A life story ( part 1)

She woke up with a startle. Her hands were sweaty and her heart was beating hard. She tried to adjust her eyes to the darkness around her and catch her breath at the same time. It was the third night in a row she had had this nightmare, or a bad omen as she would call it. She slid back under her cover trying to close out the nightmare from her mind. She did not want to think about it, but what was the use. She knew.

Someone close to her was going to die.

The sunlight streamed through the curtains and she winced as she got up. She had a killer headache and she felt that she was forgetting something. As her sister came in her room to wake her up and before she could yet at her for coming in without knocking, it all came back to her. The nightmare, the sweating, and the fear of knowing that someone close to her was going to die. It all came back to her and hit her with such force that she started tearing up. What if it was her sister?
Seeing that she was awake, sitting there with such a look of horror on her face, jasmine closed her mouth and knew to leave her sister alone when she was in a bad mood. She left the room quietly, not that her sister noticed; she was too preoccupied with her thoughts.

Katie walked in a daze throughout the day; the tension was too much. She wished the whole ordeal were over already. She silently cried out at her monstrosity. How could she even think that thought? She had to spend every moment she had with her friends and family, she did not want to regret those moments later. When she got home from school she gave her mom a big hug and held her for a couple of moments trying to remember and store everything about the moment. Her mom smiled gave her a big smile and jokingly asked if she wanted anything and what was up all of a sudden. Katie just smiled at her mom. “Would you like to go out for dinner?” she said, “just you, me, and jasmine, my treat.” “Ok now something is really wrong,” her mom joked with her again. “Just be ready at 5:00 mom” she called out as she got to her room.

to be continued....

Islamic Hijri Calendar

Play with your food!

remember how when you were young ( assuming that your not still!) your parents would always tell you not to play with your food? well for me my parents would send a flip-flop flying next to my ear to reinforce that message ( hey I'm Arab.) but now i tell you is the time to be rebellious and break free from those shackles. you might be thinking how crazy is this chick, talking about food and rebellion, but I'll tell you why. better yet, I'll show you!

some of these might be a bit disturbing but they're freakin' awsome!!

....trust me, go ahead and play with your food.

for my grand-grand children !

I woke up one day after MLK day, two days after Israel stopped bombing innocent Palestinians, a historic moment, and with any luck millions around the world were witnessing the changing moment too. It is the day of Obama’s Inauguration. Since I couldn’t possibly make it to DC, I was sitting on my bed 8:00 a.m!! ( ya it kinda shocked me too) trying to watch the inauguration. I forgot to say that being near blind is also one of my great attributes. At least that is how it seems when I’ve just woken up and am with no contacts in my eyes.

After what seemed like a month and 2 days of contemplating the idea of putting on my contacts or not, I separated myself momentarily from the laptop to go and put my contacts on, I put one in and then the voices in my laptop told me that Obama was going to do his swear-in. I made the not so wise decision to close that eye because I was not going to miss any part of the inauguration. What would I tell my grand-grand children! I watched the whole thing and I even started appreciating the fact that I was not out there in the cold, freezing my ass off! By the end of it I had to manually open the eye that I had shut, make it back to the bathroom and put the darn thing in there!

At least now, I know what I would tell my grand- grand children about that day!
“The view was great kids, it was just great!”

On a good note there were no fights with Hillary, or Bush for the matter ( even though in front of the whole world he basically told that he screwed up...bad!!)

we are family!

