year ONE

I've just realized that this weblog has been around for a whole entire year now, and I figure some sort of acknowledgment of that milestone is in order. So let's make this a thank-you post.

Thank you to –

- Al-Muhajabah, Bushra, Usman, and Yaser, whose weblogs were the first ones I stumbled across, and whom I still find cool for various reasons.
- Bushra again, for publicly calling me out on my lurker tendencies a few months later (resulting in my amazingly long email to her; if memory serves me right, she referred to it as a "roller-coaster" email), and for encouraging me to start my own weblog.
- The anonymous person who commented sometime back in the beginning and made me view my writing with a more critical eye.
- Diane, the only other hard-of-hearing person I know, who more than anyone understood my frustration in shopping for a cell phone.
- Alex and Anne, strangers who have possessed the courage to take risks and embrace change, and whose respective weblogs never fail to inspire me.
- Seher, who noticed that my writing suddenly, unconsciously, shifted from conversational to narrative over the past few months, and who recently reminded me of the importance of self-analysis and stepping back to look critically at oneself, the greater world, and other people.
- My beautiful sister, who understands the blogging madness, laughs at my stories, and advises, "You should blog about that," between bouts of nagging me with "Did you update yet?"

I said to Somayya, laughing, this morning: "People on my weblog just can't seem to get over my story about tailgating the Hummer."
"That's 'cause you usually come across as all level-headed and down-to-earth," she replied. "They don't know you like I do, all the craziness you're capable of."
So just to clarify, I'm not as serious as my posts make me out to be, nor am I always as happy-go-lucky. I'm much more than the weblog, and so many days I'm actually much less.

Either way, thank you all for being a receptive audience for my crazy stories, for sharing your thoughts and experiences via the comment box (and, sometimes, email), and for unknowingly inspiring and challenging me daily through your own example – spiritually, intellectually, and writing-wise.

Yes, I'm talking to you.

Thank you for making this an enjoyable and worthwhile experience.

This isn't the end, don't worry. I plan on sticking around.
And before you even ask – I highly doubt any drastic layout changes are in order, since my kindergarten-html skills are not up to the task.

But I am going to try to do better at replying to emails. Really. I hope.