Quick Post

- Ah…God, it is still 10:15….feels like I’ve been here for ages now, the day starts too early.  I got lots of things done yet mafish fayda…I always hear people say things like time flies..time flies…well, face it…it doesn’t.  I still have lots of hours to go….

 

- My sweet uncle, I mean sweetest uncle ever….is the coolest guy in the world.  A few weeks ago he was dining at our place.  I know he has connections w keda…fa I asked if he can find me an internship in one of the newspapers or magazines, to learn ya3ni and gain journalistic skills w 7arakat…fa said he will figure something out.  Fa last night he smsed “from Germany…ya3ni mesh 7atta estana lama yigi” and asked me to call a lady and tell her that I am the one who Ms. “name withheld” a real big name in the field talked to her about, fa this morning I called the lady, she was super nice and said eno she is working now on the issue with ET and AW…and will see which one has internships or willing to train me w keda.

 

- I am so missing my Cairo tours, not the ones with ptp…although they were/are always good, but the ones where I take my camera and get deliberately lost in the beautiful streets of old Cairo…man…I just love doing that. 

Will be back on track soon isa…directly after Ramadan, as this requires lots of walking w bta3. 

Note to W & N: if you wanna join you gotta wake up early, I usually go 9ish…but for you..will go 10 sharp….cool!!

 

- I was supposed to be out in work related trips these days, but the have been cancelled/delayed/postponed, don’t know exactly, but the thing is we complained eno this is gonna be tough especially during Ramadan going back and forth in a very limited time…fa they postponed ba2a…aw mesh 3arfa. 

- Gotta go, as I am working in a really annoying project concerning petty cash…what I have to do with petty cash?!!! Practically nothing, but hey….that’s what stupid a employee should do, work like a dog in different unrelated to your job projects, don’t get promoted and just smile and work in the next assignment.  Apparently am so frustrated, the amount of aggravation I put out while writing the above few lines amazed me, thought am over it khalas!!! Mmm..interesting!!

Excerpt from Eva is Inside Her Cat “Gabriel Garcia Marquez”

Below is an excerpt from one of Marquez’s short stories..I loved it fa thought of sharing.

 

“But one supreme idea reanimated her. Hadn’t she heard, perhaps, that pure spirits can penetrate any body at will? After all, what harm was there in trying? She attempted to remember what inhabitant of the house could be put to the proof. If she could fulfill her aim she would be satisfied: she could eat the orange. She remembered. At that time the servants were usually not there. Her mother still hadn’t arrived. But the need to eat an orange, joined now to the curiosity of seeing herself incarnate in a body different from her own, obliged her to act at once. And yet there was no one there in whom she could incarnate herself. It was a desolating bit of reason: there was nobody in the house. She would have to live eternally isolated from the outside world, in her undimensional world, unable to eat the first orange. And all because of a foolish thing. It would have been better to go on bearing up for a few more years under that hostile beauty and not wipe herself out forever, making herself useless, like a conquered beast. But it was too late.She was going to withdraw, disappointed, into a distant region of the universe, to a place where she could forget all her earthly desires. But something made her suddenly hold back. The promise of a better future had opened up in her unknown region. Yes, there was someone in the house in whom she could reincarnate herself: the cat! Then she hesitated. It was difficult to resign herself to live inside an animal. She would have soft, white fur, and a great energy for a leap would probably be concentrated in her muscles. And she would feel her eyes glow in the dark like two green coals. And she would have white, sharp teeth to smile at her mother from her feline heart with a broad and good animal smile. But no! It couldn’t be. She imagined herself quickly inside the body of the cat, running through the corridors of the house once more, managing four uncomfortable legs, and that tail would move on its own, without rhythm, alien to her will. What would life look like through those green and luminous eyes? At night she would go to mew at the sky so that it would not pour its moonlit cement down on the face of the “boy,” who would be on his back drinking in the dew. Maybe in her status as a cat she would also feel fear. And maybe in the end, she would be unable to eat the orange with that carnivorous mouth. A coldness that came from right then and there, born of the very roots of her spirit quivered in her memory. No. It was impossible to incarnate herself in the cat. She was afraid of one day feeling in her palate in her throat in all her quadruped organism, the irrevocable desire to eat a mouse. Probably when her spirit began to inhabit the cat s body she would no longer feel any desire to eat an orange but the repugnant and urgent desire to eat a mouse. She shuddered on thinking about it, caught between her teeth after the chase. She felt it struggling in its last attempts at escape, trying to free itself to get back to its hole again. No. Anything but that. It was preferable to stay there for eternity in that distant and mysterious world of pure spirits.

