Umm Ibraheem

At my mom’s. What else can I say?

Without my husband, I’m disfunctional. I can’t get a whole lot done, so my progress on the blog and my reading will be minimal

In the mean time, I shall sit back and enjoy family

This post is so random…so excuse my ranting.

I have globophobia, which is an irrational fear of balloons. I’m not ashamed of it, it’s just something that’s a part of me. And I wouldn’t mind telling people, if they didn’t look at me as if I’ve sprouted antennae right after I tell them. Oh, and by “people”, I mean “desis.” Sadly, I don’t really think that the majority of people back home understand phobias. Every time it does happen to crop up, they’ll kind of stare at me as if I’m stupid or as if they’re waiting for me to take back what I said. My own parents won’t admit I have globophobia! Forget getting aquaintances and aunties to understand.

So – what is it exactly? I forgot who – but someone – asked me recently if I imagine the balloons attacking me or turning into monsters or something. I thought that was pretty hilarious  No. That is most certainly not the case. I’m not a three year old  I’m a healthy, (fairly) normal 24 year old woman. Globophobia – for me – isn’t the actual fear of the balloon, it’s the anticipation of it popping. Hence, the bigger and shinier they are, the more nervous I am. And, what gets even weirder is that I’m not afraid of the popping. I like it when they pop. Because then they are gone. Good riddance.

I hate it. I’d like to tell my parents – and all those desis and everyone else who looks at me strange when I mention it – trust me, if I had a choice, I wouldn’t be globophobic.

I think it took root at my first birthday party – kids kept coming in my face and popping balloons. Childhood trauma

Now, any time I go to a party, the entire ride, my palms are sweating (literally), my heart is palpating and I’m on the verge of a panic attack. It’s quite horrible. I hate it. I’m gripped with this terror the whole time. It sounds ridiculous, perhaps, but there you have it. And the whole time, I’ll just be thinking about how I can leave early. Once there, I assess the situation quickly. I have to go through all these  mental maneuvers and consolations to keep my heart from palpating, to keep my breathing even – “It’ll be over soon” – “Look, dessert! Ooh, cheesecake!” – “Don’t  look that way – this side of the room doesn’t have any” – “It’s ok, just send the kids to their dad if they want balloons.”

There you have it. I admitted it to the world (or anyone willing to read through all of this waffle).

I have an irrational fear of balloons. And to anyone who thinks it’s stupid or doesn’t make sense — I. Don’t. Care.

 We went to the California Academy of Sciences as well. They had an aquarium and planetarium. We really wanted to go see the aquarium for Ibraheem. He reaaly enjoyed it. And I really loved the planetarium, which is apparently the biggest in the world.

Indoor Rain Forest

This was really cool to go into and see. Probably worth the 20  minute wait, had I not had a fear of heights. Khadeejah was also squirming in my lap and attempting to jump over the railing. Can you blame a mom?

Roof of Rain Forest

The Golden Gate Bridge

 It was windy as heck by the bridge. The view was gorgeous, but man was it windy! Ibraheem panicked so much that I took him back to the van.

[rant] So I was planning on putting up my notes from the first lesson + the first live session…. but man, I did not like the format.

I was told that the teacher would give top priority to questions asked on the forums, but we seemed to jump to live questions about 5 minutes in. I did not like this, because most of the questions people were asking were not related to lesson 1 at all. Some of them were related to lessons like two or three weeks (maybe more!) ahead. Or maybe I was missing something?

Anyways, and then halfway through, we lost electricity – which has never happened at our apartment before. Alhamdulillah though…I thought it was a blessing in disguise, because I was getting so frustrated during the session. I couldn’t keep up with the questions, and people just kept asking question after question….

Maybe that’s how things are done at SunniPath? I guess the live sessions are just Q&A’s….I was just expecting a more orderly Q&A.

[/rant]

Alhamdulillah, I like listening to the pre-recorded lectures, so maybe I should just stick to listening to the “live session” later

I thought that was so cool.