.:Monday, November 15, 2004:.
My trip
I just got back from one of the awesomest trips I ever went on, ok maybe not as awesome as the trips from a few summers ago but this one was right up there. So many memories, so many good times, it was just great. If I was to write about it all, it would turn out longer than the research paper I should be writing, so here is just like a glimpse at it, mostly the events and what I did not what actually took place if that makes sense.
Day 1 :-
My sister came and woke my up around 10:30 telling me to hurry up and get ready couse baba wanted to leave. So I got up, put the rest of my stuff in my bag and went out of my room to see what was up. My mom was really really sick so I had to get everything else ready and then we left.
We had some “extra” time on our hands so my dad decided to take us around town to show us since me and my mom hadn’t gone out once really since we moved. Its about the size of Corvallis, but its sparcily populated, probably not even half of Corvallis population. One thing I noticed about this place is how many CHURCHES!! There is practicly a church every corner, no no there are churches like next door to each other. “church of christ” “seventh day advatist church” “Hermiston Christian assembly”.. etc.. its crazy wallahi..
Anywaaaays, we *somehow* made it to Portland in less than three hours. I was tired that day so I wasn’t watching my dads speed like I usually do :P. but I can assure you it was not close to the speed limit. The plan was to stop in Masjid assebir and pray dhur asir there then go to Corvallis, but when we got to Portland there was a BIG accident that clogged up all the traffic, both going and coming. So my dad took some back highway to salem and from there down to Corvallis. In total the trip took 3 hours 40 mins !!!! don’t ask how.. with all the delays in Portland and stuff, even I don’t know how lol.
We got to Corvallis just before maghrib, my dad stopped at the old place (he still has the key) and they went and prayed duhr asir while I “broke” my fast on candy in the car. Then my dad went to the masjid and we went to Aboodi’s house. Alhamdulilah that was nice, seeing him and stuff since last week when we went down we didn’t get to see him. Just like talked and had dinner and played with him a bit.
After that we went to khala Umm Ali’s (danias inlaws) couse we were staying there. When they built their house they built for Ali almost an apartment on the last floor but he’s not staying in it so they told us to come stay there. It was pretty nice staying with them, even if at first it was kind of weird. The first night I almost wished we could of stayed anywhere else, because I felt like to much of a “guest” at their place. Like I’m not the kind of person that likes to just sit down and be served you know? but that’s how it was there at first, and I knew anywhere else it wouldn’t have been.. Al muhim, mashaAllah tabaarak Allah these people are some of the most generous people ever, may Allah swt bless aameen.
One thing I really enjoyed about staying with them, was how “busy” the house was. Other than Amu and Khala, there are 3 of their kids, one of their “adopted” (not for reals, but there is a story for each of them) daughters, their married daughters husband and their son Osama (who is such a cutey btw). Other than the people living there everyday, Dania and Ali are over all the time, Khala’s cousins kids, their other “adopted” daughter and her husband and son as well, and a bunch of other people. So mashaAllah you never really feel bored couse of there is always something going on.
Anyways, when we got there we were very tired and all but they wanted us to sit with them for a bit so we chilled out for a while. Khala was cooking for the mu’takifeen so we kinda helped her and then amu and my dad went down to the masjid and took them the food.
Day 2 :-
Its 5 something in the morning, I’m dead tired and I cant fast so I aint planning to get up for sahoor, but khala sends her cousins daughter to “wake up” my mom and sis (my dad was at al masjid for qiyaam) neither one get ups so I have to get up. it was so so so unfair lol. I ended up going upstairs and sitting with everyone while they ate.
I had started to complain about the stairs in our house, until I went there. In order to get from where we were staying to the girls rooms you have to run up 4 flights of stairs. So after doing that for four days, I learned to say alhamdulilah and not complain.
The next thing I remember is Noora telling me to get up and go to yassmeans room. Noora woke me up one to many times that day :). Al-Muhim, I went up and another one of my friends was there too. So we chilled out a bit, started planning when we were going to clean and decorate the masjid and stuff. The my parents wanted to go to juma’ and they wanted me to go as well so I left and went to the masjid.
