Friday, November 25, 2011

Thanks Giving Anyone?

While other families discuss things in my family we always end up agreeing to disagree, don't feel sorry for me it's not a sad thing I really enjoy it, you think of it as the kind of thing that spices up life! Yesterday was thanks giving so happy Thanks Giving to everyone celebrating and I hope you guys didn't get food indigestion! Any how, yesterday my dad and I got into one of our so called discussions and the topic was Thanks Giving, I was expressing my admiration for the day and wondering why we didn't have a day like that, my dad the ever anti-american mumbled "we're not Christians, that's why" and the discussion began, he insisted on it being a Christian holiday and I insisted on it being not, the argument went on and on and at the end of the meal we agreed to disagree and moved on to arguing about something else, The Passion of the Christ incase you're wondering!

Although I was pretty sure that it was a secular holiday, I looked it up just to be sure. It first started as a harvest festival and gradually became Turkey day, many countries besides the United States observe this holiday but on different dates. Now back to my question, why don't we have a similar day, a day when we can express our gratefulness to the people we love, and share a big meal together? Wouldn't that be nice?

If there was an Iraqi thanks giving and we were to celebrate this day, I would be thankful for having so many people in my life that love me, for having a roof on my head and all the little things we take for granted, but most importantly having the ability to choose the path I want in life and having a husband that supports my choices no matter what and will always have my back.

So there you have it, that's what I'm thankful for. What are you thankful for?

Have a wonderful weekend,
T.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

11.11.11


Two years ago I was working as an admin assistant for a university here in Erbil, one day my manager and I were having a discussion about hopes and dreams and how life in Iraq almost always does not turn the way you planned it. I remember telling him how much I want to go to New York one day, he told me that it was funny that i should say that because New Yorkers are pretty much like Baghdadies when it comes to loving their cities. Baghdad has been through so much but it always rises back and I thought it will for a very long time until recently I lost hope, I can't remember the occasion but I know i sat one day and thought to myself this is it, this is not a temporary situation anymore and Erbil, as much as i hate to admit, is pretty much home from now on. It's sad and devastating but we are human beings after all and we are forced to follow our survival instinct.

Last week Ali and I went to Baghdad for Eid holiday and as skeptical as I was about this trip it turned out completely different from what I envisioned. I will tell you about one day only, the day that changed my entire perspective on the future of Iraq. You might find this silly but the reason behind this change is a football match.

Friday night, 11.11.11 I was looking at my Facbook home page which was filled with status messages about making wishes on 11:11 since this won't happen again and Although I found it a bit silly but secretly I made a wish, sipped some tea, got up, got dressed and went to visit my friend. After that Ali and I went for a walk in one of the busiest streets in Baghdad and while we were near the car we heard what sounded like an explosion, we turned around to see fire works everywhere, Iraq has won a football match against China and all of a sudden the street was filled with cars honking, people singing and dancing and flags, tons and tons of flags we even bought one and put it on our car. It was an amazing view and I felt my eyes tearing for a second! So in the spirit of patriotism we went for ice cream hehehe, no seriously the view from a higher place was really moving and i found myself secretly wishing if we could ever move back to Baghdad. This thing about Iraqi people, you just can't find that elsewhere, no matter how horrible things get we always have a reason to celebrate regardless how silly the reason is.
One of the Baghdady groups on Facebook announced that the winning goal was actually made at 11:11 EST or something like that, so there you have it 11.11.11 was indeed a lucky day. Here are some seriously bad quality pictures I tried to take that night:






Those guys jumped on top of the moving Lorry and started dancing :)


I had a wonderful 11.11.11, I hope you did too.

T.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Who Says

If you haven't heard Who Says by Selena Gomez, you should. Ever since MTV started the adds for the EMA's and this song has been echoing in my brain. That girl is seriously talented and the music video is beautifully directed.

Watch the video, I'm sure you'll love it:


I also found this really nice website where the owner published the pictures from the video:

True Beauty Lies Beneath the Surface

Don't Judge a Book by its Cover

Pictures from Disorted Frames

Have a nice day,

T.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Hide and Seek Memories

I grew up in a special neighborhood, It was sort of a compound for the employees of a government company  where my dad worked. The number of kids there was ridiculous I can not even remember how many best friends I had back then not to mention the ones I had in school. so with all the tiny brains around my tiny brain we had some seriously waked-up ideas and beliefs. Our normal day would start around 9:00am after breakfast we would all go out, morning are usually dedicated to barbie dolls, board games or indoor activities, then comes lunch, TV and once it's afternoon everybody's out, we played and played and played until midnight sometimes, I remember being dragged home crying at times.

