Friday, October 2, 2009

inta batifham?


Turns out I missed the Orange County Arab-American Festival. I had no idea that Orange County had such a festival and I feel cheated.

To compensate for my missed cultural experience, I'm listening to Pimsleur's Guide to Egyptian Arabic as I write this. Next time there's a festival, not only will I be there, I will be there with curiously strong Arabic skills. (Hopefully all Arabs in the OC are Egyptian.)

On a strange note, I was researching children's books for Laurel Elementary School and I kept getting distracted by the bizarre books available. One was titled "Little Toby and the Big Hair," which was awesome because my ex-roomie (Emma!) is dating a guy named Toby. Another intriguing title was "A Pig Named Perrier."

The Amazon description for "A Pig Named Perrier" goes like this:

For a potbellied pig, Perrier seems to have it all: "a rhinestone-studded harness, a jaunty sports cap, and special piglet-sized dark glasses." And with his movie-star owner Marabella, he even gets to live in a luxurious nursery in a luxurious mansion, "a place as posh as it was plush, and spic as it was span." But Perrier still can't get over the gnawing feeling that something's missing from his squeaky-clean life, "an emptiness in the pit of his little potbelly."

I thought it sounded amazing and started reading it. I then got self-conscious over being distracted, once again, by a book aimed at 7-year-olds. On the whole, it was an enlightening experience and I'm giving the point to Enjoyment.

Current tally:
Unemployment:1 Enjoyment:1.


Today's Funky Word: Yella. This is a really common Arabic word that means "come on" or "hurry up!"

In lieu of a story and life lesson, I'm going to stick a small sneak peek of "Baby, it's Cold Outside," performed by me, Hannah, Steve and Eydie. (Yes, I'm the man. Yes, I look like a creeper.)


19 comments:

LlamaH said...

Haha, funky word of the day is great! Taught it to my roomie!

I can't wait to hear your Arabic! Orange county festival sounds dodgy! :D

I laughed so much at "A Pig named Perrier" hahaha

LlamaH said...

p.s. Monica says she is gonna get the book.

Unknown said...

oh good good!
teach her "ca!" as well. (must be with an exclamation point though)

Unknown said...

i miss you. i love reading your blog. you're such a good writer and you always make me laugh. i'm glad you're my friend. i wish we lived closer to each other. i think i took you for granted. yesyes. i miss you.

Unknown said...

Natalie! I miss you back:( we talk about how horrid you were for leaving us all the time. (no, not horrid, but...)

come back to usssss

Unknown said...

Siobhan, how did you hear about the Arab Festival?

Anonymous said...

I'M NOT ASSOCIATED WITH THIS AT ALL, BUT I THINK SIOBHAN MIGHT HAVE SEEN THIS ON EAGLEVISION NEWS (BIOLA'S ON CAMPUS NEWS SHOW) WHICH CAN BE SEEN AT JRN.BIOLA.EDU/EAGLEVISION

THE ANCHOR SEEMS LIKE AN AWESOME PERSON. JUST MY OPINION

Anonymous said...

Hi Siobhan? I don't want you to know who I am, but I wanted to introduce myself. I'm a recent Torrey graduate and I play the guitar. I have scraggly blonde hair and I think you are beautiful. I enjoy long walks on the beach and I am very smart. Please let me know if you'd be interested.

I admire you from afar,
Torrey Man XOXO

Sho said...

dear torrey man,
i am VERY interested. let's meet at starbucks on rosecrans. I'll have a yellow ribbon in my hair and a white rose in my mouth. I am tall and good hearted with a regal laugh.

Kimi said...

Hi my name is Kimi and I'm Jessica Oh's mentor. I'm sorry I said you are an inappropriate person- clearly if you love the Arab Festival, you're legit.

Apologies,
Kimi

Sho said...

Kimi,
I'm so sorry to have offended you. I'm glad you've changed your mind. Be my mentor too?

Torrey Man XOXO said...

Regal and good hearted Siobhan,

I am honored at your proposal. Reading your message, light shone down from the heavens unto my computer screen and I was in awe that someone with such stunning beauty and a clever mind would oblige to a "date." I can only image a yellow ribbon intertwined in your streaky strands and a white rose in your braces cladden teeth. Oh the beauty! It's overwhelming! As Solomon says, you have the finest wool amongst all the lambs and the eyes of a big brown cow.

And actually, can we meet in Albertsons? My Torrey professor told me that Starbucks might be a little too forward and secular.

Blessings my beauty,
Torrey Man XOXO

Kimi said...

Of course I'll mentor you! It sounds like (I've been reading posts from Torrey Man) you need some dating mentorship. Might I suggest some books?

- Smart Men: How to Hook Em Until They Stop Squirming
- Starbucks Is Not A Date
- Women Who Are Obsessed With Men Who Play Instruments

And please change your profile picture to something more desperate.

Sho said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sho said...

Kimi--
I thought I looked pretty desperate in my pic, but I will change it if that's what it will take.

Those books sound rad! I do have a proclivity for musicians and I long to read about others who share my tormented pain.

I'm confused about the title of "Starbucks is not a date." Is this some sort of sarcasm?

Sho said...

Torrey Man--I look forward to our meeting with a fluttering anticipation.

Oh, and Torrey Man...there's so much I long to say to you, but the questionable privacy of the internet makes me hesitant. Would that I could break free of this glowing screen and see your face, your touchable, tangible, feelable face. But alas, I cannot.

yours forever,
Siobhan

Erms said...

HIHI!

SO I like your pig story description, and I want to share a story description I came upon recently. Basically I was in a book store and I was suddenly confronted with all these animé comic book things. The category is "manga" which I've never heard of.. POINT BEING, I read the back of one of these books and it went something like this:

So-and-so, let's call him Bucky, is a teenage boy and was walking on a hilltop one day when an alien space-ship accidently landed on him. The aliens were sorry and wanted to restore his life, but accidently put him back in the body of a girl. Now Bucky has to face the everyday trials of being a teenage girl...

It was actually worded much more humorously but hopefully this cracks you up anyways!!

Sho said...

hahaha! that's amazing. That's one of those "why can't I publish a book if this got published" books.

turns out "manga" also means mango in portuguese, which is where we get that word from. (but yeah, it means anime. weird) we could probably tell bucky a thing or two about teenage girlhood. on our future blooog

Anonymous said...

siobhan you're behind on your blogging. it has been FIVE DAYS and i have nothing new to read. if you need new material, i could give up the rights to the puppy analogy.