My Graduation Party!

I was almost surprised, but one of the kids took me aside as if there is something serious, and told me that I'm going to have a party today  -_-

I didn't believe her at first, but then I started to notice the signs!

1-      My uncle told me congrats for graduating, which I did, almost three months ago, so I found it a bit weird.

2-       I was very tired, and they kept nagging me so I won't sleep  -_-

3-       My mom called me in the room to discuss something which we already did!

However, I decided to dismiss it from my head, because it had been three months and nothing happened, so why would anything happen now!

So, there I was, discussing a book with my uncle when some noise suddenly started like a wave, and I saw the prettiest graduation cake I could ever imagine!

It looked amazing! Even though they wrote my name wrong (I wanted to add or, because it's always either or ;D never mind, stupid joke  -_-)  

Honestly, that cake wouldn’t look better if I picked it myself! My sister chose it for me, because purple is one my favorite color ;) and if you were wondering about the missing purl around the hat, my cousin ate it XD

I got rich, since most of my gifts were money, which was AWESOME ;D

My cousins kept pointing it out, as if I'm suppose to treat them to lunch or something!

 This, of course, is not going to happen J

My uncle tricked me, he was fooling around and hid his gift (which was again MONEY!!) in a sugar wrap and told me that the wrap was my gift! I was so confused -_-

I got CHANEL earrings from my sister and brothers, it was beautiful

 My grandma bought me a necklace that I wanted for a very long time, having my name written in gold  ;b

After that, I showed everyone a moviemaker that I have done, with pictures of me and my mom, while Celine Deon song "because you loved me" was playing in the background.

 I wanted to thank her for supporting me, and being the wonderful mother that she is to me, but she cried like hell, which made me feel guilty -_-

To be honest, I wrote this entry a long time ago, but I wasn’t sure whether I should share it.

I thought it was too personal at first.

But hey, what are blogs for?

Right?!!

The Inner Chief In ME!

First of all let me say; hi, I'm Eith, and I never cooked a day in my life!

I love to watch cooking shows though, A LOT! My favorite chief, hands down is Gordon Ramsay (yes, I know he's mean sometimes and even crazy, but he's AWESOME! *Talk to the Hand*) I love hill's kitchen, maybe I will eat there one day! (A girl can dream!) Also Jamie Oliver, Rachel Ray and almost everyone on fatafeat. I can only explain today's dish as a result of cooking programs overload!

So, I woke up three AM, opined the fridge and saw a pesto jar, and for some reason I craved pasta -_- after consulting YouTube on how to cook pasta in microwave ( what! I told you guys I don't cook!) I quickly changed my mind, it was going to be either real or No deal (that rhymes ;) I was up three AM people -_-).

First of all I went through the types of pasta we have in the house, spaghetti was a little intimidating for me so I was thinking of starting with something small like shells or elbow noodle, but then I saw THIS!

I loved it! I think because I thought it will stay in that shape for some reason (trust me I know it's stupid  -_-)

So I waited until the water boiled, I added salt then the pasta, I put the led on and waited for about 5 to 6 minutes

This is how it looked after it was done, so much for the shape -_-

In the original recipe, the sauce was tomato sauce, because he was doing spaghetti, I on the other hand, needed to put that pesto (the reason for all of this!)

I threw it in a pan and added the pasta



I added some parmesan cheese

Then I added what I hoped was dry basil (the maid sometime reuse the bottle so I was not sure what was in it, and I have no idea how does basil look, smell, or taste like!) of course the original recepie used fresh basil, I'm lucky enough to find the dryed one (never cooked remember!)

I used an eggplant and sliced it, I LOVE eggplants, I can live on them for days ;)

I'm supposed to sprinkle some flour on them before frying them in olive oil.

Umm, the truth is I couldn’t find the flour, so I turned to blan B not using it at all J

I know, I burned a few -_-

So, after going through all of this, we simply place the finished pasta on the eggplant, sprinkle a load of parmesan cheese and basil then roll it like a sandwish!

The finished product !

It looks and tastes AMAZING!!

