It seems to me that they hibernate right under your nose and at the first sign of warmth and heat, they go into feeding frenzy mode and they are all over you. No matter what you use from insecticides; they still find a way around it and get to your blood.

As mush as I hate these tiny pests; I am fascinated by their construction and persistence. As light and insignificant they are; they are more complicated than you think; just some of the strange facts about them; get this: mosquitoes are responsible for the most human deaths world-wide!

They prefer children to adults and blondes to brunettes; so the argument I used to get from my sisters was a valid one. You see, they have skin color that is way lighter than mine and you can say they tend to be blonde while I am a brunette, so it makes sense now.

Mosquitoes can detect a moving target that is 15 ft away! Can you imagine that? So if I was in a room and the mosquito was in the next room, it will detect my movement and come for my blood; talk about scary!

The average life span of the mosquito is 3 – 100 days and she is the blood sucker; on the other hand; her male peer has a life span of 10 – 20 days and does not suck blood; interesting, ha?

A mosquito can smell its live host (that is basically us humans or any live animals) from a distance of 20 – 35 m! Boy! We really don’t stand a chance with them.

Mosquitoes don't see very well, but they zoom in like a heat-seeking missile. In the spherical arrangement of their compound eyes, blind spots separate each eye from the next one. As a result, they can't see you until they are 30 feet (10 meters) away. Even then, they have trouble distinguishing you from any object of similar size and shape: tree stump, 55-gallon drum, etc. When they are 10 feet (3 meters) away they use extremely sensitive thermal receptors on the tip of their antennae to locate blood near the surface of the skin. The range of these receptors increases threefold when the humidity is high.

The most fascinating fact I learned about these creatures is that although they are into blood sucking; they do not transfer AIDS from someone infected to someone who is not. Studies with HIV clearly show that the virus responsible for the AIDS infection is regarded as food to the mosquito and is digested along with the blood meal.

Mosquitoes Do Not Ingest Enough HIV Particles to Transmit AIDS by Contamination.
An AIDS-free individual would have to be bitten by 10 million mosquitoes that had begun feeding on an AIDS carrier to receive a single unit of HIV from contaminated mosquito mouth parts. Most people have heard that mosquitoes regurgitate saliva before they feed, but are unaware that the food canal and salivary canal are separate passageways in the mosquito. The mosquito's feeding apparatus is an extremely complicated structure that is totally unlike the crude single-bore syringe. Unlike a syringe, the mosquito delivers salivary fluid through one passage and draws blood up another. As a result, the food canal is not flushed out like a used needle, and blood flow is always unidirectional. The mechanics involved in mosquito feeding are totally unlike the mechanisms employed by the drug user's needles. In short, mosquitoes are not flying hypodermic needles and a mosquito that disgorges saliva into your body is not flushing out the remnants of its last blood meal.

Ok! It is cool to learn more facts about these creatures that disrupt your sleep almost every night in the summer. They suck your blood and feed on it leaving you with a mark that can easily turn into a scar if you mess with it. To me; I would rather that the mosquito sucks my blood and leave me alone to go back to sleep than roam around my ear with this annoying wizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz sound; what is it with mosquitoes and ears? Isn't it enough that they are feeding on us that they have to always rub it in? why do we have to be awake for them to get the job done? Damn! I really hate mosquitoes!!!

To read more about them; please click here and here

My least favorite season of the year is here and I am sweating already. I have always been a winter person; I love the rain and the cold weather. I have always said to myself that if you ever get cold, you can put on some warm clothes, you can sit near the heating source or you can tuck yourself under covers, but what can you do when you get hot? You cannot remove your own skin, now can you?

If my memory serves me; the weather was not always this hot! The summer was somewhat tolerable, but now it seems that noon is the minute we open our eyes in the morning and I am always inclined to say that I go out of the house at 7:30 noon time and not morning time because this is how it feels.

The moment I enter my car in the morning; it is boiling inside and I really need a few minutes to get used to the heated seat and steering wheel; sometimes I cannot even touch it because it is too hot. Thank God I have a conditioned car.

When I was a little girl; my dad used to take us to picnics in the summer. We used to choose spots under trees and spend the day playing games, singing and of course BBQ'ing. Sometimes we went to the sea or the hot springs where we swam almost all day long; what a refreshing feeling.

As grown ups now; we spend our weekdays behind desks in closed office rooms, some of which are not air conditioned and you are stuck with heat coming from the outside and the inside because of breath and heat generated by machines; not attractive.

What I like about summer though is the many fruits that fill the shelves of supermarkets. Summer fruits are juicy, sweet and full of useful fibers. Nothing compares to a slice of cold watermelon in a hot day, or a plate full of different kinds of fruits to allow you to pick and choose.

Cold drinks and juices are another great option to help you deal with the hot weather. Imagine yourself walking down the street in a very hot day; what is the first thing that comes to your mind? A glass of icy water or cold juice? Maybe a slush is the best choice here!

What about ice cream? I really love ice cream in all shapes, flavors and colors. I am prepared to have it any time, summer or winter. Whoever invented ice cream was a genius and applaud him for this great product. I am sad that we cannot get to Jerard's that easy these days, don’t you love their ice cream?

Swimming is another option but only when you have the time. Unfortunately; we don’t have a beach in Amman; I really wish we had because swimming would be a lot better than closed swimming pools scattered here and there. Not all of these pools are clean, not all of them are suitable and we don’t even have enough time in the day to have this luxury. That’s why when I was in Aqaba last August; I really did not want to get out of the water!

