Western Arab

A busy two weeks are coming up. Going to have a house with SEVEN kids as well as a bunch of visitors. But it should all be fun and interesting, as well as stressful . Looking forward to it. It all starts tonight with a 4am wakeup and drive to the airport. Just realized that is in less than 4 hours!!! And of course I don’t know how to sleep so I will most likely be up until 2 or 3 am before I fall asleep, but I must go and try. Insomnia!

Took my car this morning to have the door pull handle trim replaced. VW has some crappy rubber material on the door handles to give a soft touch to them. But this material is crap and rips after some time. The handle underneath this crap is just fine, they didn’t need to put this on it. So I previously had VW service replace one pull handle and the other needed to be ordered. So I called last week and confirmed they had the order and scheduled an appointment for today.

And so today, I took the car. They always take a long time to do any service. The service adviser tells me it will take about 45 minutes. So I go and wait. It was 9am, I pretty much had not slept at all, and I hadn’t eaten so I was hungry. I got an almonds bar from the vending machine and decided to have coffee which they offer free. I am not really a coffee drinker but the last few times I had it, it wasn’t bad. I see a machine for hot water and grab a hazel nut flavored coffee package. One of those round little bowl type things with an aluminum foil cover on top. So I rotate it looking for the extended piece of aluminum foil to peel it open. I can’t find one, I grab another package to check, nothing … and another.

Green Mountain Coffee Maker

Alright, so I try peeling it. I cut my nails very short so it doesn’t help. I try and try, then decide to just punch a hole with my finger. Inside I see coffee whatever it is, but it is a lot. I think I can’t put this in a cup and add water. This doesn’t make sense, plus it had this zig-zag filter looking thing the coffee is sitting in. I dump it in the trash, figure coffee is too weird, let me go back to my tea. Grab a green tea. This is the same as the coffee thing. Punch a hole in it. Ok so this is weird, it has that filter as well. Poured some of the green tea in the cup. Finally a sales guy, comes by and asks me if I know how to use the machine. I said huh? isn’t this just hot water. Nope. He flips open a top which reveals a round tray the exact fit of the package in my hand. Yah embarrassing. I didn’t know how to use a coffee machine.

Or maybe he was a manager and figured I was going to punch holes in all the tea and coffee packages before I figured out how to use that machine. Well at least the hazel nut coffee was good.

Alright so obviously the car took more than an hour to finish and the service adviser tells me that they replaced the bottom piece only because the top piece had not come in. And I explain to him right in the show room with everyone there, that I called and made the appointment after they told me the parts were in. He said they must of just saw one and assumed and I complained that they are wasting my time. Yeah, so morons!

At this dealer, they always wash the car free when you do your service. FYI it has been raining here for the past few days, plus it was raining today. So why are you washing my car? Why are you wasting more of my time? Yeah, so morons!

Finally they pull my car up. I look at the door handle. The TOP part was replaced and the bottom was not. I call over the service adviser and show him. He said he must of misunderstood the service guy and got which part was replaced mixed up. Yeah so, morons!

Now before you call me a moron for not knowing how to operate the coffee machine, keep in mind, on a previous visit to that dealer. I actually had the green tea, and I didn’t use the machine. That tea didn’t taste good, and now I know why. Yeah so … shaaaadup.

Today is one of those days. I woke up but did not want to wake up yet. I did not want to leave bed. I usually wake up and stay in bed for some time period before getting out. But today, I just didn’t want to get up at all. I slept late so I had about five and a half hours of sleep. I have to get up, I have responsibilities. So I go out of bed, walked to my bathroom, and stopped at the door-way looking back at my bed. I desired my bed so much. I just stood there for a short period of time which seemed longer than it was but I was frozen. Bed or not? Temptation. Resist. Fail.

I caved in to my desires and went right back to my bed. I couldn’t resist it, right back under that new nice thick warm comforter I have. It was the first time I used it, perhaps that had something to do with it. Maybe, the virgin comforter made me desire my bed more. Niiice, soooft, smooooooth, droool. Was I just too tired or even lazy? All I know is I got another 30 minutes of well deserved sleep and felt much better. I can still use some more sleep, but those 30 minutes were awesome! So here is to good sleep, sexy virgin comforters, pillowcases and bedsheets!

