drops of jupiter

i have a 30-page report to write. i have 6 books to read before i write it. i have all of the internet to search, and 60 issues of both the economist and the economic survey of pakistan to sift thru before i start writing. i have less than 16 hours to do it. and i am blogging. which probably explains why im blogging. it's the lesser of the two evils. the good thing is, i think i have some chocolate cake lying around the house. that wont help with the report, but it'll make me feel less guilty about not doing it as well as i could have. shiny disco balls. ----------------------------------------------------------- so like, i went to my friend's wedding yesterday... she is a good people. as in, i've been totally in love with here ever since we met in kinnaird, and then i moved away, and we've been friends for around eight years. we used to meet off an on, when i moved to nca... she came to see my thesis. small world that it is, it turned out, the guy she was getting married to, had been a childhood friend of my brother's. anyways, so in the past few yrs, we kinda drifted apart, meaning i only ever called on her when i needed to cry... which is basically once every year :) she on the other hand, went all religious on me, joined al-huda, took on a jalbab... and became one of god's special people. needless to say, in the recent years... she's hung around her kinda folks. so the other day, she called me, and said i was to come to her wedding... which was happening in a mosque. and my first question was... but what am i supposed to wear? i've always been a misfit around pious and good people. for one thing, i just dont know how to act around them. i mean dude! they are pious and good :) im not. so anyways, she told me i could wear whatever i wanted to, and i figured well, i COULD wear whatever i wanted to, and hoped that she wouldnt throw me out, on account of the fact, that we've been too good friends, for far too long. so i put on thys realy nice dress of mine, and went ... as was expected ... 99.009% of the women there... (and there were only women where we sat)... were either in hijab, or jalbab. i wasnt. i met up with some other really old friends, and it was sooo good to see them all again... but on the whole, it was kinda spooky. not just the stares, but ACTUALLY getting comments like "WHO IS SHE?" it was funny. i wanted to say, "i am not from among u" but i figured i had harrassed them enough, not only by going bareheaded, but also with short hair :s (the second part could so not be remedied in one night). i heard the "dars" at her "nikah" and i sat next to her when the guy accepted her in marriage, and it was all so cool :) and i bugged her about it, and then when everyone rushed to congratulate her and her mom, i slipped out of the wedding. she was the only thing i had hung around for anyways. i just felt too much of an outsider or a creep or something, in a very unfamilliar environment. love the babe though, and i totally wish her the best in life. in the meanwhile, i need to do something about my affiliation with my religion. *knock knock knockin on heaven's door* ----------------------------------------------------------- pakistani govt has been successful in getting $6 billion in grants and aid for the earthquake relief. out of which, $1.9 billion is aid, and the rest of the amount is a "soft loan". bullshit. how the hell are we going to pay it back? why does it look like most of the money is going to end up in switzerland, and we will be left with paying off interest payments of up to 25% (annually compounded)? de javu anyone?