How I've spent the month of Ramadan.

*art by Hyperbole and a Half ~ via the amazing Rachel

Hiding inside my house (both to escape the outrageous heat and to disguise the fact that I'm not fasting) 

Reading the entire innerwebs (this task up to approx. 79% complete, but I still have a few days left)

Killing an average of 5 large insects in my house per day. Grasshoppers, cockroaches, crickets, moths, giant ants ~ oh, my. (This does not count mosquitos and the occasional what-I-really-really-hope-are-not-bedbugs.) No scorpions, for which I am grateful.

Sitting in the back room of Kabira's hanut, practicing my dough-rolling skills for future employment as a non-OSHA-compliant baker

Completing the Moudawana (Moroccan family law) education manual that has sat at 90% completion for the past 13 months.

Contemplating a long list of other writing/reporting tasks: updated resume, quarterly reports, Description of Service, site journal for new volunteer,

Not following any of the above through to completion

Not journaling

Not "writing" writing

Editing the projects of anyone else who asks (rather than working on my own)

Not perfecting crow pose

Not exercising, per se

Throwing out my back (aGAIN), likely a side effect of not exercising

Stalking you on the Internet

Watching various personal dramas from afar

Trying to remember what it's like to have personal drama

Mentally paring down my possessions (again) as a result of panicking over what to ship back home, and how, and how to pay for it

Savoring the muezzin's morning and evening calls to prayer, knowing how much I will miss these lovely daily interludes

Wondering what comes next ...


Puns I have enjoyed this week:

"Eat Pay Leave" ~ Tshirt currently popular in Bali in response to the "Eat Pray Love" juggernaut

"The Audacity of Taupe" ~ NYT headline on the Oval Office's beige makeover


Blogs I am enjoying today:

Nicholas Kristof's reminder that the current Islamophobia is only the latest in a long American tradition of fear-mongering when it comes to new communities.

Hyperbole and a Half: Thanks, Miz K! And now I see that this delightfully nerdy blog is also where Miz R "borrowed" the artwork I "borrowed" from her to launch this post, and isn't that a tidy little full circle?