“POP” goes the Career Dream

How many of you ladies go through university thinking that you will be that next Oprah, Carol Bartz, or Indra Nooyi?

I know I did…

I had always thought that as soon as I graduate, I want to get my dream job; something that is interesting, challenging, and rewarding, I wanted to be in on time, do a little over time, and deliver a little extra to set myself apart from the rest. I wanted to wear my heals, pencil skirts and blazers, sit in important meetings, and have my lunch brought to me desk. I wanted to be given the hard tasks because I’m simply the best, get recognition for what I do, and be on my boss’s good side so I can skip that career ladder and use the career elevator.

How things change…

After sending endless CV’s to almost every employer I can get my hands on, going to endless interviews, and waiting patiently for a call back, I found a job (scratch dream). At first it was great! I was finally living the dream! Until interesting became boring, challenging became a routine, and rewarding became pocket money. Then getting out of bed was a drag, doing a little overtime was torture, and delivering a little extra…why should I bother! Then heals gave blisters, skirts were too up-tight, and blazers looked better on Jeans. And the career elevator, more like climbing up Mount Fuji, barefooted, and pulling a wagon of boulders behind you!

Being Optimistic…

I still want to find the dream job, and be all that I can be. However, having a lenient work schedule, moderate work load, dressing casually, and leaving early are much more valued than anything else. No matter how much time and energy we give into work it will never be enough, the job will never be done, and it might save you a year or two on the promotion, but being able to spend extra time with friends, family and soon children is worth much more than having a corner office.

Little Brother

Can you think of someone, anyone, who is your oldest friend, someone you can’t remember your childhood without, someone who has been with you through thick and thin, someone who you fought with, then made up, someone who blackmailed you with your secrets but never told anyone, someone who has always shared everything with you, including the last piece of cake that everyone fights for.

A lot of people are popping up in your head right now, but in mine, I can see one person.

He was born on November 9, 1989, a year and 8 moths after my birth date. He was chubby, pink, and blond. Everyone at the hospital was in awe at what a beautiful baby he was. At the time, I was preoccupied with my red tricycle and shoes to notice the new family member.

Before long, he was walking behind me, playing with me; from Barbies to cars; and even sharing some of my clothes. Growing up in Canada with Lebanese roots and Arabic being spoken at home, no one could understand his heavy Anglo-Arab words but me.

The older we grew, the more distracted we got with our own lives. The last days of school were marked by official exams, SATs, and university applications. Then came the messed up university schedule, finals, projects, friends, and work. Before we knew it, I was planning a marriage, and he was planning to work abroad.

Now, my little brother is a man, and living and working in another country.

I no longer see him everyday after work, or fight with him because he made me late to work in the morning. No more evening talks about plans, girls, life, education… n no more pancakes with extra Nutella.

I can’t see my little brother everyday and I miss him.

School Boys

A walk down memory lane with Noor this morning made us laugh our hearts out.

The 9^th and 10^th grade, teenagers with raging hormones, boys in baggy jeans with no facial hair whatsoever, puppy love, and an allowance we get at the end of the week from our parents. Classic!

I remember my school days like they were yesterday. When scoring low on a Math exam meant the end of my academic future for ever, not going to Dunes or Concord on Saturday meant the end of my social life, and if that boy doesn’t leave me a letter in my desk at the break, then I won’t let him copy my homework.

Hahaha!

What the hell were we thinking people?

It’s so funny how things that seemed so significant then, are just a topic of a funny conversation now. When we were young, the boy sitting behind us in class was our soul mate; the boy with the new phone was the rich one, and the boy who used to talk back at the teacher and charge out of the class was the bad ass. What a miniature world! Mini in the mind!

When we were is school:

·         We’d like someone because they were good looking (lets face it, being good looking while going through puberty is a real deal breaker),

·         We’d like someone because they had a great personality (Duhh.. at 15, your personality is in the midst of its development)

·         We’d think that guy is a gentleman because he’d pay for our movie tickets, just because we are girls and no girl going out with him would pay (poor kid, he must have saved that allowance all week)

·         We’d think he’s tough if he’d beat up the other boys for talking to us (the classic “what are you looking at” pushing and shoving)

·         We’d think he has cool parents for letting him drive without a license (dumb asses, did you find your kid on the street)

·         We’d think he’s mature if he’d smoke in the playground bathroom (you idiot, it was just yesterday you tried a cigarette and nearly chocked with red eyes)

·         We’d live in ultimate suspense when he’d call our home phones and then jam the line in our parents’ face if they answered (you coward, be a man and ask my dad for permission to talk to me, he won’t bite)

We grow out of all that, apply to university and get a degree, then graduate and get a job…then finally meet the one who is good looking because that’s how God made him, who has a great personality because he had a proper upbringing and learnt from life’s lessons, who pays for our everything because he earned the money to do so, who stands up for us when we need it the most, and who has the guts to knock on our parents’ door and ask their permission for marriage.

I can’t wait to go through all that again…with my kids!

W Halla’ La Wein?

(Seriously, if you haven’t seen the movie and are planning to, then don’t read this post.)

It will make you laugh, cry, think…it will inspire you, depress you, and then lift you up… that’s Nadine Labaki’s new movie: W Halla’ La Wein?

