It’s that time of year again. Sorry I was late in notifying, again, but here goes it! Since so many people celebrate St. Patty’s day tomorrow and all, I declared March 16 to be Kiss Me I am Arab Day!! Come on, don’t be shy. Share the Arab love with everyone!!

Wear your t-shirt with pride!

On a side note, some people asked me to make some t-shirts that say Rebellious Arab or anything Arab related, but my life is hectic as it is. Maybe some day I will! Until then, I am sticking with online virtual ones. lol

Kiss me! Kiss them! Kiss every one of them and share some good stories and a sheesha or two!

Poll!!

My dad pointed out that we have arrived to Canada 13 years ago today. Add that to the 5 years I lived in USA, and you got a legal age! Yep, I have been living outside of the Arab world officially for 18 years. I am officially legally westernized.

Oh dear, I cannot believe it. 13 years in this country and I spent around 12 years of it complaining. You have to realize that I had a personal website live on the inter-web back then. That’s how much of a loser I was. I wrote poems (complaining about my life), shared favourite actors pictures (Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas, Bruce Willis, etc), and the best thing of all, I was in still in highschool studying the process of photosynthesis and the detailed stages of meiosis.

Was I destined to be a programmer? Was I destined to complain all my life? I keep telling a lady at work that all I do is complain. I just love it, and I find fault in everything. I just love perfection and being super organized. I get a headache when there is chaos and disorganization.

Therefore, I should be thankful that a country accepted us as citizens. The funny thing that 13 years ago, when I arrived to this land, it was written in my immigration papers that my country of birth nationality was the following: Stateless. I was a gal without a country. Now, I got a second beautiful home, and a beautiful story and love of my Palestinian country and ancestors to share with the world.

Canada won the most Gold medals ever in Winter Olympic history.

Canada beat USA in Men’s Hockey game today. It was an over time game and the intensity was beyond description.

Canada won!!

Canada celebrated..

We maybe the nicest people in the world, but we are mean on the ice! We can’t help it, we love our ice and snow!

Now let’s sing!!

I decided that today is a positive day, and we should all think positive. Deal?

Every time I talk about Arabs on my website, I get the two or three or dozen guys and gals that write this to me, “Mona you are wrong! You are giving us a bad image!” I am going to bluntly say this, “I am not wrong, and not giving anyone a bad image.”

I am only stating an opinion of my life experiences and surroundings. My surroundings and people that I have interacted with are totally different than yours or hers or his living somewhere else. That’s reality and it is inevitable. However, I am not giving anyone a bad image. I have no intention to give anyone a bad image, because I am the last person on earth to talk badly about people. I don’t gain or lose anything if I do, so why do it?

I will tell you guys something. You see, although I write so much criticism on this blog about various topics that pertain to my culture, but I love, adore and respect it. When you love something so much, you criticize it to make it better. You make your voice heard and try change it. My way of pertaining this love is to talk about the positives and negatives. It’s like criticizing a musical ballad. It’s still beautiful, people listen to it, but you have to criticize it so the next time a new music ballad is made, it would be much better.

Outcome of the Continuous Criticism

Over 60% of my daily readers are none Arab. But why? Simple. They relate to me. They feel they have a connection to me as a human being. I am no different than them. I just happen to know another language, have a different religion, but I am a girl with similar problems and opinions about life. Therefore, they have a different view of what Arabs really are now, because I try to represent one as being just another human being like everyone else.

Over 60% of my daily readers are none Arab. Again, why? Simple. They are interested in cultures, but they don’t know where to find someone talking about it so freely, and discussing the goods and bads like anyone else. No one is perfect, but some think that their culture is anyways, and rebuff any negative opinions toward it.

This week, a lady emailed me a very pompous message saying that she loves my blog, because she loves Arabs and is married to one. Not only that, she moved to an Arab country because she does!

My response: Sweet!

