So I think I finally figured out what the term HOME refers to, at least for me. It’s a state of mind, a physical location or anything or anyone that can provide peace of mind and a safe shelter when serenity is needed; an easy escape when things get tough and a destination to get to when one’s lost. I sometimes joke around and say thinking of unicorns can get you there, but my non-mythical, real and approachable unicorn just happens to be…. you guessed it right; my WIFE!

As I mentioned before, if you don’t know her, you are missing out. She’s wonderful!

Today  I got to communicate through email with my Math teacher from High School, Brother Placid Henriques.  The last time I talked to him was in ’94, a year after my graduation from High School when I went back home for vacation.  For the past few years,  I have been trying to locate him to see how he’s doing and show my respect and gratitude.

Br. Placid came to Comboni as part of the Christian brothers to help people regardless of who and where they are.  He gave his stay there his all.  He taught Math and Sciences and did a magnificent job deploying the material to whoever was in his classes.  After school, he joined us in playing basketball and volleyball and was very competitive doing that too.  I still remember the day we both got into it arguing about a call during a volleyball match; he sent me home right away which I am thankful for until this day.  I was being a knuckle-head and deserved it.

Br. Placid made me see Math in a different manner.  Math was not just a group of sequences and operations but rather a conduit to an infinite number of possibilities and thoughts.  He had us solving so many problems and exercises  of all kinds (Calculus, Trigonometry, Algebra,  Projectiles, etc.) and made them so interesting to the point where it was anomalous  if a problem or task wasn’t solved.

I am very fortunate to have had you as a teacher and  mentor growing up and a big believer that you have helped shape who I am today.  I am sure hundreds or more will attest the same thing.   Thank You Sir!

My little brother Hisham gets married this weekend.  A good man is becoming a magnificent person. I am so proud of him and what he has accomplished so far. I will be the first to say that although he is is 9 years younger than me, I wish I was half as kind, half as accomplished and half as a brother, son, friend and family member as he is to each and every person he crosses paths with.

Growing up he was always the quiet, gentle one who never caused anyone any harm.  With a killer smile and perfect attitude, he always managed to automatically gain everyone’s admiration and respect.  He stepped up and filled shoes that even myself, his old brother, could not fill, without any complain or any kind of cry for help.

This week is your week Mr. Gasim and  your time to keep on shining.  You and my sister-in-law to be are going to have a wonderful life.  The both of you are so lucky for finding each other and we are all very fortunate to have both of you in our lives.

A lot of times I get asked about our story. How it started, where we met, etc. Usually my face gets red and the words refuse to come out of my mouth. I am going to try to put a short pictures storyline together and refer all future questions about the subject to here. This is how it goes:

I met her 9 years ago at SIU; thanks Ayum, I owe you big time. Due to reasons that are not important, we couldn’t be together. However, we remained friends and kept in touch after she left. We even visited each other!

This was in Pensacola, FL where she moved after she graduated. I think that was when I realized that she is going to be my wife one day, even though we were just friends. I got to meet her parents and really enjoyed my time with them.
	She came and visited me in Carbondale. That was the first time I cooked for her. I think I might have ignited something in her or struck a chord when she tasted the food that I made.

Afterwards, we kept in touch but we got disconnected for a while. She moved to Chicago to go to Graduate School and we lost contact. I called her Mom and she gave me her contact information. Thank you Mrs. Lawrence (I owe you big time too).

I attended her graduation from Graduate School and that was when we started to be an item.
	We both looked beyond the obstacles and decided to give it a try.

We took it to the next level.
	And we eventually landed here.

A lot has been left out since the journey took almost a decade so far. For me, what is important is that it is just the beginning of a very long journey with the love of my life, my peace of mind and my trophy of trophies. She is all the aforementioned; a million other words put together will not do justice to what she means to me.

I love you Mrs. Gasim

I think I am a pretty reasonable person and I try my hardest not to let things get to me. I am a people’s person and I am always looking for news from family and friends.  However, when the only thing I am getting from certain folks is just forwards, it annoys the heck out of me.

I keep scratching my head trying to remember the number of letters I had received back in the day, when there was no email and no internet, that started with “FW: ” .  Letters that had pictures of kittens attached, religious scripture or even just requests to put the letter back in the envelope and forward it to everyone that I have addresses for (if I don’t do so, I will have bad luck for x number or years). The answer is always zero!

What happened to “Dear Haitham, how are you?  I hope this email finds in you good health.” or “What’s going on man? I was thinking about you and thought I would say hello.”?  Don’t get me wrong, I get a lot of those and they always make my day, but I also receive a lot of what I am talking about and I don’t read them.  I just delete them before opening them sometimes.

I AM always looking forward to hearing from you and hearing your news.  I want to know how your job is going and what the kids are up to nowadays.  I want to be here for you when you are down , wanting an honest opinion about what you are going through, or when you want to share your joy with me.

I AM NOT interested in Microsoft paying me a $100,000, why the end of time is here, or the funniest little johnny jokes.  When I have time during my day, I can get all of that with a few keyboard strokes and a mouse click.

If I had done that in the past to you, please forgive me.  I promise it won’t happen again.

Yours truly,

Haitham

I was at the post office today to send off a package.  I had to pull out my card to pay for what it cost and right after that I left without noticing that I dropped my wallet.  I got in my car and started driving back to work and then realized that my wallet was not on me.

As some of you know, Erin lost had her purse stolen a while ago and we had to go through a lot of chaos to remedy that situation.  All of that flashed through my mind while turning around to go back to the post office.  I got there 5 minutes after the fact and walked to the clerk who served me earlier.  He mentioned that he hadn’t seen a wallet on the counter although he remembers me paying with a credit card. I walked back to my car and started looking inside hoping that it’s under the seat or some where in there.  It was no where to be found!

All of a sudden, a gentleman walks up to me and tells me that he though that the picture on the driver’s license in the wallet he found looked like me.  He said he saw me walking around weary and realized that the lost wallet was mine.

I thanked him and told him he didn’t know how much what he did meant to me. Being the idiot that I am, I forgot to ask for his name or anything for I was still full of anxiety.  He could have done anything he wanted with it, but his kindess prevailed.  People like him remind me that goodness do exist.  Hopefully I will be able to return the deed some day back.  Thank you Sir!

Today marks another shot for me to finally quit smoking.  It has been a habit of mine for quiet some time (15 years) that I have struggled to kick.  I am hoping this time is my last and most successful match and I am willing to give it my all.

I also know that I am the one who has full control over it;  support and patches are helpful, but unless I develop and maintain the will and power to conquer it, everything else is  irrelevant.  I have quit in the past a few times and when I think about it nowadays, I can’t really put my hands on why I went.  I just say it was boneheaded idiocy.

Concluding on a good note, I feel better already.  The side effects of the nasty habit (different from one person to another) are slowly diminishing.  It is mostly just metal nicks and bruises from the counter-punches!

My site is finally up.  Thanks to Ms. Jennifer Oster (jennoster.net) who did a great job to make it look this way.  For the past couple of years there was nothing but a coming soon page.  I had wanted so badly to put something up because, with everything that has been going on around me and around the world, I always have thoughts buzzing around in my brain and would want to write them down somewhere.  I think blogging satisfies just that!

This will be just a place where I am going to talk about my life and what I encounter, whether it’s work, fun, politics, etc.  I’m hoping that I can share my thought and engage in  dialogue with the poeple that I care about and those who just stumble on here.

Please Feel free to comment or just drop a line.  Just be careful with what you write ’cause you never know who you will offend.  As for me, it’s my site dammit!  Just kidding.