It takes place in a distant and isolated Lebanese village during the Lebanese civil war, during the time of conflict between Muslims and Christians. The villagers are a mixture of both religions determined to live in harmony while trying to ignore the war going on around them; well at least the women are.

This movie is full of hidden meanings, and each scene or situation could be interpreted differently.

It shows how the Lebanese community doesn’t really have any problems within it except those that come from the outside; be it politics or regional conflicts. On the other hand the same scene could really be an indication of how fragile the Lebanese community is. It shows that religious figures such as a sheikh and a priest struggle to calm the people within their ranks because both religions are about peace and love not hate and bloodshed. It shows how women are greatly impacted by the war; especially on an emotional level either by losing their husbands or children, thus making them more eager to preserve the peace. Or it can reflect how women have a very significant role in calming angry hearts and distracting the men from the conflict. The movie even addresses forbidden love between two people from different religions, and how silence is better than stirring the hidden intolerance.

Nadine was very careful in keeping the balance between both sides. She was clear in portraying how both sides lost, and could continue to lose. She shows how both sides are equally intolerant, and equally savage and ill-tempered. Call it feminist or not, the movie really puts men in the bad seat, since they are more reluctant to thinking before acting even if their actions have deadly consequences.

When it comes to the actors, none are really famous, except for Nadine Labaky and Adel Karam (who has a small role in the movie) however, all played their roles extremely well. Unlike those Lebanese series were actors seem to be reading their scripts while the cameras are rolling, Nadine’s cast is really able to immerse the audience into the center of their everyday lives, make them feel what they feel and go through what they are going through.

Amid the current critical political and social situation in the country, the movie came as a wake up call to those who act before thinking, who play with the social balance, and who think that civil war is easy.

I discovered cooking!

New restaurants, new foods, new flavors, and presentation appeal to me. I enjoy going to restaurants, surveying the details in décor, trying new dishes from different parts of the world and how they r served. In Lebanon of course!

In Lebanon, dishes are cooked with a twist…a Lebanese twist that appeals to the Lebanese’s tastes. Chinese food doesn’t include bugs, Indian food isn’t too spicy, and American food isn’t too fatty; it captures the tastes, minus the cons.

Recently, I have taken all my restaurant experiences (including my mom’s extra delicious cooking methods) and put them to the test in my own kitchen.

And I love it!

Lasagna, Chicken Tortellini, Romano Bread, Fajitas, Chicken rice and yogurt… are some of the foods I have mastered. (Grin)

Cooking is creating… creating with delicious art. Colored peppers just shine, and the texture of an avocado is so soft and squishy, and the small of butter at it melts in the pot raises guilt feelings in a way nothing can.

I can’t wait to create more, something new and yummy!

Things that no one tells you about the first month of marriage!

(I’m enjoying the “things that no one tells you” blogs; they are my new window to sarcasm)

Marriage… the mark of a new life, a new house, and newly found independence with “the one”! Some of it truly is a fairytale, and the other part is so reality that you can feel it in your aching muscles and cracked nails.

Being used to everything being done for me by my spoiling/ protective parents, loving brothers, and enduring maid, the experience of having my own house was bitter-sweet.  I was used to having my meals hot, my clothes ironed, and my room clean and tidy and all I had to do was give the order.

Things change…

Doing the dishes is new age torture. It combines chemicals, glass and metal utensils, water, and yucky. It gives you back pain, shoulder pain, cracked nails, an itchy nose, and stinky hands.

You turn up on every plant’s wanted list because you become the dictator that deprives them from water and sun.

You do the laundry twice, not because you’re super clean, it’s because you forgot to put detergent the first time.

You leave the house, only to return one minute later because you forgot a sock in your hand.

Dust becomes the neighbor that never leaves, because no matter how many times you dust that TV unit a day, dust needs to watch its programs.

On the other hand,

There is nothing like watching a DVD while curled up on you cozy couch with your hubby, getting kudos on the delicious dinner you just cooked, and “I’m the happiest man on earth” you get at the end of the day.

Mixing Marriage with Friendship

Many of you have definitely heard something along the lines of “When you’re married, you will have less time for friends”, or “When you’re married, your priorities will change”, or “Marriage is your social death sentence in disguise”…

Being married for only 26 days so far, I can’t completely disagree with that; or completely agree for that matter.  It’s never too soon to realize that your BBMs have reduced, you no longer understand the jokes, you get back in half through the conversation, and there are a bunch of pictures on facebook you know nothing about. You start to feel left out.

Then come the excuses.

“Ahh, I’m sorry, I can’t make it today because I have visitors coming over”, or “Are we going to be late? Because I have to be home early”, or “I’ll try to make it if I have time” (and you know you won’t have time).

Then come the mixed feelings.

“I miss my girls” but “I haven’t seen my husband all day”, or “I really want to go shopping with the girls”, but “I haven’t seen my mom in a week”, or “I need to call my best friend”, but “I need both hands to do the dishes”, or “I wish I could go for lunch with my colleagues”, but “I need the lunch break for a bit of grocery shopping”. And the list continues.

Regardless of all that, at the end of the day you know that real friends will always understand, keep you updated even if they have to wait for hours for you to read the BBMs, try to bend their schedules for you because they want to count you in no matter what, and that your ultimate/ eternal best friend is in the next room.

Thank you for the support Joe, Love you!