Lost Keys

Moe lost his keys .We have searched everywhere for them, for 2 weeks . Under the car seat . In all his trouser pockets . Asked the guy at our laundry if they found them .Maybe they fell under the bed , well it could happen .Nope, not there ,not anywhere .

Today we decided to make him copy's of the keys he lost.Also, to buy him a key chain to put his new shiny keys on once we had them  made .This has happened in the past , lost keys, so we knew exactly where to go in Tagura to have keys made .A tiny little shop ,on a tiny little side street, that has been in the same spot for 40 years , until today .The shop had been knocked down ..... to make room for one more new street.

Oh no ! What to do ? There are of course other key shops but we liked this one . The man made good keys . We never got a key from him that needed to be jiggled in the lock to make it work .Off we went in search of a new key shop. We found one that was located next to a mosque and a coffee shop.

The only place to park was in front of the coffee shop . Not a ideal spot for me to park . It was filled with migrant workers tired from a hard days work, drinking coffee. I saw that they had noticed me , a foreigner with blonde hair .Moe got out of the car. Leaving me all alone in the car to go have his keys made. He took my car key on the same key chain with the rest of my keys .Only one problem with that scenario ..... my car key has buttons on it that when punched , will lock or unlock the car doors .. and cause the head lights to go on or off as the doors are locked or unlocked .I guess I should be thankful that it doesn't cause the horn to honk as well . Some do that you know .

Well , Moe is walking down the side walk with his cane in his good hand holding on to the keys , and with every step , he is pushing the button on the car key. This is causing the car door locks to lock and unlock with his every step. Clunk clink I am deafened by the locks opening and closing .The first couple of times it happened I was surprised , wondering how it was possible they could open and close on their own ... without me using the key. I know ... dumb , but I am blonde ! About the time I realized that it was Moe  walking , pushing the buttons , I also noticed the men in the cafe staring at me in the car.It was because the lights were flashing like mad, on and off ......at them ! Several men looked like they were considering whether or not this just might be their lucky day !OMG !

Moe continued walking along the side walk for about 50 yards all the while the car's headlights were flashing the men in the cafe .I started to laugh , I mean what else could I do ?That seemed to make things more interesting for the men , an insane foreigner sitting in a car in front of the cafe and near a mosque, with clunk clinking door locks and flashing head lights . It just boggles the mind what I must be thinking to behave in such a bold manner, when clearly my man has walked off leaving me all alone in the car .

I thought since there was nothing I could do about the situation I might as well enjoy it . I continued to laugh but secretly hoping that when Moe went around the corner the entire Morse Code of flashing lights accompanied with the clatter of  door locks would end . It didn't .It went on for what seemed like forever. Stopping only when he entered the key shop . Oh, thank goodness !!! But then there was his long.... and need I say SLOW walk back to the car .He walks up to the car with a look of wonderment on his face . He gets in the car and asks ME...... how did I make the car lights flash on and off like that ? And ....WHY ?

Mental Health Day For Me

It seems like Autumn is here at last , or at least trying to stay .One day cool and lovely , then next warm and dusty . The norm for here this time of year . Halloween came and went . Of course this is not a holiday here in Libya . But it is a special day for me , as it was my son Haroun's birthday . He died of AIDS 6 years ago . It is a bitter sweet time for me , as I love Halloween . It is all tangled up with memories of our children when they were young , Haroun's birthday, and all the fun that Halloween brings with it in the US .

Moe is progressing . It is an up and down thing for him .The new meds are helping him ,but he still has some very serious issues that will have to addressed when we see the cardiologist on the 7th .The doctor told us he can't have any stress ( I AM SO SURE THAT'S GONNA HAPPEN !!!!) , no exercise ( he has diabeties and needs to exercise , OMG !) , no stairs ( we live on the 4th floor) ,rest ( HAHAHAHHA!!) ,and move to a ground level deweling .No problem !But other than that .... all is good !

I am reserving today as a mental health day for me and will have a one day mental break down , lol .So , if you don't hear from me soon , you will know I have extended the break down .Take care and keep on keeping on !

