Wish of the Day

If I happen to bump into a genie today I would wish something along the lines of this:

I would wish for the ability to master a skill in 5 days. I would have said one day or even a second but where is the fun in that? Learning the skill and facing some obstacles along the way is half the fun. I would be a public speaking guru or ace every test in school because I have mastered the art of test taking. I would bake the perfect soufflé or maybe even finally be able to dive into a pool. And I would master the art of persuasion. Countries would call me to convince others not to bomb them. Students would call me to convince their teachers to postpone the exam.

On a side note:
I’ve always wanted a rocking chair and I’ve been looking for one since we moved. I found quite a few but never the right one.

One day, I came back from school and found this in my room:

They teased me about my surprise birthday gift for about two months to the point that I told them that no gift is worth this torture and that they should just forget about. I’m a very curious person so “torture” was a perfect word for what I was going through. But it was worth it.  I laughed so hard when I saw it! My friends know me too well.

Travel the world and meet all 6.5 billion humans on this earth and you won’t find great friends like these.

TTFN!

Making a Difference

As soon as I step into the building, I get a feeling that overwhelms me. The smell of cleaning detergents is in the air. I have an unusual feeling in the pit of my stomach.  And I can sense the sadness, the desperation and the anxiety using every sense I have in my body. As if those feelings were something that could be touched, felt or heard.

That was how I felt as soon as I stepped into the Pediatric Oncology Ward. Being a volunteer, I headed to the volunteer office to get to know the procedures and the place a little bit better. After giving us some tips, we started our first round. At first, everything went smoothly. I went in, smiled awkwardly to the mothers, trying to hide my real feelings, played with the child or read him/her a book and went out. I remember thinking to myself that it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. These kids were really fine.

That thought soon left my mind when I went in room 306. I met Mohammed, a 10 year old boy that suffered from Leukemia. I remember seeing him lying on his bed; his fragile bones protruding through his pale, yellow skin. His mom called his name and told him to sit up so we could play with him. I sat beside him, asking him how he was and what activity he would want to do that day. He was too tired to speak but smiled when I showed him the crayons and coloring book. I still remember that smile as if it happened yesterday. He had a smile that would light up the darkest of rooms. Not because he had perfect white teeth. In fact, Leukemia had had its toll on those too. But because even after all that suffering, all that pain, he still smiled. I held out a blue crayon for him, and he held out his shaking hand to take it. We colored a little and talked then headed out the room. I stopped as soon as the doors closed behind me. I couldn’t take it anymore.  I thanked God that that was the last of our round and went home.

One thing made me go back after that day. And it was remembering that I had made a difference. I remembered Hawra, a girl who’s laugh still echoes in my head. I remembered Ibrahim running to us in the hallway in his hospital gown begging us to play with him a game of ‘Guess Who?’, even though we’ve already played it more than 8 times that same day. I remembered Fatima and her brother approaching us in the hallway and asking us shyly if they could have a toy to play with, then running happily to their parents after thanking us. And I remembered the feeling I experienced after seeing the beautiful smiles on those little kids’ faces.

The Pediatric Oncology Ward in this hospital was like a big family. Doctors played with the children. Nurses kid around with the mothers’ patients. And doctors and nurses alike did all they could to make sure the patients and their families were cared for. They were there for each other when a child gets diagnosed with cancer. And they were there for each other when that same child finishes his last Chemo therapy session.

Although I’m not planning on studying medicine next year, this experience made me realize that I would like to be a part of that family for the years coming. And volunteering next summer is just the way I’m planning on doing that.

What Happens When Losers Communicate

Remember my last post, “What Happens When Weirdos Communicate”? Yeah well, I’ve realized recently that I have weird conversations like that with about all of my friends. Here’s one I had with my friend Sara one day. I sent her this text message first:

Dear international winner of the loser contest,

Please contact me as soon as possible in order to claim your prize.

Best regards

-          The international committee of loserville.

—

Dear loserville,

I am so pleased to finally hear from you! I have been trying to win this contest for a while now. Thank you for this great opportunity!

Please send me the date and address so that I can claim my prize.

—

Dear… Loser Sara, is it?

Our main center is on chocolate road, between Nutella crossing and pizza main street. Our building will be the one that isn’t finished yet because we hire loser construction workers. We are devoted to all losers in the world and want them to know that we have their back.

But please, before claiming your prize, answer these questions loserly:

1. What is the last project you strayed and did not finish? (I meant to write started)
2. Why is school not important?
3. What would you do if you were the ruler of the world?
4. How is being lazy related to being a loser?

