JP's Iftar! Enjoy

I'm goona miss today's Iftar!

As much as I was looking forward to it, but I'm not gonna be able to make it.
I had a very hectic week. Yesterday and the day before I was stuck with activities with my company till around midnight, and today I can't think of anything but bed.

I hope I will be able to catch the next meeting, (if I am not in KSA already).

And to all Bloggers, I am still looking forward to meeting you all someday!

Ramadan's Fault

I had studied engineering for five years, but seems that those were lost years of my life as they don't seem to help me! I feel I am confused about calculating the real distances between countries.

Here I am in KSA 14000 Km away from home, but surprisingly enough I can't take this trip back home, and guess what! It's not because I am sick, it's not because I can't take it, and it's not because I don't want to, It's simply because I haven't finish my papers here.

Today I can feel my self so far away from home; I can simply sense the feeling of being in jail and believe me it's not a nice feeling at all.

But whose fault is this? It's not mine for sure, nor is it the company I work in, according to the KSA Standards it is : Ramadan's Fault!!

Of course I refused to believe that this lovely month can create such a disaster in my life, nevertheless what if you need to finish your papers in a country that treat this month as a "handicapped" month, why?

1- Government employees get to work at 12 Midday and leave at 1:15 pm! (This is the real work time not the published). Of course they take 45 minutes before the time of praying and another 45 minutes after it ".
2- They only work until the 18th of this month; the rest is a vocation, to make them feel the holy month and practice Islam, otherwise they will get back to worshipping stones!!
3- Ramadan is only for praying, because it's hard to pray and work at the same time, either this or that. So every one you ask about your papers will simply remind you that this Ramadan, "go and pray bro, its better than your papers" (They made me feel that they only Pray in Ramadan )
4- Most of the important employees in the government take half of the month as a vocation, some of it to do Omra and the rest at the beaches of Dubai to forget about this hard month. (of course those are the people I need their signature, lucky me)"

So as you all can see, here in KSA it's the fault of Ramadan if your life is stopped for 35 days, why? because as you can feel here they notice Islam only a couple of days before Ramdan, the rest of the years its for TV , and tourism and show off in other countries.

Please forgive us God for the silly way some people around us treat Ramadan. And dear Ramadan, I will always love you the way I do. It's just that those people didn't get the message, I don't know maybe not working in Ramadan is better for them, because I am afraid if they do they will get " Hubal" back to Makka!!!

Questions..

How hard is it to loose a friend?

How do you know you have lost your friend?

How bad should you be feeling for loosing a friend?

Was He/She a friend in the first place?

Was it a one-sided friendship?

Was it just the circumstances around you both that made you "think" you were friends, and then, by the absence of the cause it vanishes away?

Does it always keep a friend to be faithful, loving and forgiving? or those are irrelative variables?

Sari is kissing Amman goodbye and flying to Ryadh.

You can never know if this is the right dicision or not. But we have taken it with all the risks it hides, hoping it will turn out to be the right one.

Sari has gotten a job offer in KSA - Ryadh. And he will be leaving Amman on Saturday.

I should be following him. That is when is paperwork gets done. Having Ramdan so soon, it might take longer than I would want it to!

He would have to find us a home and buy a car.

SO, people in Ryadh, or in Amman, any advice? any suggestions on how to go about things the easiest way?

Wish us Luck.

September 11th... What does it mean to you?

Today, it's been 5 years since, well....

since my special nephew "Ahmad" was born!




That's true, he was born at 2:00 a.m. Tuesday, 11-9-2001!!!



Happy birthday Ahmad!

I want to blog.

Sooo.. Time to blog I think!!!

What about? I still don't know.. Seems that you will have to listen to me thinking aloud (well, you have to appreciate it, I rarely think)!!

Qwaider made a comment on an earlier post, suggesting that I should write about miserable women in the middle east.. I thought about it, it could be a really good post that could get my blog better stats! But then I decided: No. I'm not going to write about it. Why? Because I am not miserable being a women in the Middle East. Of course that doesn’t negate the fact that some women (I don’t know the proportion of "some"! it can be "a few", or "the majority") are actually miserable living in the middle east. I think this might be caused – at one level – by the old mentality that some "middle-easterns" posses, I don’t want to start analyzing and looking for reasons for this phenomena, but – Thank God- I'm not one of those women who ever felt miserable.. I think it's because I had a very understanding, open minded parents and family,
which drove everything else in my life to be like wise, my school, my education, it even taught me how to choose my friends.. To make a long story short, I am a happy person, satisfied with my life! J

Thanks Qwaider for making me realize that! I know you didn't mean it! J

This blog is a very effective tool to help me organize my thoughts. Whenever I start writing a post I note how discrete and unconnected my thoughts are, and sometimes I feel that either no one would understand what I am trying to say, or they would be shouting at their PC's for how redundant I am.