Can't believe I did it! Chief Ramsay would be so proud *drying some fake tears!*

I guess why I never tried cooking before is because if you do it once you will end up doing it all the time, it will turn from something you love to do to something you have to do, you will become obligated to cook. girls here are stereotyped and expected to spend half of their life in the kitchen for some reason. So, for now I'm satisfied cooking by myself at three AM!

*for the original reciepe click here! easy paste

 

Bruno ;D

Nop     

 

Nope, not Bruno Mars -_-

WE HAVE A DOG!! And yep we named him Bruno (to whoever thinks that the name is silly, you did NOT hear the other names suggested for this poor puppy!) I saved him *Talk to the Hand*

First there were the usual, max (MBC MAX OR ACTION, Lo0o0ol, my sister's joke not mine!), spiky, and even Scooby suggested by Noy our driver! The worst name however came from my sister.

Are you ready for it!

(Drum Roll!!)

She wanted to call him GWEEZY!

I mean can u believe it -_- I think it’s a nickname for one of her friends or it's related to that weird singer Weezy who have tattoos on almost every visable part of his body. The fact is, my sister always wanted a puppy, and she got a cat once. The poor thing ended up with psychological problems -_- she hardly sat with him and locked him in the room until he became very aggressive, he had to go. (Toti was his name in case you were wonderingJ)

I'm not sure if we are lucky with animals, we had a parrot before, it was really hard talking on the phone, or watching TV while he screeches his little lungs out! And he liked to bite fingers! They were his favorite :)

When he died my sister did a beautiful ceremony then buried him in our backyard! I did had a turtle once (damn, they are beyond boring -_-)
I ended up donating her to my cousin. I mean, really, she did nothing, NOTHING! (her name was Tally, just in case!)

So, here we are trying our luck with a dog this time! I was very surprised that not only can I stand him but I actually like him too; b I have a bad history with dogs. They do NOT dig me!

I was in Germany when I was young and for some stupid reason I was playing with a stick! So the story is kind of predictable at this point a dog jumped on me thinking I was playing catch! He was that kind you only see in cartoon, the one with his eyes covered with his hair. I literally froze, but after hard thinking and consulting with every cell of my paralyzed brain, I simply through the stick! So, yeah he went after it, I was free! But then he came back, running so fast he could knock me down if his owner didn’t catch him in the right time! I think I was twelve at that time. Trust me; it's not a good experience!

This time however I'm all grown up, practicing karate, and singing "I'm not afraid" by Eminem!

Bruno is asleep at the moment on my slippers -_- I guess he thinks that will stop me from going away! He is really like a baby, he wants attention and doesn’t like to be alone, he also needs potty training -_- his hobbies are chewing legs (how come we forgot to get him a chewing toy? Damn!)And jumping on people (any advice? HELP!)

All in all I think pets are a huge responsibility, but they do add some fun to the house!

What Happen In Makkah Do Not Stay In Makkah !

 

يتحدث الجميع عن روحانية مكة

وعن التغيير الذي تركته في أرواحهم تلك الأراضي المقدسة

حين لجأوا لها تائبين منيبين...

كُتب لي عمرة في رحابها!

وكم كنت سعيدة برحمة الخالق الذي أمكنني

 من القيام بشعائره

 وأدعو الله إن يتقبل مني ومن جميع المسلمين...

 

 

Now, let's get down to business!

Granted, it was crowded; I mean it's always crowded in makkah.

Once we got there, we prayed al- Fajr near the Kaaba which felt amazing and so spiritual. The kaaba has its own glory; you can hardly take your eyes off of it. It was very mesmerizing.

After that we started circling around it for our tawaf.

Umm, you might want to be extra careful not to step on those HUGE grasshoppers!

Lucky me! It's their season -_-  

They were EVERYWHERE! Some of them flying, others were jumping making weird noises when they hit the ground; most of them though were dead and squashed to pieces.

