Tear.

The kids are friends, with plenty of crayons....to bags of envy and a pocket full of shells.
Gold and silver, classy furniture...to broken air conditioners.
Villas, mansions, summer destinations...to a small rectangular 3*2 metres room.
Watches, shoes, endless suits...to a pair of pants and two shirts.

Motorbikes, brand new cars, every year...to a lowly microbus ride.
Christmas parties and glittery nights...to a lonely table at the club watching young chicks in tight tops.
Flights, women, chequebooks...to a keychain with only one house key.
Gifts and presents, a king in the making...to a rusty old man, unknown to the world, aging.

Unbreakable bond of love and unity...to shattered glass in a huge sea.
All dressed up for the annual family picture...to a bitter death of the young baby in the portrait.
Forty years full of dreams coming true...twenty years later, looking for a bed to wash the night away.
Once upon a time...once upon a family.

Hearts and Farts.

Ok, I am in love with my girlfriend. I can't get enough of saying that. I feel that I am reborn every day. I feel on top of the world with her. I love how mushy and soft I've become, if anything, it makes me more of a man. I am going to list 100 reasons why I love her. I know that this post could strike bitterness from people; random people who are alive just to envy others. Nevertheless, I believe in the power of love, the strongest power out there. I may not possess valuable stuff or a fortune, but I have her...and that's enough. Not even all the money and treasures in the world can come close.

In no specific order:

1. I love the blue eyeliner you put
2. I love your curly hair
3. I love your huge forehead
4. I love how you always look good in anything
5. I love your smile
6. I love how ticklish you are
7. I love the way you look at me
8. I love your smell
9. I love it when you dance
10. I love how you call me 'Poochie'
11. I love how you always use the <3 emoticon
12. I love how you love the colour pink
13. I love how you wear your bags, crossover
14. I love your man hands
15. I love your perfect nose
16. I love your feet and toes
17. I love how silly you are
18. I love how I still love you even after every time you make me mad
19. I love your signature and how huge the letter 'A' is
20. I love how amazing your burps sound
21. I love your muscles (I know you think I don't, but I do)
22. I love that you don't smoke
23. I love your determination
24. I love your time management
25. I love your impeccable English
26. I love your voice
27. I love how you sound when you say 'Aywa'
28. I love how you love your nephews
29. I love that you love Napoleon Dynamite and Love & Basketball
30. I love that orange hairband of yours I am wearing on my left arm
31. I love how you LOVE food
32. I love your tummy
33. I love the friendship bracelet you are wearing on your right arm
34. I love that you are the only one who adds an 'H' to the word 'Keda'
35. I love how you say 'Oh man'
36. I love how honest you are
37. I love your happy tears
38. I love how you cook for me
39. I love how I start missing you right after leaving you
40. I love how caring you are
41. I love seeing you coach in BootCamp (*fact*)
42. I love your family
43. I love your stories
44. I love how you wear long tops
45. I love your foodsies, sadsies, bromises and hugsies
46. I love how your students love you
47. I love how fit you are
48. I love the way you spell your name
49. I love your basketball knowledge
50. I love how you always get what you want
51. I love your backpack
52. I love how you keep your credit card receipts in one place
53. I love how slow you eat
54. I love how you love ice tea
55. I love how you roll your eyes
56. I love that you don't care much about how others perceive you
57. I love when you tell me about your childhood
58. I love how you made me fall in love with Snow Patrol
59. I love how you call Billy Corgan 'the scary man'
60. I love how good you look in both sunglasses and eyeglasses
61. I love how clean and organised you are
62. I love that you drink everything with honey
63. I love how you are the only one to write 'fa3lan' instead of 'fe3lan'
64. I love how you always make sure to write the first alphabet in caps when you mention a name, product or brand
65. I love how you look with your hair tied up
66. I love that you drink lots of water
67. I love it when you call me 'Boo'
68. I love how you always carry a pen with you
69. I love how you save money
70. I love how you're never afraid to speak your mind
71. I love how you text me saying to call you when I'm free; I automatically know by then that something I won't like has happened
72. I love how you walk towards my car seat when I drop you home to tell me something or draw on the window
73. I love how you don't focus
74. I love how fat you were
75. I love how you wake up before the entire world
76. I love when you grab my hand when we walk
77. I love that you are into video games
78. I love your earrings, all of them
79. I love the length of your nails
80. I love how you understand me
81. I love how modest you are
82. I love how you can't make up your mind on where to go when I pick you up
83. I love your optimism
84. I love how you refuse to read anything on this blog pre March 2013
85. I love it when you randomly sing in the car while using your hand as a mic and shutting your eyes
86. I love all colours of your nail polish
87. I love how hot you look after working out
88. I love your simplicity
89. I love how you always give your all to make me happy
90. I love that you don't drink
91. I love how you dropped out of the corporate world to do something you want
92. I love how strong you are, mentally and physically
93. I love how you are easily amused
94. I love your obsession with Drake
95. I love the golden medal you made me
96. I love your nose pierce
97. I love your skin colour
98. I love your perfect eyebrows
99. I love how you care about everyone around you
100. I love that you love me

I love you, Angie Kafafi. :) <3

Sounds Like Bubblegum.

