So, I met  this chick about fifteen years ago at the hospital. She was an Indian, and worked in the lab. I started talking to her, and i thought she was quite good, and had some class. (!!!) Took her to lunch at the Country Club when she said she was leaving town. She told me that she would stay in touch and would send me the recipe of a special dish that M liked very much. She requested for a letter of recommendation, and hoped she could use my name as a reference. I was just... too happy to give it to her.

This is the half rant. It is followed by the full rant. I had posted this on  facebook last week.

There are two kinds of people in this world. One who continues to take advantage of a sucker, and the other, who stupidly allows them to take advantage!
Arrrgh!

+A few days back I was at the store and did some grocery shopping. At the register I had my cheque book out along with my pen. The clerk told me the total amount, and I started digging in my purse for my glasses. Yes I cheat! I have to have my reading glasses on to read and write. I couldn't find the pair. So I backed up a little and strained to write the amount on the cheque.  After I wrote the amount out, I gave the girl my cheque. I knew her as the baby sitter for Andrew and Zain, and told her I was sorry I took so long to write the cheque out, and that I was searching for my glasses. She said, "No problem Doctor; are your glasses different from the ones that you have on the top of your head?" I put my hand up and found my cheaters!

Yesterday I went to pick Andrew up from school. I took my keys out of the ignition and slid my middle finger through the key ring because I did not have a pocket in the slacks I was wearing. I had a book in my hand which I take inside the school because I like to continue the reading while waiting outside his class. I saw Andrew's school bag and his lunch box on the shelf, so I grabbed them. A few minutes later he came out and we started walking towards the car. I realized that I had no keys on me, and knew I had probably left them on the shelf when I picked his lunch bag. His teacher was standing there and I told her that I was looking for the keys. We couldn't find them. Then I noticed the dang key chain dangling from my finger! The teacher patted my back and said, "don't worry doc, we all have the same types of problems many times!" And she is about 30 years old!!

Oh boy!

A friend's husband works for a firm that makes wheels for large 18 wheeler trucks. Some of the wheels are discarded because either they are surplus or are not of proper size. Each of them is about 54 inches in diameter. They brought two such wheels for me. One of them I have in the front yard with flowers, and the other I have in my backyard with vegetables in them. Here are the pictures.

Eggplant, tomato, green chili, and okra.

Dahlias,daisies, columbine, Mexican heather and waving petunias.

I love this shade of Columbine.

Does anyone know what this flower is? I thought the plant was a weed. I don't get rid of some weeds. This year it is full of blooms like these.

Yesterday, the Quincy Senior High School had its prom.

I started to go to the store, and within the block I saw Saadi and Dave taking pictures of their son. How fortuitous was that! I pulled over and got some photos on my cell phone. Here he is with his parents and Ammi! Noah looked so handsome. But he always looks handsome, regardless of the tux!

Every Wednesday the kids are let out of schools early. I go pick my prince Andrew up and bring him here to spend the afternoon with us. Yesterday, Shelley had an appointment with her hair dresser, and I had the added pleasure of having little prince Zain. It was such a beautiful day. They played hide and seek with M and I took some pictures. I love taking their pictures. They are adorable subjects, even when they don't smile or are unhappy about some silly thing.

Aren't they cute?

Now that I have bragged about my little princes, I shall go on to my yard and the flowers. I am so excited about my yard. The flowers are so beguiling, and I just want to spend time on the deck looking at them. The numerous birds, all day long are chirping and sound so happy. The pink Rhododendrons look amazing. Their delicate color makes my heart gasp with ecstasy.

There are so many different azaleas in the yard. White, pink, orange and blood red. Breathtakingly gorgeous. Look for yourself, and be the judge. I am sure many of you have better blooms than these, but for someone from the tropics, seeing such beauty is just truly mesmerizing. the pink azaleas look like miniature roses. Every day, I go to these plants and say, "Dang, you are just as beautiful as you were yesterday!"

And then there is the Martha Washington Geraniums. I saw them in the Nursery, and the flowers looked like folded up pieces of velvet. I HAD to get them!

And finally a lone strong-willed tulip hanging around after every one of its kith and kin has left for the year, amidst the creeping phlox.

When the blinding sunlight darkens, and the sky
covered with thick black clouds suggests rain, I take my
flute out and stand under the Banyan tree, and call her; my
home-made reed lets the notes float through the wind
and urge her to come and play with me. Just like we did
when we were kids.

I hear the thunder, and my heart wants to open up and embrace
that sound. We said that god was rolling large balls on the floor of his
sky! I see the farmer and his wife stop and look at the sky with smiles,
waiting for those large drops of rain, hands arrested on their ploughs.
My own heart longs to hear the music of bells in her ankles
running towards me, with, “ Raaaju, it is going to rain!” The memory of
lilt in her voice calling my name, feels like a boulder in my chest.

Rain clouds, they mesmerize me. They fill me up. My eyes closed,
my arms open, my face open to the heavens, keeps whispering,
“Your Raju is here. I am playing your tune on this reed you gave me,
come play with me. Let’s dance to the rhythm of the falling rain, and
let’s forget Time’s betrayal, and remember only the devotion of love.

