For all the women out there that dress modestly...

Cartoon in Arabic translated for ya'll.

Lady in red with headscarf: "I'm wearing hijab for Ramadan!"

Woman in jilbab aka abaya: "!" [not wanting to think about it because judging others is a sin]

Man walking down the road making dhikr on tisbah beads: "Ya Allah! I am fasting" [on repeat].

Yes, women with headscarfs but TOTALLY skin tight clothes, make expat women dressed in a moderately more "halal" manner (and other Muslims) confused in general. My mother was like, do you have to wear it like that, that girl over there, she looks nicer. Yeah, but I know her cup size. That AIN'T no abaya. I don't care about others but I am very aware of what I am wearing. But I don't like that non-Muslims are getting confused on it, like, hey it is alright, or isn't that religion hypocritical and all. That's my only point in this post.

But what makes me the most upset? Girls in SKIN-TIGHT as in "I know your cup size" and "I see your pantyline" abayas pointing out modestly dressed and women and being like the cartoon below:Girls in scarves: "Can you believe her, going out without a hijab? Isn't she ashamed?"

Yeah huh, alright. That IS something you might want to work on this Ramadan ladies.

So that all of ya'll know, Ramadan is probably next week...

LOL @ A who sent me this on FB. I'll write a post soon about do's and don'ts of Ramadaan, and what Ramadan is ect. But this poster sums up the don'ts for the "Ramadan-only Muslims" of Oman.

Vimto: the official drink of Ramadan

FB convo between A & OPNO, subject: Vimto, the official drink of Ramadan

OPNO: "Am so excited for Ramadan here. For the following reasons: a. because I won't be the only one fasting, and I really need this Ramadan, b. the guy for taraweeah [night prayer] will ACTUALLY be able to read arabic..."

A: "is your first here in the Oman?"

OPNO: "First fasting. ...And C. Vimto is cheaper here. Back home, Vimto costs more than a bottle of wine."

A: "French Canadians, ha!"

OPNO: "Mmmmmmmmhmmmmm. I love Vimto. To me is the official drink of Ramadan."

A: "My mam buys alot of Vimto."

In case you have no idea what Vimto is, which would be totally rare unless you are one of those expats who have never associated with an Omani before [they exist, I grew up in a cove of them], it is a non-alcoholic syrup cordial which is the equivelent of the Muslim's red wine. It tastes nothing like wine, but is made from a sugary syrup-y base by pouring into chilled water, it can be an aquired taste/ once aquired: it is delicious.

Myself, I hate the pre-mixed sugary Vimto in juice boxes. I prefer the glass bottle Vimto syrup that I can mix to taste. Before Islam I came from a family that prided themselves on their hosting skills and their well-stocked bars. :) Yes I know. I should not be talking about Ramadan and bars but besides, I still like to host with the same flair, but I have replaced my red wine with Vimto. I still like to keep pretty wine glasses and cute (halal) cocktail utensils for making halal drinks like non-alcoholic margaritas ect. Which is WHY the stores in Oman stock up on pretty wine glasses and such;).

Ramadaan is coming & how to set your tables

Ramadan is coming. I want to start a trend of having guest at my place for sohoor (breakfast) though it'll probably fail. Most of my friends are loathe to wake for fajr. but I shall be hosting one guest (yay, my first couch surfing experience as a host!).

Then the rest of the day the table and counters will look like this (sans apples) to be less tempting for those who have harder time with fasting.

Towards magraib (sundown) the juices come out. Yummy.

The Book: Chapter 9;

[part missing]

I couldn't believe it.

Audrey and Celeste sat at the foot of my bed while I played my music so loud I couldn't hear either of them, but I am sure they were trying to comfort me somehow.

Celeste, who had a migraine, cringed as she inched the volume on her CD player down.