Seven years passed since I created my blog. Feels like it was only yesterday when I sat down in my old office to write that first post. I didn't know where I was heading. I remember when people discovered I have a blog, two months after. Good old funny days. On my 2nd anniversary I posted this and on my 3rd anniversary I posted this. Don't know why I stopped this 'ritual'. I decided to write a list of 100 things today; 50 of which I love, and the other 50 of things I miss. The things I will post are not the obvious stuff everybody knows I love. Things vary from people, places, ideas, etc. The things I miss do not include people I know who passed away, because those are missed day and night.

In no specific order:

1. I love how music sounds better when I am alone

2. I love leaving the house to find no one in my street

3. I love helping people

4. I love praying

5. I love matching my socks with my underwear

6. I love going to the movies

7. I love daydreaming of myself playing some guitar solos

8. I love the smell of fresh laundry

9. I love when my feet touches soft wet grass and hot tender sand

10. I love writing, whenever, wherever and whatever

11. I love watching old people

12. I love gazing into a baby’s eyes

13. I love washing my car

14. I love pepper, especially on eggs

15. I love opening conversations with barbers and taxi drivers

16. I love the sun

17. I love fresh smelling perfumes

18. I love hugging my nieces

19. I love how a fresh bar of soap smells

20. I love naps during weekends

21. I love handwritten letters

22. I love people who wear glasses (eye glasses that is)

23. I love black and white photography

24. I love drinking hot chocolate

25. I love cemeteries

26. I love watching random acts of kindness

27. I love cartoons

28. I love when things magically fall into place

29. I love photo albums and scrapbooks

30. I love making silly faces, silly voices and silly sounds

31. I love BootCamp

32. I love getting pedicures

33. I love fresh baked bread

34. I love trains

35. I love numbers

36. I love framed pictures

37. I love massages

38. I love cold showers right after hot ones

39. I love my neighbours, who no longer live with me

40. I love sneakers

41. I love reading the papers

42. I love hotel beds 

43. I love facial scrubs

44. I love tissues

45. I love theme parks

46. I love toothbrushes 

47. I love horror movies

48. I love silver

49. I love water

50. I love Angie Kafafi

51. I miss Dr Martens shoes

52. I miss MTV Europe's Top Twenty

53. I miss Arby's Blaze Burgers

54. I miss Abdou Saleh El Wahsh, the best football analyst ever

55. I miss my neighbours, the Shorafas; especially Mohamed, Fahd, Sarah and Maha

56. I miss Mohamed Abou Shady  

57. I miss Khaled Moussa  

58. I miss Mr. Richard Woffenden

59. I miss Ayman Sadek

60. I miss Tante Nadoush; her son Sherif and her daughter Kandy, Tante Nahed; her son Mohamed, her daughter Nevine, and their cousin Perry Samir

61. I miss Karim Hassan  

62. I miss Sherif Boghdady

63. I miss Slush Puppie

64. I miss my cousins; Peki, Seif and Dina. The rest, I haven't really known to miss

65. I miss my brother living with us

66. I miss the random talks in school with Dorotea Youssef

67. I miss Mai Kotb

68. I miss Hatem Saleh and Sherif Ramzy 

69. I miss Omar Bary

70. I miss football debates with Amr Fahmy 

71. I miss Omar Akl, 8 years now :(

72. I miss Ahmed El Bishri 

73. I miss Youssef Fakhry   

74. I miss reviewing the Smashing Pumpkins music with Rana Fahmy

75. I miss Jaillan Ahmed aka Julie Bibo

76. I miss playing 5-aside football 

77. I miss Mohamed Hedayet, Omar Bakir, Ihab Abd El Moneim and Hassan Ghorab  

78. I miss Rhodes   

79. I miss the American dude Yehia who was with me in university who called himself Adam

80. I miss video games 

81. I miss Maxiems sandwiches

82. I miss Maamoura, Montazah, El Nasr Cabins and Kouta Park

83. I miss Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Oasis and Blur

84. I miss my leg pre the operation 

85. I miss Yasmin Barakat, Dina Dali and Salma El Shorafa 

86. I miss singing the Egyptian national anthem 

87. I miss buying music CD's  

88. I miss sleepovers with my guys

89. I miss the old man who used to sit at the ahwa and talk about football. We called him 'El Gohary' 

90. I miss A&W burgers and root beer    

91. I miss Weber Shandwick

92. I miss how cheap life was

93. I miss Oman 

94. I miss my football mentor, Captain Amr Atata

95. I miss Ramadan in February   

96. I miss VH1's Weekend music

97. I miss bowling

98. I miss dog tags 

99. I miss Annalisa T. Supetran

100. I miss Angie Kafafi