I'm moving my updates to a different blog, http://www.farah-faisal.blogspot.com, since it's an easier address to remember and spell. It's been a great ride updating this blog, hope you'll follow me on to the next chapter!

Wednesday, July 28, 2004

Assalamu'alaikum....

   Haven't been updating lately, heheh.. sorry about that. To tell you the truth, I don't really even know where to start, but I'm assuming I kinda stopped writing after Friday. A few stuff has happened since then, even though I barely went out, but lemme see....

    On Saturday, Hann called me up, and we had dinner at Pizza Uno. It was the first time I actually went out of the vicinity of my house since I got back from Michigan. Dinner was kinda nice, though the topping on the pizza was kinda unusual.... mussels and eggplant. But I was loving this cheesy spinach-and-chicken dish that we had and I for the life of me cannot remember what it's called (cuz, if you're reading this, mind writing in the chat box the name of it? Oh wait... you don't do chatbox.... but if you're feeling humorous, please do  heheh :) ). As a result, I missed my first Akademi Fantasia concert on TV ..... which I didn't  feel too bad, surprisingly enough.

    Sunday was ho-hum, I stayed home with my little darling my little terror (my niece Aishah and my nephew Haziq, respectively). My sis-in-law, bro and parents were taking the day kinda easy, so I watched the lil' tykes for the day. Oh, almost forgot, something did happen in the morning.....

    Remember the last entry I wrote about my dad trying to force me to go jogging in the park? Well, after my Subuh prayers, I made the mistake of going into my mom's room to ask for for some cotton pads, and there she was, all geared up fer her exercise in the park. After much coercing on my mom's part, a few guil trips and several objections later, I found myself driving me and my mom to ... you guessed it ... the park. Except instead of jogging, my mom pulled me to the aerobic area where this guy was yelling into a microphone while flailing about on the podium, and all these hapless people try to follow suit. I was about to die from the embarrassment of it all, until I got into the  "groove" if you can call it that, and realize nobody's laughing or pointing at me, everybody's too busy trying to listen to Mr. Flailing Limbs. Now, I have been doing aerobics for 4 years with different types of teachers, so following what he was doing wasn't the problem, except that I couldn't see him that well and the people in front of me were NOT doing what he was. It was a bit of a pickle, really, I don't want to sound mean but seriously, if you're just gonna stand there and then do something completely different, move outta the way man. I ended up doing the laughing.... at my mom. I would glance over and just laugh my head off because there we were, mother-daughter doing the whole bonding thing by aerobic-ing at the park, trying to follow an instructor who wasn't even following the beat of the music! It was kinda hilarious, actually, you gotta be there to get it.

    Anyway, Monday was the day I was supposed to get my luggage from Nik and pick him up from KLIA. My cousin Hann came and picked me up, and we drove there in record time because as always, he drives like he owns the road and everything on it. We waited until 1 pm, when Nik finally came out of the arrival gate. By then, Hann and I were reduced to eating some pretty bland buffalo-wings sandwiches from Delifrance,  which I only ate half and even Nik didn't want the other half, which actually says something ( ...... ) heheh. Anyway, we sent Nik to UPM, and got lost once we were inside the campus, and before that, confused UPM with UKM, which is in Bangi. Luckily everything turned out okay. Nik got to see his sis and a certain miss (hehehehe... wink wink) , I got my bag and a barrel of laughs to last the day, and my cousin still managed to be on time to  "teman" someone to a photoshoot thingy. Happily ever after, I must say.

   Tuesday, doctor's appointment for me and Aishah. I'm not liking the medicine she's prescribing me but hey, we'll give Accutane a try anyway......

   Wednesday, found out that my dad isn't going to Raub today and instead is going tomorrow. I, who had made plans with Yanie to go shopping at Mid Valley, now have to postpone said shopping trip to Friday. And that's about it. Hehehe

  I'm sleepy and cranky, so I better pen off now and get some sleep.... zzzzz....

Wassalam.....

Friday, July 23, 2004

Assalamu'alaikum....

