Letter to Erin 20150419

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Hi there, Erin my dearest.  How are you feeling today?  I love you very much, so I want you to feel healthy and confident.  I'm sorry I couldn't do my voice training, so I hope your and your bosses weren't betting too much on today's activities.  My orders are to be consistent but inshaAllah God will forgive me this lapse, because I had to visit my aunt.  She has fallen seriously ill: she has lung cancer which spread to the rest of her body including her spine, which effectively paralyzed her from the waist down.  The odd thing is that not only does she not smoke, but she carried herself fine until the last 10 days when she hacked up blood.  They took an MRI and found the lumps.  My Dad is a chain smoker and older than her, but he doesn't have the same problem.  God certainly works in mysterious ways.

On the way there, we stopped for lunch.  At my table, there were 2 Bat Cat clones, and they were both female.  I had never met a female Bat Cat clone before!  One of them was sleeping, and the other was lying on the floor and waving her paw at me.  When I got home, Bat Cat didn't show up for dinner.  What's the connection?  What does it mean?  It means "Meow".  Ha!  I'm not telling.  I'm meowing.

I pray you are doing well, and staying healthy, and eating well, and getting enough rest.  I'm, doing OK, thank you.  Alhamdulillah.  I love you, and I need you.

Letter to Erin 20150418

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Hello, Erin my darling.  And how are you feeling today?  Life goes on, doesn't it.  Here I wait for you, for the time when we can be married.  Ya Allah, please help and protect us.

It rained heavily today.  The rain broke in the evening, so I was able to do a little bit of yard work.  So I went to prune the bamboo in front of my house, across the road to the elementary school.  I used to hack it up with a machete, but now I find it more aesthetic to just use a hand pruner.  I found some perfect lengths of bamboo for use as drumsticks.  I love bamboo.  I love bamboo drumsticks as opposed to those machined drumsticks other drummers use.  Not only are they springier with many variations of texture and weight, but also bamboo is curved.  But I think the real reason I love bamboo so much is that my hands are too big and clumsy to spin drumsticks, so I use bamboo because no one else does.

Nothing special from me on the menu today.  My Mom made some rice, so I had that for both lunch and dinner, the difference being that lunch was fried anchovies and dinner was sirloin.  I pray you are having a great time, plus taking it easy.  Erin, I love you and I need you.

Letter to Erin 20150417

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Oh hi, Erin Sweetie.  How are you feeling today?  I pray you are feeling healthy and confident.  It's just another mundane day here for me.  I fell back to sleep after the dawn prayer, woke up at 9 am, cleaned the cat room, took a shower and went to pay the bills, I had rice vermicelli soup for breakfast and stuffed won tons for lunch, changed the spark plug on my motorcycle, voice trained, went to buy a can of tomato soup, baby powder and a loaf of bread for my parents, cut the grass over at my grandparents' grave, had noodles in fish broth for dinner, now I'm writing to you.

I've played the Sims before, not Sims 3 but I remember that it was impossible to backtrack.  Perhaps if I wiped out the hard drive and reinstalled the program.  But I'm REALLY studying up for this game, so I don't make many errors, and get a nice house designed for you.  And my goal is to build your house.  I was thinking about playing as a single Sim, but as far as I remember, Sims die if they're lonely, so I'm going to have to play with a Sim of you.  We will be married.  Perhaps we've always been married.  God, I wonder how long it will take me to build that house...  Say, how about you install the same game and the same situation on your computer?  I would be curious to see how your Sim couple of us would turn out.  Don't worry about me: if I make a mistake, I'll just wipe out the hard drive and start again.  I'll make absolutely sure my Sim couple have a happy ending.  InshaAllah.  Oh wait, this manual says I can save multiple games!  That's nice.  Hey, maybe I will play as a single Sim, but how do I fit you onto your house?  Oh wait, the goal is to build the house.  Duh.

Erin, please try to slow down and take good care of yourself, OK?  I want you to be happy, and happy with me.  I love you, and I need you.

Letter to Erin 20150416

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Aw Erin, you're such a sweetheart.  And you're so beautiful.  I really love you, and I need you.

