Tag Archives: Eman

Last week over at Saudijeans a blogger’s meet up was organized but only for males. Of course that’s the only way to do it because otherwise they’ll have a much longer meeting with the muttawa vice patrol. I got a little jealous though so I’ve decided that I’m going to test the waters for a women meet up of bloggers. Women here are notorious for ignoring these kinds of opportunities and even set appointments. Let’s see how this goes.  So if you are a blogger writing about Saudi Arabia and happen to be a woman as well, please free up the early evening of November 12^th. For further details Email me at saudiwomanblog at gmail dot com with the following:

1- name

2- blog link

3- Phone number

Call me paranoid but I will only disclose the location to ladies after verification. Lots of weirdoes to watch out for on both sides of the spectrum; ultra conservative muttawas hell-bent against women and desperate perverts looking for a love interest, so for everyone’s safety we’ll do it my way.  

I’ve lived in the US as a child, pre 9/11 in Kansas. And in such a “redneck” part of the country, my family and I were subjected to some racial incidents, the most memorable of which is a man spitting on my father’s BMW after finding out the owner was Arab. Another that really sticks out is one time I was doing my business in a bathroom stall and I called something out in Arabic to my sister.  So the lady in the stall next to me stood on the toilet, grabbed me by the hair and started screaming insults at me. I was only about 10 at the time.  Her boyfriend or whatever had to rush in and pry her away. It turns out she had one too many beers and blamed me for her brother’s death in Lebanon. I also remember my art teacher at school who had to have other teachers come in and convince her to treat me like a human being in conversations that were within my earshot. I guess they thought I was too young to understand.  Or my mother at a convenience store being harassed by two farmer looking guys for speaking in Arabic. All of this before 9/11, so logically it must be worse now.

It wasn’t all bad or otherwise we would have left before my father finished his studies. The US is fantastic both for study and tourism. The way I see it, it’s a win-win situation. We get the benefits of the great higher education system and have fun at tourist sights and go back home at the end of the day. We pay our way throughout. And I have never known a Saudi to immigrate to a western country. And yet you still get these little incidents. It’s as if every Saudi is a member of the higher royal family or maybe some Americans think that we are secretly a democracy and all Saudis have a voice in their country’s policies.

Anyway my little dilemma is that I am currently in the US and I have my kids in tow too. Naturally we sometimes get the “where are you from” question from people like store clerks or park bench neighbors. So far, I’ve answered truthfully. But I am considering teaching my kids to say something like Turkey, although I hate the thought of oking lying. Maybe, I’ll just stick to the truth.

I have been tagged twice! From Ahmed al Omran for 6 quirks and from Susie for 10 hopes. So here are the rules for the six quirks:

• 1. Link the person(s) who tagged you.
• 2. Mention the rules on your blog.
• 3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
• 4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them.
• 5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged bloggers’ blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.

My six quirks are:

• 1- The sound of cracking knuckles makes me cringe and just the thought of it right now is giving me a queasy feeling. Funny thing is too many people like to crack the knuckles of their fingers and neck and it’s so horrible.
• 2- Even though the people whose opinion counts in my life i.e. husband, parents and siblings always urge me to blow dry my hair straight, I don’t. My daughter calls it “filfil hair” and doesn’t like it either. I, on the other hand, truly love my crazy “shabby” and curly hair. And on the special occasions that I do get it done, I feel uncomfortable.
• 3- I cannot fall asleep until I have read something… anything. On the rare nights when I have to spend the night away from home and don’t have a book with me, I resort to reading the backs of lotion bottles, tissue boxes and flyers.
• 4- I am obsessed with washing my hands, especially when I am preparing food. I wash them several times throughout the cooking process, just in case I touched a door handle or anything else that might transmit germs.
• 5- I am a purse quality tester. I buy one purse, usually oversized and use it every day to carry my office stuff, mommy stuff and the usual purse stuff from morning to night until it literally falls apart. So far I have found that GAP leather bags appeal to my taste and last the longest.
• 6- I don’t go to bed until I am falling from exhaustion and I promise myself every night that I’ll get up in the wee hours of the morning to complete whatever was interrupted by my exhaustion. And the next morning I only wake up in time to prepare myself and the kids for the day.

And for the six quirks I tag:

1-Susie of “Susie’s Big Adventure”

2- Nora at http://nora.urjwans.com/

3- Ghada at  http://ghadagee.blogspot.com/

4- Hning at http://hningswara.blogspot.com/

5- Suha at http://suhaa.myminaret.com/

Now the hopes tag:

THE RULES:

1. On your blog, post the Rules & 10 things you have HOPE for in your life.
2. LINK Tag to 5 people (we want hope to spread to people!) and LINK the person who tagged you.
3. Comment/Notify the 5 People they’ve been tagged.

The ten things I have hope for in my life:

• 1- Self-sufficiency, success and character for my kids.
• 2- World domination, just kidding, I’ve always wanted an excuse to say or write that 😛
• 3- World Peace no matter how corny and pageantry that sounds
• 4- Enough resources for everyone on Earth without harming the planet
• 5- To be a genetic and effortless size 10 and pass the gene to my daughter.
• 6- That Saudi women demand their real Islamic rights and not take no for an answer.
• 7- To adopt at least one orphan
• 8- To find a school that will not send my kindergartener and first-grader with backpacks full of homework
• 9- To live to see the day when I can go do my errands without taking into account another human being’s (the driver) accommodations and waiting periods. What I would give to be able to park my car outside of my office and leave whenever I want without negotiations and prior planning!
• 10- To learn a third language

I tag with the 10 hopes thing:

1- Ahmed at www.Saudijeans.org

2- Aysha at http://ayshak.blogspot.com

3- Medical Practitoner at http://blackshadw.wordpress.com/

4- Ahmed BaAboud at http://abujoori.wordpress.com/

5- Sami Omar at http://sami.alraed.info/

On a more personal note, last week was crazy. It made me rethink my plans for having a fourth addition to our family. Last weekend I took my 5 year old to get his last vaccination shot, the MMR, so that he could enroll in first grade for next year. Now I was nervous about it because of all the hoopla in the news concerning side effects, autism and seizures. I got it done anyway. On Friday his temperature rose, and I took it in stride because the doctor told me to expect it. Tempra was poured down his poor throat at four hour intervals. Saturday morning I called his doctor and she told me to relax and just use Junifen instead of Tempra. Now, we’ve been going to this doctor exclusively for the past four years. I trusted her and did what she told me to. But his temperature would not come down. So naturally the next day I took him to see her and she said that he seemed fine and the 39.8 temperature was not a big deal if I kept him on pain relievers. She even had the audacity to laugh at me and called me paranoid (closest translation from Arabic). By Monday evening my husband and I got hysterical and we took him to the emergency room. The doctor took one look at him and said he has chicken pox. I was so relieved. Now I knew what was wrong, I could deal with it.

Then this weekend, I thought the storm was over. We all got in the car to enjoy our weekly lunch out. As we were driving along, my six year old daughter asked me: “Mommy what happens if someone gets a toy stuck up their nose?” I replied: “They die.” To deter her and her brother from contemplating it as a future act. Turns out that is was actually a past act and she started panicking and crying. She had the separable bottom part of a pen lodged in her nose. We hurried to the nearest emergency room and the doctor al hamdlAllah was able to remove it with something that looked like really thin forceps.

Add these two incidents and my worry that the other two unimmunized kids would get chicken pox from their brother plus a hectic week at work.  You’ll start to understand how crazy it can get for a working mother.