   Pagi tadi pagi2 lagi dah ade argument dgn bapak (due2 stubborn, kite jenis yg tak suke kene arah tak tentu pasal, bapak pulak suke mengarah tak tentu pasal) pasal, all of things, jogging. Apparently sebab dah makin tembam compare dgn last summer, bapak bising2 nak suruh org jogging. Suruh tau, bukan suggest. Needless to say, my answer was a resounding "tak nak". Aiseh, kite kat Michigan pun stok yg tak suke jogging, suke pegi gym buat Steps tak pun gune elliptical machine ke, weights ke.... paling tak kenan jogging, tak kisah lah jogging tuh di kire care paling cepat nak lose weight, kalau tgh betul2 bosan or nak warm-up je baru jogging. As it is, dah lah sendiri stok yg tak suke exercise depan family, sebab kene komen je memanjang, so bile kene suruh2 camtuh, siap cakap kene ikut jugak besok, I gave a big "tak nak. Mak, tgk lah bapak! Ade ke..", packed up buku cerite yg tgh pegang, cakap nak bace buku dalam bilik, and fled, tinggalkan mak nak settlekan dengan bapak. I hate it when he does that to me, layan org macam still budak kecik, mane org tak lari jauh2 pegi Johor, then pegi US. Lepas nie nak lari gie mane pun tak tau dah. Don't get me wrong, I love my dad, tapi die punye infuriating tuh Allah je lah yg tau kite rase macam mane.

   Anyway, mak bile dah sampai ofis, try nak pujuk. Cakap lah "kene faham lah, itu ini gitu gini..." (okay, tuh bukan exact words die, tapi exact words die org malas nak tulis). Tgh2 nak pujuk tu, sempat jugak nak advocate ikut die dengan bapak pegi padang besok, die kate kengakdang tuh, it feels good nak ikut kate orang . 'Why don't you try, once, and find out how you feel". Tuh mak cakap. Kite dalam tak nak-tak nak tuh, kene lah pikir jugak kan, ekceli still tak nak, tapi dah cakap dengan mak, "tgk lah dulu", sebab segan lerr nak lompat2 depan org. Ayat mak lepas tu lah best,

mak : di taman memang ade ramai orang, tapi masing-masing dgn aksinya tersendiri.  Mereka memang tak ambil peduli apa orang lain buat.  Mereka dah pandang pun kat kite
mak : mereka tak nampak pun kite

Keskeskes.... nasib baik mak aku kiut, so bende2 yg die cakap takdelah rase weird sgt, tapi still kelakar lah jugak. Siap suruh nyorok belakang pokok...

mak : kalau farah segan, farah boleh nyorok belakang pokok
mak : tapi kalau belakang pokok, mana nak nampak cikgu aerobic tu?

Keskeskes..... kelakar lah mak, tapi sebab die macam tu lah sume orang sayang, sweet baik je mak, alih2 dapat anak pompuan macam mala'un. Kak Yann pulak kate, kesian mak, dapat menantu tak gune. Hahahahaha.... sgt2 tak betul, Kak Yann best, bleh buat kawan, the best thing my brother ever did was to have the sense nak pursue Kak Yann. Sonok aku.

    Nasib baik ade mak, Kak Yann dengan babies kat rumah, bearable sikit, kalau tidak ade jugak stok nak bunuh diri sebab tension. Ye lah, expectations diri sendiri dah tinggi dah, alih2 kene pressure as though I never tried and tau main2 je, 3 guesses what that would do to one's self esteem. Oh well.... "home sweet home" (?).

Wassalam.....

 

Thursday, July 22, 2004

Assalamu'alaikum....

