Funny Video To Kick Off The Night

Frasier never fails to brighten up my day. I love the refreshing sophistication and classical references and the hilarious pompous words Frasier and Niles insist on using. I love it so much I don't think I have a favorite episode or character. They're all equally excellent.

Here's a quote that cracks me up without fail every single time I watch Niles saying it, no matter how many times I've seen it before. Niles is telling Frasier about a saucy movie he and Maris watched.

Have you seen that movie? Maris and I rented the video - I don't mind telling you we pushed our beds together that night! And that was no mean feat - her room, as you know, is across the hall!

Even more hilarious than what he says is the matter-of-fact way he says it. Frasier rules!

I also really enjoy watching the scene I put here (no infringement or copyright violation intended). I think Niles is a brilliant actor. He has to be to pull off such a silent scene so well, although the part where he speaks in the beginning is also very funny. Enjoy.

My MIL's Surgery

So my MIL's cholecystectomy is scheduled for next Saturday. I can't possibly take any more days off from work after the 2 weeks I took off in such a short space of time, so I can only pray for my work to be uploaded earlier than usual on Saturday. Usually it's uploaded later than any other day of the week because MBC is off Saturdays so the uploader can't bring themselves to leave home one minute earlier than they have to. I called my company and asked the vice manager to try and have them upload it as early as possible; I was hoping she'd ask why and then I'd tell her about my MIL's surgery, thus making her give me that one day off or make the uploader put the episode early. Nah. She didn't even ask why; she only asked "how early?" in a weary voice that screamed, "I'm-sick-of-your-endless-excuses-and-emergencies."

Which, when I think of it, is really weird. How come my life is one series of unlikely situations that do nothing but eat away at my credibility? I mean back at my fulltime job I got really sick (seriously sick -- bed-ridden and everything) three or four weeks before my engagement and remained sick one week afterwards. I heard many of my coworkers remark sarcastically that it must be nice to take a five-week sick leave and come back with a ring on my right finger. Some well-meaning coworkers even shrieked the day I came back, "Hey! Why in the world would anyone need five weeks off to get engaged?"

Just two weeks later my FIL passed on in Uganda and I took several days off to ferry my then-fiance to the endless government agency bureaus he had to visit to finish the death certificate and related stuff, the procedures made 10 times more complicated because of the death happening outside the country.

Then less than two months after that my folks had to go away for a year and needed to marry me off for faith-related and social considerations. Indeed I got married within three days' notice and went on a one-week honeymoon where my husband and I ran a raging fever and became friends with the hotel's reception desk people who called every day to check if we needed more soup or tea.

Then a hectic month followed the honeymoon. All of a sudden I was schlepping clothes and toothbrush back and forth from my mom's to my MIL's in Ramadan, driving all the way from my MIL's, Giza, to my work, Nasr City, two neighborhoods very far from each other and connected by streets with the worst traffic I'd seen back then.

None of this of course is reason for my performance level to go down but go down it did -- it plummeted, so to speak, and I had no choice in the end but to ask for a hiatus. They were really generous. They gave me two months off (no pay of course, but the security of returning whenever you're up for it was more than any pay, I think). You'd think all my problems were solved: I thought so too until I discovered I was pregnant one week after I returned. I didn't dare and didn't want to ask for any days off on account of the morning sickness, blah, blah, but I didn't always succeed in braving it and skipped work several times. My husband's only living uncle passed on during that time and we traveled to Alexandria for the funeral and stayed one day, which was quite exhausting for me and everybody really. The day after we returned I got a firm albeit warm call from HR requesting I stop by ASAP to sign my resignation.

They were really nice and kept assuring me I'd be most welcome once I'd had the baby and figured out my life, you know, but I knew then it was the end of that era.

Anyway, keep my MIL in your prayers guys and wish me luck for next week. It will be especially trying. I'm probably going to miss the surgery which is not the best of starts to get off to with your inlaws. This is it for now.

My MIL's Health Scare

Guys! When I asked you to keep my family and me in your prayers I meant like pronto, you know? Just kidding. Not kidding as such, but wasn't sure how to start the entry in a remotely interesting way as opposed to the latest-catastrophe-newsflash style I've been forced to adopt lately.

