mit7amsah

It's the end of the week. mit7amsiin? 

I for one am very mit7amsah. Not just for a weekend's rest, but also because today marks one year since we moved into our current place.

Flashback to a year ago, while searching for a nicer home on a shoestring budget, I stumbled across a drop-dead gorgeous apartment - but on the wrong side of town. As in, the street was actually the red light district. Where all the shop windows were smashed in. And the building itself was home to a wild bunch of neighbours and a mad dog called Loco.

Friends and family said laa2 tsawuun-haa. They were scared. We were scared.

One night, nervously deciding, Theyab said, "laa2, not a good idea."

I said, "ya aallah 3aad!  The apartment has original wooden beams from 1862."

"waayid 3alay-haa," Theyab replies, "I won't be happy about you walking home alone at night."

As if the pressure couldn't get any worse, a colleague told me she'd lived on that street ten years previous - and had a knife put to her throat.

I tried to focus on the beautiful wooden beams. And as fate would have it, we moved in the following week. Our house plants all died before we made it through the door. I think they knew.

But touch wood (or the beams), a year has passed and we have no plans to leave. The neighbourhood is filthy - but full of life. Our neighbours are mayaaniin, but have huge hearts (one of them cooked meals for Theyab for an entire week while I was working abroad).  And Loco the dog is, well, living up to his name sake.

"Aren't you mit7amis about our house anniversary?" I ask Theyab.

"imbalah," he replies, "I just wish our neighbour would make more of that slow-cooked home-cooked ragu."

لاء تسوونه!	laa2 tsawuun-ah!	don’t do it! (>pl)
يا الله عاد!	ya aallah 3aad!	come on!
وايد عليهم	waayid 3alay-hum	so what about them?
مينون	maynuun	crazy (m)
مينونة	maynuunah	crazy (f)
مينونين	maynuuniin	crazy (pl)