Post Weekend Chatter

I had a pretty interesting weekend and I think it’s because for once, I felt like I accomplished a lot. Yes, this is another one of those “I, I, I” posts, which some have encouraged me to do more of. I don’t know what the appeal is really. My life is not that interesting or at least not as interesting as picking on politicians and ranting about various subjects. But here’s a run down of the main highlights from this past week and weekend, some of which include topics that I will be blogging about in the next few days.

1) I slept like a baby. I honestly don’t remember the last time I was so tired.

2) I played monopoly on Friday night. This again, is nothing to get excited about but I consider it a highlight for the following reasons: a) It took me several hours of going from toy store to toy store in an attempt to find a decent monopoly board. I can officially declare that Amman is all out of official monopoly boards. I ended up buying two Made-In-Syria boards, and attempted to merge them both. They’re the kind where you have to cut the sheet of money (which go up to 100,000 pounds for some reason) and there’s a bunch of typos in the “Community Chest” deck. b) This is the ONLY activity I have done this Ramadan by way of entertainment. c) The game ended in a hilarious way that had me rolling on the ground laughing for a good 10 minutes.

3) I discovered Chili Ways’ Turkey Sandwich. Absolutely brilliant. Kudos to the 8th circle outlet. I think they have some of the best service in town.

3.1) Taking pictures of a Turkey sandwich at Chili Ways will make people look at you funny.

4) Paid a visit to the Baqa’a refugee camp with the Action Committee. The experience deserves, if not requires, a whole other post unto itself. I should be posting that sometime today or tomorrow. But I will leave you with this teaser video:

4.1) Taking videos in the Baqa’a camp can get you killed.

5) I am semi-winning the war against the Towers of Babel outside my home. Updates on the extremely covert missions that involved ninjas, paratroopers, and at one point a troll, will also be published on the Black Iris in the next few days or so.

6) I managed to finish the two poetry books I bought a few weeks ago, on Rumi and Hafiz. Those reading the Black Iris will notice I’ve been posting a lot of their material lately. I have always been a fan of both poets but there’s something about Ramadan that makes much of their words come alive. Also, I am not a slow reader, but busy as I am these days, finding time to read both books has been a grand accomplishment. Review to come later.

7) The “alert status red” on the sidebar is a way for readers of the Black Iris to keep up to date with my current status. It was done to satisfy the millions of people who care deeply about my emotional well being throughout the day, many of whom watch these updates like a broker watches a stock-ticker. Anywhoo, the blog updates are the real appeal to me. This week for example, I have chosen to apologize to all readers who are expecting me to reply to one of their comments. Once again, I mean no offense, it’s just that time has body slammed me this week.

8) Eid is on the horizon and everyone will be busy making plans for the 4 day weekend. Part of me wants to leave the country, but with a limited budget my options are geographically limited to Syria, Jerusalem, Sharm and Taba. The latter two will be full of Jordanians, which is not appealing, as will Aqaba. You can’t get a visa to Jerusalem these days and Syria will also be packed with people. Ironically this will be my first Jordanian Eid in 7 years and my main objective is to avoid all Jordanians; actually, human beings if possible. Isolating myself in ghor farmland seems like a capital idea. I don’t know why people generally love to “get away” during these holidays, because it seems “getting away” always involves activities that are tiring and exhausting. I’d much rather catch up on sleep.

9) A lot of people are finding the Zain campaign very sexist. I don’t see it. Racist, homophobic and anti-semitic, yes. Sexist, not so much.

10) Top secret project with several friends which I mentioned a few days ago and will from now on be known as project-that-has-left-us-sleep-deprived is coming along nicely. A great deal of its development has a lot to do with my Facebook status updates lately, leaving many to drop me lines of curiosity in my inbox. But the first rule of Project Mayhem is you can’t talk about Project Mayhem.