ghosts from the past

i stayed in the aub dorms for my freshman year .. two semesters that is .. i had a different roommate each semester .. my first roommate was an older guy .. we never really talked .. mostly i just slept in the room and that was it .. the next semester my roommate was a newcomer .. a freshman like me .. here's why i bring it up .. the second roommate and my brother have a mutual friend .. and they recently met .. he told him that we didn't get along as roommates .. that's an understatement .. truth be told i was a terrible roommate .. so i don't blame him for saying that .. i wonder what else he told him ..

my short vacation a.k.a the escape from hell

i got back from my short vacation late late last night .. i was supposed to be back at work today but i didn't go .. too tired .. way too tired .. anyway it was great .. a much needed change of scenery from my routine life .. i visited my brother in abu dhabi for five days .. i got there wednesday night .. i took an economy airline so they landed in the crappy terminal .. and my brother was waiting in the terminal where normal airlines land .. so there was some confusion there .. and to make matters worse his phone didn't have reception for a while so i couldn't reach him .. but in the end he found me and we went to his house .. it was very late so we picked up some sandwiches for me to eat on the way and that was it .. we soon went to sleep and that was that .. the next day we went to dubai .. we went to the mall of dubai first .. which is basically the biggest fanciest mall in all of the uae .. or so my brother said .. it is definitely nice .. burj khalifa is right outside .. so we did the mall for a while .. ate at the foodcourts .. and left .. next we went to the jumeira beach "walk" .. which is basically like this beachfront strip of restaurants and cafes .. we had coffee there .. and went home .. we is me my brother his wife and his daughter by the way .. his daughter is growing up .. she calls me ammo now .. not 3ammo .. ammo .. i got her this baby doll that you can feed and tickle and such .. and it makes noises .. i got perfumes for him and his wife .. but i digress .. next day we went on a trip to al-ain .. my cousin joined us there with his wife and his daughter .. we went to this mountain area that has a spring .. we had a little barbecue picnic .. it was delicious .. next day was new year's eve .. we went to the abu dhabi marina .. there is a mall there where we had dinner .. then we saw the fireworks on the corniche .. nothing special they only lasted a couple of minutes .. interesting fact there was a coldplay concert not too far from where we were sitting .. so we got to see all these people who were heading there .. i think the most memorable one was this fat girl who was totally drunk and speaking very loudly .. also we could see the stage and kind of hear the music .. anyway so we went home after that .. the next day we went to see this mosque which is like a replica of the dome of the rock mosque in jerusalem .. then we had dinner at this mall nearby .. i paid for that dinner by the way .. then we went to meet up with my brother's in-laws who were also in town .. his wife's sister and her husband and their four children that is .. so we all went to a mall .. when we got there we split up .. i went to the cinema they went off on their own .. i saw mission impossible 4 .. good movie .. i mean the story is nonsense but the action is superb .. also paula patton in that dress .. mercy .. anyway .. the next day my brother had work .. i went off on my own to ferrari world .. it was cool but it's something you only do once .. like i don't think i'll ever go back .. the rides are decent .. they have the fastest roller coaster in the world which is pretty cool .. so anyway i was there by myself for most of the day but later on his wife and the in-laws joined me there .. by that time i had already been on all the rides and everything so i served as their guide .. and finally my brother came and picked me up and we went to the airport and that was all she wrote .. i got home at 2 am .. my plan was to go to work late but i ended up blowing it off completely .. i was too tired .. but i'm going tomorrow .. i have a lot of photos that i took .. mostly of my brother's daughter and also of ferrari world .. maybe i'll share a few later .. by the way speaking of photos .. i wanted to put a picture with this post so i went on google images and searched "vacation" and literally every single one of the results involved a beach .. why is it that vacation equals beach .. all in all it was a good trip .. nice change of scenery .. good to see my brother and his family .. and good to get out of saudi for a few days ..

quality time with the family

my parents came to do umra on monday .. i joined them on tuesday .. they were already done with the umra by then .. i didn't do umra myself .. i took a cab from jeddah to makka .. it's cheap and about a 40 minute drive if the guy is going fast enough .. i got there before asr prayers .. prayed asr in the haram .. had lunch back at the hotel .. then maghreb .. stayed in the haram until isha .. stayed a little longer in the haram .. finally went back to the hotel and had dinner .. and everyone went to sleep .. i think i was the last one to fall asleep .. i slept on the floor .. the next day we prayed duhur and went to jeddah .. they stayed with me for the day .. i took them to a mall for five minutes before we decided to leave because nobody was in the mood for it .. so i took them to a super fancy lebanese restaurant called byblos for dinner .. my treat .. paid a shitload of money .. anyway i learned that i can never drive with my dad in the car .. no seriously .. he wants me to not go faster than 60 .. and he panics whenever he anticipates anything .. which drove me absolutely nuts .. so that wasn't much fun .. dinner was good though .. but i did snap at him at one point .. i apologized later on .. but i feel it was warranted .. i mean he really zawwadha .. anyway .. after dinner they slept over and the next morning i drove them to the airport .. i got this guy to come clean my place so it would be sparkling clean when they came .. and yet my mom who is a super obsessive neatfreak was not satisfied .. she insisted on redoing my dishes .. which were apparently not clean enough for her .. so they are leaving ksa for good in about a week or so .. happy trails .. also mom kept telling me i should get married but i said no .. i'm going to take another short vacation next weekend to go visit my brother in abu dhabi for a few days .. that should be fun ..

resume the position

well one week of holiday is over .. technically it was five days but i added two on my own .. one before it started and one after .. i got to khobar on tuesday .. we went to bahrain on wednesday .. came back to khobar friday night .. i came back to jeddah last night .. and going back to work tomorrow morning ..
this was the highlight of my holiday ..

pretty excited

i fly to khobar tomorrow to visit my folks .. we will go to visit my older brother in bahrain .. my other brother is flying in from abu dhabi .. and then there are my two younger brothers who still live with my parents .. it will be the first time all of us are in the same room since forever .. like two years almost .. plus i will get to see my older brother's daughter for the first time .. and my other brother's daughter for the second time ..

summer in the gulf

this is my brother's msn status ...

feelin' hot hot hot

which brings me to the song of the day

emotional tv

who else got a little misty eyed while watching the latest modern family episode ...

niece number two

zeina is here :-)

the beautiful deena

ما شاء الله

that's smythe not smith dear

my big brother is expecting a girl ... we already have a girl in the family ... she's my second oldest brother's ... some of you have seen her ... deena ... but it looks like another one is on the way inshala ... zeina ... that was how my big brother spelled it when he told me over chat ... which i thought was interesting ... my first instinct is to spell it zaina ... you know with an A ... i guess i never got the memo ... i knew a zeina once ... she also spelled it with an E ... she was my first true love ...

dandoon

wise words from big momma

a friend of mine on facebook posted the following status ...
I SMOKE EVERYDAY BECAUSE....

and his mother commented the following ...
BECAUSE I WANT TO HAVE BLACK LUNGS AND COUGH A LOT AND BREAK MY MOTHER'S HEART.

princess dina :)

dancin dina

dina says hello

قولوا ما شاء الله

remember dina ... she is my brother's daughter ... she is almost five months old now ... i've only been able to see her once since she was born ... but my family sends me emails with photos of her on a regular basis ... i thought i would share one with you guys ...