   Posting hari nie nak dedicate dekat mak, sebab saje jek. Dah tak jumpe mak setahun, alih-alih balik nie mak dah cyber lah pulak. Dulu nak ajar gune MSN Messenger pun susah, sekarang nie mak dah ade akaun Yahoo sendiri, siap install YM kat computer office die. Dah lah tuh, siap pandai masuk chat room and chat dengan random orang. Pulak dah. Power mak aku, dah jadi nenek orang pun sanggup nak mereti-reti kan diri untuk berchatting. I guess mak org lain pun, ramai je reti chatting dengan anak sendiri sume, tapi takde lah nak cube-cube masuk chat room kan, hahah. Kelakar lah jugak dengar mak distressed bile tetibe byk gile window pop-up dengan orang nak cakap hi sume, hahahahah. Sure ramai tak sangke diorang tgh chat dengan a 55-year-old granny yang ade anak umur 33 tahun and dah ade 2 cucu.

   Here's an excerpt of ape yg chat dengan mak hari nie (chat one whole day sebab online one whole day, buat macam kat Michigan lah pulak)...

babygirl959: mak, tak payah lah masak ketam malam nie, hehe
babygirl959: masak ketam besok lahhhh, malam nie Farah kenyang
mak : tak kan tak makan langsung
babygirl959: hehe... malas lah, sekarang pun perut kenyang lagi
babygirl959: kenyang sgt2
mak : oklah mak masak sup kaki ayam untuk bapak je
babygirl959: kak yann dengan abang?
mak : mak nak balik ni, bye, see u, macam Hajiq lak
babygirl959: hahahaha
babygirl959: okaymak : mak goreng ayam je untuk mereka
babygirl959: okay

   I love my mommy.....

Wassalam...

Tuesday, July 20, 2004

Assalamu'alaikum....
      Inilah... bosan due hari duduk kat umah. Hari nie dah hari Rabu dah, baru dapat a few phone calls aje lah from a couple of my friends and a veryyyyyy threatening message from my cuzzy (aiyok!). Entry hari ini akan ditulis dalam Bahase Melayu (mostly) sebab dah tak duduk keliling omputih, so otak dah kene Melayu balik dah.

   Mak still dalam usehe nak carik banglo, rasenye sebab nak soh bang Rizal jual rumah yg diorang tgh renovate tuh so that die ngan Kak Yann stay satu bumbung dengan Mak dengan Bapak. Iyelah kan, diorang pun bosan, duit tgh ade, rumah dah mmg sah2 dah kecik, might as well pindah. Dah lah selame2 wujud diri kat dunie nie, rumah nie je yg penah kenal, aku/I/saye belum penah lagi lah duduk tempat lain. Excited jugak bile pikir pasal pindah2 nie, kalau kate kanlah end up as andartu and kene duduk ngan mak bapak pun, takdelah teruk sgt nak terjerumus dalam kancah kesedehan nye.

   Jet lag tak habes2 lagik. Semalam lepas kol 1.30 pagi je, tak bleh nak tido. Ntah hape hape ntah buat, main internet, pomen2 laptop, chatting ngan Bantut kecayangan (Hepi 22nd Bedey Toot-tey!! Kueskues....) and kene marah sebab tak wish bedey die. Hantu betul, belum kol 6 pagi lah dah kene sebijik, hahaha. Anyway, lepas subuh tuh, online lagik, pastu buat cubaan2 nak chatting gune webcam ngan mic dengan Nik, tuh pun pasal nak tunjuk anak sedare punye pasal. Hahaha... Nik kate webcam org gambar jam stroboskop, slalu sekat2. Sabor je lah... Ajiq jugak yang best, tgh nik bising tuh, die datang kat microfon, letak jari kat bibir pastu cakap  "Shhhhh..." . Pndai anak sedare aku nie yer... Aishah hari nie baik, tak bising sgt nangis2 sume. Nie die takde kat rumah, ala-ala bosan... is sgt sunyi, is sgt bosan.

    Kite budak pandai, tak amek nomor henpon sume org before balik, pulak tuh dah skang dah mati akal tatau nak contact orang camane, hahah. Adoilah. Mak dah buat plan2 nak gie Cherating on the 5th and 6th, so kalau nak kluar, kene kluar before that sebab haram dah tadek baju. Oh well...