Back then I had some crazy beliefs  and I was thinking about those things the other day and I cracked myself up laughing, I was certain that back in the 60's life was in black and white and I remember seeing one of dad's college pictures in color for the first time and freaking out about it, I thought it was magic! I also believed that everyone, everywhere spoke Arabic, Iraqi to be more accurate and that other languages were simply TV dialect. I thought that compound we lived in was pretty much home and anything outside its walls was abroad. When "Truman Show" came out, for months I thought I was in a show like that and was looking for hidden cameras everywhere. I thought songs were broadcasted live and was always amazed by how they managed to do every single move look exactly the same every time. I believed if I looked at something long enough I could move it with the power of thought!

We had so many games and so many things to do that I don't remember ever being bored. Every summer we would have a sensation, a game or a thing that we would usually invent and get completely addicted to for at least two months and man did we enjoy ourselves, no worries, no problems just pure fun. Life is so much easier when you're only worry is how fast will you be able to run during tomorrow's baseball game, isn't it?
Now you should know that I've always had a thing against those stuck in a period of their lives when they were happy and always wanted to go back there or try their best to stay there, I've always thought that it's human nature to evolve and by doing that you would be messing with the universe. So I'm not one of those people I just think I had the most outrageously crazy beautiful childhood any girl could ever ask for and sometimes only very few times I wonder what it would be like if I could go back in time for one last bicycle race, to feel the freezing cold February air on my face while insisting on wearing summer clothes because hey it's spring! you know, just to have that care-free feeling for one second, to step away from adulthood and all the huss and fuss we're surrounded by everyday. We all long for childhood sometimes, When I look back at my life and look at how things turned out I really wish that if someday Ali and I have a baby, he or she would have a childhood just as good as mine, to be able o appreciate everything in life, be thankful for what ever it brings them and most importantly realize that they should embrace life even if their life did not turn out to be as planed to know that God has bigger and much better ones for everyone.


Have a wonderful day,

T.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Grateful!

I don't have much to say, I just wanted to share my happiness with the rest of the world. This week has started wonderfully so I'm counting my blessings and thanking Allah for everything. Life can be so unexpectedly good sometimes :)






You are never as stuck as you think! Thanks Gala Darling



Peace,
T.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

How About Being Positive for a Change?

It's human nature that when you're having a good day life surprisingly and unexpectedly becomes so beautiful, all the birds start to sing and you can finally smell the flowers and enjoy the beautiful warm sun light and the weather has never been better, well I'm having one of those gorgeous days and Ali and I have decided to start looking at life from a different prospective a positive one, the truth is we haven't really decided we just agreed that it's better to look at things more positively. I'm a huge believer of what goes around comes around some call it Karma, good things happen to good people and love comes to those who wait and the whole shebang. I'm your classic cliche life-is-good-we-just-don't-know-that kind of person, but I this attitude has got me to where I am right now and I'm proud of what I have accomplished, though very little, yet I'm proud.
So in the spirit of positivity I wanted to share Gandhi's 10 Fundamentals for Changing the World , it's really inspiring:


1. Change yourself: I'm perfect I don't need to follow this one! I'm just kidding, we don't really need to go far to hear people complain "if only I had .... " Gandhi tells us to be the change we wish to see in the world and it really is that simple.

 2. You are in control: I will be telling myself this everyday and so should you. the reason why we never go through with things and take risks is  our selves and limits that we create, break the limits and tell yourself that if you think you should do something then no one has the right to tell you otherwise, you have enough talent or courage or faith or money or strength or whatever. If you don't believe me then look up Helen Keller, or click here  and you will believe that we all have what it takes.

3. Forgive and let go: it is more important to forgive yourself wrong doings than others', if you have harmed yourself in one way or another forgive yourself and move on, life is too short to hold grudges. Gandhi says that forgiveness is choosing to love. When you choose love, you heal your own heart.