Next week, my prince Andrew turns six. I cannot believe how quickly the years have gone by. When he had his first birthday, I had written this. I am not sure that I posted it on Xanga. But anyway, here it is. I was smiling the whole way down memory lane.

How I Celebrated My First Birthday. 

Mohamed Andrew Ali… April 28, 2011

First of all, I have to tell you all that I live in the land of giants. I live with two giants. One of them is soft and cute and kind of pretty, and when I laugh or smile she just claps her hands and jumps around like she hasn’t seen anything like that in her whole life. Sometimes she laughs so hard that she cries! I look at her with wonder, and really want to know what she is going to do when I start doing cartwheels! She keeps telling me, ‘mamma’ a hundred times. I think she wants me to call her mamma!

The second giant, oh my Gawd! It is a he! He is so big. His voice fills the house, and he thinks I am some kind of a giant too, and he wants to play with me. Give me a break! He claps so hard and laughs so hard and rolls around on the floor and lifts me up in the air. Then he lifts this little black thing and puts it to his ear and says, ‘Oh my god mom, you got to see how crapping cute Andrew is!’

Crapping cute? I have my time to crap and my time to play. But this giant he thinks I am always crapping. This guy tells me ‘dada, dada’ all the time. How the heck am I going to remember these words?

This week I started walking. Actually stood up all by myself, and started walking, just like these other giants all around me. You would have thought I was the only one in the whole world who did this. You won’t believe the talks they had on their little black and pink little thingies telling everyone, ‘he walked!’ big deal! Did they think I would be crawling the whole time?

Anyway, one year today I was born. So these two giants took me to this very fancy place called the country club, and then there were more giants there. They were all looking at me and clapping their hands. So, I did the same and started clapping. Monkey see monkey do! But it was the most humiliating thing for me, because they stuck me in this contraption called the ‘high chair’! I saw the two smaller giants there. One of them is shorter than the other one, and is kind of pudgy and his tummy and the fat on his body moves kind of cute. (Davis). He doesn’t have all the teeth in his mouth. (Oh, remind me to talk about when and how my teeth came out and how excited every one was.) So when he talks the air kind of whistles out of his mouth. I like to look at that. The other smaller giant (Noah) likes to carry me. I kind of like that. At least I am not stuck in the high chair all the time. There was a guy who was making different things out of balloons. I was really into it. I liked that a lot. I wanted one for my own self, and what do you know… this one old fat woman, (me) sitting at the same table, told that guy to make for me a Mickey Mouse out of the balloons, and I got my own toy to play with.

This old fat woman, her hair is different. See, this pretty thing who lives in my home, has beautiful brownish gold hair, and the man has black hair. But this old woman, she has like sliver in her hair, and she sings to me in some lingo; and I like the way it sounds. So I clap and shake my bootie. I did that some tonight also. The old man sitting next to her, has no hair on his head… or at least not much. But he is so silly. I like him a lot. Everyone calls him baba, so I tried to call him that too. When I say that word, the pretty lady who wants me to call her mamma, gets so happy and claps her hands. Doesn’t take much for her to get her to clap.  And then there is this other she giant (Saadia) and the he giant (Dave) who are supposed to be the mamma and the dada of the two smaller giants. That woman has a big voice and she laughs so loud. I like to look at her because she says that she loves me and thinks I am the cutest one in the whole world.

So these were all the people at the big table, and every one was wishing me a happy birthday. I was wearing the cutest little ‘onesie,’ which this pretty giant in my house painted for me. It said “IT’S MY FIRST BIRTHDAY!” I hope she saves it for me forever. I really liked that.

I liked going to this club, and looking at all the different giants. I was getting tired, and I think I had peed in my pants too, and was beginning to get a little fussy, so the dada giant didn’t eat his dinner there, and had it packed to take it home. One thing I have to say though, I am really treated like a prince. I really like who I am, and I love the two mamma and dada giants bestest of all. They love me so much, and I feel so happy when they hold me.

This whole day was a lot of fun for me. That‘s how I spent my first birthday.

———————————————————————-

April 17th 2016: Tomorrow I am taking Andrew  gallivanting with me, and get him some gifts for his birthday. Every time he is here and watching some cartoon, he gets really excited about the commercials and says, ” I would so love to have that!” So tomorrow I shall take him with me and see how much damage I can do to my purse!!

There is Breaking News on the TV,
I stop in my tread and turn to face the screen.

The headline says, “A shooting in California
many people dead. Killers are killed.”
I sit down, hands to my mouth
“Please God, don’t let those murderers be
Muslims!

We’ve had enough blood thrown on Islam
Trump and Cruz are already building walls
and concentration camps in their heads. Please
dear Lord, let this shooting be gang related!”

The anchor speaks, solemn voice, I stop
breathing… “The killers are recognized!
Husband and wife, both Muslims, raided
a Christmas party, killing several innocent people”.

I heard a groan that came out like a cry. I didn’t
know when I had fallen to the ground, the crying
groan had escaped from my heart!”

ZSA_MD  April 11 2016