The majority of us Arabs, well mostly Palestinians living in diaspora, have been gift receiving recipients, for oh, I don’t know, all our lives!

We foreigners living here or down there or somewhere in the middle have this collection of gifts. We have lived our lives waiting for the real Santa Clause (some neighbor that lives 10 doors to the left of aunt so and so from back home) to come over from the “belad (home land)” and bare gifts. They are unknown gifts that 99% of the time are not needed, not wanted, and are very old school. We love them to death anyways and if we don’t get them, our mere existence is pointless! It means they forgot us! How can they forget us?

One time my sister got a cooler gift than me, an awesome looking necklace, and I was pissed!

One time I got a sucky huge ass yellow sweater, and I didn’t know if I wanted to vomit on it, or cut it to pieces to use as wash clothes.

The best gifts are always candy. Candy from back home is a recipe for gluttony. A way to fill that black hole inside of us. I can devour baklava and other amazing Arabic sweets in an hour. No wonder my dentist loves me!

So, what is the worse/best gift you got from the Arab Santa Clause?

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I know several people in the past have asked me for link exchange or what not. However, I was hesitant because I have advertisers paying me to put their links on the sidebar of my blog. So, what I am thinking to make life easy for everyone, if you want to promote your blog on my site, all you have to do is let others know how awesome your writing skills are.

So you have to do the following:

Take an article from your blog or write a new one.

Go to http://www.rebelliousarabgirl.net/contributions/ and submit your article. I will post it and take a screen shot from your blog and your name (or any name you provide) and post it. It will stay on my blog!!

This is also a way for you to guest blog and promote your site.

If you are wondering if this is worth your time, well, here are some stats. I know we all hate stats, but in the superficial world that we live in, stats are 95% important to prove anything!

RSS and Email subscribers: 801
Twitter Followers: 1721
Facebook Blog Fans: 549
Visits per Day on Average: 1550 – 1800

Finally, if you want to guest blog on my site, you don’t have a blog, but you want to get something out of it like “money,” then I will see if people start donating to my site first. If people donate to my site, then I can start using that pool of money to pay you guys for writing here. I know the theme is Rebellious Arab Girl, but remember the real message: “Open your arms for change, but don’t let go of your values!”

P.S. If you like my blog and want to keep it alive and running, “I pay to keep this up you know,” then help me by donating a few dollars using your Paypal. The donation button is on the sidebar to your right.

Happy blogging y’all!

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Ladies and gents! Boys and girls! Let me make an important announcement today! I have been asked several times in the past 5 years to acquire this illusive substance, but to my dismay, I couldn’t find a shop anywhere, not even online that had it!

I looked everywhere. Every store, 711, gas station, mall, black market. I JUST COULDN’T FIND IT!

I still had that hope to find it. I didn’t want to give up, because I felt like it was my mission to get it! So I thought of ruthless ways of getting it. Stealing, cheating, even harmless almost murder like maneuvers. BUT I JUST COULDN’T DO IT!

Then one day, I got a comment or two, or let’s say a hint or two to how to get it. They suggested an “auction” house. I was like no friggen way! Who the hell wants to do get rid of it there? They want to sell it for the highest bidder? I was like fine, fine, triple fine. I will try my luck!

I went there, but all I found were other people who are trying to get it too! They were hoping that someone sitting on their chair, in a critical moment where it is still attached to them, drop on the floor on all fours and just give it away! Like “black” magic!

Oh well, I decided to settle with what I got then, even if it is not that great. I got to settle for what I got and stop trying to GET ONE from anywhere!

By the way, anyone else that uses their God given wisdom and tells me to get a life, then I demand that you give me yours NOW since you think yours is way better. Butt-face!

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I honestly don’t care, but please don’t swear at me. That is childish and if I wanted children, I would be married by now.

So!! Let’s talk about Arab girl and guys, I know many of you are thinking that I should stop now and you are ready to throw internet worms and bombs at me, but seriously, there are many reasons why I decided that liking an Arab guy is out of the question again. Unless he is 100% like me, but that is impossible because you know, then he would be too much to handle. I can see my self signing divorce papers now!! Prenup baby!!

Anyways, Arab guys and gals! How mind boggling! I don’t know what is wrong with either of our cults, but there is a HUGE gap between Arab girls and guys in our culture. Forget that we live in western or eastern worlds. The difference is there and it will always be. I don’t know if it is the way we were raised by mid-evil parents where girls were believed to be witches and guys are saints, but I am tired of it.