 4. Take care of this moment: most people and I admit, not very proudly, that am one of them, spend most of our days planning for next year or creating a ten year plan and we sometimes forget to live today! I luckily have a husband who constantly reminds of right now. Living in the past causes depression. Living in the future causes anxiety so you might as well save yourself the anti depressants!

5. Without action you aren't going anywhere: it's simple stop dreaming and take action do what it takes to make those dreams come true.

6. Everyone is Human: and humans make mistakes, we all make mistakes, how come we forgive ourselves so easily and blame it on lack of sleep or stress and when someone else does it we call it stupidity? Not that I'm proud of it, but I do this sometime, but it's changing.


7. See the good in people and help them: It's been said that there's endless beauty in the human soul and I believe that the more you give the more you receive and you will see that beauty in others' souls.
8. Persist: Whatever it is that you want in life, it takes work. Anything in life that is worth something takes lots and lots of work. Persist and try again and again and again until you reach your goal. "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better".

9. Be congruent, be authentic, be true to yourself: You should always do what you think is right not what you are expected to do and it is better to be hated for who you are than loved for being someone else. after all the only thing that matters is how you feel about yourself and the things you do not what people think.
10. Continue to grow and evolve: Life doesn't always turn out the way you planned it, most times it's a million times better. Keep an open mind and embrace the change and think about the endless opportunities." Never stop learning. Never stop growing. And never stop evolving."

Have a wonderful weekend.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

10 Ways to Create Your Own Good Luck

I have always believed in William Jennings Bryan saying "Destiny is not a matter of chance; but a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, It is a thing to be achieved" and I've alwyas tried my best to implement this in my life, this morning, while doing my routine articles scoutering, I read a featured article on Yahoo which led me to another article which again led me to another one and I ended up reading blogs on a website called Mark and Angel Hack Life and there was this article that I instantly loved called 10 Ways to Create Your Own Good Luck, after reading it I felt so inspired and thankful for the life I have that I felt I had to share this with the rest of the world. I have and amazing family a wonderful spouse and great friends, I hate my job, but I do get paid at the end of each month, I welcomed the flu season with wide opened arms, but hey at least it's nothing serious, I have a wonderful house and I get to wake up every morning to smiling faces and that is worth everything. I consider my self a very lucky person and for that I'm eternally thankful.

I think everyone should read this, I'm sure you'll get so much out of it. So here it is 10 Ways to Create your Own Good Luck:

Constantly try new things.

There’s a saying that the definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  If you want to improve your luck, you have to try new things to see what works and what doesn’t.
Unlucky people tend to be creatures of habit.  They take the same route to and from work every single day, talk to the same types of people at social functions, and live out the same routine day in and day out.
In contrast, lucky people try to introduce variety into their lives.  For example, one lucky friend I know recently described how he thought of a color before arriving at a business convention and then introduced himself to people wearing that color.  This kind of behavior boosts the likelihood of chance opportunities by introducing variety into an otherwise status-quo situation.  And in my friend’s particular case, his (somewhat odd) tactic led to a fairly substantial contract deal with a new client.

Think about how lucky you are right now.

Lucky people tend to see the positive side of their ill fortune.  They imagine how things could have been so much worse.  For instance, I met a rather cheerful, successful and lucky business client recently who showed up to our meeting with a cast from shoulder to wrist on her left arm.  She then explained to me how she had fallen down a flight of stairs.  “But I am the luckiest person alive,” she continued.  “I walked away from that fall with a broken arm instead of a broken neck.”
Another interesting example of this is how research suggests that Olympic athletes who win bronze medals are typically happier than their Silver medalist counterparts.  This is because silver medalists think that if they had performed slightly better they might have won a gold medal.  In contrast, bronze medalists focus on how if they’d performed slightly worse, they wouldn’t have won anything.
Having a positive outlook on life is a must if you are to become a luckier person.  If your outlook on life is doom and gloom, then that’s all you’ll experience.  Fortunately, the opposite is also true.  You control your luck and your life by controlling your thoughts.
Look around.  Appreciate the things you have right now.  Many people aren’t so lucky.

Notice little things and solve small problems.

