My First Day of Summer Vacation at my Home in Atlanta

1. I woke up at 11:40 am. It was so good to sleep, particularly since I was up till 6am with bad allergies. I laid in bed and started reading Imagining Arab Womanhood, by my friend Amira Jarmakani. Then I read the Joy and Sorrow chapter from The Prophet.

2. I do a bunch of things in my house that I've been wanting to do but never found the time: rearranging my living room to make it more intimate, hanging the lovely Palestinian print Mohammad gave me for my birthday last year, pruning my massive book collection of some of its weight. It is amazing to me how easy I find accumulating books and how hard it is to let go of their words.



3. While going through the books, I found several pressed plants from years before - some magnolia leaves from Oakland Cemetery, Blue Orchids from Tangelia's wedding, a large leaf of Lambs Ear from Ireland.



4. I listen to Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's album Ka'ano'i twice and Beirut's Lon Gisland EP at least seven times.

5. I have a 20 minute debate with my 11 year old neighbor on the lessons and merits of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. versus Frederick Douglass.

6. I go shopping at Trader Joe's - something I never do - to buy snacks to make me feel like even my eating is on vacation. I buy some of my favorite things including baby roses, smoked salmon, blue potato chips, beets, olive tapenade, and havarti cheese.



7. I have a lovely dinner at Six Feet Under with Mohammad. We laugh a lot and he uses the word "kudzu" when he really means "kudos". After a hundred tries now spanning months, I finally am able to say in arabic "once upon a place in an ancient time" I eat fried catfish, corn and spinach.



8. We watched The Simpsons while drinking root beer floats and listening to the thunderstorm.