Are we hearing the cries for help?

What's been happening in Palestine over the past few days is outrageous and totally unacceptable! The Israelis have been bombing the area, cutting off water and electricity, and killing anyone they feel like killing...and for what? They are operating under the excuse of rescuing ONE Israeli soldier who has been kidnapped by the Palestinians. They are killing thousands of innocent Palestinians for ONE soldier. I HIGHLY doubt that the reason for such an attack is that ONE soldier, and the fact that they are even saying that is totally insulting our intelligence! Even the American companies who have invested millions in Palestine are planning to turn around and sue the Israelis for the damage they have done to the infrastructures they have built. I repeat, this attack is NOT about the soldier. My mother's uncle who lives in Gaza is telling us stories of how the electricity infrastructure is so badly damaged that what little electricity they have left has to be divided in such a way that one area has electricity today then tomorrow another area gets electricity and so on...I just hate the fakeness of it all...dont kill thousands of people and hide behind a lame excuse and expect us to believe it!! And definately don't kill innocent people for one soldier!!

Saloomi's Getting Married!

Ok if you know me personally then you would have heard about one of my close friends getting married!!! I have announced it to every single person I know! Salma and Omar are planning to tie the knot on July 11th 2006! And I'm sooo excited! Lina and I are going to be the bridesmaids so we are running around to get the dresses ready plus planning the bachelorette party. Salma is in Dubai while Omar is in Egypt so wow I admire them for being able to plan this big day while being apart. We are trying to help them out as much as possible with the invitations and the like but still I'm sure they would have needed a shoulder to cry on in this phase coz Im assuming that its all about panic and nerves at the moment! I think its the same with everyone...you can be really sure that you love this person but when its time for the wedding you cant help but start to doubt yourself. Am I doing the right thing? Is this really it? You start wondering what life will be like after marriage and if that's what u want or not...but all this panic a week before the actual day is just a temporary emotional rollercoaster. If the panic began the second you started discussing marriage then that's when you should worry! Hehehe Anyway, so back to the actual wedding. Since its the wedding of such a close friend there are many many pre- and post- wedding outings and gatherings. From going to the beach, to a spa, to a bye bye outing, etc so the next 10 days will be fully packed! It should be loads of fun and I really cant wait for all of the fun to start! Im sure I'll be teary eyed at the wedding coz I really still cant believe its happening! LOVE YOU SALOOM!

My boss' bday! Happy bday ya Nou!

Today was the 25th birthday of my boss and partner in crime at the office Noha Ramadan! Less than a week ago we did a surprise birthday for her at my house and many of our good friends from work came to join in. It was a nice gathering where we were all our usual crazy selves, discussing silly yet interesting things (like the fancy dances that people used to dance in the past, the fights between ahly and zamalek fans, etc), playing tricks on people, and just laughing! I'm truely blessed to work with people whom I've grown to really love. I just enjoy their company and working with them is a ball! Nou especially has been awesome to work with...the both of us make up the product development team of the company so yea all the new ideas come from us which is great in itself. We do alot of the creative parts of our company's job which is just how we like it! Nou's a team player which I love...we complete each other's work and do alot of brainstorming together, and recently I discovered we complete each other's thoughts which helps alot when you are being creative. So thanks Nou for being a great boss and happy bday hun! NAUGHTY! (her favourite word in the world hehe)

Nada & Margy's Engagement Party!

Saturday marked the day that Nada Zaynoun and Margy Rizkalla got engaged! Nada's only word was "AKHEEERAN!" She was sooo happy that they finally got engaged! They've been in love for quite a few years now so it was really a day to celebrate. The party was held in the club house of the JW Marriott which is quite far from where I live so we took some time to get there and some time to get home. But it was a great party! We were on a terrace outside in the open air with a view of the garden...the bride and groom had their first dance in that garden with us watching from the terrace which was so romantic. Imagine dancing there with your significant other and having all your friends cheering you on from afar. We were all going AAAWWWW and holding hands or hugging each other. The dancing began right after that and we all became quite hyper, which is always fun. In the middle of the party, a bunch of the couple's friends, including the couple, did a dance. It was awesome! They were all in the folklore dance group in uni so they really knew what they were doing. I was impressed. Thank God I had my trusty camera with me and got most of the show on tape. Good job Nada, Margy, Honey, Pinky, Aly Baligh, etc! The evening came to a close early for Lina and I since we still had to drive all the way back home and wake up early the next day for work but it was a fun party and it was really great seeing all our friends again which we do not do as often as we used to.

