Yesterday and today were really something to blog about and that’s exactly what I am doing now! My day yesterday started out with almost falling out of bed after the long weekend and although I did my best to sleep earlier than usual, I really needed another couple of hours to make me human again, but eh! Sleeping does not pay the bills, does it?

After performing my morning rituals of getting ready; I headed out of the door with my sister. It was her first day at her new job and I had to give her a ride, naturally! But to do that, I had to change my daily route in order to drop her. I work in Sweifieh and she on third circle, so I drove from Sahab to the 3^rd circle and then I had to deal with the traffic from there to my office. Needless to say; I arrived at work so depressed and tired; not a good way to start the week!

Work day officially started and things became normal for a while. Some of the team members were at Webex preparing for the opening as we are one of the event sponsors. We were all supposed to be there so we headed towards Hayyat Hotel in the afternoon, my colleagues 7ala, Rasha and Wedad rode with me. Wedad suggested that I park at Zara and since it is my first time there (believe it or not), I did exactly that.

We were stopped, searched and checked; so were the car and our purses. After we were finally allowed in, we took the elevator to the floor that hosts the exhibition but I had to go get my badge and papers for the IAA conference that I am attending the next day; i.e. today!

Calling the lady who called me in the morning to ask where I was supposed to pick them up was of no use; she said go to level B, I asked in which tower? She said: who is this? I identified myself and my company and then she says: is Nisreen there with you? Who the hell is Nisreen and what does this have to do with my question? She said: ok no problem, thank you and she hung up!!

I was fuming and started talking to my cell phone repeating the word; stupid, stupid, stupid!!! I went down all levels and then climbed up again; no use! Finally; I came across someone who recognized me from VIVA article! He introduced himself and strange enough; I had just come across his blog that very same day! Although he works for Maktoob (kidding), but I think that God was looking after me at that time!

Samer told me that I had to go to the hotel to get the IAA papers and complete my registration and off I went. Anyone who knows this hotel well will know that it is not a picnic in the park; it was a long walk! Finally; I arrived that Level B and was able to complete the task I came for, and then headed back.

I had set up an appointment with my dear friend Lina to show her a catalogue of traditional dresses that my mother makes and met her at our booth at webex. We took a small tour around and out of no where; an elderly guy comes to me and insists that he talks to me. I thought that he was about to ask me why I was taking pictures or that he will pitch me about something technical or give me a brochure, but no, it was none of the above. The main reason he wanted to talk to me was that he has a cure for my obesity! He has some magical recipe that will turn me overnight into Miss Jordan; that is if we had one! I said: thank you but I am really not interested, he said: but I can prove it to you, I said: thank you but I really don’t want to, he said: are you sure? It will make you lose weight and I said for the last time: I really, really don’t want to know about it.

Lina was shocked how he had the courage or the nerve to approach me like that and I told her that I am used to these nice gentlemen trying to cure my problem for me; every time I go downtown; someone pops up with yet another magical recipe to lose weight. Lina said that this is worth blogging about and here I am!

She said that she is happy with how I deal with the issue and I told her that I had learned to come to terms with my weight problem and accept these gestures with an open heart and not take them as insults. It took me four long years to understand what lazy thyroid, PCOS and hormonal imbalance really mean and I am doing my best to work on the consequences of all of the above, so I am not going to worry myself with little intrusions like that one.

After I showed Lina the stuff I brought and I hope she liked them, I gave her a short ride to the front of the hotel where she had parked and found my sister waiting for me there, took her and drove to Jebal Al Hussein were I bought some shoes; I promise you that if I did not desperately need to do that, I wouldn’t have gone but that was that.

Finally home at 10:30 and already feeling dead, I saw the family a bit and then tucked in my bed at around 12:00, I was ready to sleep deeply.

I woke up this morning at 7:00, showered and thankfully did not slip like Hala did, and made it out of the house at around 8:00. I dropped my sister at her work and headed back to Hayyat Amman Hotel to attend the first day of IAA conference. This was a whole day event with interesting speakers, but talking about it will have to take another post; probably tomorrow. All I remember now is why the hell did I have so many things in my bag? Boy! it was really heavy! Right now; I really want to get some rest because I had a really long couple of days with little rest in this hot weather; God save us in the summer!

I just came back from Jordan Planet’s meet-up for the month of May and I really had so much fun today. It was not a large number, and every one got engaged in different discussions and shared some good laughs.

We had the meeting at Salad House in Abdoun; I really like this place as it is quiet, food is great and the service is above average, so we chose it to host our meeting for this month and it was a good choice after all.

I was in a social mood tonight and I enjoyed the chats I had with all fellow bloggers; it is amazing how you always find something to talk about with people who have so much to say and share with others, so when you are a part of s bloggers’ meeting, silence is just not invited.

Some of the bloggers who attended do not belong to Jordan Planet yet; however; they applied and awaiting approval such as my friend and colleague 7ala and my other friend Fadi K.

It was a small meeting and it was lively especially with Laith Majali as a part of the group; this guy really knows how to stir an audience and I am glad we had the meeting with him in town.

A lot of the regular attendees were a no-show this time but it is quite understandable with the long weekend and the special occasion. Speaking of which; Amman was buzzing with activity tonight, and like every year; Fastlink held its fireworks fiesta in Abdound, Al Hussein Gardens, Jabal Al Qal3a and Al Qwaismeh. Cars were decorated with the Jordanian Flag. Even some of the bloggers like Jad and Laith Majali left early to go to Al Hussein Gardens to attend the musical celebration and fireworks, and I asked them to take a lot of pictures but not to use flickr when they post them on their blogs so that fellow Jordanian bloggers in KSA and UAE can see them because of banning flickr in these countries; they promised they would do that!