My little brother is one spoiled child and by that, I mean that if he has to repeat himself more than once in a request he’ll start crying and by THAT I mean like you’ll really feel like you’ve wronged him and cut off one of his toes or something. On one of those occasions where he did not get what he wanted he started screaming,” I hate this family, I don’t want you guys here” I have no idea where he got that from because I certainly do not say it in front of him. I might think it at times like any other kid out there, but if you know one thing you know not to say such things out loud in front of my parents! Well everything stopped and the little kid got my parents attention alright, the kind he didn’t want. I sat there thinking how brave he was to have said that out loud, either that or very stupid. Probably the latter. Don’t get me wrong, I love my parents. I’m probably not the person to show it. I have this knack to always argue with them, smirks just creep up my face all the time, not doing what they asked me to do, but at the end of the day I’m an 18 year old teenager, and what 18 year old in their right mind acts right. It’s like this one time I decided to do something nice for my mom and do the dishes and from then on they thought it was an obligation for me to do it. I hate doing the dishes. You might think these two things aren’t related, ohh but they are. Let me explain, if you’re always acting like such an angel ( like my sister AKA angelic one) when and if you do something wrong you really get it, and also your parents expect of you to always act that way. I’m really a good kid, really I am! I don’t smoke, go clubbing, drink, have a boyfriend, get good grades, and I’m even a human rights activist, I’m mature for my age, if I say so myself. Ok enough of the whole ego thing; I’m just your typical Muslim girl next door neighbor, however typical that is. The one that was sent to her room because she burst out laughing when her brother told the parents he hated them. Yah I know, I get it from my brother!

No i'm not Indian, and that red dot is just a zit!

I have just returned from my prolonged winter break in the US and I am actually happy to be starting university again. Usually the hours driving to and from our destinations are the most dreaded since we drive about 13 hours (yes that made me flinch too) to get to where it is we want to go! This time around, things were somewhat different. It was still boring, that part did not change much. but this time my mom was driving and if you know my mother you know that she does not drive highway. So driving 13 hours was, well, scary! At one point when we were low on gas, a couple minutes after crossing to the West Virginia border my mom started looking for a rest area, and since she was Really low on fuel-I mean the car a couple more minutes and it would have stopped- went to the first thing that came her way, which happened to be a little town. or so we thought. We went into this town and I started having flashbacks to the movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I mean this town had these little houses all next to each other; they were old peeling, and fading. The first gas station we came across was all bordered up and closed. (This is when I really started worrying). The people we did come across were all staring as if we were some type of aliens. Yes, well maybe I looked a little different, and ok yea I covered my hair… but so do nuns; I could have been one who just happened to stop for fuel. Anyways back to the story. So we finally find a gas station and as my mom started filling up I went inside to go pee, come out, and leave this town in the least amount of time. As I was coming out my little brother got distracted by the wide array of displayed junk food, I go along and as I am standing at the counter a woman and her husband come up behind me and say hi. In my mind, I am still running over the scenes from Texas Chainsaw massacre and all other movies involving freaky looking towns and townspeople. This is how the conversation goes:

Man: well my wife here was saying where is she from and I said India
Me: ohh no actually I’m Egyptian
Woman: really!! Well welcome to our country
Me: * smiles* Thanks (did I mention that I’ve lived here for like 9 years)
Man: One of my good friends here, he is Indian
Woman: yea his wife has that little red dot in the middle of her forehead
Me ( in my mind): WAT!! My pimple is not that big!!!
Me ( out loud): ohh well I think that involves their culture or religion maybe
Man&Woman: ohhhh
Man: pointing to my brother: well is that your little one
Me: noooo noo that’s my little brother, Say hi buddy
Brother: hi :p
Man: Give me five!
Brother proceeds to give him five
Woman: where did he learn that!
Me: ummm ( wat? How do you learn a high five) school I think!
Woman: that is cool
Me: smiles
Woman: Woowww that’s a pretty ring you have on
Me: thank youuuu
Man: yea that’s really nice
Me: thanks again (awkward)

Sweet people. They really were. I’m just not exactly sure what they thought they were going to get out of me, but Ok! :D

I got back in the car and we drove out of the town with a sign of relief at the edge of the town there was a man standing near the road trying to hitchhike a ride. Things I’ve only read about in books I now had confirmed. Little towns and people that hitchhiked existed!! I now saw life in a whole new different manner J

No really, the moral of the story is never to let your gas get low that you have to stop at towns that remind you of Texas chainsaw massacre!

