Bittersweet Symphony
2004-04-13 at 11:16 a.m.
The long, boring detail of Cherie's most interesting night in months
Last night was weird. There was Mohammed, our temporary roommate, Wissam, my huband's cousin, and Diana, Wissam's wife. Mo, Wissam, and Wael knew each other in Lebanon. Diana and Wissam have a 5 month old son whom they brought. This is the first time I've actually spent time with them like they were my friends and my husband and I have been married for over two years! Although we did have an argument about homosexuality. That's OK. Maybe they'll grow up someday. My husband has come a long way.But then it was weird because Diana got really drunk and Wissam started going crazy about it. He was really mad and he made her cry. He can drink a lot, and he did, and still be sober. So he was mad that she couldn't take care of their son, but he could do it. It was during this that I started to really like Mo because he was trying to tell Wissam what an ass he was being. I asked Wissam why he was mad because I like him a lot usually and he said that it was bad to get drunk like that. He said it was because of their son and I told him he could take care of him. OK, but it's bad to be drunk anyway. I'm like, Are you kidding me? You're drunk all the time! Yeah, but I still know it's bad even if I do it. Bullshit. He made her cry, yo. And I ain't never seen her cry. It pissed me off, but everyone was on Diana's side.
My husband was also really drunk last night. Towards the end he wanted to go down to his car to get something and everyone told him not to, but he did anyway. When he left Aidan started screaming so Mo took him down to be with him. Then Mo comes back without Aidan, and I'm like, Where's Aidan? With Wael. He's drunk! So I had to run down there to get him from my stumbling husband. I'm thinking no more drinking for him. He doesn't remember it in the morning, and I don't think that's so good.
We talked a lot about what I'm supposed to do when I get to Lebanon, mostly in how to greet everyone. MIL-- kiss her hand and then kiss her cheeks back and forth back and forth until she stops. (Usually they kiss three times, but if they haven't seen you in a long time, or never, just keep going for awhile). I'm supposed to shake hands with and then kiss my FIL and my husband's brothers also on the cheeks. Oh, and kiss my FIL on the forehead too. Any religious guys, which you can identify by their beards, just touch your chest. If you go to shake their hand, they'll touch their chest. And for some reason I'm supposed to call my FIL "Amee" which means "Uncle" and my MIL "Mart Amee," which means "Uncle's wife." That's weird. Apparently that's supposed to be really respectful and they will quote "love it" if I do that. They're going to call me "Om Aidan" (Mother of Aidan), which is really cool to me. It's the respectful way to address someone, and I've been wanting our Arab friends to do it for awhile, but they won't.
Oh, and my cell phone is working again. Yeah!
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