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

Ice Age II: The Meltdown

The Scrat is back!!!!!!! Ice Age II starts tonight and I have to go and see it. I loooove this movie just because of the scrat. He is hilarious running around with his acorn trying to hide it everywhere. I hope that it is good and doesn't suck like sequels usually do. O, yes I am 24 years old, but it doesn't mean I don't appreciate a good cartoon. Finding Nemo is right up there too.


Here is another great picture of the Scrat.



Scrat update: Movie was hilarious, even more scrat than before. He really makes the movie! I also love the little dancing mini-sloths, but I guess you will have to see the movie to enjoy!

Random Bits

Sorry I haven't posted in so long, I have just been busy and in a mood not to write anything lately. To be honest, I haven't had anything to say worth making a whole post about, but I do have some random tidbits in my mind lately:

1. I have begun the inevitable descent into lawyerdom, which I realized after I told Aisha I would have to schedule lunch with her into my palm so that I do not forget. Gack.

2. I did this cool face recognition thingie, which told me that the celeb I most look like is Jodie Foster. It is pretty funny I think. Who do you look most like? I would be interested to know, lol :).

3. I am thinking about doing a judicial clerkship when I graduate. I am not 100% sure whether I want to do this or not, but the more I think about it, the more appealing it seems. Everyone who has done one has said that it is the most enjoyable work experience they have ever had. This is a really recent idea of mine, so I have yet to really think it through. It would mean making substantially less money for a year or so, but it should pay off in the long run. Difficult decision when I will have a massive amount of student loan debt upon graduation.

4. I am taking classes at my mosque to learn Arabic and Urdu. It is pretty fun, but hard too. I get Arabic classes on my own and for Urdu I am in classes with 7-8 year olds who are waaaay more fluent than I am. I just need to bite the bullet and start talking in my Urdu class, because right now I am at the point where I understand 80% but hardly say a word. It is much harder to put sentences together than to just listen and comprehend.

5. M comes home in 1 week from today. Yay!

Thats all for now. Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their spring. It is beautiful today and I hope that it stays that way. The last two weeks have been miserably cold for late March.

Will the Real Executive Managing Editor Please Stand Up, Please Stand Up

I won my election to executive managing editor of my journal. Well, I say won loosely, because I ran unopposed, but I am still happy, especially because I did not have to give a speech. The elections lasted for about 3 hours, from 8-11 pm, so I am kind of tired now and also I think I am coming down with something. I've got sore throat and a little bit of drainage and general fatigue (although that could just be a general condition and not a symptom of any illness). I am taking some Nyquil and going to bed. G'night.

Aerobics????

Ok, so the South Beach Diet thing did not work for me at all. I am definitely way too attached to my carbs. Diets in general make me unhappy. So my next attempt at the whole weight loss thing is.... (drum roll please), Aerobics! I bought this video on Ebay that has all different kinds of workouts on there and I thought it would be really fun. But alas, I realized shortly into the first workout today, that I am the most uncoordinated person on the universe when it comes to these sort of things. I never took dance or gymnastics or anything, I was always too busy playing soccer. I am still going to just bounce around in front of the TV (no doubt looking ridiculous) because it is fun and runnning on the treadmill is just sooo boring. Well, I am off to buy one of those step thingies and get down in my living room. Wish me luck and hopefully I won't trip over my own two feet and end up hurt :).

I Have A Puppy

I have a puppy. His name is Bentley and he lives in Dallas with my parents. Right now I am really missing this puppy. We had to send him to Texas because we were living in a small apartment and he got much bigger than the pound said that he would be. Also, we could not keep the house clean of his hairs, they got everywhere. He is really smart, but really lazy and he was always doing things to make me laugh. Sometimes he was a very bad puppy though. He has an affinity for all things plastic and accordingly chewed up three cell phones and 3 remote controls and a myriad of other small plastic thingies, the more expensive, the better (including an XBox game conroller and the wire on a power supply for my laptop). Now my Mom has to deal with his shenanigans, which are always pretty funny because she treats him like he is a person. Like she will say, "oh I am mad at Bentley today so I am not talking to him," or "Bentley is mad at us, so he is pouting." I think that this crazy dog thinks that he is a human. He is part beagle and part lab, we think (or something else maybe?) I think that he is the cutest dog in the world, but then again, maybe I am biased.




Playing in the snow. This is the first time he ever saw snow when we took him to Dallas.







He is a hard working dog, riiiiight.






Ok, this is by far the cheesiest post I have done so far, sorry :).

Now that's some Nation Building

This is a pretty cool game that lets you build your own country and even interact in a UN type government. At least, I think it's cool, but then again, I am a law nerd. Check out the The Republic of Southern Masala. Let me know what you think about my nation and build your own nation state too! I bet we do a better job than all the wackos out there right now, lol! (BTW, I did not choose gambling as a major industry, it just stuck me with that, tsk tsk tsk. If I get a chance I am going to outlaw it).