Have you been working on your house plans?  I'm not talented in drawing, not even when aided by a computer.  Did I tell you I bought some computer equipment yesterday?  It was an external DVD drive, something that can read the software around here.  So I finally have a home design software that I can deal with: the Sims 3!  Well even then, it's going to take me some time to design a house, not because I'm such an idiot at drawing, but also because I don't even have a concept yet.  I would rather go by your house plans, Erin.  Perhaps you can show me what you have so far?

Let's see... design a Sim... face, eyebrows, lips, nose, hair... lifetime goals, personality... You know what, Erin?  It's going to take me a very LONG time to design a house on this program.

There is no escaping from God.  We feel that we can drown out reality, but it only makes us confront it.  Especially when the drugs and alcohol wear off.  The other option is to embrace it.  Plunge into the vortex.  And let me tell you Erin, that Allah will grant us a speedy victory.  InshaAllah.

Letter to Erin 20150415

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Hi Erin!  How are you feeling today?  Are you feeling like a million dollars?  Well, you are so precious to me.  My beautiful Erin.

Today, I went downtown first thing in the morning to pick up a welfare payment from the government.  Which is great, of course.  Alhamdulillah.  I used the money to buy some computer equipment, and lighting for my little house.  I got an LED tube to replace my fluorescent tube, and I bought a fixture too.  The salesgirl said it was a piece of cake to change, with a simpler design than the fluorescent fixture.  The problem was that it's on my ceiling. and my ladder is short and so am I.  Plus I'm short sighted.  I had to climb up to the top rung of my ladder to do the work, and these feet don't offer much balance.  Then I was squinting to drive the screws in.  At one instant, the screw fell to the floor and I didn't know it, so I spent some time turning and turning the screwdriver, wondering why nothing was happening.  Good thing my bedroom is air conditioned.  It took me a good one and a half hours to finish the job.  I just got done, and I haven't had dinner yet.  But I thought I would write this letter first, then eat after the night prayer.  Something quick.  I'm thinking noodles.

Cats can get pretty annoying when they're in heat.  But not little ----.  She's so cute.  Everytime I pet her, she says the same thing: Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Sometimes I don't even have to touch her, and we would engage in long conversations together of the same topic: Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr? Rowr?  What was the question again?

Say, this LED tube is pretty cool.  It should last about 30 years or so.  No, I didn't waste anything.  The old tube I got from the next room, so now it's time to put it back.  It's about time this place had some real light.  Erin, I hope you are feeling great.  I love you so much, and I want you to be happy.  I need you.

Letter to Erin 20150414

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Hello, my beautiful Erin.  You are MY girl!  Mine, mine, MINE!  So please don't be blue, because the one I want to marry is you.

This time, it's ----'s turn to go into heat.  She's not a howler like ----.  Rather, she prefers to hang onto my foot wherever I go, so I would have a cat weight when I try to walk.  Which is not advisable, because my feet are injured, so my balance isn't perfect, and I might trip and accidentally squash her.  However, it is convenient to pet her with my foot, which is acceptable to her as well.  A cat in heat really appreciates being petted, but I'm afraid I can't sit there all day and pet her.  I wanna pet you!

I had a hankering for eggplant today, since the Iron Chef eggplant battle came up on TV while I was voice training.  So I bought a kilo of green eggplant at the night market.  I deep fried half of them, then arranged them neatly in a round baking pan.  Then I smothered them with my marinara sauce, and put cheese on top.  Then I baked it.  So for dinner is baked eggplant with marinara sauce and cheese, with sirloin steak on the side.  Oh, it's so yummy!  Alhamdulillah!  Would you like to join me for dinner, Sweetheart?  Munchkin?  Pudding Pie?  Oh, I have to eat alone?  Oh well, c'est la vie.  But I love you.  And I need you.

Qur'an 20150414

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

23.  That is whereof Allah gives glad tidings to God's servants who believe and do righteous deeds.  Say, "No reward do I ask of you for this except the love of those near of kin."  And if anyone earns any good, We shall give him an increase in good in respect thereof, for Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Ready To Appreciate.

The Consultation 42:23
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No reward do I ask of you for this except the love of those near of kin.