update

actually, i lied. some things have been happening to me. so before i came to austin, on thursday i went to dinner with my ex-boyfriend. yes, THE ex-boyfriend. we had chinese and i didnt finish most my food. mainly because i as busy eating the fortune cookies. I LOVE fortune cookies and the place had a whole lot in a basket in the area where you pour your own drinks so i could take as much as i want and i did. while catching up and talking, he mentioned how he had given up drinking and smoking (by which i thought he meant ciggz and weed, but apparently he just meant weed). so as we were talking, he said how much he was craving a ciggerette and so i was like ''here, take a fortune cookie instead.'' he took it, cracked it open, and read the fortune inside and kind of fell silent. i asked him what it said and he handed it to me. it said ''love is like a war; easy to start and hard to end.'' TALK ABOUT AWKWARD MOMENT!

eid mobarak!

o.k. so nothing particularly interesting has happened thus far in my life. however, right now im poolisde at a hotel im staying at with my cousin in austin. i saw the premier of ''i hope they serve beer in hell.'' it was pretty funny, my cousin predicts it will be the next ''american pie'' but i guess we shall see about that. austin has been very relaxing, mostly just lazing around and drinking wine and champagne. i havent even gone to 6th street yet but im pretty sure we will tonight. as you can tell i didn't keep all my fasts this year but to those who did, eidetoon mobarak!

There is a Hole in My Back

Today was a very very lazy day. In fact it has been an overall lazy weekend. The past two days I woke up at around 2 p.m. and didn't peel myself out of bed till like 5ish. I like to either blame it on depression or my mother. Two nights ago, right as I was about to go to sleep, she called me on my cell (by the way, we communicate with our cell phones in this house as it is two stories and it just seems like a better solution than yelling) and started asking me 2348290348 questions!!! And she starts asking me questions about what my sister is doing and what not. LIKE I HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT SHE IS DOING!!??? I don't get why she doesn't ever call my sister. She'll only call her as a last resort. It pisses me off. I am going to stop picking up on her.

We'll get to the depression part later. I don't really think I am depressed, just have my depressed moments.

I started up fasting again today and my mom keeps waking me up in the worst possible ways! I go to bed very late so waking me up for sahari is kind of hard. But imagine waking up to a screaming and irritated woman, yelling at you "POSHO, POSHO, EEN AKHARIN DAFAS SEDAT MIKONAM!!" (translation: "WAKE UP, WAKE UP, THIS IS THE LAST TIME I'M WAKING YOU") It just doesn't put you in the best of moods. And then, already being in a groggy and shitty mood, my overly-religious aunt's husband walks into the living room and tells me its almost azaan (prayer time) as I was finishing off the last few spoonfuls of milk from my Honey Bunches of Oats cereal. Then, he proceeds to stare at the clock on top of the mantle for like 30 seconds (he is very old) and tells me I have 3 minutes left. I promptly just drop my spoon and leave my last spoonful of milk in the bowl and dump it in the sink. I didn't pray in the morning and nor did I today. They make me hate praying. All my aunts husband does is read the Quran, do his namaz (prayers), or watch Iranian satellite t.v. about religion-related things and occasionally, political things (and I think that is only because of my dad as that is all that he watches). He makes me want to go up to him and my aunt, shake them and scream "THERE IS MORE TO LIFE THAN JUST RELIGION!"

Anywho, hopefully my desire for praying will come back when school starts. I know fasting doesn't count if you don't pray but I'll improvise and pray to God in a language I do understand and say things I actually mean in my own unique way.

And then to top all this off, as I was doing something on my laptop at my desk, my cat JUMPS on my back and gets one of his SHARP ASS CLAWS stuck in my skin. And then, he cannot wriggle himself out. It was so painful and disgusting to somehow get his claw out of me, as he was frantically trying to escape. It was hurting me so bad. I just wail out in pain and start crying 'cause honestly, I don't know what else to do. Finally, it was over. And now there is a hole in my back.

Exhausted

I am sitting in my room and I don't want to go downstairs because my other aunt and her husband came from Iran recently and they are over now, they spent the night. So I should go downstairs and say hi. It's just a bit intimidating since they are SO religious. As soon as I woke up (around 11 a.m.) I've just been checking e-mails, facebook, and reading all the blogs I keep up with.

Right now I'm craving the typical chai and noon panir (bread & cheese) breakfast so badly but I will feel so guilty since they are all probably fasting. I would be fasting too except I'm on my rag. *shrugs*. I'll just bring it in my room and eat it while watching an episode of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Sounds perfect actually!!

I have to study so much this weekend!! I already have a test this upcoming week! BOO! And I have just been SO exhausted everyday 'cause of school, the walking, the heat, the buying of books, the staying out till late 'cause a good friend is leaving. So very exhausted! For example, yesterday after school, me, my friend and sister went to the Monarch bar at the hotel Zaza in the museum district to get some drinks. There, I decided to put some of my camera-taking skills to use and took a pic of our delicious drinks and of the big classic church nearby:

Also here is a pic of later in the night and I have no idea who took it or how it turned out the way it did but I just think it looks really colorful and kind of reminds me of trance music

After the drinks we went to the Museum of Fine Arts to watch the screening of "The September Issue"as I absolutely had to go see it! And it was so wonderful, Anna Wintour is everything I expected her to be. But most of all, I fell in love with Grace Coddington, she is truly an inspiring character. A dreamer and as she said herself, a romantic. She has such a great vision! Both her and Anna Wintour. They just have such an eye for fashion, style, and beauty.

Anyways, need to go eat. TEA FIRST!

I took this pic and posted this blog after I ate breakfast...it was very appetizing and everything I imagined it would be. Haven't had Iranian-style breakfast in a while!

Update: just now my mom called me downstairs and apparently, my aunt brought pesteh tazeh (fresh pistachios) from Iran.

Hehe, I guess there is an upside to your overly religious relatives coming to visit. Not that I have a problem with religion, I mean I am fasting this year for crying out loud (although I have been drinking while on my rag). I've also been praying 5 times a day since fasting (except when on my rag of course) so I guess I should get a little credit. I never took it this far before. I just never got the concept of praying to God in a language I don't understand and having no idea what I'm saying to Him while doing so. It just never clicked for me. But this particular aunt of mine is very very religious to the point that they just never felt comfortable here in America. Her husband wouldn't even look at us in the face since we don't have hijab. Also, once when I was in Iran, I think I was about nine and was going to a mehmooni (Iranian gathering/party) and all I was going to do was hop in a cab and go straight to the all-women's mehmooni and straight back home. And so I didn't want to bother wearing my pantyhose underneath my montoh (I guess in english this term would be trench coat, a much lighter trench coat). I hated wearing pantyhose at the time, although now I find them quite stylish. So do you know what my religious aunt told me? She said if I didn't wear the pantyhose and continued to show my legs, that God would take his hot, fiery scissors and cut the meat off my legs for exposing them. I was nine. And let me tell you, the imagery of those words were terrifying. Needless to say, I wore the damn pantyhose.

So, you can see why I am a bit skeptical towards my religious aunt and her husband. But I am older now and I believe they have grown a little bit more liberal so I think this visit should end up o.k. Here's hoping!