Ok,, this post shows how unconnected I am. But you know, this is how I want this post in particular to be, I want to speak about everything is my mind.. I have so many small things to tell that can't be each in a post.

Did I ever tell you how fascinated I am about the world of dreams?

Yesterday I remembered a piece of information I once read that I thought to be very interesting. (If anyone is wondering why yesterday, it's because I slept at 7:30 p.m., and woke up at 7:30 next day!!) ok, what was the interesting piece of information?
It was about dreaming. When we go to sleep, we normally need sometime before we start dreaming, around 20 minutes (correct me if I am wrong, I might have forgotten the exact number). After this period of time, we go into a phase called REM (Rapid Eye movement) which is the phase in which we dream. The interesting part of it, is that our bodies become PARALYZED during REM, to prevent our bodies from acting our dreams. For instance, did it ever happen to you, being just about to sleep, dream you are falling, and then actually feeling your body moving quickly when you are "falling", a reaction your body might take when you are ACTUALLY falling, that's because you haven’t yet gone into the REM phase, and so you body is still not paralyzed. This theory explains why some people walk while they are sleeping. It's because they have sleeping disorders, they don’t go into the REM phase and their bodies don't become paralyzed! I really find that amazing. I will look into some resources about it and let you know.

WOW,, this unconnected stream of thoughts seems to be longer than I thought!

I am off to Aqaba this weekend. Again?! Yes! But with work this time! Our lovely company is taking us for a relaxing weekend in Aqaba. It's gonna be fun, I hope!

On another note, a group of our colleagues at work left to Omra yesterday, it's a trip arranged again by our company. The bus took off from the company's backyard! It was very touching when we were saying goodbye to them . I was about to cry… The feeling I had looking at them getting ready to go, with girls having veils on (although they are not veiled, but for the purpose of Ihram), I wish I go someday!

What else I have in mind to share on my blog?

There is a friend I miss! Lina!
Although we work together, but ever since I came back to work from my honeymoon, things have been going crazily, we are all very busy at work, and we (Lina and I) no longer work on the same initiative. IT seems that she is so busy too, she is not blogging either!! Lina, we are waiting for you to come back.

Did you have enough from my unrelated talks? Ok catch you some other time then!


Ooh ya, it seems that I am on my way to take an important decision: I will kick Sari out of this blog, he is an inactive member!

Back to the Furture?!

I had a bizarre dream! I dreamt that I am living in year 2006! Wow, what an amazing world it is at that time.. All people have new nice cars, they have telephones that you can take anywhere you go and you will still receive phone calls, they call them "mobile phones".
They have rockets, and they have actually landed on the moon. It is just astonishing the technology they have!
Do you know that new invention that has just been announced a couple of months ago in the USA that they call "Computers"? We think it will never be usable, and it is very large, it needs a whole room by itself. Surprisingly, there in year 2006, they can't live without it, they have it in the size of a notebook; they take it with them wherever they go. And they have something called Internet, they run it on those tiny computers they have. This Internet thing is just freaky, they say you can send a letter any place in the world just by pressing a button, I can't believe it, how could that "button" fly overseas and reach the destination you want? thats not the end of the story, your letters reachs directly to the house of the person you want your letter to go to!

Do you know what else they have on this Internet? They have something called Jordan Planet, where all Jordanian people who like to write can write there and people read..

It was this Jordan Planet that woke me up from my dream, brining me back to the real date! December 31, 1969!!!

Pictures.

This is how my office was waiting for me on my birthday morning. That was a while ago, but I just got the pictures today.







It was a nice day.

What makes a successful blog?

I love my blog. And I love the whole blogosphere. I amazed of how addicted to it I got, how up to date and connected to the world it makes me feel just reading blogs here and there. Especially when it comes to someone like me who neither reads newspapers (that's bad I know) nor watches news at TV (even worse!). This is one reason I love blogosphere, but it's not the most important one. I love how close to people it makes you feel. Although you might not know those people in person, but blogs are wonderful communication tool that makes you feel you are living the life of bloggers day by day.

