Here is what I wrote in the past week... Chronologically, it goes like this:
26 Sept, 11:51 pm :
Why Ahmadinejad is in Manhattan?
The answer is simple, but since it's a long story, I'll keep it for later.
For now, my American husband John has woke up and is cuddling with Gypsy the cat, instead of Tina the wife! So, I have to go I guess, but I will be back soon :)
26 Sept, a few hours later:
The answer to the question :)
OK... 6:41 pm now. John is in his workshop sanding the wood. He's been apprenticing with a German violin-maker, Joe Regh, for the past 2 years. That is his passion: Making musical instruments.
Now the answer to the question, "why Ahmadinejad was in Manhattan?"
Here it is:
John works Sundays (as well as Mondays, Tuesdays, and every other Wednesdays), so it was just me, my parents-in-law and the cats wondering what to have for dinner. Dad suggested us go to this nice Chinese "buffet" restaurant... well the good news was that no matter how many plates you could eat, you were supposed to pay a fixed amount of money per person, so I thought, "WOW...I'm gonna try them all!"
I started by vegetables, those green things that are good for your body, then chicken in any form and color and size you can imagine... so I put all these different versions of chicken and stuffed mushrooms together, then brown rice and shrimps together and since my plate was loaded with food, I had no other option but to sit and eat it! That took 8 minutes... I was back to the heaven... of having an option to choose from among 48 different types of food!
This time I tried noodles, a variety of seafood, and this red-and-brownish marvel which I didn't know about, but thought I would try anyway. You can imagine that there is no such a thing as a buffet Chinese restaurant in Iran, not even in the capital city, Tehran -- where I used to live (and I miss like hell!), so I was over-thrilled by the whole idea of having the opportunity just to try (and not even get to taste!) anything right out of any dish there. I sat back with my second plate, and probed at any single item by my fork. Dad was sitting in front of me, enjoying a large cooked sea creature with legs and claws...perhaps a lobster? Not sure. Mom was sitting beside me, having her insatiable appetite for broccoli appeased, she was enjoying some pastries.
As I was focused on my red-and-brownish item on the plate, I thought to myself I should try some pastries too, and as I was chewing that tasty "item", mumbling, "hmm..delicious!" both mom and dad exclaimed, "That's pork, Tina!" Well... it took me half a second to reply back, "I know" while I had just decided to know that it was pork I was having! Dad burst into laughter, mom too, and I guess they both got very surprised. I said, "Every now and then I decide to go against myself, just for the sake of it", and they kept laughing.
Well, as a muslim I was not supposed to have pork. Always before that, I had announced that I had not had and would not have pork under any circumstances, and now there I was, enjoying pork knowingly and amusing my parents in law by making them think this was 100% pre-planned!
"Well..dad...I am muslim, but look at me, sitting in a restaurant, enjoying pork at Ramadan!" I laughed and made them laugh, too, but deep within I felt like a coward, with my faith in Allah fading away the more I was trying to "go against myself".
Anyway, the next morning dad said to mom, "You know the Iranian president is in Manhattan? Guess what? He is here looking for Tina, because she had pork yesterday!"
Well, if you don't believe this, you can go ask Ahmadinejad, but please do not let him know I had pork!
27 Sept, 4: 56 pm :
Hanging out with friends...hmm...why not?
John just asked me if he could take the laptop with him to hang out with his friend, Lee. I'm just out of showers, planning to enjoy myself as much as I can.. being nice-smelling and happy, I will light candles, I will lay down and read poems, Now this is typical man/woman stuff, I guess, but it is also American/Iranian stuff: I'll be reading Khaje Abdollah Ansari, while John will be enjoying himself killing people on the monitor (he is in love with this computer game "Counterstrike", I have played it too, but after a while, you start thinking, "so what?").
27 Sept, a few hours later :
...Well, John didn't end up hanging out with Lee, he ended up hanging up with K., instead. He got back home when I was asleep, but right before falling asleep, I read the first few pages of Deepak Chopra's The Book of Secrets, which was so soothing.