Losers for one, loser for all

-          The head loser

—

Oh yeah! I remembered passing by that building! I also remember saying that I admired the fact that the workers took their time to finish it. It shows how carefully planned it is.

As for the questions:

1. The last time I strayed from a project was yesterday. I have to admit that I stray from almost every project handed to me… But that’s what makes me special. I also plan on writing that quality on my college application. I’m sure Harvard appreciates my rare breed.
2. It’s very simple really. School isn’t important because they don’t offer the “loser class”. We have math, physics and chemistry, yet the most important subject isn’t taught, which teaches you how to be a loser. I hope to fix that one day.
3. I have always thought of that question…..(to be continued)

Thank you for trying to finish the letter. We appreciate your efforts.

Oh yes, Harvard has called us and wanted us to recommend someone last year. I’m sure they’re going to call us this year as well. I’ll personally make someone make someone recommend you.

Good answers. Yet I was surprised you didn’t mention that school is a vital thing to be successful in this world and that is exactly the opposite of what we want to be. Either way, your answer was unique and I’ll be waiting for that loser class.

You now have two options, either visit our center and claim your prize, or eat chocolate.

Mayor Loser,

-          Patima!

—

My dear role model, Mayor Loser,

WOW! Thank you! Harvard has always been a dream of mine. And  I appreciate that you know that I tried my best.

Hmmm… The options I have are very difficult. Can you please make it easier by telling me what exactly is the award that’s waiting for me?

Your  future to be Harvard student,

-          Sara

—

Dear Hakuna Matata,

The prize is a certificate, of course, a laptop, a year’s supplies of turtles, wireless internet wherever you go, a key to the city, a pizza the size of the sun, 40 years of paid college intuition, 10 billion dollars and a lollipop.

We know it’s a tough choice but as we always say, “You can’t do it!”

—

Hmmm… The year’s supply of turtles is very very nice. I realllyyy like it. And the lollipop too. These two are making my choice even harder.

May I ask for your advice, Mayor?

—

Dear what a wonderful word,

I, myself, would pick the chocolate. But seeing as you have a lot of years filled with loser things ahead of you, I suggest you pick the prize.

Good luck

-          Fat

—

Dear Mr. or Mrs.,

Thank you, but I believe I don’t have a choice anymore. The bell just rang and apparently you had my prize sent to my house. There are turtles running around me now. And I can’t see the sun from the large pizza. The lollipop is as good as I expected it to be.

Oh, and I ate the certificate by mistake. Can you please send another copy?

Please feel free to come and visit me for some pizza.

With stomachache from the certificate,

Sara

—

Dear Smarty,

Our institution just received your TOEFL score. We are sorry but you are not longer the winner of the loser contest. Please mail back everything that was sent to you. We do not tolerate smarties in the loser committee.

Disappointed deeply,

Fatima

—

Noooo no! Please! You got the wrong scores!

I assure you, I am not smart. I am a loser.

—

No. 102s are not tolerated. I’m sorry.

—

I read on your website that you only accept people with 101 or less. I didn’t get a 102! I got a 101!

—

While we encourage procrastination, laziness and anything that can take you to the path of loserville, lying is a big no no. We don’t have a website. Now stop bothering us you successful person!

—

Ahh.. Isn’t there anything I can do?

—

Failing 12^th grade would get you back on track.

—

So repeating a whole year of school for chocolate?…

Are you serious! What kind of question is that? Of course I’ll do it!

—

Good to know you’re serious about this.

See you next year!

-          Girly

TTFN.

Sleeping is for losers

I wish I was a loser…

I am reorganizing my priorities as if today:

1. Doing anything related to my college applications. And that includes writing my essay(sssss) and studying/taking my SAT (AGAIN ).
2. Doing anything related to school. And that includes studying, doing my homework and working on the 92387492374 projects our school gives us.
3. Exercising.
4. Eating.
5. Blogging.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

300.   Sleeping.

So chances are, if I’m not blogging, I’m not sleeping either.

If anyone has a time machine, can you please lend it to me? I want to fast-forward to January 1. That’s when all this madness ends.

If anyone has a found a way to freeze time, can you please freeze it for three hours a day? That  would make my life so much easier.

If anyone has a cloning machine, can you please take a piece of my hair while I’m sleeping and make about 50 Fatimas? I promise I won’t make them run around town with nothing to do. I have a job for each and every one of them.

January 1. Ask me how all this went then.

TTFN.

Oh my, what an interesting life you have!

