many samosas and never feeling guilty about it! But, it's also about forgetting all of life's usual distractions and simply trying to be better and learn a thing or two about self-control.

And so, the saga continues...

*Schiesse is a lively German word worth looking up and using in daily conversation.

On the first day of Ramadan my true love gave to me...

So, we have come to that time of the lunar calendar year again, Ramadan. And two of us American-born Desi Muslim cousins have decided to blog our All-American Ramadan experience for several reasons: A) because we can, 2) becuase it's funny, and Quatrro) because we're amazing and everyone should know the psychosis that we are :)

Like we mentioned, there are two of us, Sam and Nasiha...we will take turns writing about each day of Ramadan '08 and hopefully some of you will find it, insighful, at the bare minimum tolerable, and amusing. Here's day 1's entry by Sam.

So, after dragging my butt out of bed at 4:45 this morning to ensure that I would finish eating prior to the sun coming up at 5:15, I was barely able to manage to place a cup full of left-over gnocchi and a quarter of a chicken parmesan on a plate. I have a vague memory of sitting on my couch, and then next I knew...I was late for work. It's okay because, my non-Islamic work cohorts were too unwilling to discuss why I was eating so early and decided to fast on this particular Tuesday that my tardiness was a moot point. The first day is always the hardest and I must confess that having had only five hours of sleep, I wish I had had the insight to down a cup of coffee. The further along the day went, the more cranky and unfocused I became. I picked up Nasiha after work and we decided we required milk for thinning-out the sheer kurma her mother had provided to ensure a proper Iftar (fast-breaking time). Somehow, we found ourselves at target, not only buying a plethora of random food items, but also, two polo shirts which happened to be on clearance. After leaving target, we decided to go to Trader Joe's to purchase additional cuisine. However, in my food and sleep deprived stupor, the way to Joe's was paved with wrong turns and old North Shore drivers. That's where this following picture comes in:

Although, I was nonplussed by the situation, Nasiha was having kittens on the seat next to me. Not only was my driving giving her palpitations, but we were quickly approaching Iftar time. And as any good, or at least semi-good, auntie will tell you, you mustn't break your fast late! Finally, we made it to Joe's and after mad dash through the aisles and being regaled by an incoherent cashier's tale of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, we finally made it to the car and back to my place with 17 minutes to spare. What ensued was a chaotic preparation of random food:

Our menu included: the traditional dates, sheer kurma (properly thinned down), chicken shu mai, beef tamales, taquitos, chicken pot stickers, strawberry pomegranate soda, and the best nachos ever prepared. The turkey bacon, chicken parm, jalapeno, three-cheese, hot salsa nachos are something that I sadly think will never be duplicated, but will live on in our hearts and dreams forever. And yes Moms, we prayed afterwards.

We polled our other cousin Ayesha to ask what Ramadan meant to her, and here's what she had to say via text message from LA, "Hugs, kisses, and Hollywood riches!" Kim Kardashian eat your heart out...

I have to say that our quote of the day came during a tense moment of Iftar preparation when Nasiha said to me, "Get your hands out of the bacon and come get yourself a date..." Amazing...I was cooking bacon...all right...it was turkey bacon...but it's still amazing....

Till day two....toodles