Witches and Water

I couldn’t help having visions of bubbling witches’ brew, chanting “double double toil and ‎trouble” as well as Harry Potter and Salem, Massachusetts all dancing in my mind's eye. ‎

Tweet and I had a tame beach visit (no long hikes, major swim workouts), just pure relaxation. The ‎mood fit the hotel’s beach, a well-manicured strip of sand with fairly straight lines bulldozed that ‎morning (and apparently every morning) in the sand. The palm trees were spread out carefully every ‎so many meters. In the distance smallish mountains and sparkling blue water capped the look of a ‎miniature perfect get-away (even with the visible next hotel beach over a fence but not as well sculpted).‎

It was a weekday and no one was out until a young woman dressed in all black of course ‎arrived with her three children. (And yes for those believing folks she styled herself "Ninja Mom.") The youngest boy and girl played right at the shoreline; the oldest, ‎another boy of about ten or so, got to rent and take out the hotel’s jet ski. (I guess the hotel waives age limits for certain families.) He played for about half an hour but wasn’t ‎doing a great job.‎ That jet ski was just not moving very far or even all that fast.

Ninja Mom got up and walked into the water. She didn’t seem to care that her expensive abaya was ‎soaked. She pushed off the boy forcibly from the jet ski. He landed in the water with a stunned look and started to cry. Ninja Mom didn't seem to turn her head a bit at the crying.

Now my attention was really caught.‎

She then got on the jet ski and took off. Her face veil and extra abaya fabric flapped behind her in the ‎wind. Drats! I could have made a fortune selling the photo of a witch on water to Yamaha!‎

Laws of Gravity in Amman

Finally have categorized all my photos from our Jordan trip. Here's one for this post. The laws of gravity are not applicable in Jordan. We have two dimensional buildings (see the last Jordan post I wrote). And now fawcets that suspend from mid-air.

This fawcet was photographed at a juice bar in Amman. By the way, I confirm that there really is water coming out of the spout!

Of Course

Of course, Barbie has a Facebook page. In case you didn't know, here's the link to the wall: http://www.facebook.com/barbie?sk=wall

Banned

The dolls I grew up with are banned in Saudi Arabia. Barbie® dolls supposedly sport too revealing ‎clothes. But more importantly, Barbie can be posed in some “shameful postures”. ‎

Well, umm, I’ve been to some weddings on the Arabian Peninsula that might cause one to reassess ‎the ban. Those long black flowing abayas, undone in the wedding hall of women only, hide some extraordinary ‎bits and pieces of clothing. Revealing is an understatement when postures or dancing are attempted. And I say bits and pieces because that's often what we're talking about even on a designer level.

I remind myself to never knock ‎the abaya again. That abaya may be covering something that should not be called a fashion ‎piece and should probably be banned! :)‎

Change

Well now there is a new interface with Blogger - gotta get used to it. Hope I can post some cool stuff . . .

Inglorious

Inglorious! That's the word some friends of ours used during our couple's dinner date in the fast and furious spaces of Clarendon in Arlington. (The wikipedia article mentions some great Vietnamese eats that sadly have disappeared. Our favorite was Cafe Da Lat and we ate there shortly before it closed. So sad!)

We're back in the States and it feels so strange to see so many young professionals (my mother-in-law calls them yuppies) together on Friday night out. It kind of feels like I'm experiencing college fraternity row extended life! But, I didn't get carded!

Back to the word inglorious. That's the word some friends of ours used when my husband Tweet decided to describe our time out of college in terms of fraction of century. Tweet likes to speak in terms of centuries. I don't know why. What I know is if we were talking about something that happened ten years ago, he'll describe it as a tenth of a century ago. I'd prefer describing the anniversary as a decade but so it goes.

Our friends didn't like the century description but I had to laugh. It's a good way to look at something when you are part of a generation that straddles two centuries - the 20th and 21st!