Post Spring break - Yanni Concert 2011 ^__^

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ
 السلام عليكم

Alhamdulillah…Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah.

at CIC with Maligross who's a big fan of Yanni

Hatiku melonjak kegirangan :) Yes, anything could happen in no time…but while the moment lasts, express your shukr through your happiness…may it be contagious and affect other people. plus, bile lagikn. Shukr tu susah nak diungkapkan bile kite sedih.

Post spring break had been fantastic. A friend stayed with us for a week when ayah was on outstation, seven of my friends from Minnesota came, I made five more new friends from Ohio, last weekend outing with my Purdue friends and lil bro…

But first I must purify my intention of writing this entry. Sebab apa saye tulis..ikhlaskan diri. I do not intend to please anybody or impress somebody. Therefore what I utter must come out spontaneously, solely with my neutral views, not affected by any party. macam serius je bunyikn. takpe. perbetulkan niat. However, if you, my friend, extract out something useful out of this, then, good for you. Simply Allah wants good for you. Inshallah… inshallah…

Haih. tak start2 lagi makcik ni..

Well, on Tuesday, my three friends and I got in a car accident on our way to a bookstore in evanston. Ayah was away for 8 days and due to return on Thursday. He said “bila langgar je kerata tu aku macam ternampak banyang uncle Roslan jalan pintas…haaaa…macam mane nii…”. Siapa tak cuak…kami semua naik van ayah. Hehe. Kami oke, Alhamdulillah..wlpn kerata tak oke sgt, masih bleh bergerak. Kerata mangsa lg satu tu lebih teruk sampai terkeluar air bag segalanya. Heran kenapa van ayah tak kluar kan air bag~ In the end, dua2 kereta kena tow bawak ke workshop. Most importantly, semua dpt keadaan intact dan selamat. Syukur Allah nak remind…Birthday abg gamal haritu. lepas accident, kami ke office msd dan makan kek aiskem. Pastu, cepat2 lari ke kedai buku.

Candy floss kaler purple dah habis

Hari khamis ayah balik, it was A O.K. :) sbb lame tak tgk ayah, mama dan saye escort ayah berjalan dari pintu rumah sampai ke bilik..macam anak2 itik mengekor. “ehh apesal ikut ni…” ketawa ayah dlm kehairanan. Sbb nak tgk kot kalau2 ayah ade bawak buah tangan utk kami. Hee. Ayah ke kilang and head quarters Microsoft. Mama dapat t-shirt “The Geek Girl”. Sangat lah~

Hari jumaat saye pulun baca buku..sbb hari sabtu dianggarkan saya akan keluar seharian…ke mana ya? Ke Yanni Concert :) yang tak dirancang dan tak pernah terlintas dibenak fikiran pon nak tgk Yanni live. Tiba2 ja. Masa kwn saye offer tuu, kenapa saya agree ya? Oh ya..emotional drive kot masa tu. Fikir2, sbb saye dah tak lama lagi nak tinggalkan Chicago, for once, teringin jugak. bila lagi nak pergi and my two baby sis were coming as well! Yeah~

2/3 days sebelum concert, sorang kawan kami tak bleh join. Jd ade satu tiket terlebih. We started off with eight people coming, six of which were my friends from purdue. Sorang can’t make it sbb nak exam. Jadi, the ticket was open to everybody...and in the end, rezqi anip dpt tiket free. Waaah. Selepas sebulan lebih menanti concert ni, dgn tiket nya yang dah berada dlm tangan, Allahu akbar..sungguh benda dah nak terjadi..dan apa yang terjadi itu, itulah yang terbaik. Sambil kawan kami berjihad disitu….kami bersuka ria? Isk. Guilty~

