The Eid Wrap Up Part 2
Due to my horrible circadian rhythmic schedule, I didn't manage to fall asleep until 5 AM, leaving me only 3 hours to rest. Of course being Eid, at about 7 we managed to get a phone call from my cousin in Germany to wish us a Happy Eid, to which I grumbled and prayed that my legs would have enough energy in them to drive today for a few hours without error.
As always, my brother managed to conveniently wake me up after my mother and him were ready, so that regardless of how fast I got prepared, I would still be under the constant watching of my mother, who takes any chance to argue with me about being the last person to be ready whenever we go out. That's bound to happen when I'm the LAST ONE UP! We ended up leaving our home at 9:20, 20 minutes later than what my mother wanted.
Eid prayers for our community were at the International Centre in Mississauga, right near the airport. Google Maps calculated it to be a 38 minute drive, to which I figured 10-15 minutes here or there would be added to take traffic into account. Boy was I wrong!
At the first instant I even SAW an airport icon on the highway boards, traffic stopped to a standstill. We were only 5 km away, but those 5 km took longer to drive through than the 35 I drove from Scarborough! After finally getting off the highway, things looked smooth, until the LAST left turn. For about a 3 block distance, there were cars LINED up in the left lane to make the left turn on Airport Road. What was worse was that the middle lane was also full of "pious Muslims" who were attempting to shoot forward and then butt into the left turn lane when possible.
Now after bearing through this for about 25 minutes, the smart desi in me realized something. Instead of waiting there for at least another half hour, I decided to go to the extreme right lane, make a right turn, and then U-Turn back to go south on Airport Road. And it worked!
After all that, the time on the clock? 10:30 - meaning we had just missed Eid prayers, and were reduced to hearing our preacher's sermon and hopefully joining in the final silent prayer.
Lesson I learned - When thousands of brown people convene, either stay at home or head out REALLY, REALLY early!!!!
As always, my brother managed to conveniently wake me up after my mother and him were ready, so that regardless of how fast I got prepared, I would still be under the constant watching of my mother, who takes any chance to argue with me about being the last person to be ready whenever we go out. That's bound to happen when I'm the LAST ONE UP! We ended up leaving our home at 9:20, 20 minutes later than what my mother wanted.
Eid prayers for our community were at the International Centre in Mississauga, right near the airport. Google Maps calculated it to be a 38 minute drive, to which I figured 10-15 minutes here or there would be added to take traffic into account. Boy was I wrong!
At the first instant I even SAW an airport icon on the highway boards, traffic stopped to a standstill. We were only 5 km away, but those 5 km took longer to drive through than the 35 I drove from Scarborough! After finally getting off the highway, things looked smooth, until the LAST left turn. For about a 3 block distance, there were cars LINED up in the left lane to make the left turn on Airport Road. What was worse was that the middle lane was also full of "pious Muslims" who were attempting to shoot forward and then butt into the left turn lane when possible.
Now after bearing through this for about 25 minutes, the smart desi in me realized something. Instead of waiting there for at least another half hour, I decided to go to the extreme right lane, make a right turn, and then U-Turn back to go south on Airport Road. And it worked!
After all that, the time on the clock? 10:30 - meaning we had just missed Eid prayers, and were reduced to hearing our preacher's sermon and hopefully joining in the final silent prayer.
Lesson I learned - When thousands of brown people convene, either stay at home or head out REALLY, REALLY early!!!!
posted by Naveed at
4:40 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home