Sleep

Alright, so sleep is very important and very fulfilling when you can get it, everyone knows that, right???? So why am I not satisfied? Sleep doesn’t come easy, it takes me anywhere from at least an hour to sleep. Even  if exhausted, I can be literrally passing out on my computer desk, but the second I get up and head to bed, that is all over, I am wide awake all over again. So what is the problem, I would seriously pay money to be able to sleep on cue. I know my dad can do it, he is blessed with the talent or gift, I think my uncle too, but he will be asleep before his head reaches the pillow when he wants to sleep. My mom on the other hand is like me or me like her.

So sleep, when I returned from Lebanon last October I was exhuasted. I was up all day long in Lebanon and my flight was at 3:30 am or so Beirut time. That means I did not sleep all day long and all night long, I got some half sleep on the plane back to Germany dozing off and on and hearing all the noise around me, from the loud plane engine to people and kids chatting or making noise. Plus I surely wasn’t going to miss the food they gave because I was sleeping, food on those long flights is your free pass for atleast 30 mins of your flight going by without notice. Now if I can just sleep normally, I would take that. Once in Germany, I had to walk from one terminal to the other, I don’t know how to best describe this, but it was a long ass walk! So another 3 hours waiting for next flight, ofcourse no sleep. And finally the longest flight of the trip, Germany to Florida.

I think I got some half sleep on this flight, atleast my sister was me this time on the flight. The last time I flew back from Lebanon, a crazy Leb woman kept talking to me, and I had to PRETEND I was sleeping, but that didn’t stop her, she kept trying to talk to me to see if I would wake up. She even showed me gold she got for some body, I think it was for a guy, possibly her husband, and only after showing me the gold, did she need to go to the bathroom and leave her bag with gold with me. Great, did she detect honesty on me?

So finally arrived at Miami International. Having filled out my customs form, I thought I was already ready to zoom thru customs. It went smoothly, you would think by the time you go thru the questions and walking to get to baggage claim, that the bags would actually be there. So yes more waiting time for luggage, and because my sister was with me, there were six maybe seven bags, one belonging to me. After retrieving them all, I saw the exit and I was excited, I was finally getting past all the check points, I was going to be FREE. Things don’t always go as planned as the man at the exit gate wanted to know what sweets and nuts I brought with me that I listed on the customs card. Look they need to make this a policy, all Arabs bring back with them sweets and nuts! We used to bring cheese and meat too but you made such a big deal out of that, that we kinda stopped, but when we say sweets, it is so you don’t say wtf is baklawa? wtf is ghoraybeh or senora as the Lebs call it? And nuts are just nuts, a bag of mixed nuts, actually I had probably 12 bags of them, but that is beside the point! So he laughs cause I have nuts and says I must go to door number 13. I wanted to scream, or maybe yell at him, right in front of me was freedom, and he wants to send me to door number 13. Can I bribe him with a bag of nuts??? Door number 13 was another room with x-ray machines, they told me they wanted to scan all the bags so I placed them on the belt and they did, I think they probably scanned me too but I didn’t notice or I didn’t care and just wanted to get out already.

So what does all this have to do with insomnia? Well I ended up going to see my other sister, and stayed over and awake the rest of the day, arrived home around eight and go in bed at 9. What was amazing was that I instantly fell asleep, I had the best sleep I have had in years. So what did it? Was it the exhaustion of being awake for more than 24 hours, I was sooooo satisfied with my sleep, that I didn’t care to count how many hours I was awake to get this sleep, but then it continued for atleast 3 weeks, I would go to bed and SLEEP. It was amazing, sleep around 10 and wake up around 6, I was up in the morning for fajr (dawn) and I wasn’t tired. I was enjoying sleep.

With everything else, good things tend to come to an end. I slowly fell of sleep track again and landed back in insomnia. So what was it about the trip to Lebanon that made me sleep? I can conclude that I think I forgot everything, I was on vacation after five years of working without a vacation. I was able to to forget everything that I left here, mainly responsibility. Worries, bills, internet, video games … everything. Yes in Lebanon where a mob fight broke out over a tailor shortening someone’s pants too much in which the army had to get involved, I forgot all responsibility. But as is life, it slowly made it’s way back to me and took away my sleep. I want my sleep back, give it back to me!!!