A funny thing happened; all through the meeting, Roba repeatedly declared her desire to get a flag, and as we were going out, my sister’s friend gave her a ride so that she can go home with me, and he had 2 flags; a big one that he spread on the back seat of his car and a small one that was posted on the rear of his car, so I snatched the latter (after his permission of course) and made Roba’s wish come true!

Roba, that felt so cool!! 

Here are some pictures from tonight, and Happy Independence Day Jordan!

Ibrahim Yaqti and Abdelaziz

Jad Madi taking a picture of me :)


Nadir, Mira, Roba, Hala and Fadi K


Jad Madi and Laith Majali

I really loved loved loved this picture :)

All those who read my blog probably know by now that I am not politically oriented in any direction. Regardless of the reasons; my blog is purely directed towards culture related issues and relationships between genders in our Arab Muslim communities.

Having clarified that; I can get to the purpose I am posting about this.

I was approached by fellow bloggers from Egypt to post about Alaa Abd El Fatah who is one of the first and prominent bloggers in Egypt. Alaa was detained while participating in a peaceful protest as the links stated below.

I am responding to the kind request that I received so that more people can read about this and contact the Egyptian embassies to demand release of Alaa. You can find all the details and contact information in these links below.

Good luck to all.

From Rantings of a SandMonkey

Disclaimer: posting about this is only to respond to a kind request I received from fellow bloggers and does not necessarily mean that I agree or adopt any of the opinions they believe or stand for. Their own opinions are a refection of their beliefs and this post is in no way related to them.

I have posted a review on an article "To Date or not to Date??" that was featured in VIVA Magazine – March Issue. The feedback I got on that specific post was great and the author of the article Mrs. Laura Haddad thought so too. Your great feedback was featured in the magazine in this month's issue; click on the image to view the PDF File;

I would like to thank you all for the great feedback and for getting your voices heard, and I would like to specially thank VIVA Magazine for following up with us and for the great topics they feature every month.

I was not going to mention this on my blog because since morning; only a couple of friends remembered that it is my Birthday today and one of them was so kind as to post about it, thank you Ramroom. Not even family members recognized the date which was expected, I guess!

What I did not know till an hour ago, that all my colleagues in Jeeran were planning a surprise party for me when I did not even know that they were aware of the BD thing!

Not only they invited me for lunch, but everyone was there and they have even brought me a cake and gave me a BD card that held all their kind wishes and signatures; frankly; I did not see this coming!

Thank you Jeeran team for making this day special, memorable and enjoyable!!  

She is really leaving, and we only have a few days left with her to share for the last time what it feels to be sisters in the same household; fighting on who gets to shower first or what show to watch on TV, or why she never returns the stuff she takes from my room, and now she is preparing to leave and I am finally realizing how much I will miss her.

I still remember the day she was born; all I knew is that I had a new baby sister. She was an angel that added flavor to our routine life at the time. From that moment on; I became her babysitter, her protector, her everything.

I remember all the times I took her out to play and all the times that I was there for her when she needed someone or when she hurt herself, or when someone hurt her. She used to turn to me giving me a sense of deep responsibility and attachment towards her and her whole life.

I watched her grow and become more beautiful; I really don’t know how the years passed by so quickly and all of a sudden, she was no longer my baby sister; she is a grown woman who is set on her way to start a new life on her own.

On her wedding day; I felt like her mother not her sister; I was always like a guardian to her and she was being taken away to be on her own. I think I understood then how parents feel when they are forced to let go of their children and here I am; forced to let go of her as she prepares to leave not only our house, but the whole country.

Suddenly; there isn't enough time to hang out with her and the sense of loss is sinking in very quickly. I am imagining the house without her presence and it does not feel good, she is really going away and her room will be clod and empty. 

I realize that there comes a point when each is of us will be on their way to start a new life with a partner that they love and care for, but we are closing a mutual phase to enter separate ones. We will no longer hang out like we used to do, and she will not come to me when she needs to talk, because she is leaving the country to be with the man she chose to be her husband.

Suddenly; I want the life clock to stop working and spare me some time with my sweet little sister who has become a woman overnight.

Nothing in the world can help us prepare for the moment that we will finally say goodbye, and just watch her leave. Words, tears and heartache are not enough to will never express the true feelings that are buried inside because we want her to leave with an open heart and look forward to the shared happiness and stability of a good marriage with a good guy.

To my beloved sister; you have always been and will continue to be a part of my heart, and I wish all the luck in the world to be on your side. I wish you and your husband a good happy life that is full of good fortune and future.

You are now going into a new era of your life, one that will be sometimes tough and sometimes good. My advice to you is to be always moderate and not expect life to always be a journey over the rainbow; some days will be good but some other days will be bad, so take enough of the good fortunate days to help you take and get through the bad ones.

Even though we are saying goodbye now, we will always be together and share wonderful memories and moments that no one else can take away, make these memories your resort that you go back to whenever you miss us or feel like you want to take a piece of the past and plant it to give you roses for the future.

It will never be the same and as hard as it is to set you free and watch you leave, with all the love we have for you in our hearts, we wish you the best of luck for your life and future, May God bless you and always guide you in your life.