Nope, you do not want to step on that! I think you got the pretty picture I'm trying to paint here :) God, my eyes were glued to the floor trying to do some damage control -_-

 You can see hundreds of workers cleaning the place, but they definitely can't control Mother Nature can they? Speaking of which, other than the beautiful pigeons flying all around the place looking pretty, there was another kind of birds, I don't know what it called. But what are different about them were their nests. They were built as a ball somehow with a small hole so they can get in them. It looked like nothing I ever seen before, they sang beautifully too.

After that we went to Al-safa and Al-mrowa pacing between them.

There were a lot of Iranians who were a big group and they move together causing us to scramble like pieces of a board game -_-
After that, we prayed behind The Sacred Site Of Prophet Ibrahim.

Trust me, when you pray there you turn into a lion guarding your territory! Because the little space you barely have to rest your forehead on become in danger! People keep pushing and shoving until you are suddenly out of your zone -_-

I discover something there, I do have an issue with strangers touching me and leaning on me to stand up!

Last time I checked I was a live breathing human been not a wall or a walking stick!

Also, Kids were running around as if it was a playground!

Their parents didn't bother with them at all. They let them bother

us instead :)
It wasn't all bad of course, there were some women who were giving candy and dates which helped a lot in settling those kids. (Thank you!)

We finished Al-Umrah and went back to the room to cut little of our hair.  Of course my haircut was ruined! I totally have shorter hair on the right side of my head (Damn, where is Connie when you need her?).
 
The best thing is that I was able to go with my grandma, mom and uncle. We slept in one room, and God do some of them snore!

(I'll keep their dignity and won't say who ;P) *sigh* I'm too kind sometimes ;)

Since I'm from Riyadh, sadly we don’t have ALBAIK (I KNOW, IT'S CRAZY, RIGHT!) can who ever created that restaurant please kindly open it here, I do NOT look cool holding a plastic bag with their meals on the plane! So not cool!

My sister told me that if I didn’t bring her the meal, I better not come back at all! (doesn’t it look like a threat? Anyone? No? I guess you met my sister then!)

So I got the shrimp meal for myself and I was enjoying it until mom kindly said that shrimps reminded her of the HUGE grasshoppers (needed to be in caps guys, you did NOT see them!).

Feel free to imagine my face after that wise comment from mom -_-

So, my grandma is awesome I mean I love her, DAH! But she could be a little tiny just a bit stubborn sometimes :)

 Like when you are already full and she keep swearing that you must eat this or that!

Or what happened in makkah, we were afraid that she will get lost in the crowd so we kept telling my uncle to hold her to insure her safety. She got angry and said in a gentile sweet low voice (let's play a game shall we? get the opposite of the three words describing her voice and you will get 30% only out of what happened!) that she can handle herself very well thank you very much! So we twisted it a bit, we told her that my uncle is going to get lost and she had to hold him! Worked like a charm!

I enjoyed it so much; it was somehow a gift from God because I wasn’t meant to go in the first place. So, I'm very thankful. I really needed it to get away, even if it was for a while :)



WWE Vs Me!

  
There was this person who (damn, might read this and know that I was talking about it! Hmm, Whatever) once told me, and I quote; "girls and fake wrestling is weird to me ".
Umm, stereotype much -_-.
Also, he had the generosity to let me know that there is REAL wrestling out there!
Yes, I'm aware of the fact that I'm a girl thank u very much. U r so kind to notice!

However, I'm actually into it. It is so amazing that I would wake up @ 5 am to watch the rerun (yep, no social life for me)!

  I consider watching wrestling as an outlet. So, Instead of me running like crazy with a metal chair over my head I see Edge do it for me ( Such a waste when he got moved to smack down, I missed his conversations with the GM's laptop ;D) anyway I would not like to watch real wrestling since, as he pointed out I'm a girl. And this girl in particular has an issue

with blood -_-
I know; I know it sounds so stupid watching Sheamus or "the human jar of mayonnaise"

