Not to complain, but we're fried. Mentally, that is.There's just so much to think about. Plan, do. What to take, what to leave. What to take it in. What to wear. Where to live. How to pay bills on two hemispheres. What the hey we're going to do with the little darlings on the plane.
And then trying to fit in everything and everybody we can "before we go". Caught a Mariner's game , out for Texan BBQ, a rock concert, and everybody wants a piece of us. It's very flattering, that last bit, but also stressful.
So we trip over our words and drool, and yell at the kids.In addition, I'm trying to cram in some learning about Islam and a teensy bit of Arabic. Bethy has learned her first Arabic word "gamel". You know, Arabic for "camel".
I told her that Arabic is written from right to left instead of from left to right as we do with English. She said, "Well then I'll write it any way I want to."
Alrightly then.
The racism in the US against Muslims is really bothering me. The Dunkin Doughnuts commercial with Rachel Ray wearing a checkered scarf has been pulled because it resembled "The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad. Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos..." (Michelle Malkin, Yahoo News)which was interpreted as "symbolic support for terrorism" (Chicago News Tribune, 5/29/08).Excuse me?! The keffiyeh has nothing to do with terrorism! As Mike said, "Planes were used for the Sept 11 attack, do they represent terrorism?"Why is it OK to be anti-Islamic? It's embarrassing. I can only hope that 40 years from now we'll feel the same way about such statements as we do now about throwing around the "N" word and making African Americans move to the back of the bus and use separate drinking fountains. Geez, I hope blue jeans don't become synonymous with blatant stupidity. One can only hope not.What really kills me is the thought that if we weren't going, would I even notice the racism? Aarggh.
My big project right now is finding Bethy a school. Mike has many. How to file taxes (and have the stuff from both countries accessable), asking lots of questions at work. The cars, houses, money, paperwork. Oh yeah, and his job.
Poor Mike.
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