   Nie dekat rumah tgh online lame tak ingat dunie... mentang2 Streamyx, still..... hehehe... Tgh carik Akademi Fantasia ngan Malaysian Idol punye info, if we're lucky, me and Kak Yann maybe dapat tgk final AF, paling2 tak pun salah satu konsert die lah. Waaaahhh tak sabar nye.... mau mau, hahaha... even though sorang kontestan pun tak kenal. Oh well....

   Okaylah, nak kene carik something to do, kalau tak mati akal kat sini, maybe try calling some of my darlings (macam ade plenty jek).

Wassalam
Assalamu’alaikum… 
  
            Right, so here I am back home again…. Home, home, home on the range. Whoopeee!!! (Do not mistake my “Whoopeeee!!!” for my “Big whoop.”, the latter one is me being sarcastic. So anyway, I arrived on Sunday, along with Deera, after a pretty eventful journey.
 
            It started out the night before I was supposed to go home. I had just finished packing not only my going-home suitcases but the rest of my possessions into boxes provided by Corrigan Movers, because those bastards over at housing decided to make my dorm a freshmen only dorm, and kicked out us poor helpless upperclassmen into the Northwood family housing. Granted, it is nice, I get to have my own kitchen and private bathroom, and a living room with a sofa bed, but it also means giving up a few stuff, like a laundry room, for one, and fluorescent lights, since they only provide us with those icky yellow ones that contribute to my deteriorating eyesight, and of course, resident computing. No more printing in the middle of the night for me. Lousy bastards. Good thing they provided movers for my stuff, so I only had to pack, some other poor fools had to move ‘em. The absolute nerve of those housing people….. I can gripe on and on about them, but let’s just move on to more fun stuff.
 
            So after moving my stuff out the next morning, I bought some souvenirs for my parents and my friends from Steve and Barry’s, went back to my place, prayed, then got a phone call from the cab that was picking me and Deera up. Needless to say, a lil’ bit of hell broke lose as I had to leave my forwarding address and the cabbie was bickering for us to ‘be quick”. Needless to say, a bit of confusion had set in, and I left a hand luggage back in Michigan. Holy shit. It was not my lucky day.
 
            Fortunately enough, the rest of the trip went on okay. Deera and I were both “mamai” from our respective lack of sleep. There was this one time we rode a train back and forth because neither of us heard what the announcement was saying. But the mishaps ended there (I think). We met up with Hussen (from Texas) and a hairstylist named May, who was visiting her niece and nephew in Yale and Caltech, respectively.
 
            My family came to pick me up from the airport, and I got to see my niece for the first time ever. She’s so tiny and cute. Unfortunately she suffers from eczema, so she’s red all over, poor baby. Tiny little red thing. I only know one other person who suffered from that, bitch tried using her “condition” to get out of everything (can you sense the anger in the air, hahah ). But Aishah, my niece, is such a good little baby, she hardly cries, and she has the sweetest smile .  I adore her like hell.
 
            So here I am, back home again. Big piece of news: apparently my nagging my mom to get a new place really sunk in because she’s been looking for a new place for a few months now, and she’s thinking to sell our house. Yippee!!! She was eyeing this bungalow nearby, but before she could make a bid, a contractor bought it. Darn. Oh well, good things come to people who wait, my mom is VERY good…. How the heck she got me as her daughter, I have noooo idea…..


Toodle doo, peeps! Wassalam…

Friday, July 09, 2004

Assalamu'alaikum...

My last day of work. Oh boy... kinda sad. I've loved working here. I mean, where else can I find a boss who would bring her to Michael's (the store) to shop for scrapbook supplies? Where can I find a job that let's me come in wearing glasses, t-shirt and sweatpants... and still work in an office? *Sigh*.... I'm gonna miss this... even though next semester I'm coming back to the exact same office but working in a different position with the exact same pay. The hours will be shorter, of course, since I'll have classes and other stuff.

