Throwdown!

New Me would definitely win in a gloves-off contest against Old Me. I'm not trying to pretend I've really changed that much in two months, but there are definite differences in my attitude, motivation level for everything, and the number of hours I spend with these people since starting this blog.

Here's a play-by-play of today's fight (read the points with a little "ding" after each for fun):

Old Me: "Could these people drive any slower?"
New Me: "Alhamdulillah."   1

OM: "Let's just mail it with the errors."          
NM: "We can figure this thing out."   1

OM: "Packing is still exercise, right?"            
NM: "It's awesome out. Let's walk."   1

I don't think armpits are awra for men.

As you can see, New Me totally killed. Before you vomit all over your keyboard (NOT recommended) and go looking for the "unsubscribe" button, I want you to know that Old Me isn't totally out of the running and I am not going to become one of those prissy "perfect" people. EVER. For example, Old Me keeps talking New Me into eating the leftover candy bars from our class concession sales because I put $20 into the kitty for change and never took it back. This means I am owed 20 candy bars. Well, 14 now. UPDATE: I just mixed a bag of crushed-up Peanut M&Ms into some peanut butter cookie dough (of course!) so now we're at 13. 13 candy bars left.

Guess what else? You also win today by default because I took some beautiful pictures of the "lake" on my walk. Eye of the tiger!




EXERCISE
The walk was beautiful. I'm not sure I actually walked for 20 minutes but as we discussed, I am not perfect and never will be. It's ok.

Here are some pics of that lake that's been hiding from me behind several 1970s-era apartment buildings.

These twin bench swings have a slight The Shining quality to them.

Quack!

If you keep your head down, you can forget you're in the 'burbs!

This was prettier in person but still my fave.

Health Tip of the Day: Channel your inner Rocky to fight sloth and procrastination! Share your victories with us on this blog.

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ISLAM
Right. So this was actually yesterday but I forgot I was going to blog about it so we will pretend it's today. Good.

My "Islam" for the day was writing the latest eNews for Building Blocks of Islam. Bulding Blocks (BB) is an organization near and dear to my heart. It's where I got my start volunteering in the Twin Cities Muslim community and where I got the best password ever: Sriracha. One of my readers will get this reference. Maybe two. The elevator speech is that Building Blocks is a community-building organization that gives people a platform from which to do good works. But you can learn more on the website in that linky thing above.

From March 2010 until November 2011 I was officially employed there, which was a beautiful blessing that I was sad to see come to an end. I had to chose between BB and my other part-time job and since the other was offering full-time and BB wasn't, the choice was basically made for me. That's not to say I don't love what I do (which is still helping Muslims, just in East Africa this time) but I do miss many parts of working at BB.

Since it's an organization run almost entirely by volunteers, the good news is I never have to leave! I still help (very little) with the PR team by putting together the eNews and jump in here and there at events etc. I love Building Blocks. 

Your homework for today is to check out the BB website and then share other worthy nonprofit organizations with your fellow readers. There may only be 4 of you, but it's all good.