Painting by Tilly Strauss :" Divorce Document #2"

Rainbow Time

60seconds - 1 minute

 60 minutes = 1 hour

24 hours - 1 day

7 days = 1 week

52 weeks = 1 year 

39 years = years of :

Love and hate , joy and sorrow , happiness and sadness, wealth and poverty , health and illness, laughter and tears, long conversations and silence , hands held in crisis, standing side by side in strength , understanding one another, talking with out one word said aloud, knowing no one loves loves you the way I do . 

Happy Anniversary Mohamed !

painting by  Rane Lavita :" Rainbow Mosaic"

A Fragile Bliss

Our lives , Moe's and mine , has been a blissful blending of days , melding one into another for the last several weeks . When asked how I have spent my day , I am at a loss for an explanation .I know I have done the mundane daily chores that rules my life . I know he has gone to the gym or the cafe for coffee and a visit with his friends , but ask me to describe in details , I am at a loss for words . I have spent time with friends talking of this and that , sharing in their lives , yet somehow untouched by them .Odd , it is odd to have such bliss in our lives .

Moe feels much the same way . We were discussing this today . He said he felt at peace , calm .I feel strangely under stressed . A alien state for us . Normally we have at least two or more crisis roiling through our lives on a daily basis , but not recently .Something always demanding our attention immediately ! Now ! Now ! Now !

Afternoons spent sitting on the beach watching the sea , the sky , all  life moving in time to earths rhythm like the waves .No need for words between the two of us , just a glance now and then for affirmation on the beauty of God's perfection . Long languid drives in the country side seeing  the march of progress slaying Natures work with new construction scattered here and there . This is how I remember our days being spent .

Last night this peace was fractured by a image of a child , dying of AIDS . It might have been a picture of our son .Unexpectedly this child tore into our hearts. We thought were over the heart piercing  pain of losing our son six years ago to AIDS . The kind of pain that tears the breath from your mouth . Makes you want to gag because it is like being punched in the solar plexus .I thought that sort of pain behind us , that we had moved on to a more neutral generic anguish . Something that we were living with , coping , less painful and manageable. Instead we both realized we are living in a fragile bliss that can be shattered in a moment .

Painting by Michael Naples :" Cracked Shell"

Ramadan 1st Week

I am sitting here wondering what to write about. At night when I go to bed my mind just goes off on all sorts of things to talk about , but now I am here staring at this blank screen .... well , phew , not a darn thing. 

Moe has stopped going to the gym since it is Ramadan and is in the Condo with me 24/7. Don't get me wrong, I love the man ... BUT ... 24/7 is too much of a good thing if you know what I mean? Oh , he is so nice and obtrusive, but he is ALWAYS there! I feel like he is sucking all my air. I am the sort of person the cherishes her down/ alone time. I think I might have made a good hermit in Medieval times , maybe if I had a good book to keep me company .

Other than that , things have been going smoothly here for the two of us this Ramadan. I am reading the Quran everyday. I am having to revise my arogant thoughts that I will die and go straight to Heaven , lol. I have read the Quran many times over the years and I always get something new from it whenever I read . This time, I am finding that it is the little things that are gonna be my down fall if I don't change my wicked ways. I am trying , but I am such a sinner, lol , that I fear there maybe no hope ! LOL ! I think I better get off the computer now and go try to save my soul! Peace out , OTE

New Treasure

Moe bought this lamp and it's twin for me as a early anniversary present . I have had my eye on them for over a year now . I would drive by the store and tell myself , " there are my lamps " . Never thinking I would one day own them .All I can do is sit and stare at them , lol . I love the vivid colors and the rich textures . Makes me feel as if I have a box of jewels sitting on the table next to me .

No , I Mean Yes , Yes

That man I am married to , you know , Moe ? He drives me crazy !!! Last night we were talking , well I was anyway , he was listening , or was supposed to be listening to me . I talked . I poured out my soul to the man .

