June 7, 2009

It's a big thing after all! It is every adult citizen's right and duty.

This is the first time I experience it here in Lebanon and frankly I'm kind of getting annoyed by it. I cannot wait for June 7th to come to stop hearing about it.

I don't understand masalan, how a visit to congratulate new parents on the arrival of their daughter triggers a political conversation about voting, who said what and who is better than whom, and who we SHOULD vote for.

It feels like the huge billboards on the roads got even bigger with the campaign ads. Some of them don't make sense, and the best are the ones copied from an opponent's idea. No thinking required. That shouldn't have required a huge budget for marketing and advertising. Bravo! What a great money saving strategy! Money spent otherwise on other unthinkable actions like more billboards or paying voters or whatever annoying and disturbing action.

Radio and TV ads (at least the one I heard and saw) are a bit more conservative and targeted to the general public. They sound like they are made to encourage people to vote in general, no matter who they would vote for. That's great! The real funny one is that Xtra radio ad campaign... Only in Lebanon a beverage becomes a candidate in the governmental elections! I would maybe vote for it, if I know what it is made of :)

What are really annoying are two things actually.
First, people who try to TELL you who you SHOULD vote for. I might be of the same opinion, I may be voting for the same party but it is no one's business. Why otherwise would the voting experience be secretive and made behind closed curtains? Save the trouble of creating appropriate voting locations and do it by the raise of a hand, what's the big deal? Eh?

Second, some parties are paying money to Lebanese working and living abroad to come and vote for them. Where's the democracy in that? Why do some IMPORTANT people and parties have enough money to bring in people to vote and not spend it on Lebanon? Why do Lebanese in Lebanon have to pay an arm and a leg to have clean water, electricity and other necessities, drive on streets more like dirt roads, and sell their kidney to put their kids in schools, and be told that the national deficit is such, when there are IMPORTANT people with ENOUGH money to cover the national deficit and make life easier on EVERYONE? Wouldn't they earn enough votes had they done some good on the ground instead of having to beg people abroad to come and vote for them? Did these political figures with big money want justice and democracy in the election exercise; they would have worked on allowing the Lebanese living abroad to vote from outside the country. What is a better reason to have an embassy or a consulate than to facilitate the practice of ones duty towards their country? Just an opinion.

Looking forward to June 7, 2009; and see what happens after...

Welcome

Saturday March 21, 2009

• 5:00 am, the water broke


• 9:00 am, we - mom, my best friend Jako, and I - went to hospital to check the situation


• 9:30 am, it was confirmed that the water broke and that we're going to have the baby "today", but the passage was not open enough yet


• 10:00 am, I was induced to see if I can still have a natural birth


• 10:30 am, Karam joined us in the hospital, back from a shorter half day work


• 11:30 am, the c-section was decided


• 12:30 pm, I was half frozen, in the OR, ready to get baby out into this world


• 12:45 pm, I saw this little thing held by the legs and minutes later I heard her first cry


• 3:00 pm, I saw my baby girl for the first time and fed her

Baby Anastasia is here!! She's healthy and ever so adorable!

What better gift can a woman ask for on Mother's Day than to become a mom to a beautiful gift from Heaven?

35 weeks

As I feel her movements in my tummy throughout the day, I know that this is the point of no return. In just a few weeks, I will no longer be responsible for myself alone. My social status, responsibilities and priorities are changing forever. I will be called mom and will have someone to attend to, to care for and to love as much as there is love in me to give. Someone is coming to stay forever in my life and Karam’s.

This makes me feel so special and blessed, and at the same time scared to death. How will she be like? What will she look like? Will she like me and Karam? Will we be good parents to her? Will we know how to treat her the way she should to be treated? Will we give her enough love and attention, no matter what she does or says?

I see my belly sticking out, and I have images flashing in my mind of a baby learning to walk and trying to imitate what I say and do, or a little girl doing her homework or playing with her legos, or a young person asking permission to take the car to go out with her friends… It’s a long term relationship that will start in a few weeks with a crying baby so fragile and precious... and I only hope it will be a successful and loving journey.