I know haven’t blogged in a while but I promise I will try to write at least once every one week.. or two.. or three…

Please note that the keyword here is: try. Being the procrastinator that I am it’ll probably be the third one. But other than procrastinating, coming up with a topic to write about is really hard. I’d sit a whole day thinking about a topic before sitting down and actually writing anything. If you could suggest some topics in the comments section I would be more than grateful!

Anyway, I’m going to keep you up to date with what I’ve been doing these past few weeks:

1. I’ve been exercising! No, that wasn’t a typo. And yes, you read it right. I have finally got off my lazy butt and started moving. I started off with jogging 20 minutes a day for a week. Let me give you a sense of what it was like when I first started jogging. First of all, I have a 90 year old’s body. I mean it. I used to joke about it a lot but now I know it’s true. My back hurts when I stand up for a long time. I get winded just by going up a flight of stairs. At least one thing in my body hurts at any given hour of the day. For example, right now my back and neck hurt. I forget the most basic things. Honestly, I don’t know how I reached senior year. I even forget words while I’m talking, and names.. and faces.. and everything. And I felt like I was going to die after only 5 minutes into my 20 minute jogging session. Literally, die. You know how normal people (not trained athletes) feel after finishing a running marathon? How they can’t breathe and have to rest for a whole day before going back to normal? How they feel like everything they’ve eaten the past week is going to be… erm… recycled? Yeah well, imagine that times 2398749238643287658723465. I was beyond out of shape. I was shapeless. Shape ran far far away from me. Shape was scared from my shapelessness! (I know that doesn’t make sense but it’s my blog and I have the right to write senseless things) After a week of jogging I reduced my body age to 80. And now I am proud to say that this is my 4^th week of jogging. I think I know have a normal 16 year old’s body exercise wise which is great!
2. Baking, baking and some more baking. When we moved to the new house we didn’t have any gas for about a month. So as soon as we got it I started baking daily. I’m on a finding-the-perfect-chocolate-chip-recipe mission. I love chocolate chip cookies but every time I make them I find something wrong about them. I used to either undercook or overcook them before and I thought that was my problem. But even after practicing and cooking them just right I’d still find something wrong with them. I tried all kinds of recipes and almost all of them harden the minute they cool off. I followed recipes step by step and still didn’t get the results they were talking about. Ahh.. What am I doing wrong? Most of them tasted good but that’s it. Just good. I want something that would make even the most will-powered person that’s on a diet take a second one. Anyway, other than trying out dozens of chocolate chip recipes I also made brownies, tarts and attempted to make an ice-cream sandwich. I mistakenly cooked the cookies on something I thought was parchment paper, the supposedly parchment paper was permanently stuck to the cookies. Which was really sad because they smelled great.
3. Studying for the SAT and taking the SAT. Preparing for it was the hard part. I couldn’t sit myself down long enough to study because I’d get easily distracted. Taking the test was okay. I thought it would be worse. I was in the center from 8 to 2 so at the end of it I didn’t really care about how I did. All I wanted to do was go home.
4. Register for the TOEFL test. How cool am I? I’m finally doing the things I was planning on doing all summer! Crossing things out on a to-do list is a great feeling. I’ll be taking the test this Saturday. Wish me luck!
5. I, unfortunately, also started going to school. It has only been 4 days and I already can’t wait for the next summer vacation! Mainly because this one was more than great. I can’t even think of one boring day.
6. I finished the Time Traveler’s Wife, finally! It is a great book. Go out and buy yourself a copy.

I think six things are enough for today.

Also, I realized that there has been an over-all theme in my blog. I write in points. I almost never write paragraphs. I guess I find that easier. That’s fine right?

TTFN.

Some People Are Just That Creative

I found a website the other day that dedicated a whole section to pictures of people showing their furniture before and after they’ve given them a makeover. Here are some of the pictures:

 

Oh, this is ruined. I’ll just throw it away…

 

 

 

Whoa.

 

This is ugly. I’ll just donate it or throw it away or something.

 

 

 

Wait, what?

 

Sometimes, you buy something, and wonder what the heck was I thinking when I bought this?!…

 

 

Now there’s hope for everything.

 

I am definitely showing this one to my mom.

 

 

 

See Mama, breaking all those things was really a… blessing.

 

A little paint and some fabric can go a long way. (You don’t know how much it took me to remember the word “fabric”. Ahh. I need a new brain.)

 

 

 

 Well hellooooo beautiful!

 

A normal suitcase, no?

 

 

Some people are just creative I guess…

 

This reminds me of my Aunt for some reason.

 

 

Paint and fabric. Paint and fabric.

 

Just another headboard.