But it was difficult to resign herself to live forgotten forever. Why did she have to feel the desire to eat a mouse? Who would rule in that synthesis of woman and cat? Would the primitive animal instinct of the body rule, or the pure will of the woman? The answer was crystal clear. There was no reason to be afraid. She would incarnate herself in the cat and would eat her desired orange. Besides, she would be a strange being, a cat with the intelligence of a beautiful woman. She would be the center of all attention. . . . It was then, for the first time, that she understood that above all her virtues what was in command was the vanity of a metaphysical woman.

Like an insect on the alert which raises its antennae, she put her energy to work throughout the house in search of the cat. It must still be on top of the stove at that time, dreaming that it would wake up with a sprig of heliotrope between its teeth. But it wasn’t there. She looked for it again, but she could no longer find the stove. The kitchen wasn’t the same. The corners of the house were strange to her; they were no longer those dark corners full of cobwebs. The cat was nowhere to be found. She looked on the roof, in the trees, in the drains, under the bed, in the pantry. She found everything confused. Where she expected to find the portraits of her ancestors again, she found only a bottle of arsenic. From there on she found arsenic all through the house, but the cat had disappeared. The house was no longer the same as before. What had happened to her things? Why were her thirteen favorite books now covered with a thick coat of arsenic? She remembered the orange tree in the courtyard. She looked for it, and tried to find the “boy” again in his pit of water. But the orange tree wasn’t in its place and the “boy” was nothing now but a handful of arsenic mixed with ashes underneath a heavy concrete platform. Now she really was going to sleep. Everything was different. And the house had a strong smell of arsenic that beat on her nostrils as if from the depths of a pharmacy.

Only then did she understand that three thousand years had passed since the day she had had a desire to eat the first orange”.

Delirium Said

Meet Delirium first, then read her quotes

“You know something? We came here for you, a long time ago, when you died. Well, it wasn’t here and that wasn’t you, but we did anyway”. 

“Well, there was this doggy. He was a very clever doggy. He said things like…like…”I would feel infinitely more comfortable in your presence if you would agree to treat gravity as a law, rather than one of a number of suggested options.” He said that. I only remembered it. In my head”. 

“What’s a false move? Is it very different from a real one?” 

“-I didn’t know you could stop being a God.
-You can stop being anything”. 

“If you don’t have a name, what do people call you?  I mean, do they just wave and smile, or jingle little silver bells or what?” 

“I like the way colors taste. Except I don’t like crimsons…or turquoises…especially when they put their heads into their shells and won’t play and when you break their shells to let them out they die”. 

“- Um. What’s the name of the word for things not being the same always. You know. I’m sure there is one. Isn’t there? There must be a word for it … the thing that lets you know time is happening. Is there a word?
- Change”. 

“Not knowing everything is all that makes it okay, sometimes”.

The Thursday Post

Smelly cat,Smelly cat,

What are they feeding you?

Why on earth am I singing Phoebe’s song since morning!!!

Smelly cat, Smelly cat,
It’s not your fault! 

Grrrrrrrrrrr…knock it off ba2a.  This is not what I had in mind.  I was actually going to post my favorite verses from Streisand’s “A Woman in Love” ….see!! a totally different theme and mood…but smelly cat is the more predominant thought at the moment!!  