I was sprawled on my camping mat-come-bed with pictures of him all around me, wearing one of Celeste's floral dresses and my pearl necklace, makeup done to perfection and tissues with mascara edging on them rolled into balls pushed aside neatly by Audrey, who sat patting my foot awkwardly, strange one that she was that rejected physical human contact in almost every other situation.

"He told you he couldn't marry you so you have only yourself to blame for hoping, though I'll agree he's a jerk," Celeste tried to provoke me. She knew baiting was the keenest, wisest, tried-tested-and-true way to get me out of bed to eat something. If I was angry then I'd be hungry. Depressed as I was, I hadn't eaten for almost a week.

I just stared at her blankly. How had I become so pathetic?

"If he loved you," Celeste continued, getting up, "he'd marry you."

She left.

"Ignore her," Audrey patted me again. I glared at her. "She's just like that--- and we all know why. But you knew there was no hope. And still you kept hoping. You knew the family would force him to marry someday.

Some people fit into boxes, and you are not one of them. Some people can go in and out of the box, but you, you can't fit in the box, not in any box. And Khaleel? He can't get out of the box. You two kids were doomed from the start. And he hates your lipstick. And he's a jerk."

I wanted to agree. But I knew a different Khaleel than they did.

"He saved me Audrey. When no one else is there, he always is."

She nodded. "He'll always save you. But he can't marry you. And he can't save you from yourself. Celeste is right about that."

That was the truth of it really, the bottom line. But try telling that to a serriously depressed person now, why don't you?

"But I love him!" I whined. "He's a coward, a cheater, a liar..." I pat her shoulder back pointedly and made the following allowance, "...but only to you.

And an idiot, but I love him."

She sat back. "He was your knight in shining armor. That's why you say that. All girls have a rescue fantasy, even one as bullshit tough as you."

I laughed.

"Yeah, true. But Khaleel was never exactly a Knight-in-shining-armor kind of guy."

Audrey giggled with me. "More like holes-in-his-shorts and rubber flip-flops?"

I looked pained for a second, and she knew she'd made a mistake. "Khaleel looked damn sexy in those shorts."

She patted me on my foot again. "Only you would think so." As an afterhtought. "He has a nice neck though. Too bad I wanna smack him in the back of the head until that neck snaps."

Khaleel had wronged Audrey more than he'd ever wronged me.

"He's a coward and an idiot," I allowed. "He didn't deserve me. But... he was the first one who said that..." I drifted back into melancholy.

About the fact that he was a coward and an idiot, Audrey philisophized, pulling my floral dress back over my thighs as I twisted around at the mat to pick up one of my drawings Khaleel had given back to me: "Sometimes heroes really are." She nooded her head at me, as I stood, the both of us began to clean up the room while rocking out to the CD player's bad Mariah Carey CD.

"Sometimes your knight in shining armor is an Omani guy with a nice neck, sexy torn shorts, and a vivid fear of his family, who happens to act like an idiot at times," I admitted, realizing the Khaleel that I loved so avidly, never really existed, at least not to anybody but me. He'd still saved me. Nothing he'd done since could take away that fact.

Audrey patted me again."Yes, yes he is. Sometimes," she began, "...your knight in shining armor is really just a retard wrapped in tin foil."

We laughed. It was the first time we had laughed in a really, really long time. I was sad she was going.

letter to the Sultan, to do with getting her a passport OR...

BTW, Sultan Qaboos, if you read our blog, says one member of OPNO, she will wear the above pictured birqa/mask in Omani colours for the rest of her life if you will make it a. legal for her to marry the love of her life without making her move to another country to do so [see the results of OPNO's marriage poll here http://howtolivelikeanomaniprincess.blogspot.com/2010/08/marriage-vote-do-omanis-support.html ], or b. give her an Omani passport for looking like a crazy football fan/Christmas 24/7 Majnoonah. She is also willing to cross the Rub al Khali with bare feet, or whatever else you may ask, like a storybook Sultan from a fairy tale.