It's been a while...

Seriously, that long without blogging? And almost as much time without even reading blogs??? Shame on me!!!

Life has been on the move more than I would have imagined it to be. I don't know what to write about, or rather, I have nothing new to blog about. Life is the same here since July, except for my growing battoun, and I'm enjoying it most of the time, especially when I'm not at work and when I'm not driving.

Speaking of driving, I see this ad every morning on my way to work and it puts a smile on my face. There's nothing to it, but it shows how witty and smart those damn Lebanese people are :)))

Bilan 2008

• New Year’s in Montreal, with parents and family, covered with lots of snow.
• Back to Toronto by Via train, I love the train ride, especially in the snow season!
• Packed and shipped 19 boxes, or 2.2 cubic meters of the stuff I didn’t want to leave behind
• Removed the braces on February 14
  
• Left work at Dell in mid February. This was very hard…
• Sold my furniture on Kijiji and through a house sale
• Sold my car and what a pain it was to get rid of my Canadian freedom!
• Almost got a nervous breakdown from all the stress of moving and leaving
• Tante Mado had a family goodbye gathering at her house for me
• Slept in my empty apartment for the last few days before I left it for good
• Left Canada on February 28 to Beirut. One way, via Frankfurt on Lufthanza with 4 suitcases of 32 kilos each, along with a wedding dress and a handbag of 10 kilos
• Landed in Beirut on February 29 in the afternoon, to be greeted by Karam, Khalo Georges, and Karam’s cousin Fadi. Karam’s mom was also there, waiting in the car outside.
• Spent a month and a half trying to set up the old apartment in preparation for the family’s arrival for the wedding, looking for wedding related stuff, putting up with bullshit from future-mother-in-law and uncle’s wife
• Big thanks especially to Gisèle, Simo and Thérèse, for their presence and their help. It kept me sane and composed...
  
• Jano Habbouche, our next door neighbor, passed away 17 days before the wedding
• Parents, brother, uncles, aunts, and cousins arrived for the wedding and vacation, one after the other.
• Abdallah Tohme, my dearest non-family uncle, passed away 10 days before the wedding
• Almost had another breakdown and almost broke off the wedding, if it wasn’t for the family support around me.
  
• Had to change my Maid of Honor, who is Ammo Abdallah’s niece. So in 10 days my cousin Hyame had to have a Maid of Honor dress made and stand by me, as she always do
• Had to change the bride's house, and get the party going at Tante Mado's house instead of the family house
• Had the wedding, mine and Karam’s, on Saturday May 3rd
• Huge thanks for Khalo Maroun's support, for his help and for running around with me to finalize the last details of the wedding.
• Huge thanks to all my family who are always supportive and ready to do the impossible to get things done the right way
  
• Claude Farah, Père Jean Farah’s mother, passed away in May
• Nada Khoury’s father passed away in May
• Bought a car in late May; a nice Kia Rio sedan.
  
• Georgette Achkouty, my original Maid of Honor’s mother, passed away on June 12
  
• Started a job on June 26, at Al Waseet, in the online business
• Karam and I established residency in Zouk instead of Harissa, in the same house where I grew up
  
• Got pregnant at the beginning of July. We confirmed it for the first time on July 19.
  
• Luke Nabil Antoine Bakhache was born on October 17, and I became “3amto Coco”!
• Bought furniture and made curtains for the house, so it started to feel like home
• Learned that the baby I am carrying is a girl, on November 10. Waiting for Anastasia in late March inshalla
• 3 more people in the neighborhood passed away in November and early December...
  
  
• The real highlights of the year are:
  
  1. seeing my daughter move and grow at every doctor's appointment, and feeling her movements in me,
     
  2. marrying Karam, the best husband I could have ever asked for,
     
  3. being back in my beloved homeland, Lebanon.
  
  And as an added bonus, I got to live again in the house I grew up in.