He nodded his head in appropriate spots as if agreeing with me , which encouraged me to talk some more . My mistake was talking to him as he watched Most Shocking Video's on T.V. Attention deficit was happening and I was too blond to see the symptoms , lol ! Yes , I did mean BLOND , because HOW stupid was I to think he was listening to begin with ?

After I had finished my piece I asked him did he understand what I meant ? Purely rhetorically , you understand , because OF COURSE he would GET IT ! Right ? Right ! With his eyes still tightly glued to the T.V. , he nodes his head sideways for NO . I yell WHAT ? And then , with out taking his eyes off the T.V. he starts to nod his head up and down as fast as he can to indicate he is so totally in agreement with all I had talked about .

God love a duck ! That man is going to be the death of me yet !

Count Down To Ramadan

This is what Moe looked like when he came back home last night after spending all day at the beach with his sister and his brothers and their family's , lol . He was tired out but so happy .

I stayed home to spend the day in the kitchen cooking food to freeze ahead for Ramadan . Ramadan is only a little more than a week away . I think it will start in the 31 of August this year , but will have to see what the moon says .And I still have a appointment with Sheila this week sometime too , OMG , rush , rush , rush .

I am hoping that by cooking as much as possible before hand , I won't be spending ALL my time in the kitchen this year . It remains to be seen and we all know that the road to hell is paved with good intentions huh ?LOL ! Seemed like a good idea at the time . Today I did some more cooking by preparing all the pickled veggies by setting them to start marinating . Tomorrow I hope to finish up with baking the pizzas . I also cooked up the soups too . All this goes into the freezer to be taken out as needed for dinners . Next I have to tackle the house cleaning ...ugh ! I hate that part more than the cooking .

Ramadan is 90% preparation and 10% doing what needs to be done . This isn't the correct way to celebrate Ramadan but it helps to get these things out of the way so you can devote your time to prayer , charitable acts , good deeds , good thoughts , and being good . Behaving well , being the operative words here . That's why prayer is so good , it keeps you on track when you want to scream at the idiot in front of you at the bakery , the store , in the traffic , moving so slowly when you still have 10,000 things to do for dinner time at sunset . Well , this idiot has to go and do some more stuff for preparing for Ramadan . Bye !

My News In English

Been pretty busy this week and last week . Moe thought he was going to go out of town for a vacation . That needed all sorts of planning , running to and fro for things he might need , or wanted for his trip . All that rush , rush doing this or that and the man is still here ! OMG !

I had planned on all sorts of fun for myself while he was gone . I was going to sleep as long as I liked . NO PLANNED MEALS !!!! No cooking !!!! Eat ice cream in bed while reading a good book .Visiting friends , going to weddings , having some clothes made for myself . Many of these things I can still and will do , but half the fun is NOT having to do all the everyday things I do normally for him . A mini vacation for me but with all the comforts of home thrown in , lol ! Maybe he will go after all , keep your fingers crossed for me , lol !

It has been the Annual Pre Ramadan clean out the freezer thing this past week end . I made a solemn vow this year as I hammered the ice off the sides of the freezer ..... next year , I WILL HAVE A FROST FREE FREEZER AND REFRIGERATOR ... or else ! Or else what I am not too sure but definitely a OR ELSE !

In the mean time , I read "The Pillars Of The Earth" book and loved it the second time around . Yes , I said second time , for after all that searching for the book here and finally getting my hands on it , I realized after the very first paragraph , that I had read it when it came out in the 1980's ! Of course that was so long ago , I had forgotten most of the story so it was new again for me . Loved the book !

I have also done most of the Pre Ramadan shopping now . I am so glade that's over with !!! The prices haven't gone up too much ... so far . But I didn't notice many new food items on the shelves as in years past . But the port of Tripoli has ships stacked waiting to come in and unload their goodies for Ramadan , so maybe I just went shopping too early this year .

So nice to see the ships waiting to come in the harbor . Made me think of how things were in the 1970's when ships had to wait days to again entry to the docks to unload their cargo . At night you could see the ships lights out at sea as far as you could look , like stars on the water . Maybe it will be like that again ?