Thankfully; I have air conditioning in my car and in my office, yet I am ranting about the heat because I really can't take it. I really feel for people who are forced to conduct their work out in the open under the angry sun; these people really suffer from the heat and sometimes do not even have the time to do something about it; for example stop for a cold drink or sit in the shade.

The minute I saw Hajaj's caricature in the newspaper today; it inspired me to post about the heat and here I am sharing it with everyone. This guy really expresses my thoughts!

As everyone knows; my name is Arabic but not widely used in the Arab World; it is more used in Iran, Pakistan and Bangladesh. I really do not know what made my parents choose this name for me; maybe because my elder sister's name is Kholoud and they wanted something close.

Growing up; I did not really like my name that much especially that almost all my teachers made a funny face when I said what my name was. At university; my name was always spelled in a wrong way and I was therefore mistaken for a guy.

When I wanted to issue my passport; it was after I finished high school and my father wanted to send me to France to live with my uncle in Nantes and study at its university, so I had to translate my birth certificate to French; hence write my name in French. My name officially became "Khalidah" with an "h" at the end.

This is the name that I used from that day onward. Still; a lot of people remove this "h" when they write my name and this really annoys me and makes me sad at the same time. I do care how I spell everyone's name and I appreciate it when someone brings it to my attention that I misspelled their names.

You might be asking yourself; why is she blogging about this? Well; the answer is very simple: there are a lot of people out there who misspell my name and remove the "h" so instead of sending them separate notes on this issue; I thought it is easier to write a note in my blog about it. I am expressing this freely because I follow this lovely quote by Theodore Seuss Geisel who said: "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind"

You all matter to me a great deal!

Since we are in the correction mode now; please note that the URL of my blog has a "/" at the end and it is extremely important because if you remove it from the URL, you will get an error of "The Page Cannot Be Displayed", try it:

http://anolita.jeeran.com/mind

Now try:

http://anolita.jeeran.com/mind/

This is a call to anyone that by any chance misspelled my name by removing the "h" and removing the "/" from my blog URL. I thank you for linking to my blog if you are and I thank you to correct the above-mentioned so that all internet records are the same. Please add the "h" to my name and the "/" to my blog!

*Note: For non Arab readers; my name means Eternal or immortal  

It’s June, it’s summer time and from the early hours of the day, the sun is shining so hard and the heat is rising every minute. You get up in the morning after a long hot night full of battles with mosquitoes; you take a shower, get ready for the day and then head out in the overheated car to start your lovely summer day!

It is obvious that I am not that fond of summer; in fact; the heat kind of suffocates me and I think I become irrational when the atmosphere is overheated; I can’t help it; I just feel so edgy. However; what I am about to talk about here is not the heat and the elevated temperatures we are experiencing; this post is dedicated for summer sense of style!

The sun is high up in the sky and up goes with it sleeves and skirts and shirts; it seems that everything is shrinking up!

I am sure that each and every one of us takes a look around and sees how girls and elderly women just started to show up as much meat as possible in these sunny days that we are going through. I am sure that some of you might say: so what? What makes you talk about this? What annoys you in short skirts, sleeveless shirts, spaghetti strap tops … etc.? Well; I will tell you!

It is only logical that one should wear something that fits what he/she is doing. You just don’t see a guy wearing some shorts to a meeting, now do you? So why is it that we see girls wearing these revealing provocative clothes for such occasion? You just don’t see a guy’s underwear flashing you in the face while at a business conference, so why is it that whenever you turn your head here or there you get flashed with a bra strap or worse; a thong?? When did it become ok to see someone’s bellybutton or cleavage while you are attending a course or a lecture or simply having lunch in the middle of the day?

Sometimes it is not suitable and it even lacks taste to wear such things for formal occasions and it is distracting. You reveal more than you seal and then you curse these boys for sneaking looks you have already invited them to take. You do not put something out in the open and then feel upset and offended when someone looks at it; I mean was not that the point you put them on display in the first place??

I get it! Some girls have the assets that make them attractive and beautiful and some attention would not harm anyone, but what about those who do not have what it takes to make them pass as gorgeous and yet still flash the world with less than ugly scenes? Isn’t it enough that we have to deal with the good ones to have to deal with the bad ones? I mean; for God’s sake, wear something suitable for your size, age, status … etc.

If you are a large girl, please do not wear tight clothes; it hurts bad enough to see these tight clothes on skinny chicks and they do not look good. If you are old enough to be a mother and in your late thirties or forties, please wear your age because fitting yourself in these shiny small pieces is not flattering at all.

If you were not blessed with a shiny white skin, maybe orange or lime green is just not your color, so why insist on wearing it?

Who was the first one who came up with this style or lack of it for that matter? It is not ok or cool to wear beach clothes for work, it is not ok or cool to reveal more than you seal as you are walking down the streets and then cry out your frustration of these men who cannot control themselves, it is not ok or cool to wear clothes that are too tight or too small or do not fit your age. It is not ok or cool to make chiffon a part of your daily wardrobe because its suitable time and place is parties.

Please don’t tell me that this is the followed trend and that you just go for it without thinking. If one day you walk in the grocery store to find that the latest trend in the food market is to eat flavored poison, would you go for it just because it is the trend?

Summer girls; please have mercy because this is getting way out of hand!

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!