I hadn’t gone to juma’ in at least a year, if not more (well except one time and that time really doesn’t count). So it was the first time for me to hear Amu ‘awad give a khutbah in a while. I forgot how good he was mashaAllah. I wasn’t praying, so I have some notes, but its not relevant anymore really couse it was about ending off Ramadan and what have we gained from it. But mashaAllah he's tight.. na’am. I still remember when he was teaching us (me, my sis, his kids) deen and stuff, and how he would get mad at us. He was, and kinda still is, like a dad to me. There are actually a few amu’s like that..lol.. Amu abu bahaa’, Amu Mustafa (aboodi’s dad), Amu Shaykh Hassan al zabadi, and a few others.
After juma’ my mom said she wanted to stay at the masjid till iftar, but me and my sis went over to Umm Abdul Qudoos’s. There is/was this project that a few of us were working on and we needed to finish some of it. Before Khala Faykah left, she gave Khala Sumayyah a lot of money and told her to buy fabric and sew 100+ salaah things. Then she told me and Umm Abdul Qudoos what to do with them when she gives them to us. So Umm Abdul Qudoos put together a papers in arabi about “the obligations of a womens covering in salaah”, and had me translate it when I was down last week. Khala Umm Mish’al bought candy and gift bags and brought them to Umm Qoossy’s house. And Jalal printed out the papers for us, with the arabi on one side and the english on the other. So we had to fold all of the salaah things, put them in the bags, put candy and the papers with them. When we finished the room we were in was pretty much lined full with bags. We were like, poor Jalal he's gonna have to take all of these to the masjid for us lol.
Alhamdulilah had a really nice time there though, just chilling, talking, playing with qoossy, and having fun. lol it was funny when Umm Qoossy opened the candy bags I grabbed one and started to open and eat it, she goes “INTI SAYMA” and then she was like “tsk tsk ma ‘alaiki” and she went and got me cake :D. Couse the other day she took my recipe from me and made it and she wanted me to try it. I seriously ate so much that day, when I first got up there was food downstairs from sahoor so I ate alllll of it. lol 3 samboosa, 2 pieces of cake, and some tamr and juice. Then at ummqoosy I had candy and more candy and cake and more candy.
Halfway through finishing folding and stuff Jalal came so we shut the door on us and he was out on the computer, then when we finished we traded and he got locked in the room while we used the computer. I kept trying to get ahold of my dad couse he was supposed to come pick me and my sis up to take us to the masjid, but his phone was off!! Finally he picks up and he's like “I’m in Albany with adam, we’re gonna be late for iftar”. So we went with another amu who was taking ummqoosy wa abuqoossy.
The masjid was AWESOME na’am. It was an aqeeqah and iftar so there were alott of people. And just going around saying salaams was great. Even though we were there just last week, and saw a lot of people, it felt as if I hadn’t seen anyone in ages. I tried to call UmmQ from some 10 year olds cell but it wouldn’t go through :(. I tried calling her last weekend as well but she was in NY, and I tried calling her last night but she was asleep lol. anyways, I mainly chilled with Umm Yufis (I have pics of him now!! Aww my habeebi.. I needa find them in my bag and scan them though), then we *tried* to start cleaning the masjid because the next day could have been eid, but its almost impossible to do that with all the kids lol.
Everyone was waiting for Amu Abu Qais to announce when eid was, and he has this thing where he likes to keep everyone waiting. He told them to pray ‘isha first so they did, then he takes the mic and he goes “The moon has *pause* not been sited in the US or Canada so eid is Sunday inshaAllah”. The masjid split into two, some saying awwwwwww and some saying yaaaaaa. I was of those saying awwww but alhamdulilah.
Khala Umm Mish’al wanted us to spend the night at her place, so my mom was like how about the girls go with you and me and zawji stay at Umm Ali’s, so she was like aight that’s good. So I was like how about not? To start with I wasn’t feeling good at all, and I really didn’t feel like spending the night and day (since my mom promised her she would spend the day with her) with all the kids, and I wanted to chill with the girls at khala Umm Ali’s. so after more negotiations my sis went and I stayed with my mom.