Okkkkkkkk???? Will try to concentrate… …this morning in my way to work I kept shuffling between two songs…Air Supply’s Goodbye….and B.S’s above mentioned song…cool!!  Won’t talk about Goodbye…3ashan it is a totally different story…kessa kbira ya3ni…I sort of lost my point again. “Disappointed face” 

I was good in the morning walahi, bas the thing is we went out for brunch…sort of our final gathering before Ramadan w keda…fa ate like a newly born gator,  we all did actually…fa am so stuffed…and I can’t think of anything except the pink PJs and my bed.  

Mmmmm…I kinda forgot what am doing here aslan!! to cut the story short..here are my favourite verses:

Life is a moment in space,
when the dream is gone
it’s a lonelier place.
I kiss the morning goodbye,
but down inside you know
we never know why. 

I am a woman in love
and I’d do anything
to get you into my world,
and hold you within.
It’s a right I defend
over and over again.
What do I do? 

Work:

Things are not good….boss came a couple of days ago, and said “I lost my battle”…the Position Description battle ya3ni….we talked it..bas I didn’t like what he said, and kaman don’t want to go through out it right now…but I made it clear eno I don’t really buy “the mgmnt is appreciative” thing wel 7agat di…coz if they are…they should have changed the PD…fa cool…I am doing faces all the time, “don’t ask me why”….and don’t feel like exerting any extra effort into work. 

Creative Writing Workshop @ Kotobkhan/Last Night:

It is going very well, started to like it….last night was awesome aslan….the gathering, the energy, the writings, the talented people…we all connected in a very nice way, I loved it begad. 

Eih tani!! Ah..I finally managed to check my last article in the Art Review, and I didn’t like it at all, it is edited in a strange way, thought of writing an email asking/complaining about this massacre, but am too drained to do that now…but will sure do sometime soon. 

P.S: Wait for my Naguib Mahfouz article in Cilantro Central’s next issue.  Didn’t know I love him that much.   

Before going home, discovered that I don’t either have my contacts or my eyeglasses, fa driving in the dark from Maadi to Heliopolis was kinda Mission Impossible, Al accompanied me ya 7aram to make sure eno I won’t run over somebody in my way back home ….  

Greetings:

Kol sana wento tayebeen, w Ramadan Kareem …. 

Good Morning a.k.a. saba7 el foll!!

Beautiful, Beautiful Morning.

Usually people here would go like..mornin’…morning!!..hi “with a smile”….or a super energy-less nod. But I go like GOOD/BEAUTIFUL MORN-I-N-G “loud with a tone keda if I may say”. A bit childish. But that’s the way I like to say it.   

Or if am talking to an Egyptian it is usually “saba7 el foll”….a friend once asked why saba7 el foll…normally people would say “saba7 el kheir”…el foll di baladi awi.

 

I laughed at this comment…and said foll is never baladi…foll is beautiful and has a magnificent smell.  Kheir is nice but honestly to me it is pretty ambiguous  

I mean…I have nothing against saba7 el kheir, it is cool, bas for me saba7 el foll has a shape, color, and smell.  It is different.  Ba3den…for someone like me who believes in “tomorrow” and here I don’t mean Thursday…coz I believe in Thursdays but unfortunately they come around eventually…I specifically mean future, mornings represents future to me..therefore they are special.

 

Know what?? I think it is a huge responsibility…you are transferring energy, so when you see someone the first thing in the morning, it is either you make or break his/her day.  No??

Saba7 El Foll  

Hibernation

It is almost 2 am, H is briefing me on his strees mgmnt course.  When I suddenly realized that I am so in need to hibernate, kinda reluctant about sharing my life, thoughts, and feelings at the moment.  I know am not that type of person, but need to hide for a while.  Get hold of me, sooth me, and remind me that everything is gonna be alright.

Friday

“A healthy person is someone who expresses what they feel – express, not repress”

Wake up and celebrate yourself….I love when people are really content and proud with being themselves. Not in a snobbish way, but in a healthy way. Nobody is perfect, and no one will ever be, but when people realize that they need to work on themselves to reach some kind of inner peace, or to strengthen a weak part…this is sort of perfection..no?

