Strange Daze

Today was an interesting day. The greatest thing happened: I got a kitty. She is half Siamese and half Manx. She is 13 weeks old and quite possibly the cutest thing ever. Her name is, get this, Sakeena. I felt it appropriate, given my newly found blog and the journey that it represents. And the name fits her completely. She is so calm, and she does not stop purring. I loved her instantly.

Onto more disturbing things. After returning from picking up the cat, I left my brother with my girls to go get some supplies for Sakeena. I accidentally left the lights on in my car, and when I went to go start it, well, naturally, it was dead. One of my neighbors happened to be heading inside, and so I asked him if he could jump my car. He replied "I don't have any jumper cables." I said, "I have some in the trunk of my car." He stared at me, trying to find another excuse why he couldn't help me, but he came up blank, so he just shrugged his shoulders and walked away. I was so angry that I slammed my car door, and proclaimed, "That was really nice of you." I marched upstairs, trying to hold back tears. I called my mother and the first thing she said was, "Do you think it was because you are Muslim?" "Well, that is exactly what I was thinking," I replied. And it was. I felt really insulted. I needed help, and that man couldn't look past his prejudice to do something nice for another human being?! And I LIVE next to someone like that? Alhamdulillah, my mother assured me that my Step-father would come over to help me, so that was nice.

Once my car was up and running, I went to Target, where I proceeded to stub my pinkie toe. I didn't bother looking at it until something red caught my eye in the checkout line. I looked down and saw a lot of blood. Everything is okay though, alhamdulillah.

So I left, and while I was waiting at a traffic light, jammin' to some nasheeds, I felt like someone was watching me. Usually I try not to let my eyes wander to the surrounding cars, because people are usually staring at me, and I want to avoid confrontation. For some reason I felt a strong urge to turn my head, and what do I see? Some guy in the car next to me was taking a picture of me with his cell phone! When he saw me, he quickly turned his head and looked down. I could see that he was trying to hold back laughter. I rolled down my window, and asked "Sir, What are you doing?" He ignored me and continued to look down, half of his face hidden beneath his door. I repeated, "Sir?" several times, but he never acknowledged me. I was tempted to roll my window up, but instead, I decided to make him feel more embarrassed and sat and stared at him with a prominent smirk on my face until the light turned green and he drove off as fast as he could.

I wonder, who is he going to show the picture/s to? Why was he doing that? I can't be the first hijabi that he has seen. Also, that makes me wonder: How many people have taken my picture? As I said, I never look around, so really I have no way of knowing if this has ever happened before. hmmm...

Well, that was my day. Love to say more, but Z just woke up.

Salam