Strong Woman?

Ok, so here is something that occasionally crosses my mind: Is it ok to sometimes NOT want to be a strong woman? (both physically and otherwise?)

Case in point:

This weekend we go to the park to play cricket. I am fielding and M hits a line drive directly at me at about 100 mph. The ball smacks me directly in my knee cap, which really hurts and leaves me with a giant knot. Everyone laughs and says what a good fielder I am, M says it can't have hurt because we are using a tape ball (because taped up tennis balls don't hurt when hitting you at 100 mph, of course). Then our friend's wife is batting and the bowler hits her with the ball, (throwing it very slow and easy because she is a girl and probably can't hit the ball at normal speed). Everyone runs over to her to make sure that she is ok, and she stops batting. Am I stupid to be jealous that everyone makes such a big deal over her getting barely tapped with the ball, and noone cares that I got killed?

I have always been one of the "guys," a rough houser. In soccer, I was an enforcer on the field. I was strong, physically benchpressing and leg pressing quite a bit for a girl. I've since lost quite a bit of my muscle mass (thank God, so I don't look like a she-Hulk anymore). But sometimes I get jealous about not being pampered and treated like a delicate flower of feminity. Of course, I am torn, because if I was treated that way ALL of the time, it would really piss me off. I guess I really shouldn't be able to complain that I want it both ways.

The same thing goes in my personal life. Sometimes I am so tired and scared of trying to pursue my career and be sucessful, I wish that I could just put it all on my husband to provide for the family and I would just stay at home. I mean it is scary and a lot of pressure to be a stay at home mom too, but I think in a different way. But then I know that that path is not going to be for me, that I need the interaction and stimulation of the kind that a legal career can provide and I have worked hard for it. So in the end I will muscle up to it, even when I don't want to. I will shoulder it all, house and career, kids and court, God willing. In the long run, I know that I will be happier being the way that I am now.

Exam Time: A Brief Hiatus

Exams are here. I have not studied near as much as I need too. First one is next Friday. I may be around a little bit, but my posts would probably be something really boring for you guys, like rambling about Sec. 2 of the Sherman Act or Federal Rule of Evidence 403. Ack, I have started already.

As a sidebar: I had to add word verification to the comments, I was getting way to much spam comments. Sorry, I know that it is a pain in the butt, what can you do?

Technical Difficulties

Hello, We are experiencing technical difficulties. Right in time for exams, of course. My computer broke 3 weeks ago, now M's laptop, which I had been using up until now is acting completely stupid. We don't know what has happened, but if it doesn't start working soon I am pretty sure that we will see if a laptop will float after it is thrown from an 18th story balcony into a swimming pool. So now you know that if I don't show up for a while, where I am (in the library cussing out Acer).

Cell Phone Annoyances

Ok, so I'm sure that about a thousand blog posts have been written about cellphones. About people driving with cellphones, talking in restaurants on cellphones, talking in lines on cell phones blah, blah. Man are they all annoying situations. But I have a complaint, if you are going to talk on your cell phone, really loud, in a public place, I would seriously advise you not to talk about the extremely personal details of your life. This has happened to me several times recently and it makes my ears burn like I'm eavesdropping, but I can't help it when you are talking at bullhorn level into your cell, I am going to listen.

Incident #1:
I'm on the shuttle bus that takes me from school to the stop where I walk home about 2 blocks. Some undergrad girl is on the phone with her boyfriend. She starts yelling at him. "Why do you always blame me. I don't know who took your pills, I didn't take them, ok!!" Hmmm, maybe I am reading that the wrong way and she could be talking about using his Claritin, but I seriously doubt it.

Incident #2:
I'm sitting in the student lounge area at school, innocently studying (read-surfing the web or playing sudoku). Some type of rep for one of the many exam studying programs is sitting there on her cell: "Ok, don't tell anyone and you are the first to know. I haven't even told (some guy's name) yet. I am pregnant! *girlish squeals*" So now her, her friend, and me all know that she's pregnant before the guy who made the baby? Ack.

Incident #3: Most uncomfortable moment of my life.
I'm waiting for the elevator in my building. Girl shows up on cell phone. She is obviously arguing with boyfriend. Deep serious arguing that leads up to break up arguing. I am standing there uncomfortably hoping that she finishes the conversation before we get on the elevator together. Elevator comes, I am not going to wait for it to come back again just because this girl won't get off the phone. We get on, the argument keeps going on. I can't even repeat it here, stuff about how can she trust him, she told him she didn't want the same relationship as she had last time, blah, blah, blah. Arrrrgh. I want to stand facing one of the corners until she gets off.

