imaginary clothes

I am looking for some longer tops that I can wear to work. I am in the (somewhat slow) process of making my clothes more modest in general- over the past year or so, I've traded shorts for wide-leg pants, bought a lot of long-sleeved tees and cardigans, etc.
Since I work at a coffee shop, there's a pretty precise dress code- specifically, a black collared shirt and pants (although I guess someone could wear a skirt if they wanted to). I usually wear either a polo shirt with a long-sleeved tee underneath or a button-down shirt- sometimes in the winter, a turtleneck or a cardigan. This works fine for the most part, especially since I also have an apron on top of that, but I'm looking for somewhat longer and looser, tunic-style, shirts that still have a collar. This is turning out to be impossible!

This shirt from Target would be pretty good with a long-sleeved tee underneath- if only it had a real collar.
Forever 21 has about 10,000 items online but I haven't found "the one" there either. I love this top, but unfortunately it doesn't come in black.

Oh well, the search goes on...

oregon restricting religious freedom!?!

Oregon law bans "religious dress" for teachers

More from CAIR

This is both very sad and completely stupid. How would they even know whether someone is wearing something for religious reasons or not? It basically targets Muslims and other minority religious groups (Orthodox Jewish women, Sikhs, etc).

In France, the situation is similar- public school teachers can't wear hijab because they are supposed to be "secular," and according to the French government, wearing hijab or expressing your religion means you aren't secular or assimilated enough and therefore aren't French enough. Stupid.

When I was in public school, I thought the idea was not to make everyone the same and without any religious or cultural differences; I thought the point of public schools was for people of different backgrounds to meet, become friends and learn to appreciate difference. I still think that. Too bad not everyone sees it that way.

I hate patchouli

We have new neighbors who moved into the apartment below us a few weeks ago. Since then, they have been stinking up the building with patchouli fairly often. It smellllllllllls.

Now, I like hippies as much as the next environmentally-friendly girl who went to a small liberal arts college. But I do not like patchouli, a.k.a. Eau de Covering up the Pot Smell with the Only Thing that has a Stronger Smell. (For anyone who never lived in a dorm at an American college or just isn't aware, patchouli is commonly used to cover up the smell of marijuana).

If patchouli was just smelly, I might be able to ignore it; however, it gives me terrible allergies and in a small apartment building, the smell gets everywhere. I spent most of last night sneezing and sniffling as if there were a big fluffy cat in my living room (yeah, I'm also allergic to cats).

I've seen these neighbors around (a young couple about my age) but we haven't really met. If this keeps up though, I'm going to have to say something, but I have yet to figure out exactly what I would say about it to them that doesn't involve the phrases "dirty hippie," "makes me want to throw up," and "You seem not to care that you are drawing attention to the fact that you are stoners." Because they seem like nice people otherwise, and I generally do like hippies. When they are not smelly, that is.

I promise I am not trying to give anyone the evil eye

So for the record, I am still getting the hang of saying masha'Allah or insha'Allah or the numerous other Arabic terms that I come across. There are probably times when it would be appropriate for me to add it (in a comment on someone's blog or something) and I just don't realize that I should.

This makes me sad that I don't speak any Arabic...not even frarabe (francais + arabe). :(
I have a book that is teaching me the alphabet, but at this rate it's going to be a while before I am more literate than the average Arab preschooler! Oh well, with time I'll improve, insha'Allah (ooooh, see what I did there?).

Anyway, hope nobody gets offended by my ignorance, and if you know of any fun Intro to Arabic books, let me know!

writer's block

"Writer's block is a fancy term made up by whiners so they can have an excuse to drink alcohol."
-Steve Martin

Or in my case, to drink coffee.

I have been working on my master's thesis for almost a year now- first reading books and articles, then figuring out my exact topic, then more reading, creating an outline, etc. For the past few months I have been "writing." Problem is, I've hardly written a thing. I have the absolute worst writer's block of my Entire Life and it Sucks.

Usually when I have to write papers, it takes me a while to get going but I get it together in the end. This time, I'm going to miss the deadline to graduate in August. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish writing in the next 4-6 weeks and graduate in the fall. I'm already really mad at myself for taking this long, but whenever I try to write, I've got nothing. I have tried all of my motivating tricks and gotten nowhere.

So, I will occasionally post on this blog when I am supposed to be writing my thesis. If I'm not updating, that will be a good sign. Thanks to everyone who has come to my blog so far. I just wanted to give a little info on what is going on with me right now.