Enlightening me with your Thoughts

Finally, I have been so busy with life, and I know many people have been emailing me asking me questions and awaiting a response.  I apologize that I haven’t replied yet. I am behind with over a week’s worth of unanswered emails. I usually don’t reply to all of them. Maybe only 90% of them, and the other 10%, well, somethings I don’t have an answer for.

I can’t answer a question about married life to an Arab and the problems that arise. I don’t have the experience to do it, so why make up something? I am just trying to not give you an opinion about something that I have no experience with just to make me look like I know everything. I am not Dear Abbey. I don’t know everything, but I do know a lot, because I really think hard and is very logical (programmer’s brain).

Therefore, bear with me people. My life is hectic as it is. My daily blogging has drastically decreased since I started this new job of my mine 6 months ago, and it got way worse when I started taking classes again in January. I am trying really hard here, and my blog is not the number one priority in my life anymore like it used it be for the past four years. It is just number three!

The beauty of all that I have written today is that I am thankful to be alive. That I have a good active and busy life, and I hope from the bottom of my heart that my culture grows again to stamp its prestige in history.

My work place… women… divorced… have children… need a man… mission to find a man… but how… online dating sites!

When at least 3 or 4 women at my work place gather around, and I happen to be there hearing them, the conversation goes from work schedule to men. I sit there staring at them because I cannot engage in their conversation. I am like… ahh… I am staying out this! When I hear them I just laugh, and my eyes widen from the shock of the things that come out of their mouths. Then I say to my self, “Is there a hidden camera anywhere?”

The stories that they converse about are beyond unbelievable. I thought TV was fictional or over exaggerated real stories. Nop! Reality is even worse, and it is actually less shocking on TV or not even close to reality.

Since I don’t watch TV much at all, my work is becoming a lot more entertaining. Live entertainment, who can say no to that?

My life can’t get any quieter, and I can’t get any happier!

I am very happy right now that I don’t have to deal with anyone anymore. I feel that I finally have more time to focus on myself, which I have not done for many years. When I was younger, in my teens, I didn’t talk to too many people. However, I was focused and I knew exactly what I wanted. There were no distractions that swayed me from my objectives. After all the craziness of the past year, especially the past couple of weeks of discoveries, I finally feel free of people, and I don’t have to deal with them anymore.

I feel that the people I have met so far in life were great, but they taught me to finally be more picky and stop being nice for no reason. My problem was that I wanted people to like me in any way possible, because I never experienced it while I was growing up. Due to the fact that I lived in different countries and different cultures, I never felt that I belonged anywhere or people understood me.

However, I did far too many nice things in order for them to appreciate me. I was a bit naive, and really it is the way I am. I am way too nice, but now, I don’t want to be. I felt cheap and people only liked me because I did something for them. No one really liked me for who I am. Who am I anyways?

I think it took me 29 years to finally understand myself.

Therefore, I am happy. I am still nice, but not too much. I feel focused and know exactly what I want from life. I am more ambitious now, and I don’t feel that I need to convince others or talk to anyone in order for them to back me up with a decision. I feel that I can do it on my own. I learned from my mistakes, and I experienced many things. In the past, I used to always be afraid and naive. I was always too hesitant to make a decision. Now, I don’t think twice, and I don’t care what others think. I pick a path that I am comfortable with, and I stick to it. I make a final decision, and I feel no regrets.

Ah life… what a journey!

This is part three of the year end manifestation of the life of my blog.

My blog this year won so many awards, that I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count them! NOT!! (Didn’t I sound cheesy and dorky like the rest of the bloggers out there?) But yes, my blog won a lot of invisible mind boggling awards. I won people’s readerships. That’s the biggest award I can get as a blogger. I don’t care about best blog, or best writer, or best anything. Who cares? It’s like winning a virtual banner to advertise someone else’s bright idea that started the campaign.

Really, if the prize was money based, then people will be all over it! I would be so all over it!

So, I am gonna list the top blog posts this year by comments, my favorites, and ones that I should have never published, but found their way online cause of my insomnia or excessive amounts of coffee!