Ok, so now that I have complained about cell phones so much. I have a confession to make, I have been guilty of a cell phone annoyance to the extreme. Maybe someone can help me out with this dilemma. I'm at the mosque. We have started Magrhib my phone is on the other side of the mosque against a wall. It starts ringing, ahhhh. I stop praying and run over to switch it off. Disrupting even more people than just the ringing probably did and having to redo my prayer all over again because of the interruption. I was mortified. Insha'Allah it will never happen again because I will remember to put the phone on vibrate, but if it does should I run over and turn it off, or just let it ring and hope that they don't call back?

How Sheetal Got Paid

Why am I sitting alone in my apartment, shouting at my TV? Why are my books sitting neglected beside me on the couch as I plead with the TV? Because I am watching the latest mindless TV game show, Deal or No Deal. I cannot believe that some people keep going with 100,000's of thousands of dollars on the line. While I am yelling Deal! Deal! You moron!, the audience is egging them on to keep going. Usually I am right, and the person ends up with less money than they had in the middle of the game. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this show here is a short summary of the rules taken from NBC's website:

"The rules are simple. Choose a briefcase. Then as each round progresses, you must either stay with your original briefcase choice or make a "deal" with the bank to accept its cash offer in exchange for whatever dollar amount is in your chosen case.

Once you decide to accept or decline the bank's offer, the decision is final.

Contestants are encouraged to ask friends or family in the audience for advice; however, only the contestant's answer will be considered binding and final."

I think that they try to pick people who generally make low salaries in noble professions (such as teachers, people in the military, firefighters, and a doctor who runs a clinic in a low income area). Or they will pick someone who has a large debt or specific problem that they need money for. And I love it when they surprise the contestant with a family member who they didn't think could come.

I heard about an interesting study done by some economists, who analyzed versions of Deal or no Deal Game all around the world (45 different countries).

"A team of economists - Post, Van den Assem, Baltussen & Thaler (report) - have analyzed the decisions of people appearing in Deal or No Deal and found, among other things, that contestants are less risk averse when they have seen their expected winnings tumble. "Losers" tend to continue playing the game even if this means rejecting bank offers in excess of the average of the remaining prizes. The findings provide support for behavioral economists, who claim that the classical expected utility theory falls short in explaining human behavior by not accounting for the context of decisions. The study of the Dutch is unique, for the underlying "experiment" Deal or No Deal is characterized by high stakes, a transparent probability distribution and only simple stop-go decisions that require minimal skill or strategy." From this Wikipedia article.

What do you think about this game? Do you think that this show counts as gambling? You haven't put up any of your own assets to enter the game, so you aren't losing anything that was yours to begin with? But once you get the first offer, you are gambling with that money, so...?

Last night Sheetal Shetty won $375,000. I wanted her to deal at 199,000. She is the first contestant to prove me wrong. It was pretty exciting. I still think its a stupid game, so why can't I stop watching?

ABCs of Life MeMe

Got this MeMe from Pixie and thought it looked fun. If you do it too, let me know :).


Accent ~ Very slight southern one, people usually don't believe that I'm from Alabama
Booze of choice ~ None, I don't drink.
Chore I hate ~ cleaning the bathroom and cleaning the cars.
Dog or Cat~dogs, of course, who can forget my little puppy featured below
Essential Electronics ~ my computer, my Treo, and my iPod
Favorite perfume/cologne ~ Tuscany, it is the first gift that M ever gave me
Gold or Silver ~ both
Hometown ~ Well, I was born in North Carolina, but I lived almost my whole life in Birmingham, AL
Insomnia ~ big problem for me, especially when M is not here.
Job Title ~ law student
Kids ~ one day, insha'Allah, I want to have 2 or 3
Living arrangement ~ highrise Condo
Most Admired Trait ~ I really admire people who are sincere and good listeners
Number of countries visited~ 12
Overnight Hospital Stays ~ 0
Phobia ~ um, I don't really have one. I guess I a most scared that someone may try to hurt me, break in my house or car. When I was a kid I was scared of drains because I saw that movie IT one too many times.
Quote ~ I don't really have any good ones right now
Religion ~ Islam
Siblings ~ one younger sister
Time I wake up ~ 7 on school days and 10 on weekends :)
Unusual talent/skill~I don't think I have any
Vegetable I refuse to eat ~ peppers, I hate them!
Worst Habit ~Procrastination
X-rays ~the 3 times that I tore the ligaments in my ankles, they thought they were broken.
Yummy foods I make ~ I like to make Pakistani food (especially dopiaza and biryani), I make good country fried steak, mashed potatoes, and fried okra too!
Zodiac sign ~ Aquarius