Weird. One minute I'm excited to go home, the next I'm totally dreading the lack of privacy that I know is going to plague me as soon as I step foot on Malaysian soil. Hopefully I won't be an asshole when I reach home, there's nothing worse for me to be a jerk around the people I love just because I can't stand people barging into my private quarters at every hour during the day.

Jen is refrshing my memory on how to parallel park today, right after work. After that, have a dinner invitation from Unmesh (whom I haven't seen for such a long time and I feel guilty for that) and a movie invite from Dennis (to join him, Al and another person). Knowing me, I might decide that I'm too tired to do anything, go home and watch The Sopranos on DVD.

I am officially hooked on The Sopranos. I finish off a season a day, watch the special features and I can't wait to see the next episode. Too much T and A for my liking, but they do run a strip club, so I can't really object to that. What I can object is the amount of f***ing the characters do, most of the time it doesn't even contribute anything to the story. Good thing the storyline's good, or I might have just decided to not watch after the first DVD.

I'm a little sleepy right now after lunch and stuff. Thank goodness I only have a couple more hours to go, then I'm done for the summer. Time sure flies, I'm 22 now, pretty soon I'll be 25.

My biggest fear: to chase all the material stuff in my life (a Master's in CS or financial engineering-- as soon as I decide which I can actually be happy doing--, working in the US, coming back home and securing my place at home so that I can take care of my mom and dad) and one day, wake up, realize I'm 45, and think "Shit, I forgot to get married and have a baby".

Imagine that.

Thursday, July 08, 2004

Assalamu'alaikum...

Just realized that the photo below was a lil' too big, so I cropped it. As was mentioned before, click on the photo to see some other sushified cartoo characters. I myself just had lunch that consisted of a tray of deluxe california rolls from the Sushi Fresh! collection (at least I think that's what the company is called..)

I am so screwed right now, because Katharine left me some work that I am now at lost on how to do. Shit. I'm supposed to be organizing the table arrangement for this fall's North Campus Festival. So I categorized the organizations (piece o' cake), decided who gets to perform what... and now I have no idea where to put them. I mean, I know which spaces are available, but some of the participants need to be near a power source, and some needs water supply nearby, and some just need a big friggin' space for their supplies of crap-shit. And I, being that this is my first time ever doing this stuff, am waiting for Katharine to come back from her lunch with Susan, or Shelley, or whoever she's having lunch with. I think I just killed a couple of acres of trees looking at the amount of stuff that I printed out just to figure out who wants what.

So now, as i wait, I pondered.... when the hell am I going to take my driving test. And I'm about this close to having a panic attack because I realize already have a schedule of social activities and work for next fall, on top of my normal class schedule.... and the friggin' term hasn't even started yet! I haven't even gone on a holiday yet (minus Chicago trip, I'm talking about home)! Holy shit!

To top it off, I realized that I seem to be spacing out more frequently than usual, and that scares me. I mean, last weekend, I managed to get the time we're leaving for Chicago wrong (thought it was 9pm instead of 6pm), I almost managed to convince myself that I didn't have to go to work because it was Saturday (no it wasn't, it was Tuesday after I got back from Chicago and I was almost late for work, thank goodness i snapped out of it in time) and I was freaking out when I did laundry because I couldn't figure out why my black top was suddenly red... until I remember I bought two colors of the same top.. one red, and one black.

And I keep forgetting stuff even though I was thinking about it 5 seconds ago.

Case 1: I was in the living room, decorating my dad's card when I wanted to get stamps from my desk for the envelope. I paused my DVD player, got up, got into my bedroom, and for the life of me couldn't remember what I wanted to get. I had to stand in my bedroom for about 10 seconds before I realize what I wanted.

Case 2: I was making a mental list that I needed to post my dad's card and print some pictures for my scrapbook. So I rummaged through my backpack for a pen, took out my notepad... then couldn't remember what I wanted to write. This soooo happened! I had to glance around my room to see if I can remember anything. Good thing I saw dad's card, it jogged my memory enough for me to remembr what I wanted to write.