But the big question is: How do you manage a successful blog? What determines if your blog is successful? Traffic might be the answer. But what I perceive to be a much better indicator is the number of comments you get. As people might visit your blog, but they wouldn't leave comments unless they find your posts very interesting. Or, at least, I don't leave comments unless I'm really interested in what's written, and in the blog as a whole.

Ok, here comes that bad news… According to my own indicator of successful blogs, ours is not :(

Any suggestions for other indicators?

A thorough look into me..

Facts about myself:

1- I am 25 years old, a Leo.
2- I love music.
3- My favorite dish: Hard question, I have many! Well, mloukhieh (Jews Mellow!) and war2 3inab (vine leaves).
4- My favorite program: Tom & Jerry.
5- My favorite pet: I don’t like pets in general, but Tom is fine!
6- I love mathematics and dealing with numbers. I have an amazing memory for numbers.
7- I am a talkative person.
8- I love kids.

Things I do not like about myself:

1- I am easily intimidated, even when I know my stuff 100% sure.
2- I have a loud profile that people think I'm aggressive all the time.
3- I explode fast.
4- I am lazy.
5- I lack determination – too spoilt?
6- I eat too much.
7- I am too skeptical about things.
8- I have very bad time management skills. I can't find time to do things I love; reading, practicing my French, playing Piano… and many more
9- I am always sleepy.
10- I am not athletic.
11- At certain situations I loose my self-confidence.

Things I like about myself:

1- I rarely hate anyone.
2- I have a tender heart that feels pity for every creature, even my teddy bear. – Is that good or bad?
3- I am sincere.
4- I can never hurt anyone on purpose.
5- I love to help people.

Things I would change if I go back in time:

1- I would have put more effort on my studies; in school, university and post graduate studies. 2- I would have never stopped playing Basketball and volleyball.
3- I would have participated more in extra-circular activities.
4- I would have chosen people I knew and dealt with with more care.
5- I would have never socialized with some people.
6- I would have studied a different topic for my post-graduate studies.
7- I would have seized the chance of living abroad alone for a year to learn more from the experience and gain knowledge and expertise that comes from different cultures.
8- I would have taken more care for weight gain, and never gained as much as I did in 5 years.

Things I wish I learn about:

1- Medicine: everything about how our bodies work, why we get ill, and how to cure diseases.
2- How mobile technology works.
3- Psychology.
4- Babies' world (up to 3 years old): what do they think? What do they know? What do they understand? Their cognition of their surrounding environment before and after they are born. 5- Dreams' world: How do we dream, what happens when we sleep, what do our dreams mean? 6- The truth about sixth sense, telepathy and ESP (extrasensory perception).

Things I should do before I die!

1- Revive my French language, build on it and become fluent.
2- Revive my basic knowledge of playing piano, and continue to learn it to become a good pianist.
3- Learn to exercise daily.
4- Have my own successful business.
5- Read, read, and read.
6- Have a nice home with a peaceful, loving and outstanding family.
7- Master English!

No more Tom :(

Alright, it's not that I'm going to bug you every now and then with stories about Mr. Tom, but I thought you should know the end of the story since you -reluctantly- witnessed the beginning of it.

No more Tom. He is lost. We missed him Wednesday night, I thought he would come back, but unfortunately, he didn't.

I think one of the boys in the area took him.

If anyone is interested to know how I feel, I feel awful about it. I am very sad he is gone. I wish he comes back!

P.S. I mentioned earlier that I didn’t know if he is a HE or SHE. I assumed in my previous post that he is a SHE. I don’t know why now the assumption is that he is a HE!

Tom, But NO Jerry!

Sari Loves cats. So we were planning to get one as we have a small garden around our home... But somehow we couldn't find one and then we got too busy and almost forgot about it!

On Wednesday, we had to go to my father's farm - which is located in Mahes, a small town after Fuheis, 16 km from Amman, specifically, from our home. - to drive someone there. It was around sunset, and just before we arrived there, we saw a very small kitty meowing… I think she is no older than two months!



"Sari, look at this kitty… she is very nice,, please stop!"
"She wouldn’t allow you to come near her Reem."
"Just stop please!"