I am tired of Arab guys pretending to be the “sane ones” that never do anything wrong. They do so many things that are beyond comprehensible, but it is ok, a father’s heart attack and mother’s diabetes is “normal.” BUT A GIRL! A girl always brings shame to the family even if she “sneezed” outside! But why doesn’t the guy? What is the difference?

I am not fighting for equality between the most diverse minded cultured species on earth, but you know, I don’t want to go around the internet reading comments or whatever saying, “No more crazy Arab girls. I want a normal one.”

Now here is what I think they mean:

Arab Girl:

1. Calls you 10 million times in the day to check if you are not talking to anyone else.
2. Sends you SMS messages all day long and expects a REPLY all the time.
3. Checks out your Facebook profile and every female friend that is not your sister to question why you ADDED HER.
4. Tries to guess your password (for any social networking site) or asks you for it because she gave you the fake account one she has.
5. Questions every single thing you say or what you really meant by that.
6. Asks you about every single member of your family, especially the girl cousins and their martial status.
7. Goes to your work sometimes to see if you are there.
8. Comes over to your house with her mom without telling you to introduce her self to your mom and make “friends.”
9. Won’t stop talking about her feelings and why she is lonely without you.
10. Wants the relationship to stay secret or else to go NOW to her parents and ask for her hand.
11. Wants to only get married in the fanciest and most expensive place in town to show you off to her friends.
etc…

Now now, I am not bashing Arab girls. I think Arab girls are far more intelligent and not as crazy as the points I made above. But I have seen and known several Arab girls that have done or about to do a point from the above. So I understand their frustration. But ask your self this my Arab guy friends, “Why do Arab girls end up doing that to you?”

I heard this once on an Arab TV show from a lady thinking her husband is cheating on her, she asked her brother this, “I need help, I think my husband is cheating on me.”

Her brother replied, “He is.”

She said, “How do you know!!”

He said, “The moment you think or suspect that he could possibly be doing that, then he definitely is.”

Why the stereotypes to both genders? Come on now!! Let’s prove everything that is said about us wrong, and find a common ground. We can start doing that in the comments below…

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Sometimes being a paranoid freak is a good thing.

It all started on Wednesday when I was driving around with my sister. As we were heading back near home, a warning symbol appeared on my dashboard. I freaked out because it was something that I have never seen before. I was like holy shit, that looks like a symbol for the engine!

Obviously, from my nervousness, I was driving in a panicky state. Before heading home, we stopped in a parking lot, I opened the manual for my Toyota and searched for meanings of warning symbols. I read it and it said something like, “flashing warning light symbol.” Due to my utter need to calm my self down and my lack of comprehension of the basics of the English language, I thought it meant, one of the brake lights stopped working.

I told my sister to get out of the car and check while I tested my lights.

She said, “They are all working!”

I took out the book again and read it with my brain a bit more focused. It had another symbol (*) to read more on another page. So I flipped to page 100+ and I found the true meaning of the symbol. It says, “Please take your car to your Toyota Dealer.”

I read that and I FREAKED OUT MORE! I said, “Oh my God! Something is wrong with my car!!” As I was driving home, I thought that my car was slowing down, oh no, it is shaking, omg, something is wrong! I CAN FEEL IT DAMMIT!

As I got home, I told my dad that something was wrong with my car, I am not driving it anymore. Get someone to take it to Toyota and see what is wrong! He said, “Ok!” Let’s go see what is wrong. So I turned on the car, and the symbol was still there. I said, “See see! Something is horribly wrong here with this car!”

He said, “Stop being so nervous. You will ruin your teeth. You keep grinding on them. I SEE YOU ALL THE TIME!” I said, “What? Since when?” I looked at my teeth later, and realized that maybe he is right. :S

Next morning, my dad tells me that he will drive behind me while I take the car to the dealership. He will drop me off at work, because they don’t open till 8am.

I turned the car on, and the symbol was gone! There were no warning symbols at all for anything. I screamed, “DAD! THE SYMBOL IS GONE!!” He said, “We will take it for inspection anyways, just come.”

Around 9:30am, my dad calls my cell phone while I was at work and told me, “The computer in the car was messed up. That’s why you see symbols that make no sense. They replaced it for you since your car is still under warranty.” I said, “I knew it!! That’s why I get random airbag not working warnings too!”

Isn’t it funny that me, the computer nerd, had issues with my car’s computer parts? Where is the justice!!

I still grind my teeth, and that’s why I have some chipped teeth, nervous as hell all the time, and white hair!

Oh, God bless that coffee!

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