On Saturday, pukul 2.30pm, ade program kat Chicago Islamic Center (CIC) kt south of downtown Chicago. We got there at 3.45pm ish~ right on the dot when it ended. Wuuuuu… T^T the speaker travelled all the way from Tamrin, Yemen ek kalau tak salah. Beliau ni special sgt2 sbb he is soo loved. Is it because of his prophetic lineage? Lineage of Abu Talib and of Fatimah al-Zahra the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad r. Well, ramai lagi sheikh, syed dan sharifah yang kite jumpa, tak obsess pon. Plus, what was it about him that for that as a non –english speaker, people would still listen to him attentively with a translator sitting next by. MashaAllah. I wouldn’t wanna miss my chance. Surely there’s something more to him that he has to offer. I really wanted to feel the aura that others felt. Since I got there very late, I only got to hear the last 10 minutes of the QA session. Inshallah, there will be a next time. I concluded that any scholar, any person with knowledge, Allah promises to elevate his/her position in hereafter, which is already evident in this world! Isn’t that just so true? That’s why Dr Zakir Naik, Ustaz Hussein Yee, Dr Ingrid Mattson to us are our Lady Gaga, only waaaaay better. Their knowledge is like the candle that penetrates Nur to others. Enlightment. Let’s work ourselves up to achieve that level, inshallah. Teringat lirik nasyid The LB Crews masa Birmigham Games 2004/5;

“Oh kawan, jadilah seperti si matahari….mambakar diri…demi insan sejagat…”
Oh kawan, jadilah seperti bulan purnama…menerangi malam yang gelap gelita...”

I was still grateful that my friends and I safely arrived and settled at the CIC for a while surrounded by other Muslim brothers and sisters :)

with the bride :)

Despite our lateness, Allah saved us some foooooood. Bakhlava and nasi biryani. The guys grab the whole box of $28.99 bakhlava..buat business plak balik purdue ye. My day was perfected when I met Hazel. Yesss my darling sis was there too. She stayed with us for a while for a chat. She broke me with a heartscreamingjumping news, that her wedding will be in April. That’s when the nikah and ceremony will be held. According to her, this morning, as the IMAN crews gathered to welcome Habib Umar, they spoke and watnot…then Habib Umar said, since you guys are getting married in april, why not have the nikah now? Come2, I’ll be the tok kadi (something along the line~). So, GUESS WHAT? she’s now officially married..terkawin pulak dah. Hehe. She said “my dad doesn’t know yet. He’s going to kill me..” Mabruk2…Barak allahu lakuma :) I cannot express my happiness for you both…

So, at 4.45pm, we made our move to the Sears Center Arena for the concert…along the way we picked up some candly floss, bro hafiz who maneuvered in the aerobic gesture to warm himself up while waiting for us by Citgo :D and the one hour journey began…

Arriving at 7.30pm, we prayed maghrib first..alhamdulillah then made our way to our seating row. Good seats! :) it started rather slow, with the song Felitsa (still, a very good song though dedicated for his mother) but it got more and more energetic one song after another..now an hour already passed. Isn’t yanni going to play myyyyy song (since when did it become ateeqnasha’s song, aite)? Then, 9 pm was approaching…No The Storm or Adagio C Minor??? Uhukk..fine la. Sape je kite :( then, what do you know…minutes after that, The STORM came…waaaaaaah. Er not literally ‘the storm’ storm. But The Yanni Storm. I signaled Fatin and Amirah to fill in the front seats because this, is a must watch. Otherwise, all this time my view was blocked by the tiny gate…tiny as it was, it was still in the perfect position of blocking my view. it happens to me all the time. Asal ade gate je, kat situlah saye duduk. Asal ade saye, kat situ la hade gate…takpelah kan. I’m good. I’m guuuuuuwdd.



For some reason, there was still a yearning for something but I cannot express it in words. I wans't even sure what it was..Pengisian of what what I was craving for ni??…hmm..Takpelah. One or two of Yanni’s words that I got, “When I was a lil kid, I used to dream of being on the stage like today..so, once in a while, do not forget to dream. Because dreams do come true”.

Saye tak dpt feedback drpd bros yang lain. Don’t know how they found it~ but the siss, they loved it :) mereka happy, saya pon happy…mcm mana kenal yanni ni. skolah rendah same ke dulu..ape yang best sgt..well, it was introduced by my friend who has great passion for great music. not just some music..good, soul music with emotive and religious messages. you may be thinking, concert ape lah sgt, instrumental je. yes, but those who can appreciate beethoven (good for listening when revising for finals), would appreciate yanni and even raaaaave to the songs. remix type of beethoven, you know. people stood up and raved just like youngsters would when hearing pop songs. funny...coz majority of the audiences were ehem, elderly..we fit in juuust fine ;)

pengalaman yang tak dpt dilupakan...rase mcm akn miss je. so, kami amek lah byk gambar and rekod some vids. good event with great company...that what made it so special.
Kami menuju ke rumah ustaz slps itu. Kesian, kawan2 dah sangat lapar…jadi kami dinner kat situ. Comel je anak2 ustaz. Semua seuniform malam tu. Like father like kids. Sume dlm long john and thermal dah. Ready nak tido je. Kami datang kacau kejap.

