Western Arab

City Place

Decided to go to city place last night, walk around and take some pictures and so I did. There was a band playing music and a lot of people which made it great. The parking garage was packed and when I was going in I saw the line of cars trying to get out. I figured it would be better when I was leaving but it wasn’t. Still I had fun walking around taking my pictures. I got some good shots which I will include in this post. Of course I had a smoothie from the smoothie king with my request of not including the protein in the drink, I had pineapple surf or pineapple plus. I forgot the name.

The most interesting incident of the night was perhaps me being clawed. That’s right I got clawed. While I was walking a group of 4 girls was walking towards me. They were split in twos and one of the girls in the closer two glanced over at me, rushed back to one of the girls in the second two and told her something, turned her back to me pointing me out to her friend and then dashed at me and grabbed my arm. She then asks me if I can take their picture. I am holding my big camera strapped around my neck and I respond in a wtf tone with “with my camera???”. At which I get that cute extended “nooooooooo” and I am offered one of their point and shoot cameras with no view finder, rather a large LCD. I bring up the camera to my face before realizing I don’t have a choice but to use the LCD to take the shot. I took a single shot of them, and I will never know if it really came out good or not. I got thanked by one girl and then I believe the one that grabbed me said “thank you very much” smiling at me, eating me up with her eyes.

I said it was no problem and walked off. It was then that I realized she had actually dug her nails into me when she grabbed me. Like she was afraid of me getting away, which I can understand how would want me to slip away from their fingers . With that in mind, while her behavior was inappropriate, it was also harmless. She didn’t intentionally claw me, that was all out of her hands … erm well at least out of her control.

Here are a few shots.

nicely lit fountain with ugly wet floor signs around

nice arch

nice building to live in

electric guitar

I don’t know why.

As Arabs, every now and then, we all get that call. A call we sometimes don’t answer, the phone rings and rings until the answering machine picks it up. And other times we answer. The manner may be different but the end result is the same.

“Hi we are coming over to see you.”

And with what are we supposed to respond?

“Ahlan wa sahlan”

A simple welcome. Sometimes I just accept it. Alright so and so is coming over, whether we had plans or not. But other times it can be very irritating. Sometimes I am busy or just not in the mood, it does not mean I don’t like you or that you are not welcome over.

The rule should be, you can invite people over or they can invite you over. Inviting yourself is a big NO NO!

… if this rule does not work, perhaps we should start responding differently to that call and to those that are uninvited.

Busy weekend of hanging out, dinner out and a little helping out here and there. And tonight is another dinner invitation, which I will have to leave earlier to head to the airport to pick up dad.

I spent a few hours at the Oakland Park Flea Market on Sunday. I had a good time remembering how it was to work like that, constantly interacting with people and being known by so many of the locals and visitors. I didn’t work in a flea market selling before but I did work selling music tapes back in the days outside two stores. It is nice to get to interact with people, make friends and enemies . But now with this work I do, I sit on the computer all day long, I don’t interact with anyone. So it was nice to be in that environment again. Working at home has some advantages but the little interaction with people, traffic jams, idiots and everything else is the price. It is nice to get away from all that, but not completely removing it. I think a split with 3 days working home and 2 days out of home is the how to get the best of both worlds!

Canon Rebel XSi

Other than that, I want to buy the Canon Rebel XSi digital SLR camera. I missed out on an instant rebate by a day or two for getting a 55-250mm telephoto lens with the purchase of the camera and since then I have been hesitant to purchase the camera since I missed that deal, but I will still grab the camera I think. The price of it has gone up and down the past week since I have started monitoring it and right now it is $13 more than the lowest it was, and I am waiting for it to go back to the lowest price I saw or less! 

I went to a 3azeemeh (invitation) today. It has been some time since we went to one. It was nice with a lot of people. Had some good food and sweets. I liked the fish the most. I saw a lot of people that I haven’t seen in some time, some of whom looked older. It hasn’t been that long that I haven’t seen them but I don’t know, everyone changes I suppose. Some had new babies, some gained weight, some got grayer, and some still looked young.

I was told that I looked younger and thinner, my working out is paying off!!! I had fun chatting and joking with the group. It’s nice to have these get-togethers every now and then.

Just leaving myself a reminder that it was April 28th. Whatever that means

Today I spoke with a cashier at the food stand at the muvico movie theater. It was mostly ordering, but I asked her name because her tag was flipped. And I tried to convince her to give me her name tag with the movie theater name on it and all. We went back and forth, she said she was sorry she really can’t. I told her you work there, you can get another. She tells me well I have two! And I tell her there you go and she continues she really can’t. I tell her she can’t say no to me, she says I know cause you are a customer, and I tell her no cause I am good looking. She laughs.