I chatted with an aspiring web application developer recently who was complaining that all the big ideas were being worked on already and that there was nothing groundbreaking left to do.  As he talked, I realized he was referencing massive projects that others were working on that seemed mostly out of reach.  And as I thought about all these ‘grand ideas’ I realized that in most cases they probably didn’t start with a massive plan or project, but rather started by trying to solve a simple problem.
This is the impression I get when I read about the early stages of companies like Google.  I’m pretty sure Google’s founders didn’t have the goal of organizing the all of the world’s information as their primary focus when they first started – instead they started with a series of smaller problems (problems are potential opportunities) and slowly expanded their end goal from there.

Work on things you’re passionate about.

Some of us were born to be musicians – to communicate intricate thoughts and rousing feelings with the strings of a guitar.  Some of us were born to be poets – to touch people’s hearts with exquisite prose.  Some of us were born to be entrepreneurs – to create growth and opportunity where others saw rubbish.  And still, some of us were born to do whatever it is, specifically, that moves you.
Don’t waste your life fulfilling someone else’s dreams and desires.  You must follow your intuition.  Good luck and true wealth come naturally to those who are passionate about their work.

Establish relationships with people who share your interests.

If you’re already passionate about something, finding and connecting with others who share your passionate viewpoint can help you in numerous ways.  You can tap into their knowledge on the topic, share your own ideas and experiences, and often share and learn things outside of your common interest area.
Make an extra effort to reach out to people who you’ve identified as having an interest overlap.  If you happen to meet someone casually who has an interest overlap with you, don’t hesitate, jump on board with that connection.  It can provide a great opportunity for you to build a friendship in an unexpected place.
Share your skills, ideas, and knowledge freely with others.  If you’re already involved in a group with a particular interest, make an effort to reach out to newcomers.  Not only will a friendly face help to encourage them to get involved, they’ll often hold you in high regard, as you’re the one who broke down some of that ‘newness’ barrier for them.  Similarly, when people come to such meetings looking for help, don’t hesitate to assist in any way you can.

Help others out when you’re able.

Remember, in life, you get what you put in.  Luck often comes in the form of help when you need it, and the best way to ‘grease the rails’ for help when you’ll eventually need it is by helping others right now.  If you’re presented with an opportunity to help – particularly one that you can fulfill without infringing on your other responsibilities – the luckiest thing you can possibly do is help in every way you possibly can.
And when you help others, don’t expect something in return. Instead, just enjoy the experience of helping that person out and building a stronger personal relationship with them. That stronger relationship will be there for you later on in your time of need – just trust in it and be a helpful friend whenever you can.

Take calculated risks.

Lucky people take more risks.  This doesn’t mean they gamble their livelihood by taking ill-advised risks on sketchy business opportunities.  Taking a risk can be calculated – you weigh your options, know what you can afford to lose, and go for it.  If it doesn’t work out, you go for it again when you can afford to lose a little more.
When you take small, calculated risks, either you succeed or you learn something.  Win-Win.  Remember, if you never act, you will never know for sure, and you will be left standing in the same unlucky spot forever.

Pay close attention to the present.

Unlucky people often dwell on mistakes from the past, obsessing about the bad luck that put them in their present unlucky situation, or they concern themselves too much with future ideals.  Lucky people, on the other hand, concentrate on the present moment.
Life is happening right now.  You can’t learn something new or uncover a new opportunity that’s happening now if your mind is stuck in another time.  Opportunities present themselves every day, all around you, but you have to pay close attention to your surroundings to notice them. 

Identify the lesson.

Everything is a life lesson.  Everyone you meet, everything you encounter, etc.  They’re all part of the learning experience we call ‘life.’
Never forget to acknowledge the lesson, especially when things don’t go your way.  If you don’t get a job you wanted or a relationship doesn’t work, it only means something better is out there waiting.  And the lesson you just learned is the first step towards it.
Remember, having good luck is a choice.  Use all of the lessons you learn to make educated decisions and create good luck for yourself in the future.

Work toward your goals every day without fail.

The harder you work, the luckier you will become.  Stop waiting around for things to work out on their own.  They won’t.  If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting.
While many of us decide at some point during the course of our lives that we want to answer our calling, only an astute few of us actually work on it.  By ‘working on it,’ I mean truly devoting oneself to the end result.  The rest of us never act on our decision.  Or, at best, we pretend to act on it by putting forth an uninspired, half-assed effort.
If you want good luck in your life, you’ve got to be willing to give it 100% every day.  No slacking off!  Achieving your goals and dreams can be a lot of work.  Be ready for it!


