More Practice Blogging...

So I'm not really a writer, although I aspire to get good one day, and I am definitely not a blogger. So like with writing, I'm going to practice blogging by writing another entry about this past weekend.

So I got off of work at around 6 or 6:15 Friday night at which time I walked over to meet Shari at the Wollman rink in Central Park. This was her first time back in New York City after a long time and last I saw her was back in high school during our shared Red Cross days. So I get there and I happen to be the only non-Brooklyn Tech friend of hers, which I guess I should feel honoured about. I'm glad she invited me to her little reunion shindig.

In waves from Wollman Rink, we went to this hibachi place on 34th Street. I was the last wave that went down with her since I had to leave early for this wedding that my mother told me was on Saturday night but was actually Friday night. She told me this an hour before I left to meet Shari. Now I was planning on hanging out with them the whole time, but ended up having to leave at 8PM so I could make the wedding by 9.

So I get to this wedding that I don't know anyone by the World Fair Marina near Shea Stadium at 9 to only find that my family isn't there yet. So I'm forced to pull a "Wedding Crashers" scene and just pretend to be a part of the family since I honestly did not know anyone there. I didn't even know which function I was suppose to go to, so I just entered a random ballroom and it happened to be the right one. I didn't know which side of the family I belonged to so I began playing along as I met this fellow Stuy kid that knows my brother. I attach myself to his family, whose on the groom's side, for as long as I can until my family arrived about an hour later. At this point, I realize I was mixing with the wrong side of the family, since my family is family friends with the bride's side. So I switch over to the other side of the ballroom and pretend nothing awkward happened. I continue enjoying my appetizers since they are indubitably my favorite part of a wedding.

So with my family's arrival was Karen's arrival. Karen is another one of my mothers. She helped raise me and her other son when we use to live in the same apartment building. She then moved to the Midwest and thus, I only now see her sparingly. Surprisingly though, she was in town for the weekend and so my mother brought her along to the wedding. It wasn't actually the wedding, but the boa bhat, which is apparently the reception that the bride's family throws. It's the fourth and final night of partying according to traditional Bangali weddings. I guess we had to go since we missed the first three.

Anyway, it's always good times hanging out with my little brother at weddings, especially as we scheme to get to the front of the line in buffets or as we scheme other things. However, since it wasn't the actual wedding, we couldn't do things like steal the groom's shoes or stop him at the gate, but I still had a good time after I understood where I belonged. My mother helped me realize that I actually do know the bride and her family and thus, I no longer had to pretend to be Count Chocula. At the end, there was some funky Punjabi dancing and the girls were being shy, kind of typical of some conservative Bangali weddings. However, the music was too loud for my parents and so we headed out.

We got back home late, but the night continued on. Karen and I ended up talking about life and religion until 2:30. Good times, but she had to go to bed and so did I since we had a semi early morning the next day.

I woke up at 10 to get ready to head over to Jamal's Birthday Party at his new Westchester house. That house is amazing, but is in too remote of a location. We took a wrong early exit and ended up in the most circuitous of roads, at the end of Croton Lane. It winds around this huge body of water and give me a headache just thinking about it now. We were basically on Croton for the longest of times with no cell phone signal since it's the woods. Then, I see the car start blinking since I'm driving and I find out we don't have gas anymore. So I make a U-turn at this baptist church/cemetery to get back to the main road, which was a fair distance since my little brother did spot a small gas station. So now our first priority was to get some gas, get a phone signal and then make our way to Jamal, otherwise we'd be screwed for a while. Luckily, most cars keep a reserve of 50 miles before running out and we made it to Jamal's.

On our way there, we got hit by a small torrential thunderstorm, which did affect their BBQ. Despite it all, the food was great. I love meat, especially steak, especially grilled and BBQ-ed ones.

We chilled there all day with the family and once the DiColandrea family came, it just got better. We played ping-pong, caram board, Halo 2, Social Promotion Badminton, frisbee, and played music with the guitar and drums. Overall, it was a phenomenal time, especially that Social Promotion Badminton.

Joey, Jamal, Joel, and I created the game last time we were all at his house. Since they didn't actually have a net, we used their driveway and high stairs to create a game in which the winners of each round get promoted to the next level of the corporate ladder. From each position, we snap derogatory remarks about our social class to each other. It's good times for us New Yorkers that have probably seen it all. We left with quasi sad faces, hopefully, it not being the last time I see Jamal before I leave to Cairo. I don't think we both realized that, but I just did right now.

As we got home at 1:30AM, Karen and I were going to continue our conversation except I realized I'd have a more tiring day on Sunday, and so I went to bed and woke up at around 11. I was trying to catch up on sleep since I didn't really sleep the weekend before and this past week was killer in terms of events and so forth. Anyway, I was slowly catching up until I hit Dragon Boat practice at 12. We hit the water straight in the torrential rain storm. It was an intense practice since it was our last practice before the big races next weekend. We kept paddling until we were forced to take the boat back to shore since there was too much lightening. We succumbed to the thunder and then just took some team pics.

Once we got home, I ate some, but then had to head back out in the rain to help my aunt move some stuff from house to house. It was a little stressful, but it's life. If you can't even help your family, how are you expected to help the world. In Islam, help and Zakat is always first given to the ones closest to you and if they don't need it, you spread out farther and farther in your community until you reach the global village. It's a beautiful system.

I got home, took the second shower of my day and headed to my uncle's BBQ. We played regular badminton there and got home for a quiet night. Like usual, I had work the next day. Once you start working 50 hour weeks, you realize the weekends are never long enough. Luckily, or maybe not so much, it's my last week of work. Clutch time. Doing the most and best I can with my time here.

More Practice Soon to Come,
Shams