I don’t know what it was about her, but she was an interesting girl. After the movie, she smiled, still refused to give me the tag, and asked me how the movie was. I simply said it was good. I don’t know why it wasn’t taken further than that. Clearly there was flirting from both of us, but I didn’t take the next step. I don’t know, she could of made a good friend at least. And maybe got free movie tickets! I need to push things. Create an opportunity out of every situation. I can’t wait for things to happen, I must make things happen.

This reminds me of the time I tried convincing a hijabi girl that worked at finish line to give me a finish line shirt. I had gotten chinese food at the Boynton Beach mall and sat down to eat. Moments later a girl walks by my table, squeezes herself between my table and the next almost as if she was trying to get my attention. I think it worked. I soon noticed it was the hijabi girl from finish line I had seen before. She had a plate of the same food as me.

I finished up my food and decided to talk to her. She was just one table behind two girls sitting next to me. I said hey to her and asked how I can get the shirt she has on as she looked up at me. It was a nice navy blue shirt with the finish line logo on it. Pretty simple really but I liked it. She responds you have to work there. So I tell her she has to get me one. She says she can’t. So I just throw out a “Are you stalking me?” at her. She looks confused and/or maybe embarrassed. I tell her you got the same food as me and I went back to the shirt. I say just get me a large one. She laughs and says I should ask them at the store. I tell her I am asking YOU. She at some point tells me she can’t understand why I even want the shirt. I tell her I like it and she responds that she works there (at finish line) and doesn’t like wearing it. Go figure.

A stranger with her friends on line to get icecream on the second floor cafeteria turns back to me and says to me “I know what you are thinking.” I paused not knowing what to say. She continued “You are thinking you want to marry me.” Again I froze, my mouth partially open trying to say something but I couldn’t say anything. I start to say no that isn’t what I was thinking, only to be cut off  by her again. “Yah you are thinking you want to marry me!” One of her friends says “She is busting on him for not wanting to marry her” to another girl with them. Yet there I was, with two friends, a girl and a guy and not one of us said a word. We were all shocked. To top it off, as the girl was leaving the cafeteria, she looks back to me, says “I got something for you” and grabs her ass. I think the entire line of people and ANYONE within 20 feet of us heard and saw all of this. My friend thought my jacket was the reason I got so many girl’s attention.

A stranger walks up to me, telling me he loves my jacket. And he has the perfect pants to go with it and wanted to buy it. I did not want to sell. And he offers to pay double for it. I still refused, but he was really trying.

Lunch in the second floor cafeteria with two friends. EHM, they broke the table and our food went flying all over the place as the big round table top wobbled on the floor like a coin before coming to a stop. Everyone in the cafeteria stopped and looked at us. Of course they insist to this day that it was me that broke the table. Pfffft, girls. Glad we finished eating our food before you guys broke the table!

A day of feeling like hitting rock bottom. I remember being extremely angry and was ready to punch anyone that crossed me. A friend came by to hang out. Poor thing, she said hi, looked at my eyes. Said something like “Are you ok? Maybe this isn’t a good time to talk.” I can’t remember what she said exactly but I nodded to whatever she did say and she knew to leave me alone. Or maybe run away.

A friend or maybe an acquaintance says hi as we pass each other, I respond and continue only to have her chase after me, telling me to wait. I stop. She asks me a random question and as I answer, she cuts me off. Tells me to look at her hair as she unties it and lets it down. She was her hyper self and says “look look, I colored it back! Do you like it?” I respond with “love it”. She starts jumping up and down, dancing, excited, and tells me she is so happy and she is going to leave it down to show it off now. A few months back, she had colored her hair blond and I told her I didn’t like it. I suppose I made an impact.

A conversation about round and square butts. I don’t think I need to get in details here.

Crumpling up my math exam and throwing it in the trash, as opposed to handing it in.

A friend whom I did not realize had a crush on me until much later down the line when it all became so clear. Weird. She never admitted to it and still denies it.

A french “chick” whom I apparently made cry. Something about me calling her a stuck up, spoiled, and rich white girl. I am not sure which of those words offended her. I wish I was rich and spoiled. You can call me stuck up then too. She really was spoiled, her FATHER grew weed for her until she told him to stop cause she was afraid he may end up in jail.

A friend riding home on the R train with me gets angry and hits me because I was looking at another girl on the train with us. She does this out loud and in plain view of the pretty girl sitting right across from us, not to mention everyone else on the train. The pretty girl enjoys this and is clearly flattered. She smiles at me and laughs at this girl hitting me and insisting I stop looking at the girl.

A friend hanging out on the 3rd floor cafeteria decides to put her makeup on in front of me. This was the first time I watched makeup being applied directly in front of me, face to face. I watched this girl transform, and I was sickened in my gut, I wanted to throw up.

So many more memories. Too many to list, and some I can’t share here. But the college years were some of the best times. I met a lot of people. College was sometimes fun, and sometimes not but either way it was a great experience. I miss college and I may have to just go back to school sometime.