STORIES, STORIES

I risked getting yelled at to take this super-blurry photo.  Why do I do the things I do?

Summer is, that's who! *cue more cliches* Who'd have thought I'd know someone for more than 6 years and not have gone to the beach with that person ever, except this day for the first time? Had fun with the girls . -- I stayed in the shade and listened to Pussycat Dolls. Don't ask. -- I had a bad case of hiccups whenever I got in the water. Strange. Somebody call the Fringe division!

Somebody make me stop!!

This post demonstrates how I'm a whore for: A) Good advertising. I'm Mad Men's dream target market: when I see a good ad, I just eat it up and go and buy the product. B) Anything purple. That's how I make decisions. If I have to choose most anything, I go with the color I like. I haven't owned a pair of Nike shoes since I was 13, which was a hundred years ago (I still remember, they were Air Jordans , when I thought I was a kickass basketball player). I needed new shoes because apparently, when one is losing weight, one's feet might also shrink! Who'd have thought? These were the simplest I could find, and they are really comfortable and lightweight. I wish we could run here. I'm gonna start running soon. 100 points, Team Potato Chips! You are champion!

I missed Souma's Whovian birthday! Who else would have a TARDIS for a birthday cake? (Hehe, 'Who' else!) To make up for it, I asked to see her face Thursday morning, also so I could give her a birthday present .  Ya gotta love nerds. I got to share a mellow breakfast with Omair , too, and I can't say I didn't enjoy it. I didn't take a photo of him; he had a "I'm a nerd" shirt on, and that's not the kind of thing I like to advertise. :P  Oh, yes. We ate shit. And this is the shit we ate, for my growing collection .

I met up with my grade school friends again, and this time, I brought some of my 'present-day' friends. Maybe it was a social experiment to see how the 2 groups would get along. But they'll never know. Because if there's one thing about my friends both past and present, it's that I have to FORCE them to read my blog. I do this by posting their faces. Maybe it's called emotional blackmail, but whatevs.  Here's the fun part about being grown-ups: having our own money.   And another one: having mini versions of us. Marj's little princess, the one that kicked her off HER throne. <3 You know how I know I'm awesome? My friends' kids love me. Who cares if I bribe them? They love me. That's ALL THAT MATTERS. Before I said goodbye to Zofia, she said to me: " Balik ka sa akin, ha? " which is Tagalog for "Come back to me, okay?" Ya naaaaaas!  This was said in her little baby-girl language, with all the grammar mistakes. ...

Because you all care so much about the tiniest details of my life, here's a picture of my office at home. This, my friends, is where the magic doesn't happen s .  -- Featured: My RC helicopter that I got as a present from Sharifa 's hubby! <3 And it wasn't even my birthday! As you all know, I've been wanting one of these bad boys for almost 3 years now. So I can't wait to go on that helicopter tournament that I'll be competing against Helmy on. Yes, yes, pictures-or-it-never-happened. It will happen. Trust.

Possibly the ultimate proof of my n00b-ist status. Dudes, seriously, why have both my controllers degenerated into this after only a year? 

I hate being a customer. Mostly because I don't have a lot of money to be one so often. Or maybe I'm not often a customer because  I don't have a lot of money. I dunno, really, causality eludes me. I experience some conflict of principle, however, when I am faced with things that I badly want to buy. Like books. Not necessarily for the love of reading, but maybe just for that heady feeling of having something new. I have enough books to keep me reading for at least 2 or 3 years, to be honest, but you know...  There's nothing like spending paper.  -- Virgin Stores, Tahlia. Summer went to buy stuff for her baba's birthday. Maybe it's because I've lived here for so long and I'm so used to what customer service is like in Jeddah (which is really nothing to brag about) that I sometimes forget what it's like to interact and communicate with salespeople outside the country. What's it like? Do the good salespeople in your city chit-chat with you? Do ...

