One HUNDRED!

Hey, ya'll! This is my 100th post in the 150 days I've been writing here! And to celebrate, I thought I'd let you all in on how I decided to start this little blog of mine. You see, it all started because I am the world's biggest procrastinator. No, really - you would not believe the depths to which my procrastination will go.

I started reading blogs because I was procrastinating. I was pregnant at the time, and in school, and as I surfed the internet in class rather than pay attention to the professor (Civil Procedure, of course), I saw the computer screen on the girl in front of me, and it had these tiny, adorable cupcakes on it. I can't even remember what blog it was, but I googled it and found it and a new time-waster was born. I can't even begin to estimate how affected my GPA has been by reading countless blogs. 

 

Then, sometime last year, we decided that M's parents should go for Hajj. At the time, they had two kids in Saudi Arabia, and they'd visited earlier last year and preformed Umrah, so it seemed like the optimal time to send them for Hajj, too. At some point in the planning, there was a hangup and M's father wouldn't be going. Rather than scrap the whole plan, we pushed for M's mother to go. But she couldn't travel alone to Saudi (not only because women are not allowed to travel alone in Saudi unless they have "permission" from a male relative, but also because of health and mobility concerns), and to send one of the sons back to Pakistan just to escort Ammi seemed a waste. And during Hajj, everyone travels in their own group, so M's two siblings in Saudi couldn't even just meet up with Ammi if she were to fly there alone. So I had the great idea that M should go for Hajj, too. If you're going to spend money to send one of the kids to get Ammi, might as well get an extra Hajj trip out of it, too, I thought.

But that meant I would be alone, with our son, for a whole month. And it was the worst month too - December. When I have a three-week long exam season at school. (It also includes my birthday, our wedding anniversary, and Thanksgiving and Christmas when we fly to visit my family.) But I was adamant, I could not be swayed. I didn't need a man around the house! So off he went and my son and I settled into the business of single parenting. 

We did pretty well, I think. I wasn't expecting much in the way of contact from M while he was gone, but his company had just changed his cell phone plan (because they still needed him while he was gone) and he had text messaging and everything while he was there. It was amazing! I got to speak to him at least once a day and got at least 3 text messages per day - morning, lunch and night. It was very comforting. 

But I also slacked and procrastinated more than I ever had in my life! It became clear that much of my daily needs are only met because of M. Needs like food and water. And someone taking out the trash and picking up the mail and doing to dishes. And bathing out son. And forcing me to STUDY ALREADY FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! And as if I didn't waste enough time on the internet instead of studying for me exams, I decided to start writing a blog! 

I had thought about writing for some time, but my mind wanders and my life is very compartmentalized; school; baby; husband; house; white family; brown family; etc.. So I needed some focus. Meeting M has always been the most interesting story I tell, and I never tire of talking about him, so I figured that talking about desi stuff would be perfect. 

And it's turned out well, I think. I still have a lot of stories, don't you worry! We haven't even scratched the surface. Thanks for making this so much fun!