As I was reading it, my sweet mother-in-law knocked on the door, the phone receiver in her hand, wondering like a sleepwalker. She said she was mad at John for leaving me alone and hanging out with a female friend, instead. And now, she was mad at him, because she had tried to call him up, but no answer. I explained to her sometimes he could not hear his cellphone ring, or perhaps he was just in an awkward situation and couldnot answer the phone. She got even more mad, I guess! She was so sweet standing there with sleepy eyes, the receiver in her hand. I wanted to kiss her from head to toe. I told this to her as a joke to make her laugh a bit: "Mom...I'm glad John is not your husband...he would be already dead by now, I can imagine!" Mom is a Leo, with moon in Scorpio. So what does that say about her? A very sweet possessive creature (I LOVE it when people get possessive, because they reveal something of their natural instincts, and I love natural instincts!), super-protective like a lioness, and poisonous like a scorpion if anybody wants to threaten her beloved ones under any banner. She told me straighforwardly that she did not like "this girl". I can imagine why, because it's not really proper for a woman to hang out with a married man, when the wify is left home to read The Book of Secrets by Deepak Chopra.
But anyway, I did not take it as seriously, because I know John never tells lies to me or hides things from me. He asked for my permission, and I said "yes, go ahead and hang out with your friend", then immediately after that I felt bored staying at home and asked him if it was ok for me to join them, he said sure and he could ask K. about that too, I said I did not want to seem intruding by inviting myself, but I was just bored beeing cooped up in this tiny room here, he said he could understand, and he was sure there wouldn't be any problem, so I got dressed-up, all excited and ready to go, but John came in the room after a few minutes and said he had just spoken with K. and she had said she was not in the mood for too many people. I felt bad at first, saying, "Look! I'm all dressed-up and excited! Now you say I cannot come!" But actually he started feeling even worse than me. I did not want him to get an anxiety attack over such a silly thing, because he had already started saying, "now, no matter what I do, I would feel bad..If I go, I'll feel like an asshole leaving you here like this all dressed-up and excited, if I don't go, I would leave her there like that all deressed-up and ready, WHAT SHOULD I DO?!"
I told him now I could see why he was depressed, because he had a tendency to make an issue out of any simple thing. I said it's so easy... I would get undressed, since I was feeling sleepy and wanted to go to bed anyway, and he would go out and hang out with K. He insisted he was feeling awful, so I just had to convince him to go. I said he could take me out the next day (today), instead.
That was the whole story, and now Gypsy the cat is cleaning herself so dilligently that reminds me of myself having to go to do the weekly cleaning-up here!
26 Sept, 11:51 pm :
Why Ahmadinejad is in Manhattan?
The answer is simple, but since it's a long story, I'll keep it for later.
For now, my American husband John has woke up and is cuddling with Gypsy the cat, instead of Tina the wife! So, I have to go I guess, but I will be back soon :)
26 Sept, a few hours later:
The answer to the question :)
OK... 6:41 pm now. John is in his workshop sanding the wood. He's been apprenticing with a German violin-maker, Joe Regh, for the past 2 years. That is his passion: Making musical instruments.
Now the answer to the question, "why Ahmadinejad was in Manhattan?"
Here it is:
John works Sundays (as well as Mondays, Tuesdays, and every other Wednesdays), so it was just me, my parents-in-law and the cats wondering what to have for dinner. Dad suggested us go to this nice Chinese "buffet" restaurant... well the good news was that no matter how many plates you could eat, you were supposed to pay a fixed amount of money per person, so I thought, "WOW...I'm gonna try them all!"
I started by vegetables, those green things that are good for your body, then chicken in any form and color and size you can imagine... so I put all these different versions of chicken and stuffed mushrooms together, then brown rice and shrimps together and since my plate was loaded with food, I had no other option but to sit and eat it! That took 8 minutes... I was back to the heaven... of having an option to choose from among 48 different types of food!
This time I tried noodles, a variety of seafood, and this red-and-brownish marvel which I didn't know about, but thought I would try anyway. You can imagine that there is no such a thing as a buffet Chinese restaurant in Iran, not even in the capital city, Tehran -- where I used to live (and I miss like hell!), so I was over-thrilled by the whole idea of having the opportunity just to try (and not even get to taste!) anything right out of any dish there. I sat back with my second plate, and probed at any single item by my fork. Dad was sitting in front of me, enjoying a large cooked sea creature with legs and claws...perhaps a lobster? Not sure. Mom was sitting beside me, having her insatiable appetite for broccoli appeased, she was enjoying some pastries.