And so he stopped. I opened the door, and before I could do anything else or step any further the cat was in my lap, meowing hardly. She was STARVING. I had some pastries with me so I got one out and gave it to her. I would never forget the way she started eating it.. In less than one minute, it was all over!

We took her back home with us. She is so thin! We named her "Tom"!!!
I'm getting a vet to check on her and vaccinate her today!!

By the way, I'm not sure if it's a She or HE! I assumed she is a SHE!



She is very lovely, loves to play, and was puzzled by the Argeeleh yesterday!







Cats are nice!

Off to Aqaba this weekend!

I had to work on a friday two weekends ago, so I will be compensated for it by taking this thursday off.. Trying to make the best out of this three-day holiday, we decided to go to Aqaba! Well, nothing too extraordinary, but I'm happy about it and looking forward to it. We're staying in Coral Bay Hotel. Any feed back about it?

Happy Birthday to me!!

Today is my birthday! I feel very good today, it's weird how much we are affected by our mental state.

I came to the office to find it all filled with roses and red balloons! It looks very nice. It really made me day!! I took a picture of it but i couldn't post it as I dont have the USB port for the camera!

Anyway, that's it! Nothing much to add about my birthday today! will tell you about the presents I got later :)

Sad, but unfortunately very true...

The rules of POLITICAL CORRECTNESS when it comes to the Israeli-Arab conflict:

Rule #1: In the Middle East, it is always the Arabs that attack first, and it's always Israel who defends itself. This is called "retaliation".

Rule #2: The Arabs, whether Palestinians or Lebanese, are not allowed to kill Israelis. This is called "terrorism".

Rule #3: Israel has the right to kill Arab civilians, this is called "self-defence", or these days "collateral damage".

Rule #4: When Israel kills too many civilians. The Western world calls for restraint. This is called the "reaction of the International community".

Rule #5: Palestinians and Lebanese do not have the right to capture Israeli military, not even a limited number, not even 1 or 2.

Rule #6: Israel has the right to capture as many Palestinians as they want (Palestinians: around 10000 to date, 300 of which are children, Lebanese: 1000s to date, being held without trial). There is no limit; there is no need for proof of guilt or trial. All that is needed is the magic word: "terrorism".

Rule #7: When you say "Hezbollah", always be sure to add "supported by Syria and Iran".

Rule #8: When you say "Israel", never say "supported by the USA, the UK and other. European countries", for people (God forbid) might believe this is not an equal conflict.

Rule #9: When it comes to Israel, don't mention the words "occupied territories", "UN resolutions", "Geneva conventions". This could distress the audience of Fox.

Rule #10: Israelis speak better English than Arabs. This is why we let them speak out as much as possible, so that they can explain rules 1 through 9. This is called "neutral journalism".

Rule #11: If you don't agree with these rules or if you favour the Arab side over the Israeli side, you must be a very dangerous anti-Semite. You may even have to make a public apology if you express Your honest opinion...

Isn't democracy wonderful?!!!

P.S. I got this by email. I felt like sharing it. Thanks Abeer.

Arabs decide that they will demolish Israeli if >>>>>>>>>

Arabs decide that they will demolish Israeli if Nancy Ajram's home is touched!!!

I have no doubts that Arabs will eventually move and take action, when things get out of hand! They haven't yet, as our lovely star is still safe at her home!

I have no doubt that we all have some dignity somewhere inside; thank you Nancy for getting us together!! But I want to assure you, in case Israel demolishes your home, I am sure that your insurance from your beloved ones will guarantee you a new Lovely house just near Alkaba, because this is our new strategy Nancy, this is our way to a new middle east!

I am very proud that we have a red line at least! Especially that Nancy Ajram became a symbol of arabic culture, and we as Arab must protect the star from any harm that might get near here "keeping in mind that she might add a lot of new albums now".

What makes me more satisfied with this is that Nancy might publish new albums for Lebanon due to the ongoing war there! Which will for sure help people who are suffering there and maybe stop the war?

Malaysia, Truly Asia.

I'm back.. Long time no see my friends!!

As you all know, my wedding was on the 6th of July. So I have been away from work, internet and eveything that connects me to my daily normal world for more than three weeks, I have dozens of stories to tell you about. The wedding, marriage life and events that took place over the last month... Where shall I start??

Honestly, I was very hesitant to post this now. I feel very bad for what is happeneing is Gaza and Lebanon. It really hurts.. I don't want to speak any politics, or make any situation analysis.. I just need to say how bad I feel about what is going on there...