Source: MarkandAngel

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Mourning a Society




I've been looking for a new job for a while now and sending my resume everywhere, literally, but no one has called back, well not yet, but soon enough i know someone will. During one of my nothingness hours I was reading a blog on Vogue UK and I thought they're not any better than I, why can't I be a professional blogger? So I sent an email to the editor asking if they're interested in adding such an amazing asset as my wonderful sense of humor and one of a kind taste and sarcasm!... What? I am one of a kind, aren't I? any how a couple of days later I receive an email from the editorial coordinator, don't get all worked up it was a refusal letter, but the way it was written and the amount of ethics that shined through that monitor on me while reading almost made me cry, now I'm being too dramatic but seriously it was the most polite refusal letter I've ever read. The woman was apologizing for disappointing me, this might be normal for others but in Iraq people don't even send a thanks-but-no-thanks letter so I actually found it really sweet:



This kind of ethics is what made the western society the way it is right now, the Middle Eastern society, sadly, is extremely pretentious and most people, especially powerful ones tend to present them selves under the cover of religion, Islam that is, and then go on and do the most atrocious things and those who don't use the religion trick, use the retarded society card and go and do whatever it is that crosses their minds and call the rest of us uncivilized and retro! This is something that has always made me angry because those people are the reason why the Islam and middle-eastren's image to the west has always been associated with terrorists, camels and barbarian, savage, uncivilized bunch of guys drinking in a tent in the middle of the desert! despite  how far from reality this is, we can not blame the outer world for presenting us like this, we never really tried to change this image, most if not all modern Arabic movies and books are either a knock-off from a western story or is a wanna-be western story, middle easterns in general and especially Iraqis go to the united states and become more Americans than Americans them selves, we embrace all faulty and odd behaviors and present them to our society as a part of what should be the norm as if this is how societies evolution goes, flush all the beliefs down the toilet and in with the new and queer! Nowadays all that used to be taboo has become the norm and with that I've given up on the future and I send my condolences to those caught in the middle of fire, unfortunately nothing will ever mend the deep scar those outcasts made on our society's face.

Gandhi once said "The things that will destroy us are: politics without principle; pleasure without conscience; wealth without work; knowledge without character; business without morality; science without humanity; and worship without sacrifice" for those who still have  manners, ethics and good old integrity left please hold on to them and pass as much as possible to world around for if we don't someday, not so far,we will wake up and and say rest in peace middle eastern society!


Have a nice a day

Monday, October 3, 2011

Angry Birds Mania

If we had Haloween or something similar this what I would have got for Ali and moi:








Aren't they adorable?

Have a nice day or like the feisty birdies say weeeeeeee

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Ditch the Sheep and Embrace the Dreams

I have insomnia, no not really, but I think I do. I'm having trouble sleeping sometimes, a condition I like to call (Safe Bed Syndrome) but I need to sleep just like all human beings so I found a way to avoid this and I thought I'd share it with the rest of the world, it's promised to help.

When we were little we were told to count sheep when we couldn't fall asleep, I remember actually doing it once when I was eight or nine and counted all the way to 900 before it actually worked so a couple of nights ago I remembered this incident while having trouble sleeping and remembered an article I once read that suggests you take a mental vacation, meaning think of your next vacation destination and imagine what it would be like so I started thinking about all the places and the things I want to do before I die and decided to write a list and keep it somewhere to remind and motivate myself to do those things while Ali and I still have the energy, and what better place to save something for eternity than the one and only the glorious World Wide Web! I'm smart, I know.

Trying to write my list I realized that I didn't really have as many dreams as I thought, my list has a very reasonable length, which lead me to the belief that the length of your list has an inversely proportional relation with your overall life stability for instance in my case having the ultimate spouse that always makes sure to assure me that all of our dreams will come true gives me a fuzzy sense of stability that generates a state of peace of mind that makes me feel extremely content about where the path has lead us and as a result a shorter list of dreams.

My list has two sections: things I want to do and places I want to see while I'm still alive some of them might never happen but if as much as 50% comes true I will be satisfied.