What if you know there is something about you that might make someone you love or care for uncomfortable or uneasy….while you enjoy this “trait” in particular immensely!!!

Anywayz..back to the normal rambling. Mom is finally back with lots of cool stuff (presents w 7arakat)…it is so soothing to have her back home. She is so happy and spiritually stimulated, the trip was enjoyable, her only complaint was the “Egypt Air” plane, she hates flying via Egypt Air aslan, bas she had to go with this particular group, fa this was the disagreeable part.

Old car is gone khalas, reserved the new one, hopefully will get it sometime next week. Wish me luck and the best of it ISA

Am staying home most of the time these days, a) for having no car, b) finishing freelance assignments, c) being physically unbalanced, apparently my system is messed up a bit…fa am taking it easy these days.

Ramadan is approaching “kol sana wento tayebeen”…people are getting ready. I love the spirit…I am not into outings during Ramadan, bas I love the friendly gatherings. I love our place Kaman during Ramadan..it is too warm and pleasant, the only thing I don’t like about Ramadan is my working hours I work 8-3:30, which doesn’t give me enough time to sleep.

I also kinda consumed all my leave balance fa I won’t be able to take like a week or more off at the end of the month…Goddddddddd..

Happy Thought: Wonderer is gonna stay in Egypt for a while ….way to go girlfriend, she is Away From Home now for a little while, but gonna be back soon ISA.

Siesta time

كلنا ليلي – In All Ways A Woman by Maya Angelou

Originally uploaded by nerro285.

“In my young years I took pride in the fact that luck was called a lady. In fact, there were so few public acknowledgments of the female presence that I felt personally honored whenever nature and large ships were referred to as feminine. But as I matured, I began to resent being considered a sister to a changeling as fickle as luck, as aloof as an ocean, and as frivolous as nature.
The phrase “A woman always has the right to change her mind” played so aptly into the negative image of the female that I made myself a victim to an unwavering decision. Even if I made an inane and stupid choice, I stuck by it rather than “be like a woman and change my mind.”
Being a woman is hard work. Not without joy and even ecstasy, but still relentless, unending work. Becoming an old female may require only being born with certain genitalia, inheriting long-living genes and the fortune not to be run over by an out-of-control truck, but to become and remain a woman command the existence and employment of genius.
The woman who survives intact and happy must be at once tender and tough. She must have convinced herself, or be in the unending process of convincing herself, that she, her values, and her choices are important. In a time and world where males hold sway and control, the pressure upon women to yield their rights-of-way is tremendous. And it is under those very circumstances that the woman’s toughness must be in evidence.
She must resist considering herself a lesser version of her male counterpart. She is not a sculptress, poetess, authoress, Jewess, or even (now rare) in university parlance a rectoress. If she is the thing, then for her own sense of self and for the education of the ill-informed she must insist with rectitude in being the thing and in being called the thing.
A rose by any other name may smell as sweet, but a woman called by a devaluing name will only be weakened by the misnomer. She will need to prize her tenderness and be able to display it at appropriate times in order to prevent toughness from gaining total authority and to avoid becoming a mirror image of those men who value power above life, and control over love.
It is imperative that a woman keep her sense of humor intact and at the ready. She must see, even if only in secret, that she is the funniest, looniest woman in her world, which she should also see as being the most absurd world of all times. It has been said that laughter is therapeutic and amiability lengthens the life span.
Women should be tough, tender, laugh as much as possible, and live long lives. The struggle for equality continues unabated, and the woman warrior who is armed with wit and courage will be among the first to celebrate victory”.

http://laila-eg.blogspot.com

Ok……..and what’s going on in my life?!!!

Well, a lot of things, yet can’t keep track of everything….I am planning to take a break sometime around Sept, 20 till the beginning of Oct….well, actually I will be out and about…fa thought it is a good time to recharge and dump some of my regular “to do” stuff.