Cardigans for everyone

Once upon a time, Some while ago, it was very hard for me to find clothes that i could wear, especially that i am a hijabie but recently luck has been on my and every hijabies side. with the fashion of maxi dresses, wide leg pants, cardigans, scarfs, it's like a hijabie heaven! Not long ago i went to Kohls and lo and behold they had cardigans everywhere and i mean everywhere, of every color and brand. World i did not hold back! i mean i started collecting these things and throwing them on board ( They were on sale) until i realised that i probably couldn't buy all of them, it would have financially ruined me, not that i'm too far away from that anyways.

( Images from Delia's and Alloys)

My best friend made me realize not too long ago that cardigans are life savers and look great with almost everything and i mean this chick makes anything she wears look great anyways. A tip for any Hijabie, Cardigans solve the whole maxidress undershirt problem for the few who feel that they're too tight, cardigans are wider, still lookin good, and leave room to breathe! Although these looks arent hijabie friendly, one gets the drift ( i hope) so go out there and cardigan away!!

Please World do not forget to keep Gaza and all the palestinians in your prayers!!

What happens in Gaza seems to stay in Gaza!

sameera with her two children Eman and Mohammed the last two surviving an airstrike by Israeli Airforce, they are waiting at the funeral to see the 4 other daughters that got killed (Abid Katib/getty Images)

Palestinian men bury 4 year old Lama Hamdan in the northren Gaza strip December 30th, 2008 (mohammad salem/Reuters)

Body of a palestinian security officer midst the rubbel in a Gaza airstrike on December 28th, 08

(AP photo/Fadi Adwan)

New Year...Same Old!!

With a beginning of a new year ( 2009 in case someone forgot) it came to me in one of my moments of genius, that i should start a blog which could later on help me when ( and if) i decide to write a novel! and not to mention let me rant on to total strangers about anything. Of course it took me a while to actually get started but here i am on the 8th day of January 2009 writing my first post of this blog here.

Something that i feel strongly enough to talk about is the Gaza crisis occurring right now in Palestine. perhaps not the most optimistic thing for a new year or the best to start a blog with, but it is a fact of life, and unfortunately it is occurring while the world does nothing Turing its back to all that is happening. If you do not know what it is I am ranting about let me fill you up with some of the basic facts. On December 27th , 2008, Israel launched a series of attacks on the strip of Gaza where a population of several million Palestinians are condensed together on this small strip of land. On the first day of these attacks Israel killed about 200 people and wounded about a thousand others. They claimed that these attacks were in self-defense against " Hamas" : a Palestinian militant group fighting for Palestinian nationality and elected by the people in 2005. The Israeli side of the story would have been more realistic if they had put some facts into consideration. For the last 18 months Israel has closed all borders around Gaza barely allowing any food, water, medical supplies, etc. through. Barely anyone was allowed through the checkpoints and to the other side even though most of Palestinians worked on Israeli land, this left more than 50% jobless. It was everything a jail was save the name. Now in about a week Israel has killed more than 700, 765 to be more exact, (including more than 230 children and 100 women) they have left about 3100 CIVILIANS injured, some even in critical conditions and with no medical supplies. Israel has not only stopped at that but has demolished houses, schools, places of worship even hospitals. As a result of this blockade people have not been able to flee by land, air, or sea. we are in the 21st century and yet again history is repeating itself with such atrocities as these. What is going on right now gives us a chill reminder of what happened in Rwanda, Bosnia, South Africa, and the Holocaust, 765:4 is hardly blameworthy.
and us standing watching and doing nothing about what is going on makes us part of the horrific actions taking place, and if at least you are not or cannot contribute to the Palestinian cause you can at least stop help funding the Israeli one, one way that you can do that is buy not buying these products http://www.inminds.co.uk/boycott-brands.html that fund Israel.