Friday, June 29, 2007

Stephen King Says...

Here are a few quotes I found that are from the best selling author Stephen King :


Fiction is the truth inside the lie .


God is cruel. Sometimes He makes you live .


I guess when you turn off the main road , you have to be
prepared to see some funny houses .


Only enemies speak the truth ; friends and lovers lie endlessly , caught in the web of duty .


When asked, "How do you write ?" I invariably answer , "one word at a time . "

You can't deny laughter ; when it comes , it plops down on your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants .

It's That Time Of Year Again !

It's that time of year again ….. when all the oversea family members migrate back to Libya for the summer . Yes , no matter which wonderful country they reside in for the other 10 months of the year , they all come home for the summer . For those two magical months of the year , Libya is the most wonderful , most religious , the safest, most family orientated country in the entire world .The Motherland sings her serene song to lure even the most harden heart to melt with longing for home .

It is always a felicitous occasion , that first visit from the " Prodigal " returnee .The first words out of their mouths are not" how great it is to see you" or even "I have missed you so" ; no it is more likely to be " oh Mashallah , you have gotten so fat , or old ", said with a smile upon their face .Then the visit proceeds with all the grand things they have in their homes in the other country .How much they own, earned , what special clothing they are wearing. This is closely followed by information of who in the Libyan community where they reside are worthy enough to be their special friends. This is dependent on the size of that persons bank account .All this is said with the ever pleasant smile in place , so you will understand that they are not being rude .

The remaining portion of the visit is spent in telling you ALL the horribly wrong things in Libya .How families have degenerated into wild heathens . The youth of the country are so spoiled , but as they say this they are asking where your computer is …. Because poor little Mohamed is soooo bored here with no Water World, amusement parks , his personal cable TV that is in his room back home ,or his game boy, play station ,x-box to keep him entertained here, all he has here is the internet .And by the way … what do you do here for fun anyway ?

Oh , how can you stand the food here , or the water ?Then what follows is a recounting of ever restaurant in town where you can get ptomaine poisoning .How only the swimming pool at such and such's house is good enough to swim in because they have their own pure water supply…. with chlorine added to it to purify it, of course .Isn't it too sad that there aren't any McDonald's , Wimpy's , or K.F.C. places here ? That their children won't eat anything BUT ……, and they are so afraid that they will waste away to nothingness because there isn't a thing their children will eat .Nothing that is healthy enough for them . It is quickly forgotten that there is the whole coast of north Libya on the Mediterranean Sea to swim in and the beaches to lounge or play on . Or all the fresh fruit and veggies sold in farmer markets all over Libya like Stop and Go's in the States .

When these topics of conversations quickly peter out , they then start on the family members that live in Libya full time , not just for those magical two months of summer. Did you notice…. how Your ( and it is always yours, not Theirs ,when something is wrong ) mothers uncles wife's children has just let the family farm go ? What about aunt so and so….. did you hear that she did ….. ?I heard that brother flan-flans sons where going into business with that "MAN" that everyone is gossiping about . What do you know about that ? Sister blah –blahs daughter is getting engaged to you know who's son, my don't they have all that money? She is getting all that gold . Isn't she so lucky to be marring such a rich man ? Yes , well that ex-wife might be a problem for the girl but mylesh , she will be rich . That’s all that matters ! Ad nauseum !!!!!!!

So , by the time the visit is over , the last glass of tea drunk, the fresh fruit cleared away from the welcome home meal you lovingly prepared with the finest , freshest ingredients, in anticipation of happy reunion with the out of country relative ,you are so worn out from having to defend all and sundry of Home ; it is with a glade heart you bide them farewell. Ah , the good ole summertime. Can't wait for next year !

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Life On The Edge Of Something

On the edge ....
The cutting edge
Over the edge
Straddling the edge
He is edgey
Want to have the edge
Always on edge
The edge of...
Always the edge of something !

Ka Boom !

Ka boom ! Ka boom ! Dum ,dum, dum !Bing and bong !
The room was shaking . The floor was rocking . That could only mean one thing ….. new neighbors . We had new neighbors in the apartment underneath us . The first thing a new neighbor does when they move into a Condo On The Seaside is to destroy all existing reminders of the last owner . They start in the bathrooms and kitchens . They ka boom down ALL tiles and fixtures . They knock down walls . They rip up marble terrazzo floor tiles as if it was a game of domino's gone berserk . Sometimes they wench doors and windows out of the walls the same way you might pull the chicken wing off the carcass of the chicken.

Then starts the reconstruction . This involves much discussion among the men . All the neighbors stop by to offer advise . Much eyeballing of the new tiles , fixtures , windows , and doors go on . Truck loads of sand , rocks , and bags of cement begin arrive to take up the already crowded parking spaces of neighbors that live in the building .No one thinks to ask the neighbors if it is alright with them . It is just assumed that we would love the opportunity to give up our parking spot that we fought over years ago to keep as ours . They don't stop there , no , they then compound these offences with a more sever one . They start the banging , hammering, pounding , bonging ,and let's not forget the all important…. BINGING ! Early in the morning , as early as 7:30 a.m. ,when all are trying to sleep on a hot summers morning . It's opera at it's finest . Shouting with many explanation marks are flying around in the air . Dust from the sand and cement dancing lightly into crooks and cranes that were never noticed before, the cleaning is endless . We have a guy , everyone one needs a guy around here , and ours comes 3 times a week to clean the stairs in the building for us . Even he throws up his hands in despair when he sees wet cement footprints on the stair he has just cleaned .

The neighbors all say to each other that thing might not work , or that cost too much, if only they had come to me for help I could have got them a better deal . The women get in on the act by saying we need to update too. Why can't we have that new toilet, that has whatever the newest thing of the moment may be, and a new kitchen too ? Men are heard grumbling through out the building that these new neighbors think they are better than everyone else with all their fancy new stuff and bad influences .

Things will be like this for weeks to come . Then one day we will wake up to the golden silence that poets write about so much . We will heave a huge sigh of relief and snuggle deeper into our pillows for a few more stolen minutes of blissful quite . Not too long after ,we will come across the new neighbor on the stairs one day and smile at one another . All is forgiven , peace reigns once again in the Condo On The Seaside .