Top Blog Posts 2009 | Comments & Reactions

1. April 28, 2009 | It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a conspiracy theory!
2. June 7, 2009 | The Arab Blogorette
3. June 16, 2009 | I think it is time for change!
4. August 25, 2009 | Why are Muslims turning Atheists?
5. August 30, 2009 | Analysis: It is much harder to get rid of her
6. September 7, 2009 | Arabs marrying non-Arabs
7. September 18, 2009 | Window shopping for a bride
8. October 27, 2009 | Symbols of being different

Top Blog Posts 2009 | Monaism & Love

1. January 15, 2009 | Are good people always the victims of life?
2. March 31, 2009 | How accurate is this?
3. April 20, 2009 | Airports think I am a perv!
4. May 21, 2009 | A way to relieve stress
5. July 15, 2009 | Teaching a child the basics of the internet world
6. September 6, 2009 | No Comment
7. September 24, 2009 | I am sick and tired of looking for work!!! NO MORE!
8. December 4, 2009 | The typicals
9. December 26, 2009 | I am the master of my choices

Top Blog Pots 2009 | Those That Should Have Never Been

1. January 28, 2009 | The blogging world is run by monkeys
2. May 4, 2009 | I thought I held the title of taking things too seriously
3. June 20, 2009 | The media has been following me for over two decades
4. September 26, 2009 | I don’t like talking about sex in public

Ayee!! I almost forgot to wish Merry Christmas to my Christian friends. Arabs and non-Arabs! Happy holidays and I hope you had a fabulous day.

I know many Arab Eastern Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas in January, but two holiday wishes are always great! Eh?

P.S. for those that have noticed the front page changes on my site, what do you think?

Blunt

Smart

Quiet

Geek

Living in a totally different world

I have been repeatedly labeled by all those terms above at work. Believe me, the first one on the list, blunt, is the best one. Finally someone realized that I speak the truth. I am not afraid of the truth. I hate sugar coating anything! Everyone must know that the way I write and express my self on this blog is the same way I do in real life. And guess what? People LOVE IT!

[Photo Source]

Moreover, I love going to work and know that I am needed. “Mona can you help me?” “Mona can you did this!” “Mona can you add this feature?” And so on. Oh I love it! Honestly, if I didn’t have this job that I adore and enjoy waking up every day to go to, then I would have seriously gone insane by now. This job is keeping me alive!

I was seriously suffering from depression the past weekend. I just get into this gloomy ugly mood out of no where, and I seem to really hate my self. I feel like I want to scream or tell someone I had enough! Fortunately, I restricted my self and tried to not write anything on my blog while I am in that mood.

How did I get out of this bad mood?

When your boss loves you so much and appreciates your work and everything you are doing, and all your co-workers just want to squeeze your cheeks and say how cute you are, then you would get out of any ugly mood. From all the good programming that I have been doing at work, my boss just jumps from joy and hugs me. I was like WOW! You love me that much? I am just doing work that I was doing like 4 years ago in my old job. This is amateur simple work. Oh well.. maybe it is advanced stuff to everyone else. It’s nice being a techie in a world of professionals who can barely browse the net!

Tomorrow is Eid El-Adha! Yaaay! So Eid Mubarak to all my Muslim broz and sistas! Keep it real to the big guy up there!

Also, Happy Thanksgiving to my biggest website watchers and lovely peeps, the Americanos!

Finally, happy international Rebellious Arab Girl Day. In reality, it should be every day, but I don’t want to seem too greedy here. I am gonna call up Hallmark so they can consider it, and add it to their never ending list of celebrations that they have.

[Photo Source]

Oh, for those that are wondering what Rebellious Arab Girl Day is going to be about, then I will make it plain and simple:

Rebellious Arab Girl Day,

The day of honesty,

The day of truth,

The day when you go up to that shit head person that has been pissing off, and tell them that they are wrong and they suck!

Isn’t that a lovely celebration?