Facing reality

I went to see "Yacobian Building" in the movie theater last friday with a few friends and it was the most uncomfortable 3 hours of my life! The movie tackles all the taboos of Egypt and shows a very bleak image of what Egypt has become. It was very disturbing yet not surprising...I mean its reality and its the reality of many countries. It showed me why we love the movies so much...we go to the cinema to escape our reality, to see a rosy reality that makes the world seem a much happier place, a place where true love exists, where the everyday stresses of life hardly matter, where poverty is something you dont see, where racism and sexism dont exist, and where people dont want to hurt others. Its a reality that, even though I know doesnt exist, I choose to believe in! I need to believe that people are good by nature, that we are capable of loving without restrictions, where all problems have a solution, where a black spot in life will later be replaced by a white one...just wait and everything will be better just coz they have to be! This movie shook that reality I chose to believe in...which is what made it heavy, sad, yet VERY good. If you walk out of that movie feeling like life is crap then the director did an excellent job. He is trying to rock your perceptions of what you believe life to be. He shows you how morals and values are meaningless to a person who is poor and has no money to feed himself. He shows you how your heritage means nothing unless you work hard to preserve it. He shows you how your reputation is something that can make you or break you. Its not that reality sucks, even though that is what I felt at the end, its that this is reality and you have to find the good in that reality without being naive. Life is not always rosy and facing that truth is what the movie is trying to do. The book of course has alot more details and probably makes all the many levels of the story more evident than the movie but even the people who read the book say the movie was excellent and did not distort the purpose of the book.

Hip Hop classes here we come!

Martha & I went to try out this hip hop class today and to our surprise we had loads of fun! It was very hard to keep up at first, which caused alot of laughter plus the trainer had to come next to us to take us step by step. But once we got the hang of it, it became cool, and the muscles started to ache, which is always a sign that we were doing it correctly! That's the eureka point where YIPEE my muscles are working. But after that yipee come the moans and groans of muscles that haven't been working for quite some time! I was never into indoor sports...I love the open air so get me a basketball, football, tennis court, pool, anything but dont keep me locked indoors and expect me to do sports and be happy! That's why I was avoiding the gym and aerobic classes like the plague...both were sooo dull for me! But this hip hop class was SO fun, I guess coz it combined doing sports with dancing which is something Martha & I enjoy to do. So we signed up for 4 more classes! YAY! Watch out for us on MTV very soon!

Jokes about marriage! Hilarious!

Marriage 1
Typical macho man married typical good-looking lady and after the wedding, he laid down the following rules: "I'll be home when I want, if I want and at what time I want and I don't expect any hassle from you. I expect a great dinner to be on the table unless I tell you that I won't be home for dinner. I'll go hunting, fishing, boozing and card-playing when I want with my old buddies and don't you give me a hard time about it. Those are my rules. Any comments?"
His new bride said, "No, that's fine with me. Just understand that there will be sex here at seven o'clock every night .....whether you're here or not."

Marriage 2
Husband and wife had a bitter quarrel on the day of their 40th wedding anniversary!
The husband yells, "When you die, I'm getting you a headstone that reads:
"Here Lies My Wife - Cold As Ever "
"Yeah?" she replies. "When you die, I'm getting you a headstone that reads:
"Here Lies My Husband - Stiff At Last"

Marriage 3
Husband (a doctor) and his wife are having a fight at the breakfast table. Husband gets up in a rage and says, "And you are no good in bed either," and storms out of the house.
After some time, he realizes he was nasty and decides to make amends and rings her up. She comes to the phone after many rings, and the irritated husband says, "What took you so long to answer the phone?"
She says, "I was in bed."
"In bed this early, doing what?"
"Getting a second opinion!"

Marriage 4
A man has six children and is very proud of his achievement.
He is so proud of himself, that he starts calling his wife, "Mother of Six" in spite of her objections. One night, they go to a party. The man decides that it's time to go home and wants to find out if his wife is ready to leave as well.
He shouts at the top of his voice, "Shall we go home 'Mother of Six?'
His wife, irritated by her husband's lack of discretion, shouts right back, "Anytime you're ready, Father of Four."

Marriage 5
A man and his wife were having some problems at home and were giving each other the silent treatment. Suddenly, the man realized that the next day, he would need his wife to wake him at 5:00 am for an early morning business flight. Not wanting to be the first to break the silence (and LOSE), he wrote on a piece of paper, "Please wake me at 5:00 am" He left it where he knew she would find it. The next morning the man woke up, only to discover it was 9:00 AM and he had missed his flight. Furious, he was about to go and see why his wife hadn't wakened him, when he noticed a piece of paper by the bed. The paper said, "It is 5:00 AM. Wake up."