When we got back “home” there were two other girls spending the night with yassmeana so we all went up to her room and chilled.. then Nada came as well and sat with us. My mom called me and was like “I want you in your bed couse I know your tired” (I wasn’t feeling good at all that night) and I said ok but in a bit, she said how long I said half hour or so. lol so at midnight, nada wants something from her car and me and another girl are going down to get it. I walk out of the room with the keys in my hand and get to the stairs and my moms coming up the stairs I was like ohhhh noo. Ya Allah first thing she asks is “why do you have the keys” and I said couse nada wants something from the car” and she goes “your not going anywhere?” and I said “no” and then shes like yellah get downstairs. So I go with her and shes like “DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH NOISE YOU GUYS ARE MAKING. ‘ayb ‘alaikum khala and amu are sleeping and your making all of this noise etc etc”. Later she told me she wasn’t mad couse I was up, she was mad couse we were being noisy. But wallahi we wernt making noise, we were sitting and talking.
Day 3:-
It was Saturday, so everyone slept in. I was up around 10 but I didn’t actually get up until 12 when everyone else started to wake up. Then mama and baba prayed duhr and we left to khala Umm Mish’als. It was pretty fun there, even if it was noisy. Ofcourse the first thing I do is head to Amu’s office upstairs and the internet :P. ok maybe not right away, I stayed down for a good hour or so first.
Other than coming online and taking care of the kids, we cooked couse khala was cooking for the men at another amus house. So we made fatayir and samboosa and kufta and rice and salad and sweets and a buncha other stuff. Around iftar time, Umm Abdul Qudoos and khala huda came. Ya Allah, salaah time was a nightmare for me!!! I had to take care of a 6 month old(sarah), a 7 month old(Abdullah), a 9(or is he 10 qoossy.) month old, a 22 month old(rudayna) and a 3 year old(nouf). Maghrib wasn’t bad, couse sarah was sleeping, rudayna wasn’t fussing, just Abdullah was crying, and nouf was crying, so I got nouf to shut up, and I was holding Abdullah and then qoossy got jelous so he climbed into my lap and it was ok alhamdulilah. Now ‘isha that’s another story. Sarah was crying and when she cries she doesn’t stop, when she cried Abdullah started to cry and then nouf hit rudayna so she cried then nouf cries couse she doesn’t want me to get mad at her. I put Abdullah in his chair, and he was fine, was carrying sarah and got nouf to stop and rudayna alhamdulilah. Then nouf gets herself wet somehow so I had to go upstairs put sarah on the bed and change nouf. lol habeebi AbduQudoos is the cutest, I put him next to Abdullahs chair and he kept rocking him so he wouldn’t cry. When they finished salaah khala Umm Mish’al was like, “all that was left was for us to start whining with them” I was like ya whatever.
After that we went back to umm ali’s, and my dad got lost AGAIN on the way. lol. they kinda live out of town, up on a hill and my dad keeps asking Hussam (Abu Osama) for directions again and again its funny. but alhamdulilah finally he got it right :P. When we got there me my mom and sis got into a fight that ruined the night kinda. And we just went to sleep.
Day 4:-
This day was the awesomest maybe.
My dad said he wanted to leave at 8 so I said I’m not getting up till 7:45 and I didn’t. Everyone had the lights on in the room and stuff since like fajr so it wasn’t like I was actually asleep but I was being lazy. Only problem was that when I got up I realized I could pray and that meant I had to shower and that meant more time. I was so so so happy though I was like yaaaaaaa I can pray eid.. my mom was like chill out and hurry up. Alhamdulilah I was still the first one in the car, after my dad :P.
We got to the masjid pretty early, so I just went around saying salaams to everyone and getting into another fight with my sister. After that I was in a bad mood so I just sat next to my mom with qoossy waiting for amu ‘awad.
