Western Arab

a single ring. caller id says restricted. who is calling me with a restricted number? i haven’t seen a restricted number in a long time.

the call reminds me of a few years ago when i received a restricted call that was one of many to follow. perhaps the call that opened the door.

why was it a single ring? it gives me the impression that someone called and quickly chickened out. the restricted call from a few years back came with a short conversation with an anonymous person, which led to another restricted call, on that same day, that revealed the identification of the caller, and lasted more than 40 minutes. this new call came in yesterday at 8:58pm. will that one lead to another? is this an opener yet again? but an opener to what? or is this just a random call that will fade away never to be thought of again? perhaps i will never know.

note: this post was intentionally written in all lower case letters, i do not know the reason for this but i felt like it should be in this format.

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.

A voice mail in January 2007

I believe it was January, maybe February. I am pretty sure it was 2007. This voice mail perhaps started a chain of events for that year. A voice mail with an honest apology, genuine regret and good intentions. A message asking for forgiveness and a continued friendship. A desperate voice, almost cracking, not knowing what else to do to correct a mistake.

I believe this voice mail was the start of a closer friendship. It came after about two months of complete disconnection. It was explained by a memory initiated from reading a book, but I believe it was more than that. I believe it was a feeling of some emptiness. I believe it was a glimpse of life that did not include me. I know I may sound conceited or maybe even arrogant, but this is what had happened. It was only a day after returning from a long trip out of the country, not even a day, and the first business matter to attend to was to fix this mistake, to reconnect, to rebuild, to reestablish and to secretly admit.

This is just a memory of a small event, that set the stage for an interesting year. A year of genuine friendship, learning, understanding, experience and perhaps struggle. A year beneficial to both of us. And a year of memories that can’t ever be erased.

And then there was disconnection again. Only this time it was for good. And this time not because of a mistake, but because of things being what they are. And so the friendship lives on in memory. And it will continue to do so.

“Thanks for the good times.”

Wow, I went through some old belongings of mine. This is awesome,  I am glad I have or my mom has kept things like this for me all these years. Here is some of what I found. Click on the pictures to browse them in full size.

A first place ribbon from PS 152. I don’t remember what it was for, did I even win it? Maybe it was my sister’s but I kept it I remember getting a few of these but can’t remember for what exactly.

PS 152 First Place Ribbon

This is actually a t-shirt that the class of 1991 in PS 152 signed. I signed it too, find my name. Instead of throwing out the t-shirt, my mom wanted to keep it, so we cut it and put it some plastic or vinyl thing.

PS 152 Class of 1991

I also have a few old report cards, I thought the predefined comments teachers left were funny. Most of the comments I received were not so good as you can see below. I don’t know that I actually was absent all those times as that report card states. I think the teachers are just liars!

Old Report Card

Just some old post cards. First is the George Washington Bridge in NY. Second is the Liberty Bell in Pennsylvania. And third is the Verrazano – Narrows Bridge in NY.

Old Post Cards

A bunch of old coins I had collected. I sure hope one of these coins is worth a lot and I can ebay it!!! Anyone wants to buy?

Old Coins

My Nintendo game manuals. This is great, I love these. I don’t have the game system anymore but these manuals I kept.

Nintendo Game Manuals

I loved this game! Plus who can forget Duck Hunt with my orange Nintendo gun! Look at the wear on that manual!

Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt

These were the best collecting cards ever! They were not only cards, they were stickers! I loved these, and my dad bought them for me. One night he came home and gave me a pack of the cards, I opened it up and was excited. Then he gave me a second and third pack. And that wasn’t enough I was sooooo happy and excited, he gave me a full box of the card packs he bought for me. And I still have them to this day. Too bad I glued them on something, because the back of each card has some round paper spot from where the glue was and the paper ripped of. Still these are great!

Nintendo Cards

I think I made this in some class in junior high school. I can’t remember exactly. You know, some plastic thing with holes in it, and I stitched through it. Somehow.

Mahmoud Stitch

I used to play basketball a lot. I loved it. It was great exercise and kept me in great shape. Plus I worked out daily then. My favorite team was the Chicago Bulls with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. I still have Scottie Pippen’s Bulls jersey.

Michael Jordan Card

These were mentioned in an earlier post, back in high school. I forgot I had also Romeo and Juliet. Hahaha, who wants to read Shakespeare. I sure didn’t!

Cliff Notes

Ok these are really old. I was in some boy scouts thing way back. This was in Lebanon. This is really cool. I love that my parents kept these for me. I just loved blowing that whistle for no reason. What kid doesn’t like to make noise?

I was a boy scout

Ah! Beavis and Butthead. I used to watch this show all the time. It was great! I actually used to do their voices. Yeah yeah!!! I remember working at the Sports Authority and doing the voices for a friend that worked with me. We were in the stock room “working”, I was doing the voices and he was cracking up while packing some stuff or unpacking, who cares, my impressions where inspiring him to work! I got this sticker at a supermarket, you know those 25 and 50 cents machines they have when leaving supermarkets to try to get the last quarter your parents had cause you just had to have some stupid cheap toys or stickers. I think this one was 50 cents! It was a clever system, they knew you saw your parents get change at the cashier, so they couldn’t deny having a quarter or two on them!