Fireworks!!

Yesterday we had a nice reunion outing with some good friends of ours and we went on a falluca ride on the Nile. Something amazing happened while on the boat that doesn't happen everyday which is that we saw fireworks! Lots of them too! I had never seen fireworks before so I was especially giddy and giggly about it...nagging for more more more! It was very beautiful and being on the water when it happened made it even nicer. So here's to fireworks! I would love to see fireworks for my bday, the new year, 6th of oct, and any other occassion you can think of!

You make me feel like DANCING. Gonna dance the night away!

There's no high like the high you feel when you dance! I love love love it! Getting in your jeans, going to a party with really good music and with close friends to dance the night away is the best! You just dance your heart out, be silly, and sing at the top of your lungs. There's nothing like it! So much FUN!! You dance to the music and its very theraputic in a way. You never find people dancing with sad looks on their faces...it always makes you feel better afterwards! You can leave a party dead tired but never depressed. But to go somewhere to dance usually involves staying out late which is not always possible...so I've even learnt to lock myself in my room, stick on some music, and dance all by myself! The effects of dancing are just too good to limit it to only when I'm out! Nothing wrong with waiting till the house falls asleep and dancing all by yourself...even the silliness of it makes it more fun! And I always recommend dancing as if noone's watching! Just try it! I guarantee its fun...don't believe me, watch the first movie Tom Cruise ever did where he's dancing in the living room of his house in his underwear! Now doesn't that look like fun?? Put your dancing shoes on and switch on your favorite music and go for it!

Super Mum

My mum has been married to my dad for about 30 years now and she has always relied on him when it came to many of the household responsibilities. She's an independent woman who's very active but after 30 years you tend to divide up the tasks between you and your spouse, so you depend on each other to do certain things. When we moved to Canada in 2002 my dad had to make a difficult decision which was to leave us and go work in Saudi Arabia. That decision had a huge impact on the way my family functions, and still does. The biggest impact of all was on my mother...all of a sudden she was left being responsible for all of the household duties, plus us, her 3 children. I will never forget how my mum was in Canada in those first few months after my dad left. Going from being stressed to being depressed till she finally made the decision to move back to Egypt. Once that decision was made, the stress levels doubled. She had to sell the house, all the new furniture we bought, the car, close our accounts, pack up our lives again, and finally taking care of the travelling expenses. I still cannot believe we survived that stage in our lives. I remember having people coming to the house, showing them around, helping them carry our brand new furniture out the front door. I still remember how I felt packing up my things, yet again, and seeing my blue-walled room all bare. My mum stayed strong, not happy but firm and strong through it all. She handled all that load and since we came back has been handling everything here too! She wakes up to find herself home alone since I have work and my brothers have school, and begins her hectic day of running errands, fixing things, cooking, etc. She hardly has time for herself, and when she does she doesnt have the energy to go out! My mum is a very strong woman who I appreciate alot and love with all my heart, but I also worry about because no matter what help I can offer she still has to face life, responsibilities and all, without my father. She misses the company, the sharing of thoughts, the sharing of responsibilties, etc. I just hope she can stay strong and keep seeing the lighter side of things coz that's the only thing that can keep anyone going...see the good and do your best to ignore the bad.

My sacred weekends

After being an employee for almost a year now I have come to the conclusion that weekends are sacred like they never were before! In university the weekends were used mainly to catch up on studying, to be lazy around the house, to switch off from the world and to actually take a break from socializing. Now, as an employee, the weekends are when my life begins! Its when I see my friends, its when I get to spend some time in bed, its when I get to make my phonecalls, its when I get to spend some time with my mum, and its when I can travel somewhere and relax. Every sunday I start dreaming of the weekend that seems oh so far away...and when thursday comes around I come to work with a huge grin coz I know my sacred weekend has arrived and is within reach! I start thinking about what my plans this weekend will be, who I will see, what I will do...my brothers make fun saying how thrilled I am in the weekend while they have to study...and all I can say is...I have earned it after all these years of studying! Only now, after working for a year, do I see the advantages of not being a student anymore. My identity was always tied to the fact that I am a student...things have changed now and only now I can begin see the good of not being a student anymore, even if the good is small! So far my weekends have been a blast! Having close friends pass by me at 10 am to go have breakfast, cruising in the car while singing, going for lunch, for a walk, or to the movies...just hanging out all day enjoying each other's company till dark is so awesome! I'm glad that today is thursday and that my sacred weekend will start in less than 2 hours!!!