Oh, hey, look at us. We've all known each other for a hundred years now. Or maybe 20. Same difference.  Every now and again, I meet up with friends from grade school/high school. It's a good exercise on keeping myself grounded, to remind myself where I come from, to take a look at where I am at the moment, and to figure out where I'm headed.  Our past will always be a part of who we are. How much have we changed? And are the changes for the better? -- Marj and her beautiful baby girl Zofia. -- (Left) Maharani, back in town for a bit.  (Right) Muneer, whose wedding in a few months I have invited myself to. -- And Salma, from whom emanates a pinch of California, even though she might not know it. We might not know how our childhood friends see us or what they think of us after we've grown up and into our present states. But don't we always have a fondness for them? Memories are very kind. And thank god for that.

So, yeah. Driving. First, I'd like to congratulate all the people who participated in the campaign for women to drive in Saudi Arabia, including those who didn't ostracize and throw eggs at (or hit with an  3egal ) those who DID participate. This is indeed a baby step, albeit a huge baby, towards the fulfillment of women's (and in fact, men's, too) most basic of rights: the right to think for themselves and to make their own decisions. And that's what we should probably remind ourselves of: what we are fighting for. What IS the point of all this? Driving, although very real and very literal, is really just a strong symbol representing our right to do things without having to ask permission from a male relative. What other areas of our lives do we have to constantly ask a man permission to do? Education? Our right to acquire knowledge and be brilliant? Marriage? Our right to find and choose the right person at the right time to ruin spend the rest of our ...

Blogger Alaa Balkhy has this project : she asks what 5 items you always have in your purse, asks you take a photo of them, and email it to her.  My top 5 are: cigarettes, perfume, camera, make-up bag, and wallet. Oh, and my brother borrowed Mohammad's Canon 550D, so I wined and dined it and generally took advantage of it.

The weekend was spent in foolish fashion. Hint: an Xbox Kinect was involved.  -- What is dancing without a hat? -- And now, I officially want a Kinect.

Don't let Abdullah fool you. He's posing in this one.

Something to remember when eating at a Chinese place (at least this one): Order to share. No matter how hungry you think you are, you will never have a girlfriend be able to finish one order all by your lonesome. -- Here be Shrimp Balls. They're like mantu , but jazzier. -- I can eat mixed fried rice with no need of accompaniment. -- And now, the grossly requisite Shit We Ate photo.

Kitsch isn't going anywhere, I've come to realize, so let's just embrace it, shall we? For a small taste of faux Etsy-ish vibe, head on to Pizza Fusion (Rawdah Street and Malik Road) and order a drink. 

This is the car equivalent of a feet shot.

Friday nights spent indoors are not bad when you have good company. Yes, I was the creep who took pictures of everyone's accessories. That's called 'good company', in case you didn't get the memo. Other things I do: photo-bombing.

When my friends send food to my mom, and it happens to be cake, she never gets to see it. Shame. My current favorite cake is Mille-feuille . I would love it even more if I knew how to say it.

June is a popular birthday month. Not very popular with my wallet . Tima's birthday coincided (as do most, if not all, our birthday celebrations) with our Thursday lunch. Lallo's for our Italian(s), of course. She loves her her iPod. <3

My dad reads a lot. But I've never really thought about looking at his books; I've always just thought that he read boring  grown-up stuff. I may have been right.  The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers. Really? I should shut up since I've been asking him to drive me around for the past few days. I have no driver. HOW WILL I SURVIVE?! HOW, I ASK YOU!!

What's a birthday cake without a little inside joke, amirite? Here is Ghaidaa's Starbuck's. -- Squeee! -- Not only is Rayan the handsomest man on the planet, he is also the sexiest. Okay? -- Joey  -- Problem, trollfags? 

Oh, fie, fie. How I live life in the fastest lane ever.  Here, proof. Not only is this Book 16 of my I-AM-SO-FUCKING-COOL-READING-CHALLENGE . That there is also my nail polish. This is proof of my steady hand (best for precision nail-polishing) and my exciting daily life. Also, I forget that 'twitter' was a word before it was social networking. I liked this book. Which is a good thing. Because out of the 16 books I've read so far this year, I've only liked 3. Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction by Sue Townsend . Pretty funny book. I got this book February 2007, started reading it in 2008, never finished it. 4 out of 5.