Julie & Julia

What an amazing, uplifting movie. I loved it! It made me feel like cooking. Of course, you'll feel that when you watch it. You'll want a taste of whatever they're having because it looks so delicious. However, it will look sometimes something foreign you're not used to. It did to me. I watch and I go like but this is so unconventional for us living in this part of the world where rice is to be had every single day, or at least the majority of the days of the week. I'd love it if we had new things, tried new things, cooked new things but sometimes I'm not brave enough to order something new so how can I even think of cooking something new when my cooking is still undergoing major construction works?

Yet, I'll try to be unconventional once I master these dishes mom could make with her eyes closed while I have to be satisfied with something less hearing her encouraging words that I'll get there. It's just that being responsible for feeding people is really exciting. Scary, and sometimes even mixed with guilt due to the fact that they have to eat what I'm cooking, though there has never yet been a case of utter failure. Everything I've cooked has been eaten thankfully, so even though that might not say much, could be simply that I'm not being daring but it's still something. Or I think it is.

Anyhow. Watch the movie. You won't be disappointed. Meryl Streep is beyond marvelous!
Here's a quote Julia Child says somewhere in the movie:

"I just want to savor this moment. The moment when anything is possible. The moment that you can just imagine they're going to love everything you did and it's going to sell a million copies and change the world."

PS: I watched it alone. That's like a first!

Late Night Thoughts

I don't feel like complaining anymore. About people, college, friends or anything really. I really want to try to live. Just live. Without passing judgments because that's what people do, without whining about every single thing.

You know the thoughts you have before you fall asleep? All the promises you make to yourself. Tomorrow I'll start doing this, stop that, and simply be a better person. They help you sleep at night, you truly mean them at that time. You can't wait for the morning to start doing all those things. You wake up forgetting all those things, going on your daily life, then it hits you and you remember the promises. You simply feel you can't start now because it has to be from the moment you wake up, for some reason. You feel a bit down, then decide you'll start tomorrow. This ends it. At night you get caught up with the book you're reading or with facebook/twitter. This happens around once a month, and just feels healthy for some reason.

For me I stopped doing it. I try to stop that is. I usually catch myself dreaming how I can make tomorrow better, but I stop myself because usually I end up disappointed. This is all due to my weak will. It is. I can start the change now, post this, shut the laptop, leave my phone aside, read and sleep by 1a.m. Will this happen though? I'll waste time just contemplating it, and then get depressed over the fact that I didn't achieve it. I'd love to know the magical formula of getting things done. Should I put up a paper I've written the things I want done and post it on the wall. I would if I wasn't too shy and scared of the comments it'll attract. Should I write it down on my journal? I haven't written in it for ages though, and it's usually abandoned so that won't be such a good idea. Does that ever happen to you? What helps you do the things you really want to do?

I'll go have my late night thoughts now, good night.

Progress on Wishlist

So, now there are 3 things checked in my wishlist!
The most recent being, 'Go to a concert and SCREAM'. We attended a Westlife concert last week. It was out of this world. I know I know, Westlife are so last year but they have really good songs and we used to be great fans, and now we're even more since we went to their concert, we can't help it.
I screamed my heart out, woke up the next day with a throat that really hurt but it was worth it. I felt like there was so much inside of me that I let out that day and I'm a normal healthy person again! :D



There are so many things I'd like to learn right now. I'm well on my way with 'learn how to cook' I'm not sure what the limit is, when will I be able to say I know how to cook now. I need to set a limit, because even though I keep repeating the same dishes I know. They're getting better!

Languages is something that's so far-fetched now. I still have hope though, but I don't know how much will is left!! There's that part of me thinking what's the point. I know, that's wrong but I can't help it.

I'm not sure I'll ever check 'Change the world'. I don't know why I wrote that, or I do but I suppose I'm more realistic about changing the world. It could be I'm saying that to console myself, it's not that I can't change it but who's to say I really did change it, and if I did check it will I feel that satisfaction? Will it be enough, as in I did my bit. I don't think that feeling will ever be there, and that's a good thing right?

Inshallah I'll be able to do all those things. I need more courage though, more motivation and imagination. What are some of the things on your wishlist?

Reading Take #02

Everybody talks about how reading is important, how books should be available everywhere and how upsetting it is that nobody reads anymore. This is all very true, yet where are all the bookstores? The public libraries? This is something that really gets me frustrated. I need only one decent public library, and I need other book stores to get books from other than Borders who never seem to have the books I want, and when I order them I get them double the usual price.
Here are the places I get books from:
Borders (2 branches)
House of Prose (second-hand bookshop)
Let's Read campaign (second-hand charity event)

I'm thankful for the above, the last one is amazing because you get really cheap books. It's a monthly event, and the people there are of course, not arabs. There are arabs who come and buy but not the majority. We always complain how we don't read, and say 'Mashallah, a foreigner will always have a book in his hand.' And it ends there.
However, I feel there should be more options, at least a public library. Of course there are public libraries, but I need them to have readable, understandable books instead of the books nobody reads. So here's my plead: Open more books stores, more libraries, more initiatives for reading. Can we know about events that are related to reading? Can there be something more than the annual book fair? Can there be more book-signings? Please! I think people would be encouraged to read if there was a genuine and a true motive: get people to read more, simply that. Not to simply for show and a good reputation.

I'd like to give a huge thank-you to this blog: http://morethan1life.blogspot.com/
They haven't been posting much lately, but when they do it's amazing. They give updates on Arabic books, book reviews, recommendations and there's so much more. They don't get the publicity they deserve, and I really feel sorry about that because what they do is beyond wonderful.

Now

I want to blog. I want to write. I promised myself I'd start posting more, getting things off my chest but as I think of things to write about I realize I'm A)repeating myself, B) not helping myself by dwelling on things that annoy me which will annoy me more since I can't express how I'm annoyed by them.
College: Girls talk about each other. They'll talk about each other behind each other's back though they know I'm a friend of that person they're talking to. I don't know what is their aim, to get me to hate that person or to get me talking about about that person? Either is so wrong. I want to make them stop, but I don't have the courage to stand up to them. Instead I hope they stop on their own.

Nails: I just spent over an hour trying to learn how to draw stuff using nail polish on my nails, and I have 2 flowers, one on each big toe nail and one on my thumb nail. Tomorrow I'll hear discouraging comments that go like 'It's not that bad'. But I like it, and who cares honestly?

Studies: Not much of that, though we had an exam today and will be having another one this Tuesday. We just finished midterms (2 weeks now!), and we deserve the rest. [Don't believe all you read.] Grades were well, thank God but I never feel comfortable discussing them. Oh, and how can you be angry at your friend who said sucked really bad at an exam but ended up getting a higher grade than you? How?!

Books: Abusing them. Loving it! First time reading an English book then an Arabic book then an English book and so on. I have that luxury now. The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoevesky > Love in Exile - Bahaa Taher > House Rules - Jodi Picoult > تمر الأصابع - محسن الرملي

Songs: I'm discovering new songs on my own lately, and I enjoy that. Recommendations: Sleeping to Dream - Jason Mraz and Half of My Heart - John Mayer Feat. Taylor Swift.

Sleep: Too long naps. Have no idea how to stop. Thinking of looking for an annoying alarm clock, because this won't do.

Last thought: Those forwards where you have to pick a number and you'll get a question you have to answer. I always go blank though it's a relatively easy question and answer something so lame then apologize for the lameness of the answer. Once a friend was nice enough to make me feel it wasn't while another didn't even answer back. That's life.

Did I just diss too many people in this post?
No offense intended. Honest!