As I was focused on my red-and-brownish item on the plate, I thought to myself I should try some pastries too, and as I was chewing that tasty "item", mumbling, "hmm..delicious!" both mom and dad exclaimed, "That's pork, Tina!" Well... it took me half a second to reply back, "I know" while I had just decided to know that it was pork I was having! Dad burst into laughter, mom too, and I guess they both got very surprised. I said, "Every now and then I decide to go against myself, just for the sake of it", and they kept laughing.
Well, as a muslim I was not supposed to have pork. Always before that, I had announced that I had not had and would not have pork under any circumstances, and now there I was, enjoying pork knowingly and amusing my parents in law by making them think this was 100% pre-planned!
"Well..dad...I am muslim, but look at me, sitting in a restaurant, enjoying pork at Ramadan!" I laughed and made them laugh, too, but deep within I felt like a coward, with my faith in Allah fading away the more I was trying to "go against myself".
Anyway, the next morning dad said to mom, "You know the Iranian president is in Manhattan? Guess what? He is here looking for Tina, because she had pork yesterday!"
Well, if you don't believe this, you can go ask Ahmadinejad, but please do not let him know I had pork!
27 Sept, 4: 56 pm :
Hanging out with friends...hmm...why not?
John just asked me if he could take the laptop with him to hang out with his friend, Lee. I'm just out of showers, planning to enjoy myself as much as I can.. being nice-smelling and happy, I will light candles, I will lay down and read poems, Now this is typical man/woman stuff, I guess, but it is also American/Iranian stuff: I'll be reading Khaje Abdollah Ansari, while John will be enjoying himself killing people on the monitor (he is in love with this computer game "Counterstrike", I have played it too, but after a while, you start thinking, "so what?").
27 Sept, a few hours later :
...Well, John didn't end up hanging out with Lee, he ended up hanging up with K., instead. He got back home when I was asleep, but right before falling asleep, I read the first few pages of Deepak Chopra's The Book of Secrets, which was so soothing.
As I was reading it, my sweet mother-in-law knocked on the door, the phone receiver in her hand, wondering like a sleepwalker. She said she was mad at John for leaving me alone and hanging out with a female friend, instead. And now, she was mad at him, because she had tried to call him up, but no answer. I explained to her sometimes he could not hear his cellphone ring, or perhaps he was just in an awkward situation and couldnot answer the phone. She got even more mad, I guess! She was so sweet standing there with sleepy eyes, the receiver in her hand. I wanted to kiss her from head to toe. I told this to her as a joke to make her laugh a bit: "Mom...I'm glad John is not your husband...he would be already dead by now, I can imagine!" Mom is a Leo, with moon in Scorpio. So what does that say about her? A very sweet possessive creature (I LOVE it when people get possessive, because they reveal something of their natural instincts, and I love natural instincts!), super-protective like a lioness, and poisonous like a scorpion if anybody wants to threaten her beloved ones under any banner. She told me straighforwardly that she did not like "this girl". I can imagine why, because it's not really proper for a woman to hang out with a married man, when the wify is left home to read The Book of Secrets by Deepak Chopra.
But anyway, I did not take it as seriously, because I know John never tells lies to me or hides things from me. He asked for my permission, and I said "yes, go ahead and hang out with your friend", then immediately after that I felt bored staying at home and asked him if it was ok for me to join them, he said sure and he could ask K. about that too, I said I did not want to seem intruding by inviting myself, but I was just bored beeing cooped up in this tiny room here, he said he could understand, and he was sure there wouldn't be any problem, so I got dressed-up, all excited and ready to go, but John came in the room after a few minutes and said he had just spoken with K. and she had said she was not in the mood for too many people. I felt bad at first, saying, "Look! I'm all dressed-up and excited! Now you say I cannot come!" But actually he started feeling even worse than me. I did not want him to get an anxiety attack over such a silly thing, because he had already started saying, "now, no matter what I do, I would feel bad..If I go, I'll feel like an asshole leaving you here like this all dressed-up and excited, if I don't go, I would leave her there like that all deressed-up and ready, WHAT SHOULD I DO?!"
I told him now I could see why he was depressed, because he had a tendency to make an issue out of any simple thing. I said it's so easy... I would get undressed, since I was feeling sleepy and wanted to go to bed anyway, and he would go out and hang out with K. He insisted he was feeling awful, so I just had to convince him to go. I said he could take me out the next day (today), instead.
That was the whole story, and now Gypsy the cat is cleaning herself so dilligently that reminds me of myself having to go to do the weekly cleaning-up here!
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