Did any of you watch the opening ceremonies for the Olympics ? OH WOW !!!! That was something else ! So fabulous !!! I loved the way the countries came in ,out of alphabetical order , like a deck of cards that had been shuffled . I appreciated the thought and planning that went into the placement of countries not on good terms with one another . I thought it was so ironic that Syria was placed in the middle between the US and Russia , lol , like a Peace Keeper , lol ! What a sense of humor those Chinese have!! I had to get up to do something and missed Libya's entrance . Does anyone have a picture of that ? If you do will you place it on the comment portion of this post . Would live to see them !
So , that's what I have been up to lately . What abut you ????

What's Going On !

The other day my good friend took pity on me and drove me to the fabric souk ( market ) here in Tripoli so I could buy some material to have clothes made . This was a tricky endeavor as the souk has moved locations several times .Not the actual soul it's self but the location where the fabric is sold has moved from place to place . I don't understand , along with most everyone else here in Tripoli , why things don't stay in one place. We aren't talking about just fabric either . Other things have a tendency to not be in the location where you bought them last .

But anyway ..... the current fabric market is in the poorer , rougher part of town that I am unfamiliar with and a chicken to drive there myself , not knowing the area well. My friend volunteered to drive me . I had asked her not just because she is a excellent driver , fearless and bold , but she could also keep me on track .

I have this problem when faced with buying material . I have had it for many years now and it used to drive my girls crazy when they had to go with me to purchase material in the past . I go into a store to look at the cloth and get caught up in another world . One in which there is sensory overload ! I see colors that dazzle me in rainbows . I feel soft , smooth , rough , bumpy , silky , satiny , hairy textures . My fingers tingle with the touch . My senses reel with the patterns that beg me to wear them . This one shouts flaunt me ! That one says remember the gown you had in these colors long ago ? This cloth promises to keep me warm in the cold winter to come . That piece says I would be so comfy as a robe , what do you think ? A cat print seductively growls , I will make a animal out of you if you take me home with you ! By the time I make it to the back of a store that sells material I am done for ! Completely confused , unable to make any rational decision at all !!! I have been known to walk out of a fabric store with some very strange purchases that never see the light of day again once I get home with them because they are sooo not what I needed or wanted in the end . But I loved them when I bought them , lol !

That's why I had my friend along . She constantly had to remind me what my mission was , what I needed to buy , and keep me moving along even when I weakened . Several times she had to physically remove me from a store with a stern reminder that I still hadn't made my main purchases yet and to keep on looking ! Now that's a good friend indeed !

In the end I did make a couple of buys that were not on any list but , then life is like that isn't it . Not all things can be planned for and a brilliant piece of cloth that begged me for a new home got lucky ! I can't wait to see how the tailor will translate these dreams into reality for me . A new dress to wear to up coming weddings after Ramadan . Haven't had one of those in many years . Then several dress slacks , along with a couple of long slinky skirts to wear when the weather turns cool again . Several blouses to go with all of those things and a house dress or two for comfort . A whole wardrobe !

After I bought all that material I came home to find my daughter had written me to say that my son in law stood in line at the post office there in the States on his day off to FINALLY mail me my packages that were to have been sent one and a half years ago . I had given up on that ever happening , hence all the cloth and plans for long needed clothes ! I am thrilled beyond words ! I appreciate his sacrificed day off to mail these boxes to me .

Way back last September I rented a post office box here in Libya so that my daughter could mail my packages to me . You may recall I mentioned the adventure here on the blog . Now what started all this P.O.Box thing was that Khadijateri was always telling me how she gets her packages from "home " from her family there in the States . I was dubious to say the least since I can remember the days before internet that it took a minimum of six to nine months just to send a letter to the States , let alone a package .But she swore she got all of her packages and I could too . I was a believer and here we are now . The packages are to arrive in Tripoli this coming Monday .Now , we will see how long it will take them to make their way to Tagura to me . And I hope all the contents are still in the boxes since things have a mysterious way of disappearing sometimes .Keep your fingers and toes all crossed for me .Eyes too if you think that will help also ! LOL !

