Souvenirs...Real Blood for a Change

The second she saw me, she collapsed in my arms and broke in tears.

Never, will I ever forget the moment my mother cried her heart out as she squeezed me tight. Amidst all the crap I went through during my night in Sudan, this is the only thing that hurt, a lot.

A couple of years ago, I along with four of my friends got in a fight with the workers of a gas station located in one of the lower class areas of Egypt. I can vaguely remember why we got in that fight, but I do know that it was over a stupid reason. The result was that we found ourselves surrounded by 25 angry workers who were already holding societal grudges. I still have a scar on my arm and another on the back of my head to remind me of that day.

There's now a new one on my back to remind me of my time spent in Khartoum.

I don't get why I had to spend a night abroad maneuvering my way out of harm, nor do I get why a city became a war zone because of a soccer match. More importantly, I don't see why my loved ones had to suffer because of my foolishness.

This whole issue is beyond me; it is yet another addition to my portfolio of enigmas and scars.

I'd love to hate Algeria, but that would be illogical. May what we're going through be real patriotism or not, hating an entire nation still does not make sense.

So, I'm back, angry, scarred and confused. Anger fades away, scars make me sexier (at least I hope so) and I've learned to love confusion lately.

Without enigmas and scars, there wouldn't be silver linings. I love silver linings.

Yesterday was the end of the craziest couple of weeks of my life. Yesterday was a silver lining.

"Other things may change us, but we start and end with family"

Eid Mubarak Everyone!!

Random Thoughts:

My bus was on fire, I had shattered glass all over me in addition to a bleeding shoulder and back, but I still managed to flash them Algerians a big grin, just like I did the station workers. Up yours!

There was this ginormous brick coming at me through the bus window, and I swear, I could almost see it coming in slow motion. When I thankfully dodged it, I laughed like a total nut; it was so absurd that I simply couldn't believe it was happening.

"I don't care too much for money, money can't buy me love"

66 work hours a week will make one see this sentence very differently. And yes, I did the math. With my current lifestyle, I shall remain eternally si-hi-ngle. That is so not my plan.

Rain, lightning and thunder while driving at dawn?! Thank you lord.

Coup de Foudre, Je te cherche partout

The Song: Rain - Creed

Kryptonite

"You don't have to be Superman all the time"

My mother said that to me today.

I wish I could though.

The Song: Fairytales and Castles - Lifehouse

I Wrote this on the Night of a Full Moon

Lately, Cairo's sky has been exceptional to say the least. On my way to work this morning, I noticed that the clouds were…puffy. It's like our cruel sky has finally decided to abandon the 2 dimensional realm and become 3 dimensional for a change. I've also never seen it this blue. It looked like a vintage oil painting.

That is good change.

It often happens that I think extensively but don't quite know what I'm thinking about. It's like walking into a cloud of bees where every bee is a different thought or idea. I'm not sure if anyone has experienced this, but it's quite hectic. Nothing really solves this mental predicament for me. The only remedy is usually a trigger that deciphers my intellectual matrix and makes some sense out of its complexities, may it be a friend, a child's smile or time well spent on my PS3. They are variant and variable, but the one thing that always does the trick, is a full moon.

I wait every month for the day I go tête-à-tête with the full moon. He's become more like a friend to me.

The moon and I, we go way back.

So, on the ride back home, a week of intermingled contemplation was reassembled poetically.

Clear and vivid as the sky was tonight, I still found the full moon to be the star of the show. Every time I look at full moon, I always think of the many other places I'd rather be watching it from. The Eiffel tower, a Venetian river and a Hurghadian beach all come to mind, but that's not my point.

I was more than happy just watching the glamour of the moon through my car's roof, yet I never seized to think about how I can admire it better. No matter how content we are, we always tend to imagine the improved versions of the realities we're living in. There always are a number of modifications and additions that we think would optimize the current conditions. That to me is only natural…

But why is it natural?

Some may argue that being fully content is unfeasible, while others claim that greed constantly gnaws at one's satisfaction with the status quo.

I however, think that one can be fully content. I can't claim that I have reached that level, but I know I've been as close as possible, many times.

Never have I ever seen a man who turned down the world's plea to serve.

He who does will have defied gluttony and embraced happiness.

When the world bows down to me, I want to be that man.

The Song: Beautiful Day - U2