Places I want to see before I die:


 1. Central Park- New York
 

2. Rome- Italy

 3. Cape Town - South Africa

 4. Tokyo - Japan

 5. Charlestown - Nevis


Things I want to do before I die:

1. Sky dive
2. Read 100 books and hopefully write one.
3. Learn Italian.
4. Teach Ali to ride a bicycle and learn to drive a motorcycle together.
5. Own and fit into a size two designer jeans.
6. Shout at the top of my voice at the grand canyon.
7. Learn to swim
8. Sleep under the stars.
9. Have a baby girl (She must inherit her dads brain and my sense of humor)

Try this and you'll fall asleep in no time you'll have wonderful dreams as well, I did!

Have a good one.

Pictures from : Central Park, Rome, CapeTown, Tokyo, Charlestown

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Matthew Williamson Spring/Summer 2012

First I just need to say this blog have officially established the fact that I will never be a fashion critic, I can only express my thoughts and feelings with facial expressions, ohhhs and ahhhhs, which reminds me of Homer Simpson trying to become a food critic lol. With that being said, this is my first time writing a review and I never had the intention to, but when I saw Matthew Williamson's SS2012 collection I just fell in love with every single look.  All the fashion bloggers do the "My favorite looks" thing, but I found it extremely hard to choose. The colors were so captivating and I simply found my self completely speechless, all I can say is that ever since fashion week I must have seen the collection pictures a hundred times.
Here are my favorite looks:


Gorgeous Floral Dresses <3


If I had to choose one look as my favorite it would be the opening look, especially the jacket:



Thanks Cristina for encouraging me.

Pictures from Vogue.

Monday, September 26, 2011

"It is the summer's great last heat, It is the fall's first chill: They meet"

To me fall is the most peaceful season of all, it's as if the busy streets become less noisy and all the colors start to pop and everything is suddenly so beautiful, school has started and now I see the kids from the school in front of my parents house gathering around the ice cream car trying to get as many snow cones into their system as  possible before winter knocks the door. I can see the bougainvillea leaves that miraculously appear on my parents' front yard every year at this time of the year despite the fact that none of the surrounding houses have one. The other day Ali and I went out for lunch and decided to walk home since the weather was nice and warm and as we walked I noticed how the long curved street leading to our house had gorgeous foliage along it's sides, I was so excited, it's official Fall is here.

One rather sad fact is that we don't really get to have proper seasons here, it's either screaming hot summer or bone freezing winter while spring and summer last for what feels like a second, so if you live in Iraq you have to make your best out this very short period of time. Basically we get three to four weeks during which we can enjoy the sun without getting a sun burn after five seconds.

It also tends to remind me of my childhood,I remember when mom and dad would take me school supply shopping and buy me lots and lots of copybooks and pencils and crayons and then the shopkeeper would give me a sticker's sheet which I always thought of as the ultimate gift, for some reason, I would keep it safe for months before I decide to use it. Then school starts and we don't get that much homework at the beginning, all of our bicycles and barbie dolls are still within reach and we're all acting as if the world will end next week and we must enjoy our selves to the maximum before then.

Soon enough winter will arrive and I will be buried under seven layers of clothes hugging the Kerosen heater with my colorful socks and chest nut :) so I might as well make the most out of those precious days. Here's a list of my favorite fall things:

1. Books
2. Hot Cocoa
3. New York Fashion Week
4. The Sun
5. Foliage

I hope you have a wonderful, sensational and romantic season, I know I will sense my anniversary is coming up soon :)


Mindy Gledhill is great for any season:



Have a good one.



Picture from Philidelphia Fall Festival

Monday, September 19, 2011

Bumble Bee

I've been staying at my parents for a while now since Ali is on a business trip. Last night, or morning I guess, well it was 4 in the morning, I woke up for a sip of water, I always wake up with a horrible muscle spasm, believe me sleeping on the floor is not easy so I dragged my self to the kitchen and back to the bath room to find a BEE standing at the bath room door!! I remembered mom's words the night before "Girls, We have a bee hive outside the bathroom so be careful, I've been killing at least one every time I go there", Killing?? no wonder why that bee stood there and stared at me as if it knew who I was. I just stood there and tried to wake myself up a bit, I moved to the left and it moved with me, I moved to the right and it moved with me, it had it's wings tightly straight as if it was waiting for me to do one stupid thing, an excuse if you may, to attack! I stood there for a moment and then realized that I was trapped between the bathroom door and the bee and if I moved it might be threatened and attack me.

