The past few weeks were the craziest, with the heat and work pressure, you could say that I would have been lucky to find some time to sleep and do something for myself.

As I mentioned in my previous post, my sister got engaged and along with that came a lot of social activities both in and out of the house. My brother is also here and things are getting more hectic by the day. Work is also a very interesting front these days as we are in the process of moving from one location to another and that puts some pressure on us, but we are coping just fine as I was blessed with a great group of colleagues and my bosses are wonderful, so this kind of relieves a lot of the stress.

You can see from the clutter around me that I am doing a million things together

Last week; I was invited to attend a reception at the British ambassador’s residence in celebration of Queen Elizabeth’s Birthday. I was very interested to go and that’s exactly what I did. The invitation read my name as Mr. and Mrs. Khalidah so I had to choose a Mr. Khalidah for the night and go with him to the reception. My dear friend Bashir came to my rescue and he accompanied me there and needless to say; we had a wonderful time wondering around among ministers and ambassadors and diplomats.

The reception took place in the back yard of the ambassador’s residence and I can’t begin to tell you how the police have surrounded the place and how hard it was for us to find a parking spot; my guess is that you get the picture

On another family front, we were invited on Friday to one of my favorite and best friend’s house; Kinzi. She was the perfect hostess and I am really thankful and grateful to her for having me and my family in her home and for sharing their comfort zone with us for a few hours. We chatted and discussed many things and it was one of those days that will stay with you for as long as you live and are able to go back to those details that made the day so special.

She cooked for us; both Arabic and American meals and those brownies were from heaven … I am waiting for the recipes; not that I will be doing them any time soon, but at least I will have them just in case.

My parents loved and enjoyed the experience and they talked about Kinzi, her cooking, her wonderful gentleman of a husband, her warm home, her well mannered children, her sophisticated friends and the list would go on and on … I thank you Kinzi for doing this for me … this means the world

On Saturday; my sister celebrated her graduation from Arabic College and she was the at the top of the class in her major; Marketing. I am really proud of her and her achievements; with a limited time for studying and with all the football team training and traveling; she did a wonderful job and I congratulate her on this great performance.

Nisreen with Graduation gown; Mabrook my dear

My parents, my brother and his wife and my sister and her fiancé went to the graduation and my baby sitting days were back for a few hours. I had to watch over my nephews and I have got to say that this task really became harder with time or maybe it is fair to say that we develop less tolerance for kids as we grow older and don’t have ones of our own; maybe we just don’t get kids’ behavior!!

There you have it; that’s where I was the past period and by the way; I got invited by the German embassy to attend a workshop for bloggers and I am expecting to have a good time; it has been a while since I have seen so many people from those who will be there, so stay tuned for more after this one is over

Summer season is officially back with all its parties and family gatherings. It is like people wait all year long till these few months to finish all their social obligations whether they were weddings, engagements or even family parties. It happens to be that all graduations happen in the summer, students finish their exams in summer and holiday season also falls in the summer.

It is true that summer is easier than winter for all activities but it is turning into a summer of craziness and frenzy. By the time the sun starts shining every day and the temperature starts rising up that the girls start wearing less and less. We have become used to the mini clothes and exposed flesh with every passing year.

Yesterday was full; we had an engagement party for my sister and I have to say that I was really shocked with the outfits that the girls are wearing, as if you will not be trendy unless you wear as less as possible or as revealing as you can get away with. I remember ten or fifteen years ago, we were more shy back then and we would not wear anything that exposes more than half of our arms, but I guess people change with time or maybe we start seeing things differently when we grow older.

Anyway; the party was really nice and longer than I expected, because in these types of parties, people come and go very quickly but this one lasted for 4 hours or so. Of course; my day started really early because I had the task of driving the bride to the salon and stay with her to make sure that everything is done by the book, then drive her home, but one of her friends came over and insisted to drive her home so she followed me and the party officially started when we arrived.

Some of my foreign friends came to the party and shared the joy with me; the lovely Kinzi, Momma beans and Teta Beans and two of Kinzi’s friends; Ruth and Emilie. This was a good opportunity for them to experience a Jordanian party with all its ins and outs and they had so much fun. My eldest aunt approached Ruth asking her if she would accept marriage to her son and she was so insisting and would not let it go until they promised her that they will look for someone and get back to her. I guess that my aunt was living the American dream all the way from Jordan and was trying to assure a better future for son and no one can blame her, yalla 3o2bal el 7abayeb.

At the end of it; this was a very long happy day and I am really grateful that it ended OK and would be even more grateful if people stop wishing me a husband like saying: don’t be sad, maybe God will finally send you a husband!!!
This happened a lot yesterday and was so annoying and really impolite, but I can’t change the world as much as I can change my attitude on how to react to it!!!