 

 

Now I know what I’m going to do with my old bed. And not I as in “I’m going to do this with my own hands”, but I as in take it to the carpenter and tell him what to do.  I’m about a 100% sure I’ll lose a hand and a couple of fingers before ever coming close to something like this if I do actually do it with my own hands.

 

 

CREATIVE PEOPLE!

 

 

I would have never in a million years thought of this.

 

Or this…

 

 

Creativity.

 

And here’s one more random picture:

I’m going to live in a house like this. A house with huge windows that allows the sunshine to light up the whole place. And then I’ll buy four lands surrounding it. There’s going to be lots and lots of greenery in the first one. I’ll have to plant it of course. I’ll make sure to plant a peach tree. I don’t like peaches but I’ve always wanted one. The second land will have a mountain in it. So I could go rock climbing and hiking a lot. I don’t really know how that’s going to happen but technology will find a way. The third land will have a flea market, you’re welcome Saudi Arabia. And the last land will have an ocean. I don’t think technology will find a way for this one so I’ll make sure to buy my 5 lands next to one. I won’t buy any furniture too. I’ll just sleep and wake up on the floor, under the huge windows. I don’t think I’ll have any money left to buy any furniture anyways.

Ahhhhh…

 

TTFN.

 

Technologless (It’s a word)

I’ve always thought that I’d die of boredom if I had to stay three days without internet. But I’ve never tried to prove myself wrong or right for one reason: the internet is basically my life. I could stay hours and hours on one website without getting bored.

A week ago, we moved to a new house. The house is located in a new area that doesn’t have phone lines yet. That means we were stuck without internet until God knows when. I dreaded the coming future. They said it may take up to two whole months until the phone lines were all set. But luckily, we found a way to get internet without using the phone lines. And now here I am!

To my surprise, I didn’t get bored last week at all. Au contraire! I actually had fun. I did all sorts of things that filled up my time that I totally forgot about our internet problem.

One of the numerous things that I did was pack. Even though we’ve officially moved to the new place we still had some things to do in the old one. This was my daily routine for about 4 days:

1. Wake up.
2. Go to the old place.
3. Pack and pack and pack.
4. Get back to break our fast.
5. Go back to the old place to pack some more.
6. And then finally, around 2 AM, we get back to our house and sleep.

Fun.

If you ever wanted to torture somebody let them move. Better yet, let them move our house! Our house was like Mary Poppins’ bag. It looks so small yet it fits so much. And the things are never ending. You pack and pack and then look back and feel like you haven’t done anything at all. It will make an optimist a realist, a realist a pessimist and a pessimist commit suicide.

I packed so much that I am now an expert on tapes. I know which tape brands are best and which tape brands don’t work. By the way, never buy “First” tape.

I packed so much that Pac man should now be called Pac Fatima.

Oh, I also have to mention that we didn’t have a TV for about 5 days. Seeing that we were technologless I had to do other things to have fun. Here are some of things we did:

• A puppet show: (There’s supposed to be a video here but for some unknown stupid reason I can’t upload it)

I started drawing. I used to draw and paint a lot but for some reason I stopped. I also started a game where I let everyone who was in our house draw a dancing animal. It started out as a game then I thought I could post the pictures here and let you vote on which ones you like best. So now it’s a contest. I call it

I’ll keep the people who drew these anonymous and will call every one of them an “artist” from now on.
Oh, and I’d like to apologize for the pictures’ resolution. We still didn’t set up our scanner.

Our first artist drew a dancing butterfly. It was very hard to convince him/her to draw something at first because he/she said that he/she couldn’t draw. But everyone is an artist and we finally convinced him/her to draw a dancing animal of his/her choice.

“This is how the horses in Egypt dance.” – Artist

Wise words artist, wise words.

This is one funky cat.

Apparently, all our dancing animals are in a disco.

Notice the:

• Swinging teats.
• Ring on her left hand.
• Hidden Mickey.

Here our artist drew a Filipino Porcupine. He/She called him “Q Da Porcupine”.

“Eeebry boody DANCE”
Translation: Everybody dance.
“To da beat”
Translation: To the beat.
“Shake dat a**! OY!”
Translation: Shake that a**! OY!

Here our artist drew a… err… big cat.
CHA CHA CHA!

And last, but definitely not least, our artist discovered (… or invented) a new fish species!

The Bamboo Fish.
This species can be found in the Purple Sea. It travels with a disco ball hanging over it all the time and it can speak. Its vocabulary consists of three words: “Yeah”, “Dance” and “Uha”.