Finally, after I was sort of awake, I decided to grab the hose and turn the water on to scare it away and I did, but the water hit it, it fell on the floor and started crawling in my direction I freaked out and grabbed the hose again gave it another good splash and fled back to my mattress.


At this point I was wide awake and I just couldn't go back to sleep and for a moment there I thought, what if Bugs and AntZ were real?? Man what if Toy story was real then the Bees and my nephew's toys are going to gang against me and I will never wake up to see the light!! What have I done!! I covered my head with my blanket and hoped to God that it won't call it's friends and crawl under the door and come for revenge.

You can guess what the theme of my dreams was. I woke up around seven extremely glad that all the stinging, fighting, screaming and the Bee gangsters were only bad dreams. I walked to the bathroom to see if it's still there to find that mom has killed it!

You know how in movies when some one wants to really hurt a person they kidnap their kid? I have quite an imagination, let's just hope there won't be a second episode.

After I wrote the title I remembered Aqua's song Bumble Bee :) Check it out and have a sting free day:




Saturday, September 17, 2011

I'm a Rainbow


I'm purple today bright and happy like a butterfly in the air :)

Sunday, September 11, 2011

I Have a Passion for Fiction

Ever since I can remember, I have been a sucker for a good romantic movie, I would sit there and cry my heart out when I watch movies, and Ali always makes fun of me, but it all started when I was 5.

Summer of 1993, Everyone went to bed except me, mom and dad and back then we only had two TV channels so imagine the variety of shows! any how, that night an old Egyptian movie was on called Ayamna Al-Hilwa (our beautiful days) starring Fatin Hamam, Omer al Sherif and Ahmed Ramzi, I remember lifting my head somewhere near the end of the movie and noticing that it was three in the morning, turned around to find mom and dad sleeping, that was the first time in my life staying up late. So back to the movie it's a very sad movie, extremely dramatic just like all Egyptian movies at that time, it tells a story of a poor girl who lives with three brothers and they all fall in love with her but she loves only one of them, gets sick and of course dies at the end. My god did I cry at the end, I cried my heart out and that was when I fell in love with sad romantic cheesy movies.

As time passed my taste in movies changed often, I was addicted to old movies almost all of my childhood and then I was really into thrillers and horror for a very long time. For the last couple of years I have settled for Romantic Comedy, but the problem is I still cry all the time over everything! I mean everything, it's really sever the other day Ali and I were watching Australian Master Chef and I was rooting for one girls and she lost I little tear fell and Ali cracked, Yes he thinks it's funny!!

Another annoying habit I have is that when I like a movie I can watch it a million time but still laugh at every funny bit and cry over any thing sad or touching, but doesn't that mean it's a really good film?? I'd like to think so. Any how the reason why I wrote this was because I wanted to share some of my all times favourate movie quotes with you, here it comes:

1. "Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address. On the other hand, this not knowing has its charms." - You've Got Mail (My favourite)

2. "It's a wonderful thing, as time goes by, to be with someone who looks into your face, when you've gotten old, and still sees what you think you look like" The bachelor

3. "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return" - Moulin Rouge

4. "Hello... I live here" - SATC1

5." it was a million tiny little things that, when you added them all up, they meant we were supposed to be together... and I knew it. I knew it the very first time I touched her. It was like coming home... only to no home I'd ever known... I was just taking her hand to help her out of a car and I knew. It was like... magic"
- Sleepless In Seattle.

6. " Find out who you are, and do it on purpose, that's Dolly Parton" - A walk to remember.

7. "I guarantee there'll be tough times. I guarantee that at some point, one or both of us is gonna want to get out of this thing. But I also guarantee that if I don't ask you to be mine, I'll regret it for the rest of my life, because I know, in my heart, you're the only one for me." - Runaway Bride

8. And my all times favorite, "It's to tell you how much you move me, how you changed me. You made me a man, by loving me Holly. And for that, I am eternally grateful... literally. If you can promise me anything, promise me that whenever you're sad, or unsure, or you lose complete faith, that you'll try to see yourself through my eyes. Thank you for the honor of being my wife. I'm a man with no regrets. How lucky am I. You made my life, Holly. But I'm just one chapter in yours" - P.S I love you.

I'm quite passionate about movies as you can see and I'm really grateful for Mom and Dad for letting me see that movie that night, because if it wasn't for Fatin Hamama's death that night I never would have become the crying over movies person I am today and I never would have wondered how great life would be if there was a sound track in the background!! If only that was possible...