Moe is struggling to learn all the ins and outs of the Mobile Phone world . He gets frustrated with trying to remember all the complicated steps involved to program his phone .He gets embarrassed having to ask other people for advise that he doesn't catch the first time around , or even the third time , but I encourage him to keep on trying to learn . I tell him it isn't a easy thing he is doing but I just know he can if he keeps on trying . So he gives one more try .

The first night he got the phone he left it laying on the coffee table when he went to bed early . I had stayed up to watch a late movie , when his phone rang .I was surprised , after all it was a brand new number that hadn't been used before . Moe hadn't give the number to anyone yet either . So , who could it be now ? I answered the phone because I was curious and I also didn't want the ringing phone to wake him up . I said hello and at one a.m. I heard a woman asking me who I was ! I hung up . LOL ! Then I remembered WHY I hate telephones ! LOL ! So , Moe has a girlfriend now . He thought it was so funny that his first call was a " mystery " caller ! LOL !

I got my hands on Ken Follett new book , " Pillars Of The Earth " at long last ! I have tracked it down from one person to another here . Always when I contact this friend or that friend that I heard has the book , they have already sent it on it's way to some one new . I captured it and I am planning on devouring it as soon as possible ! I think that's what I will spend this week end doing , reading it , living it , lost in that other world .

The News In English

Please ignore the 1st two entry's for this post . There was a malfunction with my finger and the button !!! LOL !

I think I mentioned in a past post that my daughter in law and grandson were staying with us while my son is working in the dessert . That made my last week very busy and exciting with all sorts of activities . LOL !

My daughter in law , bless her heart , was so nice and helpful . She did many things I hadn't been able to do around the Condo , while Moe and I enjoyed having all of the time with Haroun we wanted ! He wore us out but he was also exhausted , lol ! By the time he went back to his own home on Saturday , he understood English when I spoke to him . I think if he had stayed here a little longer he might have even started to speak it . Maybe next visit . His mother announced at the end of her stay that she and my son are expecting another child in the up coming year . Amazing , this time last year I had only one grandchild , now I have two with two more on the way . Talk about making up for lost time , lol !

Moe has entered the techno age finally ! My son gave him a mobile phone which I was surprised to learn Moe already knew how to operate ! Just goes to show you age is no boundary for learning something new ! Now , we just have to get him a number to go with the phone so he can use it . I guess I am the very last hold out against having a mobile phone . I can't stand the things . As a matter of fact ... I just hate phones in general . They are a intrusion on ones privacy I think .

Update on the seranti thing ...... remember me telling you all about trying to get the roll down shutter in the living room fixed a while back and we still needed a part for it ? The other day AFTER my daughter in law washed the windows in the living room , I realized that it still wasn't fixed yet . I had just become used to seeing it half way down and since the windows were so dirty ( I never do windows ! Just a matter of principal !) I had stopped paying attention to it . So , today we called the guy , or rather Moe did since the guy is still sensitive to speaking to women ,and he said he would come next week to finish the job . So , please would someone out there remind me to make sure I follow up on that ? I would like to get that finished before Ramadan starts .

Speaking of Ramadan ... it is ONLY in six more weeks !!!! I am going to have to get in high gear this year and start to stock up on stuff from now for Ramadan . Hopefully that way I will have a minimal of shopping to do during Ramadan . I hate to shop for food during Ramadan because it is soooo crazy crowded in all the shops and the people( me included ! Some times ) are pushy !It is supposed to be a charitable time of the year ... yata yata yata .... but can get pretty nasty out there in the mean streets !

So anyway as far as I know , the first day of Ramadan seems to be on September 1st , which the anniversary of Qaddafi's Fatah Revolution . This is celebrated here in Libya much as the 4th of July is celebrated in the States . This year marks the thirty ninth year of the Revolution . Now since the 1st day of Ramadan and the 1st of September will both be on the same day this year , it will be a interesting day this year .