Ramadaan ramblings

Hello, lucky readers! (snicker, I've wanted to say that for a while!)

Yes, you are being treated (or is that punished?) to another installment of Rain's Ramblings. Sit back, fasten your seat belt, seats and tray tables in the upright position, hands and feet inside the vehicle, and get ready for a ride.

It's almost Ramadaan (Ramadaan Mubarak, everyone!) and things are chugging along. First, I/We have the "when to start" issue. I looked it up, and I'm going with Saudi. So I'll start fasting on Thursday.

Now, this whole fasting thing...

I understand the reasons for it, and I am sortof looking foreward to it, buuutttt... It is soooo long!! Fajr is at 5 am, Magrib is at 8:40 pm. That's a really long time for me to go without caffeine. I don't need food, I MUST HAVE caffeine. Copious amounts. Or ELSE.

I talked with some of my co-workers about it today, mostly with an eye towards keeping them alive.

Alive, you say?

Why yes. Many days it is only coffee that keeps me from strangling several individuals. I don't mean just normal strangling. I mean the kind where you choke them into submission, let go so they can catch a few breaths, then resume strangling just so they have some inkling of how painful dealing with them is for you.

And alhumdilliah that the guy with alzeheimers finally retired. If I had to help him figure out how to check his email one more time...

One co-worker informed me that she thought I should plan on taking copious amounts of leave, or I might end up in jail. I might have laughed, but she was serious. Another suggested I post a warning on the wall of my cube. Hmmm...

I will be spending my lunch hour trying to read Quran. Insha'Allah I will be able to break folks habit of cubie surfing my way during lunch. Right now I haven't arranged to change my work schedule (i.e. start earlier, shorter lunch, leave early), we'll see how the first few days goes.

I would like to go to the Islamic Center for Iftar, and am planning to go at least 2 nights a week. Same for Taraweh prayers. Another sister and I have plans to break fast together once per week, also. And I might inflict myself on another sister every so often, too.

Other plans include staying up after Fajr to read Quran instead of going back to bed. I would like to get back to sewing in the evenings, instead of running around being a social butterfly. I can listen to Quran over the net while doing so.

I would also like to read a couple of books that were loaned to me and I need to finish and return. One is Kitab al-Tawhid, another is a bio of the prophet (pbuh), another is a historic commentary on Islam.

And finally, I have tons of household chores I have been putting off. I would like to deep clean the kitchen before winter, shampoo the carpets, prepare flowerbeds for winter, repot house plants, finish building my t.v. stand, insha'Allah. Lots of these things can be done while listening to Quran. Not sure if that is islamically ok... guess I'd better figure that out.

The only problems I can see with fasting are the aforementioned caffeine problem and the inhailer problem. The new inhailer I'm on causes mouth sores if you don't rinse after using. Yeah, I know, they all say that, and originally I thought it was hoey, too, but they aren't joking with this one. I used it 3 times one day and woke up with a sore in the back of my mouth. So, I don't know... I don't have to use it every day, it's more random than that, but...

Then there is the whole "does an inhailer invalidate the fast" thing. I researched it last winter, but can't remember exactly what I found out. I better get on it, I'm running out of time!

So, thanks for riding on Rain's Ramblings, you've had your weekly dose of punishment, now go have a cookie. *grin*