Have a nice day


Monday, July 18, 2011

To My Anchor

This is a song by Mindy Gledhill, that I absolutely love. This is dedicated for my Hubby, Happy Court Marriage Anniversary :)





When all the world is spinning round

Like a red balloon way up in the clouds
And my feet will not stay on the ground
You anchor me back down

I am nearly world renowned
As a restless soul who always skips town
But I look for you to come around
And anchor me back down

There are those who think that I'm strange
They would box me up and tell me to change
But you hold me close and softly say
That you wouldn't have me any other way

When people pin me as a clown
You behave as though I'm wearing a crown
When I'm lost I feel so very found
When you anchor me back down

There are those who think that I'm strange
They would box me up and tell me to change
But you hold me close and softly say
That you wouldn't have me any other way
 
When all the world is spinning round
Like a red balloon way up in the clouds
And my feet will not stay on the ground
You anchor me back down


You can get Mindy's songs here:
Anchor The Sum of All Grace

Or log on to i-tunes

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Language Barrier


 Arabic has those weird metaphors especially proper Arabic, we still make fun of the great old poets and their rather interesting choice of words. I always have a hard time when someone, say Kurdish, asks me about the meaning of some Iraqi saying they heard, I go through all the images and tools in my head and try to explain but most of the time the ask-er ends up with a smile that has "what the hell are you talking about!" behind it, now those are Arabic speaking people, not exactly perfect Arabic but they get by. The big test is when a not-speaking-arabic person asks me to translate some Iraqi saying, a text message or even worse a SONG, i always find myself completely lost when this happens and I hit the language barrier.

Regardless how funny some Arabic expressions are, English is worse. A couple of weeks ago I was listening to Taylor Swift's song Breathe and the lyrics go like:  "You're the only thing I know like the back of my hand" and for some reason the phrase just kept buzzing in head, I know that when you know something or someone so well you say you know them like the back of your hand, I looked at the back of my hand and to tell you the truth I don't really know it that well. I looked again, closed my eyes and tried to remember the image but I swear I couldn't so I started wondering if there was something wrong with me, or maybe the phrase actually has a different meaning than what I thought so I started Googling (Ali would agree I'm the best web searcher on the planet, wouldn't you honey?) and I found out that, unfortunately, it does stand for knowing the back of your hand very well, but the good thing is so many people made comments about how they didn't know the back of their hands so well which makes me normal I guess! 

Moving on to another phrase, "Get your ducks in a row", do I really need to say anything? I don't but I will any way. I get the meaning but who has ducks? and who keeps their ducks in a row??? Another one is "Spitting Image" now this is just disgusting, the idea of being created by being spit out of someone’s mouth gives me the creeps. Iraqi is said to be one of the hardest Arabic dialects to learn, although everyone I know seems to speak it fluently :), we simply are blessed with the fact that we have almost all letters, consonants or vowels, whatever you call them, in our dialect which makes it much easier for us to learn any other language and of course make fun of it despite the fact that we have the most outrageously weird adverbs.  

Bottom line is and to be honest with you the reason why I wrote this in first place is to sort of prove that although speaking English pretty much rocks, but Arabic have been and always will be more elegant and sophisticated, after all we don't say, pardon my french, holly crap!! when we're surprised (I couldn't even find the origins for this one), we simply scream our heads off, see I told you it's sophisticated lol.

I'd like to hear some of the funniest phrases you know in any language.

Till next time, see you later alligator :)  

Friday, July 8, 2011

Happy 50th!

Yesterday Breakfast at Tiffany's turned 50 and since it's one the most memorable movies I have ever watched I have decided to create this sort of photo blog / Vlog, although all the pictures were from Google search.
Audrey Hepburn Has been and always will be the most famous actresses and fashion icons of the world and one of my all time favorite actresses so here we go, this is a tribute to her and to Breakfast at Tiffany's. Here are some of clips from the movie:

The opening seen, I must have seen it a million times. Can anyone be more elegant?


Moon River:




and here are some of Audrey's Pictures:













And even when she got older, she still looked gorgeous


I think it's time for me to watch it again, I don't think Ali saw it before and since I have never read the book, I've just downloaded it and I'll read it.

Happy fiftieth to the timeless movie.