Spring Break is Over :(

No more spring break. I am pretty burnt out on school and this break seemed like it just flew by. In one sense this is good because it means that M will be coming home that much sooner, but on the other hand I have to go back to school tomorrow, ick. I am just too excited about my summer to concentrate on school and I am worried that it is going to affect my grades. I am really excited about my internship with a really great firm and I am even more excited about my trip to India and Pakistan.

The problem is I have not told my parents for sure that I am going to Pakistan this summer. I have brought up the topic a bit, and my parents are really worried about my safety. I can't really blame them, with bombs and stuff going off in Karachi and American diplomats being killed. Still, I am not worried about my own safety. The way I look at it, there are places in this country that are more dangerous for me than in Pakistan. As long as I have people around me who know what they are doing, I am not worried about it. I will definitely wear salwar kameez and cover my hair to blend in a little more, although I don't think that I will actually "blend in," you know. I just hope that they will take it okay and not give me too much grief about it, insha'Allah. I just don't want themt to worry, sigh. That's all for now, I really don't have much else to talk about.

Congratulations Yasir and Bushra!

May God Bless You Today and For the Rest of Your Lives Together!

News from Karachi

M has made it safe to Karachi and is settling in. He got in around 3 am and his friend came to pick him and take him to his parents' house. He got there around 4 am, and his mom answered the door. She was not too surprised, because she was suspicious that his friend had called the house so early in the morning to ask her to open the door. Then his youngest sister came to the door. At first she didn't realize who he was, then when it set in, she started screaming! Of course that woke the whole house up and his dad came running down stairs ready to defend them from robbers! He nearly gave everyone a heart attack!

So far he has been meeting old friends and family and I think he is having a good time. We had a little chat on the im, which I thought was pretty funny, so I am putting it here. *Warning, mildly bad language, but really funny*

M says: so we played snooker for 2 hrs, 90 ruppees
M says: 3 biryanis and 3 lassis 110 rupees
M: the shits
M says: priceless
S says: HAHAHAHA
S says: i told you not to eat street food. did you eat street food?
M says: some damn good biryani
S says: was it worth it?
M says:yep

More updates to come later, he still has not gotten into contact with Yasir to tell him he is coming to the wedding. I can't wait to hear that conversation!

Sua Sponte

Sua sponte is Latin for "on its own will or motion." It's a legal term, and its also the name of my law school football team! Yay, that's real football (aka Soccer), not American football. I am a huge soccer fan. I have played since I was four years old. In high school I played on a competitive traveling team and was captain of my high school varsity team. I also played in college, at one of the smallest Division I schools in the country: The Birmingham-Southern Panthers. I didn't have too much fun playing soccer in college. I think that I was burnt out by my senior year of high school after playing for so long. I did get to play with some pretty good players though, which I will always cherish, probably the most famous being Catherine Reddick, who played on my club team.
Since coming to law school, I have rediscovered my love for the game, and I have quite a bit of fun playing intramurals and indoor soccer league. One of the best things about playing in co-ed indoor league is that girl goals count for 2 points! Women's lib. be damned, I will take any extra points where I can get them, lol. Especially now that I am old and slow.
This summer is the World Cup, and I can't wait! And even better is that the U.S. is ranked the highest they have ever been, #5. I don't realistically think that they will actually win the World Cup, but it is nice to see them doing well.
Another thing about my soccer obessession is that I am constantly trying to convert kids into soccer players, especially girls. So if you want your girl to be a cheerleader and not a footballer, better keep her away from me! J/K, you can do both!

My Heart is in Karachi

M left yesterday for Karachi for 3 weeks.

I am already missing him but I am also so happy that he will finally get to go home to see his family. He has not been back to Pakistan in 8 years! He has not seen two of his sisters since then either.
His youngest sister was 17 when he left and she is 25 now. I can't
imagine what it must be like to leave someone as a child and meet
them again for the next time as an adult. It must be like re-
"meeting" them all over again. It was a very emotional day for us
both with mixed feelings of my happiness for him in finally going
back and sadness that he is gone.

He did not tell anyone that he was coming because he wanted to surprise his family. I just hope that he does not give his parents a heart attack when he shows up on the doorstep! He is also going to surprise our dear friend Yasir who lives in Atlanta, but has gone to Karachi to get married. I think that he is just going to show up for the wedding on Friday and say Surprise! I think that it is pretty funny and I hope that he has a good time. :)

My Alma Mater is in the News, and Not for a Good Reason

Apparently the recent rash of church burnings in rural Alabama can be attributed to three college students, two of which go to my undergrad. institute, Birmingham-Southern College, and one who goes to UAB, where M got his MBA. They were actually arrested in the dorms!!! This may not seem like a big deal until you realize that BSC only has 1500 students. What a bunch of morons.