Anyway, I decided to go on and tell you about this unique period of my life.. Sorry for the inconvenince of time.

Those three weeks were amazing, time you steal away from everything and run away somewhere very far away to enjoy nature and peace of mind.. I feel so fresh after coming back to work from my vacation.. It was just perfect..

Well,, as the title tells, this article is dedicated to tell you about my honeymoon in Malaysia. Malysia is really a piece of heaven, I can't describe how beautiful it is, and how cheap as well!!! I spent the best time of my life there.

As they say, a picture is worth 1000 words, I wouldn't do much of the speaking, I will leave it to photos. Enjoy!!



Malaysia Twin Towers.



King's Palace!! You can pass by it, take photos and say hi to the soldiers there!!




Yummy, Chinese and Japanese food. I love Sea Food!



Taman Sari!! The resraurant's name at our Hotel in Kuala Lumper!!





Amazing nature they have, I have never seen such green lands, It is really a peice of heaven, Sub7an Allah.



In "Butterfly Farm", Penang, Malaysia. Somewhere you can see all kinds of beatiful butterflies flying around you peacefully..

To my parents... With love....

25 years are coming to an end... I will be leaving the house I grew in, the house which embrassed me and my childhood, the house which witnessed all the events and acheivments of my life....

I have been thinking of those years for the last couple of weeks, it all passed by my mind like a tape.. My parents next to me all through the way, surrounding me with love and care.. protecting me from all that might hurt me, and from myself above all...

And Suddenly you regret every moment you spent away from them, busy with your freinds... you regret everything you did that they didn''t like, and then discover how selfish you were proiritizing everything else first...

Mum and Dad... I love you so much.. you are the reason I am everything I am.. I wouldn't have made it if it wasn't all for your love, care and support...

Now that I am leaving your home,, the paradise you made for us.. I can't find words that can adequatly express my feelings.. I wish I spent more time with you.. I wish I never made you upset... I wish I wasn't all busy that days passed without spending a minute with you...

Now that I am leaving your home.. I wish you forgive me for anything irresponsible I did.. I want you to know that the years I spent in our house was the best in my life... I love you soooo much, and I will be forever unable to thank you or pay you back one thenth of what you gave me...

I never thought it would be this hard.. Whenever I thought of my marriage I always thought of the white dress, the happiness that day, but never really thought of this feeling I am having.. I wish I never leave you.. But I think there is no way out of it.. Life goes on, and the day will come when we will have to leave your lovely nest and try to make our own.. I promise you I will be up to your expectations, I will try to raise my children the way you raised us, though I can be up to your level.. But I will instill in them he belief in God, the respect for oneself and other, I will teach them every valuable lesson you taught me...

Mum and Dad, I am very proud to be your daughter.. You are the best of the best... I will always look up for you both... Mum and Dad: I LOVE YOU.

I know you might never read this, but I will always pray for you, ask God to protect you and grant you heaven....God Bless you...

Wish us luck

Dear all; today am posting to thank you all for your efforts and lovely comments you had left on our page; it was very generous and helpful for both of us "me and reemo"

I won't say that I had a lot of posts here; but be sure that I had visited every single user passed by our page since we had created it.

What we had learned from this experience isn’t something to do with wedding or procedures; in fact it has to do with creating a very huge family and very close friends at the same time (I wish all of you can feel that too).

You had touched me with every single visit to our page; I was very glade to feel the smile on your faces; but most of all I was very proud to pronounce your care through your comments.

Thank you all for everything, and dont forget to wish us luck

Lost in feelings

I haven't been able to write for so long! And now I'm stealing a moment to write this! It's strnage how I miss the blog and blogosphere, and how I got addicted to it in less than three months!

Plenty is going on my head, many things I have to do and follow up on. Tomorrow is my shower party, and I will be going in an hour or so to check on the DJ!!

My weekend have been so hectic, my brother arrived on friday.. I started packing and will be moving my stuff to my home today!!!

What else? I feel I am soo busy minded, I no longer can sleep well!! That is the pre-marriage syndrome, isn't it?!!

I have many many strange feelings about it.. starting my own life, leaving my parents house... I sometimes feel I lost the enthusiasm in all this hassle of feelings!!

Anyway, you really have to excuse me... I have to run try finish some of the things on my list. Wish me luck...