NO WAY!!!!!

Hello everyone!
Long time no see!
(Sorry for being too informal)
I haven't been able to write any blogs as I was supposed to. A wedding party was on the way and you know how boring it is to search through different stores for a single piece of clothing. Just imagine after putting so much time and effort into this, I had to have a blouse tailored for myself because I couldn't find the one I was looking for. However, I have tried to go through the books I bought from the book fair and thank God, I've been quite successful to finish two of them. I'll comment on the books later. There were two other visitors from abroad and I was really preoccupied. Actually I haven't had the time to think about my plans at all. But something very exciting happened two days ago: a friend called me and said my grade for the reading course is 20. I was just waiting for this to happen but I somehow doubted it, because I knew I had mistakes. Although some students had told me that the professor would give us extra marks for the lecture we had given, I wasn't really sure this would happen. This grade was kind of vital for me, because all my other grades were 20 and with this one my average could be 20!!!
So I finally did it, I wanted to do this and I did it, still cant't believe it but it's done. I'm just flying high; so happy about this that I'm enjoying every minute of my summer. I hope I can do this again...

What would you do if you were in my shoes?

I consider myself a tidy and neat person. I don't know if it's good or bad, because most of the time it helps me a lot, but right now it's acting conversely. Let me start with my room: The books are usually tidy in the bookcase, my shoes are always clean, my clothes are ironed in advance when I want to go somewhere and each hung on a separate hanger, I always use my own bathroom, my own shampoo, and my own everything. I'm rather fussy about my personal belongings. But now that we're moving places, we've put all our things in boxes; therefore, I don't know where exactly my things are. We've piled the boxes in a temporary apartment until we find a suitable permanent one and that's why for every single thing I need to go quite a long way from my Grandmother's house--which we're presently staying at--to pick that thing up. I feel like I'm in the middle of nowhere; I mean I had so many plans for the summer, but I can't rest assured until I have my belongings tidied in a safe place so that they can't be harmed.
This election is becoming a hassle too. If it wasn't for the unstable situation, we wouldn't have to move twice.

7.4.87

Today is the 7^th of Tir—which I consider a lucky day—and I’ve just finished reading the book Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. I know you may have read it many years ago; I myself came across this book about 8 years ago, too, but I don’t know why I didn’t read it. Everybody talked about it those days and the writer had so many fans in Iran that he decided to visit Iran. He met his fans in the “Book City” of Niavaran. I went there with one of my friends—one of my classmates in the second grade of high school—and it was ridiculous, because I hadn’t even read one of his books. It was one of those events that everyone was excited about at school. As a matter of fact, I wasn’t in the picture at all.

Before I go any further about my findings, I’d like to tell you that I wanted to bring up this topic a long time ago; actually I wanted to write about this as my first blog post in the internet and that’s why I have named my blog “Karma.” However, each time I made up my mind and wrote a few lines of draft, when I reread what I had written, it sounded stupid to me and I thought no one would believe it; therefore, I postponed it to some other time and that some other time is now.

Some of you might think I’m superstitious, some might think I’m delusional, but it’s true; whatever I say has truly happened to me. The number “7” keeps occurring to me. I was beginning to doubt my judgment when I read the mentioned book and this was another sign. I see this number then I somehow know what I think of or what I have on my mind is right. At first I thought this was an accident but then the message became so obvious and clear that I couldn’t ignore. For instance, when something was wrong and I was unable to think properly and wondered what would happen, I suddenly saw number 7 as the number of an apartment meaning everything would be alright. I doubted it, but then quite immediately I saw 77 as the number of another house. Again I doubted it and thought to myself it was a coincidence, and then I saw a car with the number 77 ب 777. I was shocked to the point that I had goose bumps. Aside from number 7, other things happen to me, too. I think of something and I turn on the TV and see people talking about the very same thing I’ve been thinking about. I wish someone would say something and that person says the thing I have on my mind. Luck has been on my side ever since the signs started.