Sampai rumah dah midnight kut. Mama dan ayah pon dah tidoqq..kesiannye kat mama. Makan malam dah tersedia T__T wuwuuu…so, the bros and anip ke basement, the sis stayed in my room. Solat2 and bila panjat katil, ready nak dive in, terdengar cluttering kat kitchen. Perompakkah? Ish ish..tetamu kamu laaaah ateeqa nasha! Dah pukul 2 am..dan lapar. jadi mereka ke dapur.hmm. daku tertido jugak dgn bunyi sayup2 dr dapur tu..

Bangun pagi! Yeahhh…Alhamdulillah tak terlajak. Sblm tidur dah ckp kat fatin “kite kene letak henpon jauuh2 sebelah pintu.." Ateeqa Nasha is special in her own way. Lepas berjemaah dan bace2, saye lari ke ruang tamu utk bace buku skolah pulak. Then mama came and ready to prepare breakfast. Mama dah siapkan isi kentang kari ayam dan pastry. Saye gulung2 dan gorengkan karipap tu..sambil tu kami bersembang.

Saye: mama….
Mama: mm…
Saye: takde ape lah….(sgt annoying, saye tahuu).
Mama: angah ni selalu macam tu taaauu..nak ckp lps tu kate takde pape lah. Nak cakap, cakap je lah. Letih tauu.
Saye: mmm..haritu kan…bla3 (huuu selalu mama geletek2 dulu which works just as well to force me to speak out . tak sangka macam tu pula mcm tu responsnye. Hm, lps ni tak bleh annoy org camtu dah. Ngade2 ateeqa nasha ni).

Lps habis cerita, kelakar. Mama reacted lebih drpd saye..sebagai seorang ibu, mestilah kn.
Best, kami sempat share2. Then mama nasihat saye dgn sat analogy yg comel ni.., pade suatu hari, ade seorang murid diarah oleh cikgunya utk petik rumput yang paling cantik kat padang sekolah. Tapi, dia balik kelas dgn tangan kosong. Cikgu heran dan tanya kenapa..murid tu jawab “Banyak je rumput yang cantik2, ceguu…tapi saya pikir kalau pergi lagi jauh, mungkin saye dapat jumpe rumput yang paling cantik. Tapi, bila dah sampai ke penghujung, takde la pulak…dan cegu dah ckp tak aci kalau saye toleh belakang dan patah balik. Jadi saye tak petik lah mane2 rumput.”

first of all, kenapa petik rumput? random pulak...lain lah kalau petik bunga ke..petik gitar ke..tapi takpe lah.
Conclusinya, bak pepatah Nabil, lu pikir lah sendiri…cey takde lah. manfaatnye akan di share bila waktunya tiba nanti, inshallah. baru meaningful sket reminder ni. i need to be reminded always. anyway i'm glad i had that conversation with mama :)

Then, sorang2 masuk dapur, ready dah utk sarapan. Lepas makan nasi goreng dan karipap serta kuih bakar, kami makan kek aiskem ayah, mama dan along2…walaupun keknya hanya bertuliskan “Happy Birthday Daddy”. Hee. Sharing is caring..

Thennn, kami practice kommpang dgn sifu yang handal ni..dia main kompang dgn ibu jari je, terus bleh gubah jd lagu. dia patut join yanni :) ade event April 10 ni, mark my calendar!! Wiken ni 4 family dari UIUC datang utk dinner bersama delegate2 dari UUM :) rindu dan nak jumpa orang2 sintok kedah ni. Apa maknanya di sini?...maknanya, saya kene habiskan homework sblm weekend!

Alhamdulillah
ya Allah ya Rahim..terima kasih atas segala2nya. Thank you for the day..Ikatkanlah hati2 kami dengan kecintaan yang teguh kepadaMu. Peliharalah perhubungan kami and jauhkanlah dari segala kemungkaran dan perkara yang tak diingni berlaku...amin.