Beavis and Butthead Sticker

I also found a few old High School schedules. I remember carrying one of these to school everyday. We had to show it to the guard when going in school to prove we were students I think. The number in red is the lunch period we had, it was their way of making sure you didn’t go to the cafeteria all day long.

10th Grade Schedule

And here is the back of it. My graffiti. I like how the folded out side is so dirty and the other is white. Looks like I was pimping, got some phone numbers on it.I think the bottom right corner is the W from Wu-tang Clan! Chessboxin!

Back of 10th Grade Schedule

What great memories! I will definitely keep these and look back at them years from now again. I have more cool stuff too, including old action figures I had.

12 years ago. High school. AP Bio.

Yes I took AP Bio, that is Advanced Placement Biology. Wow how did I end up there. I wasn’t even good in regular Bio. But my AP Bio teacher was very cool, in fact my regular bio teacher was cool as well, maybe that is why I took AP. I surely wasn’t supposed to be there, but doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good experience. I wasn’t a good student in AP Bio, my classmates knew this, my teacher knew this, and I knew this. Yet, my classmates mostly liked me, my teacher liked me and I liked me. I will have to say I at least made the class entertaining.

There was AT LEAST one girl that was interested in me in this class and tried to get my attention, initially. She later found out how I really am, and all that changed. She was Greek. 90% of that high school was Greek, if you are reading this and you are Greek, you probably went to my high school. High school was fun, it was some of the best years I had.

Cliff Notes

So AP Bio, my teacher was cool and let me joke around and completely interrupt her lessons to make my jokes or annoying comments . I mean there was serious time sometimes, but that didn’t apply to me, it was for everyone else, I think we all knew that! Or maybe my teacher didn’t know that until she decided to take my cliff notes, which had a picture of someone inside. Yes the picture was of a girl, no I will not say who she is, and no I don’t have the picture anymore. And yes she was fully clothed. I am not sure why she took it, but I think she wanted to try to be tough with me. To tell me, I should behave perhaps. That didn’t fly with me so well. I was quickly angered with her and within seconds I planned out my revenge.

It so happens that day, we were supposed to do something in class, I don’t know what it is because I didn’t know what it was then. I didn’t pay attention but do know that she gave out rulers to everyone. There were maybe 30 people in the class, so 30 rulers. It was simple, she took something of mine and I was supposed to do the same to her. I left my seat and walked around the classroom, I collected every ruler from every student, just before the class ended. In my hand I had a stack of 30 rulers clenched in my fist. I didn’t even say anything to my teacher, I just grabbed my book bag and walked out of the classroom. I am pretty sure she needed them for the next class, but I wasn’t going to let her get away with taking my belongings!

Funny thing, I never let those rulers out of my hand, I walked with them in my hand the whole day, and AP Bio was one of my morning classes. I don’t think I put the rulers down anywhere the entire day. I got asked the same question by whoever saw me and wasn’t scared that I would hit them with the rulers. Why do you have all these rulers? Usually the question came with a smile, laugh or look of confusion or maybe fear. My answer was the same, my teacher took my book, I took her rulers. Which I think sent a message to many students and perhaps other teachers, DO NOT TAKE HIS STUFF. It was only until I was no longer angry sometime in the day that I eased up my clench on the rulers. I had sweaty palms back then, wait maybe I still do … well squeezing my hand on them didn’t help that. After the long day, after final period (class), I decided to go see if she was in the class room and to make a trade.

Ruler but like 30 of them

I went up the flight of stairs and opened the door to see her at the end of the hallway, just closing the classroom door and about to lock it. In that moment that I saw her, she turned to me and saw me step out of the stair case with 30 rulers still in my hand. Did I tell you this teacher was cool? She couldn’t even control herself, she just burst out laughing when she saw me. She quickly opened the class room door and let me in. She asked why I took them but really she knew already, and I didn’t have to ask for a trade, she just went straight to her desk, opened her drawer and handed me my book back, at which I pried open my fist to give her back the rulers. We were back to same old the following class. She never took my belongings again. Thanks for being such a cool teacher.

A random weekend Saturday, which I will sum up with just phrases. Don’t expect this to make any sense. No explanations. No details. Just incomplete sentences. Perhaps I will know what these phrases mean a year from now, perhaps not. They may or may not trigger a memory of today, but that doesn’t matter now. So here they are:

• cow stomach linings
• town center fives and nines
• Las Olas and Las O Not
• 24 hour dunkin donuts

And some memories that came up today. Some fun, some good, some eh. Phrases from these memories:

• Double Tree
• Hooters Pass Thru
• A1A Beach Leak
• Lost Lucky at a Gas Station
• Mohsen Weekend