Case 3: This morning, I boiled some water because I needed to make this horrible tasting tea that I need to take with some herbs mom sent me (ironically enough, it's for physical and MENTAL well-being). I haven't taken tea for quite some time now, and the medication, and it's been weeks since I used my kettle. I plugged the kettle in, went into my bedroom to straighten my bed and put some clothes on, and promptly forgot about the kettle. While that seemed normal, when I heard that whistling sound (y'know, the one that indicates the water is done?), I couldn't figure out what made the sound and when I did find the source, I couldn't remember why I boiled the water in the first place. I had to walk around the room straightening out stuff before it finally dawned on me about the tea...

I mean, I've heard of absent-mindedness, but this is freakin' ridiculous. Seriously, this is scaring the shit out of me, I mean, I've always been a teeny-weeny-itty-bitty absent minded, but I've nver had it this bad. And if you're thinking "She's remembering all the stuff that happened to her quite well, is she faking it?", rest assured that I started writing this shit at 1.30pm, and now it's 3.30pm. I had to pause and alternate this and work just so I have enough time to remember everything. Besides, I'm a girl, I have better stuff to fake.

Honestly, if anybody at all knows why the heck I'm experiencing this, lemme know, I'd love the input.

Wassalam...

Wednesday, July 07, 2004



Isn't this cute? Stumbled upon this when I was surfing the web to find graphics for the office's art project. Click on the picture if u wanna see more.

Assalamu'alaikum...

Man,I am beat. Spent last weekend in Illinois watching fireworks and stuff, before that I had a looooong week of work ( well I actually didn't have much to do up till Wednesday when all hell broke lose and what could go wrong, did ). Y'know what, I can even think about the weekend without feeling beat. So lemme just give the gist of it (like I did when I supposedly dished on the Midwest Games): got to UIUC, saw Tet and Elly, slept there one night, went to Evanston the next day, went to Taste of Chicago, saw a fist fight in the middle of the street, got my wits scared the heck out of me, saw fireworks that night, fireworks was nice, yadda yadda yadda, next day went shopping at outlet, saw another fireworks display in Northwestern University, that one was pretty cool too, went back to Dinna and Id's apartment, next day took picture at NU's arch, then went home, realized that half of the clothes that I brought I didn't wear, got meself a new pair of shoes and Bantut's baby-tee.

And all of this happened while I barely spoke 100 words during the whole time...

I don't get it. I mean, usually I'm notoriously shy in big crowds, I admit, but never have I ever clammed up for three days as though I'm keeping the Crown jewels in my mouth. I mean, it was just weird, I honestly couldn't think of anything to say, and seeing everyone being loud and so into the whole talking thing just scared the shit out of me. This further emphasizes my earlier observation that I function much, much better in a one-on-one conversation rather than jumping in head first into a crowd. Wonder when this started happening to me, I think I was okay when I attended matrix, I mean I was head of stuff and I participated in almost everything I could get my hands on, me in my obese state and all ( yes, I was as big as a freakin' hippo).Then I mellowed a bit when I was in PPP and here.. well let's just say that I'm more of a yes man (or girl) rather than a take-charge-you-have-to-get-your-butt-outta-the couch person. Which just shoes... if u don't practice our social skills enough, pretty soon you're gonna lose 'em.

Aaahhh... the good old days when u know exactly who you are, what you have to do and where you wanna go. Now u have OPTIONS... and you have to MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS and be an ADULT... waaaa!!! I wan my blanky and my mommy... sob sob...

Katharine (my boss) brought me to Target on Friday, and I bought 3 packets of Pepperidge Farm's Goldfish Crackers, different flavors. And right now I'm down to 1. When that one's gone, I'm gonna get real upset.

Oh, I didn't take a lotta pics when I was in Chicago, but whatever I have will be up as soon as I get my handbag back because my camera is in there. Oh, and I have a few firework video in too, so as soon as a figure out how to put it in, I will.

I need to go and get some lunch in me, so I'll just pen of here... but lemme leave you with an article about mice and diets. Click here (hopefully link works)