 (The first time I heard his nickname I was on the floor giggling my soul out and then I kept looking around for people who r too white so I can use this name on them, true story!  I'm still looking by the way!) Kicking someone on the skull with his knees repeatedly and then confesses that I'm afraid of blood. Besides, what I like about WWE is that there is a STORY, there is rivalry and someone's friend becoming his enemy is a lot to take in even in real life, so imagine if that enemy happens to be a 300 pounder, uh oh!
Therefore, even though it's fake, I admire the effort they go through in order to make this "fake" perfect.
It is mesmerizing to me how much they should learn. The face must be masked with a certain expression; they don't get to rest because there are cameras EVERYWHERE. They have to keep a high stamina, which probably means hitting the gym for long hours. They learn how to "love the pain" (my sensei's catch phrase *eyes rolling*) they must learn how to fall, because if they didn't do it right even missed by seconds, Baaaam! There goes the rib cage. And they are not just giving the punches but actually getting them. I mean OUCH!
I'm a fan I admit but I'm not the stalker type, I didn't Google WWE to know when they have started, I didn't go looking for old matches that I have missed but I do have their entrance theme songs in my I pod :D
I started watching WWE this year on MBC Action so I get merely one dose of violence every week. Not too much for a girl I think.

Every Thursday, my brother and I sit through RAW screaming our lungs out, saying out loud how amazing Randy Orton  and John Cena  are, how "awesome" MIZ is,  and threat to kill the stupid referee who didn't notice that someone's has intervened or that the one who fights had his leg under the rope!
To be honest, this whole business of me liking WWE started as a way to communicate with my little bro in order to have something to share. I've been missing him being in the last year of college and isolating myself to study so I thought sitting through an hour or so of wrestling every week with him can't be that bad, right? It was a great way for us to bond. I wish I could go to a RAW show with him, it would be so cool!
P.S; I and the gentleman who provoked me to write this stream of consciousness are ok. I just hope we r after he reads it; D

Freedom writers

I know this movie was out forever, but I always wanted to see it, until I finally did! And here's what I thought of it :)

 

It was actually a good movie! I always like movies that show teaching experiences and how students are changed and motivated to give more. It was inspiring and even brought me to tears a little; I remembered my teaching days (one term for practicum -_-).

What burst my bubble was a scene were the husband acts selfish and gathers his stuff leaving her, since she became much occupied with her class. As a man, he wasn't getting his dose of attention; therefore he left even though he admitted that what she was doing was "Nobel".

I felt that there was a double standard here. Women are expected to be supportive to their men, it's seen as granted as a job she must fulfill. She must understand when  he works long hours or if he came home late or even traveled for days maybe weeks at a time. But whenever it’s the opposite way around, when she needed support the most, he leaves her.

There was a very intense line when the wife confronted her husband and asked him why couldn’t he be supportive like wives do to their husbands?  She was answered by the line that ruined the whole movie for me, "I can't be your wife".

Anyway, I know I might have read too much into it. But I believe that is why movies are written. To make

us think and analyze. So when they slip something like that into the mix we should notice it

and criticize it, not take it as it is.

The Globe Summit Seminar ;)

I went today to an event in the globe of Al Faisaliah. It was a cooking seminar about "wedding cakes" by Chef Rolf Muerner.

I don’t normally attend such things, especially that I hardly know my way to the kitchen -_-

However, I wanted to try something new, and it was worth it!

The Chef couldn’t speak in English. So, his wife was translating. But his passion for what he does wormed our hearts and reached us faster than the translated words. He was a "perfectionist" as his wife called him!

The way he pays extra attention for details was mesmerizing, the least I can say about  his work is that it was a piece of art  

The cake was decorated beautifully; it looked exotic with chocolate hearts, real flowers, and edible gold!

We even got the chance to taste a dessert that he created!

The taste was phenomenal; it was a strange mix of mango, chilly, passion fruit, and other things that I forgot now (sorry!), but the first word that I was able to describe it with was NOT BORING! It melts in your mouth and the different tastes take turns to show themselves!

It was really a new experience, out of my comfort zone.

Honestly, we hardly have anything out of the ordinary such as this. I enjoyed it!

Thanks Hanaa for inviting me!

You Rock!

Eith