Don't know where to start

Right now, at the very present moment that everybody is burning the midnight oil to study the exam materials, I'm sitting in front of my computer thinking I'll start right away, but when I turn the PC off and try to read something I'm sure I'll look for an excuse not to do away with the studying. Have you ever felt like this? I'm positive you have, unless you're one of those book worms that are seen studying all the time. While a huge pile of work or books is waiting for you at your desk, you convince yourself that there would be no harm if you started tomorrow, or next Saturday, or on the 15th or any other round number! I always remember what Mr. Rakhshani said: "Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow." It's always like this rather than the other way round, isn't it? The story goes on like this until the night before the exam-that sleepless night-when you go above and beyond to finish reading all the materials once at least. On the day of the exam, stressed to death, thinking everyone else is ready but you, with those empty looks of yours when someone asks a question, you go to the exact place of exam, waiting for your executioner to show up and give you the test. You look at the questions quickly and you recognize you don't know some and the answer to the rest is so vague that you don't know what to write.

After the exam you promise yourself that next time you'll do better and that you won't leave all the hard work for one night, but when exactly that next time comes no one knows. It seems it goes on like this forever like a vicious circle you can't get out of. Maybe I'm too undecisive that I'm facing such problems....you tell me.

After 7 years

My uncle (on my mother's side) arrived on Monday from America. I hadn't seen him for nearly 8 years. You know, when it gets this long, you just think you don't miss them, but when you finally see them you can feel the sudden rush of sensations, which have been bottled up, overflowing. You suddenly think what you are going to do when they leave, and how you have managed to go on without them this many a year. The bonds become stronger and stronger and you want to spend all of your time together. In the case of my uncle, who listens to every detail of your everyday routine with patience and love, you will come to the conclusion that you don't want to let them go one more time.

Politics

It's getting harder for me to resist writing about political issues, especially with last night's so-called controversy. I'm gathering my thoughts these days to finally decide who to vote for but the harder I try to concentrate, the more difficult it gets to come up with a conclusion. What is politics after all? If we were to discover the politicians' true intentions, we would have been politicians ourselves and as far as we're not politicians, I believe a lot of relations will remain stealthy and undercover to most of us.

You sit in a taxi and the driver talks like he's an expert in political matters. They wouldn't call it politics if everyone could discover what goes on behind the curtains. Among all the people some intellectuals might be able to guess the real connections between people and events but that would only be a guess and nothing more. Only God knows what each candidate is up to. I think we should vote for the one who sounds more logical; how can someone who doesn't understand the problem itself be able to find a solution to it? Some candidates' solutions sound really ridiculous and I'm surprised why some people still insist on voting for them. It's disgusting how some candidates manipulate youngsters by nice but untrue mottoes and this is unbearable for me. I don't know, maybe if I were their age I would be as excited. It's still a long way till the election-which is 8 days form now-and I can't wait to see the results.

Definitely read this!

I came across this email a few days ago which I found funny and interesting but true. I try hard not to get involved in political matters but I couldn't help going through this one and again I couldn't help translating it into English for you. Please forgive my poor translation beforehand.

A senator dies and unlike many others he's sent to heaven. At heaven's door, the guard surprisingly says: " It's quite a long time we haven't had a senator here! God has ordered me to offer you two options; you can choose between heaven and hell after you've spent a day in each." He immediately answers: "I've made up my mind and I want to go to heaven." The guard replies: "I'm sorry I can't open the door for you. It's an order and you must spend a day in each place and then decide where to stay."

So he spends the first day in hell. He finds many of his comrades there. They play golf together, dance, drink, listen to music, play cards and have a really good time. To his surprise, he finds the weather very nice and cool and thinks what everyone had said about hell was wrong. By the end of the day he's had the best time of his life never wanting it to end.

The next day he's sent to heaven. He finds very few familiar faces but again enjoys his time the whole day. Nice weather and entertainment of any kind was available for him as he had expected; however, he's found hell more interesting and appealing.

At the end of the second day, the guard asks him where he wanted to stay and he answers "hell," with no hesitation. On the third day he's sent to hell to stay there forever. Disappointed to see that there's just a barren land with no food, no entertainment and no friends at all, he asks the guard: "What happened to what I saw yesterday? This is completely different." The guard replies: "That was before you VOTED for it."