It's Friday! (And not a moment too soon!)

Shehla: Hi, everyone. May peace be on you all. My name is Shehla, and welcome to this episode of my podcast, I'm A Muslim (And that's Okay!). So we made it to Friday, and no delays in this episode, [laughs]. Let me tell you, I almost didn't make it to Friday, but yeah. And for anyone curious about my cat and her medical condition, she's fine. I’m giving her medication. And I got a really good suggestion from a friend of mine. She said to put butter on the pill so it slips down her throat and she won't spit it out. 

And fortunately for me, I didn't have to try that because I discovered that my cat, being the fatso that she is, will eat-- take in any treat with anything on it. So it's funny, I took that bacon flavored that the wrap, and just put it around the pill, and I stuck it onto one of the greenies treats and she loves the stuff and she swallowed it, no problems there. So, hey, if anybody wants to try that, they could try it. So, but, ooh, it's been a hectic week, goodness gracious. So, I mean, we're trying to put our house up for sale and we have a really nice realtor and everything. She's really, like, high tech. I never imagined things like real estate to be this high tech. She not just lists it online, but she lists it internationally and junk like that. And I was like, “Whoa, that's interesting.” 

And she offers the services of a stager, and photography. I mean, photography is pretty standard, but I never really thought that for selling your house that they use a stager. I guess it makes sense because my house, the way it is, with two sons, four cats, and more fish tanks than you can throw a book at, I mean, yeah, most days it looks like a huge mess. So, I mean, a stager is a good idea, no matter which way you look at it. Our stager was really nice. And she came and she looked around and gave suggestions of what we needed to change and everything. And it's basically what she said is that, “It's true you're putting your house on the market, but it can't look like a house, it has to look like a hotel.” And I'm like, “Okay.” 

Which basically meant that you could not keep anything on any surface. Your counters had to be empty. It couldn't hold toasters or spice racks and stuff like that. It had to be completely bare of anything. You couldn't even keep soap on the counter. And I was like, “Oh, my God, how am I going to do this?” 

But I have been furiously cleaning for the past three days ever since the stager came. And my husband's tanks are-- I mean, not all of his tanks, but one of them was on the kitchen counter. This really huge, like, oh, my God, I think it's like a 30-- not even a 30. I think it’s a 30, I can’t remember but it's big. It’s like this 30-gallons saltwater tank. 

And for anybody out there who has saltwater tanks, they know it is a huge pain to A, keep, and B, maintain and that thing was on our counter. And there's, like, wires coming out of it, and the poor seahorses are in there, panicking when he's emptying out the water because we've got to get it out off the kitchen counter just to make it look nice, and we didn't have any other space to keep it, so it's on the floor right now. And it was such a disaster last night trying to shift everything around, nearly broke my back helping my husband carry that thing down and, whoof, it was insane. So, yeah, I almost didn't make it until today. [laughs] But, hey, I'm here. 

When I was done with cleaning everything, I was like, “Okay, nobody's allowed to live here anymore. Nobody touch nothing, nobody cooks, nobody eats.” And that's what's been happening. We haven't been cooking any meals in our house for the past, ooh,’ three days. There's been pizza one day and I don't know, maybe leftovers, I don't even know. I haven't had a proper dinner in the past three days. I've been just like running around like a crazy person trying to get everything clean. It's times like these you realize all the junk that you have because right now we have to empty up the house, basically, of anything because once it's going to start, the showings are going to start, everybody's going to come in and again, it has to look more or less like a hotel which is awful, because every single time that somebody asks to come in you have to put stuff away. And the pet stuff is the hardest stuff to put away because I feel bad for them. 

My cat, Max, and Max is my large Maine Coon black cat. I mean he's gorgeous and everything, but he's really attached to his cat tree. And we put that in the garage and that poor thing's been trying to get into the garage for the past two days, has been meowing like mad. And he misses his cat tree and I feel bad for him, man, it's not his fault. So, it's been crazy. It has been a crazy, crazy week. But, hey, it's Friday. 

And Fridays for me as a Muslim are significant, not just because it's the start of the weekend and let's face it, I mean as a parent, a stay-at-home parent, or any parent for that matter, the weekend just spells, still waking up at the crack of dawn and having the little demons that you've created yourself running around amok. 

Anyway, so, the thing is, for Muslims, a Friday is our day of prayer. So, when I was growing up in Pakistan, what usually used to happen is that Fridays were generally recognized as half days, and because most businesses would stay open either until only like 12:00 or 1:00, and then they would shutter and then everybody would go for the afternoon prayer. And then most likely would never reopen, but that's how it was culturally over there. 

And over here, it's not the same, people who come for the afternoon prayer on Friday, they do go back to work. It's not like a half day or anything. But most Islamic schools, like my older son, he goes to Islamic school, so he gets a half day, so it's exciting for kids. And there's always a special treat involved on Friday for our family. We always have French fries on Friday. Usually, my husband tries to take a day off or do a half day and then we get to spend some time together, so it's good, it's fun on Friday for the kids as well. It's semi relaxed. And I guess it's a good start to the weekend. So, I hope you join me next Friday as I delve a little bit deeper into my past and my upbringing in Pakistan. So, until then, may peace be on you all and have a great weekend. 

Thank you so much for tuning in to I'm A Muslim (And That's Okay!). And if you wish to follow my social media for more updates, you can follow me on Instagram, on Facebook and on YouTube. All the links to those are in the show notes. And if you are on Apple or on Spotify or on Podchaser, please do give my podcast a five-star rating. It really does help get me in the public eye. And if you wish to donate to support the podcast, you can do so through the PayPal link in my show notes as well. Take care.