Check out the full story here: Students say church arsons meant as "joke"

Now, call me crazy, but in my day our "jokes" consisted of leaving funny notes on peoples' doors or toilet papering someone's dorm room. Even the fraternity pranks were pretty mild, like stealing another frat's mascot, etc. Since when is setting churches on fire a "joke"? They have ruined their lives because "the three students just liked to set and watch fires." Wow, I am speechless

Things Are Afoot

I have been MIA for the past few days because I have been so busy trying to do the 1,001 things that I have to do. I finally turned in the very last, final, no mas version of my Journal Comment and I will know within 2 weeks whether I am going to be published or not. It would be nice to be published, but I am not going to be heartbroken if it doesn't happen. Also, I am running for Executive Managing Editor of the journal, which is a largely technical editing position (checking sources and textual editing), which I've always liked to do. I can really make the red ink fly, :). Even in undergrad, people used to ask me to read their papers and make corrections for them. Later on I used to do it for M's friends' grad school papers, which is a whole other ball game when you are editing someone whose first language is not English.

Also, things are afoot with M, but I am not at liberty to say what, I will explain more later on next week, which is taking up a lot of my time.

Next week is my spring break but I am not going anywhere, so here is my wish list for things to do around the ATL, because I am going to be all by my lonesome:
1. Hang out with Wayfarer and Little Dude
2. Go to the Georgia Aquarium
3. Exercise everyday
4. Read some good books
5. Catch up on all the studying I have not done this semester (I know, this one sucks)
6. Clean the house, and start packing for when we have to move in May
7. Go to the park and lay in the sun
8. Maybe go to Birmingham

Do you think I'm being overambitious, considering the other unwritten goal is to sleep until 10:00 everyday?

Muslim Legal Woes of Varying Degree

When I first set out today to write a post, I wanted to write about this story: U.S. Muslims Fight Halal Meat Scam. ***Warning, this link directs you to Al-Jazeera English News page, so if you aren't yet being monitored by the NSA and don't want to be, maybe you don't want to click on it, lol***

Of course, half way through my post, I lost the wireless connection at school and my writing disappeared into an electronic vortex. Basically the article is proof of the fact that con artists can penetrate any aspect of our lives, as more and more American Muslims are learning that the meat that they buy from so-called halal markets is not actually halal. This is truly disappointing, especially as I would say that the halal market is almost completely controlled by people claiming to Muslims. Therefore, we are getting scammed by our own.

Interesting aspect is that the article mentions several pieces of legislation that have been proposed by various states to provide for a certification process for vendors of foods offered in compliance with religious laws (I guess Kosher and Halal, not sure what other ones are out there?) And then goes on to say that this may violate separation of church and state under the U.S. constitution if the state becomes involved. I don't really see how that is an issue, because this seems like a simple case of false marketing/deceptive advertising, which can be dealt with under laws already in place, either by the government or private parties. Although maybe Muslims are reluctant to sue their halal butchers?

On a more serious note, this topic has been popping up in quite a few forums: Internment Camps for Muslims? . Wayfarer brought it up first on her blog, and I thought I would give my "prediction" for what could actually happen, based on my deep knowledge of constitutional law obtained through my one semester course, although it was with the eminent Professor John Witte, which was one of the most challenging clases I have taken, as well as my worst grade in law school so far (which still wasn't that bad, but I'm not telling...)

Ok, so for those of you who remember your history, the U.S. already put the Japanese in internment camps during WWII. A case was actually brought to the Supreme Court contesting this as a violation of due process and equal protection. In Korematsu, the Supreme Court upheld the government's use of their "police power" to protect the country in a time of crisis. The issue here was that the program has to be "narrowly tailored" enough to meet the government's goal.

Korematsu has gone down in history with cases such as Dred Scott (upholding the legality of slavery) and Plessy (upholding the legality of segragation), as being a notoriously unjust ruling. However, unlike Dred Scott and Plessy, Korematsu has never been overruled. This means that in another time of war, it is still legal under Supreme Court jurisprudence to place people of certain nationalities in internment camps, provided that the government can prove that they pose a threat to the safety of the nation.

Additionaly my professor put this hypothetical to us, which was put to him and other professors at a think tank called by John Ashcroft following 9/11.
Hypo (taken directly from my class notes):
What if dirty bomb was dropped on Atlanta by Zarquawi and his followers. He then declares that Iraq has struck the U.S. and credits Iraqi terror cells located in America with a victory. Could we round up every Iraqi- American citizen or subject and put them in an internment camp? (This was Ashcroft’s hypothetical).

The answer is Yes!!!!!

Now, what do I think realistically can be done under a ruling like Korematsu.

- Could people of certain nationalities or ethnicities be placed internment camps? Probably

- Could all Muslims be placed in internment camps? Probably not. Why? Because this characterization is too broad to meet constitutional challenges for the narrow tailoring requirement (mentioned above).

- What would be the most likely scenario? All people of certain nationalities (predominantly Muslim countries) residing in the U.S. who do not have citizenship could be rounded up, placed in camps, and eventually deported. Although, who knows who long that could take? In more extreme situations, naturalized citizens could be stripped of their citizenship and deported as well (this happened quite a bit during the McCarthy Era, and I wrote a paper about it, if you are interested in that too, let me know).

Just my viewpoint on the legal actualities of what could happen, but insha'Allah none of this will never, ever happen.

Sorry if the stuff above is too technical, or I dissolved into "lawyer talk." If I didn't make something clear, please let me know and I will try to explain it better.