So anyway, right now my DH's is driving to his mom's place after taking the rest of the day off from work (can't imagine the look on his boss's face when he delivered the news -- after five weeks off then two days at work he's taking off -- priceless) because my MIL had a seizure. He's gonna take her to a hospital near her place and in all likelihood she's having her cholecystectomy today. Right out of the blue. Gotta be honest though. It's not like the doctor didn't warn us last week. This race is one big bunch of procrastinators.

Anyway, gotta run now. More later. Keep us in your prayers. Seriously.

Back to Life After Recuperation

Today is DH's first day at work after undergoing surgery on May 7. So 5 weeks have passed. Thank God it's over -- wasn't the easiest of rides. Sometimes it felt like time had stopped and I was stuck in a weird uncomfortable obsolete time zone.

Yesterday we returned to my mom's place (yay!); my DH, MIL, SIL, Mona, and I spent the last week of recuperation on the North Coast for DH's health, or so his doctor said. Actually DH got so exhausted recuperating that he caught a cold, which he took along with his now-too-loose clothes (he lost a whopping 30 kgs) to work this morning.

Our North Coast stay wasn't uneventful though: My MIL spent a whole night throwing up and in excruciating pain; the GP who saw her said she needs to have a cholecystectomy done ASAP. Naturally she's terrified especially after DH's experience but sadly there are no other options. I hope her surgery goes smoother than my DH's did; we're hoping it can be done laproscopically. She's much too fragile for traditional surgery complications.

This is it for now. More later.

Bat In The Balcony

I just got off the phone with my mom and I just cannot believe what she told me. I moved to my own place a few days ago (I'd say finally if I wasn't so miserably homesick for my folks and brothers and sister and the walls and the janitor, damn it -- I miss everything, but that warrants more than a mere parenthesized mention) so my mom got her first chance in nearly two years to clean out my room and the attached balcony, and what should she find esconced in the upper corner of the balcony wall but a bat! A real-life Harry-Potter-style black bat!

I mean I've always known I'm not the world's biggest cleanliness freak, but a bat? Sorry mom! My mom is one of the cleanliest people I've ever seen -- a tad too big on the issue for my taste. Obviously I'm the last person to talk if I've been so blissfully filthy for two years that a bat made a home in the balcony of my room.

Anyway, those who are up to speed on my news know that my SIL, daughter, and I were banned from staying with my DH after he left the hospital because we were really sick. So my SIL stayed at her mom's, my toddler and I stayed at my mom's, and my DH and MIL stayed at our new place. It's Tuesday today and I moved in Friday evening so I've been here now for almost 4 days. Maybe it was Saturday though -- it must be regression. I'm too unsettled by moving out of the nest that I keep forgetting details about this new place.

Anyway, my MIL and SIL are still here; they're staying till my husband's fully recuperated, which is June 14. Frankly I was dragging my feet about coming here despite missing DH badly not just because I didn't want to move out but because I was worried about moving in with them here. I mean I don't know the first thing about cleaning or dusting or housekeeping in general and I can only cook three dishes when I have tons of time in the kitchen and punctuality isn't an issue... But with houseguests and your inlaws at that? I freaked out every time I thought about it.

Now though I'm relaxing. Not because I discovered I have a knack for house stuff (actually it's so much the total opposite that I have no option but to relax or I might burn the milk while making tea for my MIL) but because, contrary to what I thought, this turned out to be another temporary (yay!) period: We're still not moving back, but until DH returns to work we're gonna stay at his mom's place for two days and maybe at my mom's for another two and then we need to take him outside the city for a couple of days, preferably a week, the doctor said, but since summer's not officially here with high school exams still unfinished I doubt we can keep ourselves entertained for longer than two days anywhere we go.

I just can't get over the bat thing. After I hung up with my mom I noticed I'd started making what Freddy in Till We Meet Again called rat's nests throughout the house. Piles of unrelated paraphernalia that get higher and higher and make everyone else stumble more often. So I promptly attacked the ones in the kitchen and a couple in my bedroom but it gets too boring.

I wonder how much wisdom lies in those silly catchy phrases on key chains and mugs. Usually I think they're corny cliches but I guess I really like the one that says "Dull women keep immaculate houses". I guess I like a nice explanation for why I'm such a messy person. Although my mom's very interesting and yet very clean.