Please VOTE for your favorite master piece in the comment section.

• Saw my friends whom I missed so much.
• Ate a looooot of food.
• Read. Has anyone noticed how lovely the weather is at night? I stayed in the balcony and kept reading until the sun came out.
• Unpacked!
• Spent time with my lovely family:

• Baked a delicious strawberry tart:

It tastes better than it looks.

I burned two fingers while doing this, nothing new. Only this time, only one finger was mine. Sorry Muneera <3.

In the end, I actually enjoyed the future I dreaded.
Moral of the story(ies):

1. You won’t die without the internet.
2. Never move.

THE END.

TTFN.

You Don’t Know Me. You Know Of Me. (Take 2)

Since I figured out that most of you people know almost all of the things that I wrote in the last post I decided to do a new one. I’m really hoping you don’t know at least 50% of these. If you do then that just means I talk too much. Anyway, are here the 13 things I really really hope you don’t know about me:

1. I have scoliosis. It’s nothing severe Al-Humdellah but I do have it. I don’t really like bringing it up but drastic things call for drastic measures.
2. I have a black belt in Taekwondo. I’ve won two gold medals in two tournaments and a “Best Female Player” once. I’ve also made two girls cry in one of those tournaments. And I only feel bad about making one of them cry.
3. I almost always have a red nose. People stop me in the hallway and ask me if I have a cold all year round. And I say “almost always” because when I really do have a cold my nose’s color isn’t red. My sister Dana calls me Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.
4. I enjoy ironing clothes and doing the laundry.
5. We recycle. I always feel bad when I throw paper in the normal garbage can.
6. I am very very lame. I laugh at lame jokes and make even lamer ones.
7. I tried to make Luqaymat this Ramadan… I failed miserably. I think yeast hates me.
8. I am currently in love with buttermilk (Laban). I am now drinking my fifth cup.
9. I know how to do the moonwalk. No, that’s not true. But I like convincing myself I can. I also get offended when someone tells me I can’t.
10. I am horrible at imitating other Arabic accents. And I sometimes can’t understand Egyptians.
11. I can make my tongue touch my nose. I can also make a tongue flower. I made that word up, I hope you know what I mean.
12. I eat tomatoes the way people eat apples.
13. I have a beard.

Okay, that’s not true either. It’s just really hard to write 13 things you people don’t know about me. “I have a beard” was one of the numerous things my sister suggested me to write down, along with “I have freakishly tiny ears” and “In the year 2040 I’m going to be the first Saudi Arabian president”.

P.S. I’ll no longer end my posts with a question. Questions are there to be answered. Yet somehow, my questions never get answered (except for a few people who did answer them. Thank you Sara A and Bassam <3). So please DON’T write three things I don’t know about you.

TTFN.

You Don’t Know Me. You Know Of Me.

… or maybe you do. Anyway, here are 12 things I hope you don’t know about me:

1. I seldom cry. I don’t cry over a movie or a book, even when I really really want to. I don’t cry when I get hurt (bumping into glass doors, tripping over boxes, basketballs hitting my face…) And I don’t cry when I’m sad. But I do cry over one thing. And that is when someone does something to me that I don’t deserve, something unjust. Even though I try as much I can not to! My mother used to say, “Stop crying or you’ll run out of tears.” When I was younger. I’m starting to think she was right…
2. I like eating scrambled eggs with pita bread (Arabic bread) and use ketchup as its dip.
3. I always have cold hands and feet. And they’re small! My shoes now fit my 10 year-old sister.
4. I consider anything with pepper spicy.
5. I’m a hopeless romantic.
6. I used to talk in a Filipino accent when I first learned English. I also memorized a few Filipino songs.
7. I miss being five years-old.
8. I have a very big imagination. This is sometimes great. And sometimes not. Like when someone doesn’t answer their phone and I imagine something really bad happening to them (with the whole car crash/fire/murder scene playing in my head) then get really sad and worried.
9. I enjoy watching the news. When I hear the headlines from afar and hear something interesting I immediately rush to the TV.
10. I am VERY nosey and VERY curious. It might not show, but I am. I wonder about things I shouldn’t be wondering about…
11. I laugh when I make people laugh, even when I don’t really consider the thing I said as funny.
12. I empathize a lot. I even empathize with criminals, which is kind of weird but I can’t help it!

What are three things I don’t know about you?

TTFN.

This is Gladys From Austin, Texas

Ahh.. I love old people!

I’ll leave the commenting to you…

Oh.. And I’m kind of having trouble finding a topic to write about. Do you have suggestions?

TTFN.