MashaAllah the khutba was AWESOME. It was probably the longest khutbat eid that I ever heard though, I was sitting next to his daughter and she was like he hasn’t sleep for two days. Everyone was talking about it though, like even when we got in the care 10 hours later my mom was like “khutbat ‘amu ‘awad kaanit row3a sah” and I was like “ya it was”.
As soon as the khutbah was over khala Umm Mish’al told me to pass out the salaah things with her, couse that’s what khala Faykah said to do. She said to pass it out right after salaah couse some people leave right away and she wanted everyone to get one. The Masjid was packed though alhamdulilah.
After that khala Dalia was like come here, so I went with her and shes like “you know how to work this thing” (balloons) and I said ya so she said ok do it. So me, Dania, and Yassmeana stood in the kids room makings balloons for all the kids. Wallahi we stood there for at least an hour, lol and ofcourse we went crazy with the helium :P .
Most of us didn’t get anything to eat so we just ate candy, like so so so much candy. Khala dalia was like “I gave mohammad $20 and told him buy candy for the masjid, he told me “mama do you know how much candy that is” and I told him you talking back to me? and he said no. so he went and got me enough candy for 50 eids” lol.
Thennn we passed out all these little gifts for the kids, mashaAllah its so so so nice to see their face light up and they smile then run to their mom and are like “mama mama look what I got”, even though it’s the most simple thing. At around 12 most people left, and then a bunch of us went caravan style to peoples houses for about an hour. When we got back at around 1:30 or so only Khadija (imams daughter) my sister and my sisters best friend and her little sis were at the masjid. As soon as I walk in khadija goes “DID YOU GET ME WATER”. And I was like omg no, I’ll go to freddies (its across the street) now I have money. And she was like nooo its ok. But I was hungry too so me and mama went and got some food and water and came back. And all Khadija and the kids were like THANK YOU SO MUCH. I was like no problem lol.
The kids had a party after asir and my dad at first said we could stay for that, then before asir he comes to the stairs and is like yellah we leaving after asir.. I was like nooo please noo.. so after salaah we convinced him. So we stayed for that, and left after maghrib.
I know it was a kids party, but just helping out in it us girls had so much fun LOL. The funnest and funniest thing has got to be making cotton candy. Everytime it was my turn I’d end up covered with it and then I’d go clean up and come back its my turn again so we kept doing that the whole night. I ate so much cotton candy, so much popcorn, so much candy that I felt sick wallah.. but it was fun still couse we were all together and all chillin helping out and stuff.
I called omar (the imams son) and I was like take this down to my dad, and I gave him a big cotton candy thing, and he's like make one for Mohammad too so I did and he takes them down and he comes back up and he's like “so and so and so want one” and I was like okkk and me and khadija had to make like 649845 for the men lol. The party was also kinda like Sunday school graduation or something so they all got gifts and stuff.
omg khala Dalia and khala Umm Mish’al kept trying to get me to sing I was like nooooo wayyyyyyyy.. they were like come on its eid, I was like nope never. First off I suck, second this is one thing I don’t do without Tassnym. So they were like whatever.
I missed Tassnym so much though :(. Like seriously I missed her. Even though it was nice, and I had a good time it wasn’t the same, without her or khala. But alhamdulilah ‘ala kulli haal.. I have to call her though.. Zaineb told me she came online a few days ago :(. But I wasn’t on.
Before maghrib my dad comes to the stairs and he was like “RIGHT AFTER SALAAH COME DOWN” I was like chillll out aightttt no problem.. lol. then after salaah he comes again and he gives us the keys and is like NOW. My sister was so scared she was like “he's so mad” I was like nah he's faking. And it was true, we went and stayed in the car forever until he came and he was in a good mood.
Got home around 10:30 or so.. so it wasn’t to late and I just went to bed right away.. and im so so so tired now. Alhamdulilah it was a pretty good eid, not the best but it was nice. Todays kinda boring though lol. but khair inshaAllah..
chotu-meyeh
@ 11/15/2004 10:51:00 AM
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