 

Boss presented my new PD to his boss..and supposedly something good will happen in the next few days!!! Am trying to be optimistic as much as I can, I mean…come on…. given my history with the HR Manager, don’t think he will let it go…it is a huge step…and will probably piss off a lot of people, so I think he is gonna use this point.  I guess he never got over my transfer request when I first worked with him.  Mmmmmmm…I shouldn’t mention a lot of things about this one anywayz…

Writing workshop started yesterday, it is in Arabic and should last for like six months…the outcome of this workshop will be published ba2a w 7arakat.  How do I feel about it!!!! I am not sure…have my concerns yet it is still too early to judge…

Pizza & Frapuccino, odd/unusual!!!!  what about Koshari & Frapuccino!!

We had so much fun yesterday….my pizza and Frapuccino dream was totally demolished, however, for a nicer one.  We didn’t sit on one of the regular corniche benches….we actually have been introduced to a heavenly place -due thanks to Hossam- “mashtal” directly on the Nile…where you can sit on the grass contemplate, enjoy the sunset, see the little tiny fish beyba2lelo in the water…I don’t know exactly what they were doing…but being surrounded with nothing but pure nature and an amazing company was spectacular.  As for the food ba2a..fa the pizza has been replaced with Koshari, but the Frapuccino was there, not in its regular form tab3an, coz by the time I started drinking it was something else that I won’t be able to define even if I spent my next life time thinking about it.  

I borrowed Hossam Fakhr’s book “Wogouh New York” from Berry last night, and finished it last night bardo, it is an easy and swift read… anyone who can relate to the place…will enjoy reading the book.  Emotional and heart warming especially the last part which talks about NY after 9/11. I also loved the part in which he described the delivery of his first baby.  I cried my eyes out….but loved it.

It is 3:15 am CLT, and am listening to Lisa Loeb’s stay, I love the song, it is my favorite from the 1^st year @ the faculty of arts collection…I can relate to Lisa’s songs awi…there is something about her and Norah Jones…I still can’t forget her voice urging me to go “the long way back home”….do I want to remember that!!! Now!!!!

“True or False, all is fair in love and war”

From an auditor’s standpoint

Nothing is as good as a flawless Purchase Order.

“Internal Audit phase”

Movie and dilemma

It is a wonderful morning, it is getting cooler in Cairo, not all day long tab3an, but early mornings, and @ night…

- Been to “The Lake House” yesterday, and was actually so massively determined to write a huge post about it…but am too lazy/busy to write it this morning…fa to cut the story short it is an amazing movie…more about connection, communication, waiting, and ownership. Sandra Bullock is a lonely doctor who once resided in an unusual lakeside house begins exchanging letters with “Reeves” the house newest resident, a frustrated architect whose father originally built the lake house. They both discovered that they live 2 years away from each other, however, They decided to unravel the mystery behind their extraordinary romance before it’s too late. One thing you have to put in mind while watching is that it is a “MOVIE”.

Favourite Quotes:

“She’s more real to me than anything I’ve ever known”

“Even though this is clearly impossible, it’s amazing”

“One man I can never meet. Him, I would like to give my whole heart to”

“He could build a house. But he couldn’t build a home”

- On a separate work related note…I am in a middle of a big dilemma…and I really don’t know what to do. A couple of days ago..one of the guys asked me to do him a favor and scan something for him…I willingly scanned this “thing” for him. That thing ba2a is a job offer…I know it is none of my business, and yes it is good for him and all, but knowing that he submitted a leave request for a month without pay…to go and check the new thing tab3an..then resign keda without giving prior notice and stuff is what making me feel uncomfortable.
The guy works in a very special project, “he is one of 110 Egyptians who knows how to deal with a certain system keda” and with him leaving suddenly, we will get screwed big time.
Now what….should I tell my boss…honestly, I feel it is my duty to tell him, given the traumatic repercussions of the guy’s unexpected resignation!!
But what if it was an ambush, he did it before by the way. Mesh 3arfa..bas I think it is not..I’ve seen the offer..and it is pretty tempting!!!

Quizás, Quizás, Quizás