Don’t mess with my pizza.

That’s just wrong on so many levels. Pizza is the kind of sustenance that you need to get right. You just can’t give the client something they didn’t order and expect them to go along with it! I was craving pizza today, and even though I have some ready-made pizza dough at home that I could’ve layered with some toppings and stuck in the oven, there’s something “special” about ordering a pizza and having it delivered to your home steaming and ready for eating.

I went with an extra cheesy Margherita and waited impatiently until it arrived. When the delivery boy, I snatched it a little too eagerly out of his hands, paid him and sent him off on his way. It was just me and my pizza! I got a tall glass of Pepsi and opened the box, only to be met with disappointment.

What was supposed to be a large Margherita ended up being a vegetarian pizza that looked anything but large. The next few moments were spent in contemplation. I could:

a) call the pizza place and demand a new pizza.

b) call the pizza place, demand a refund and make my own pizza.

c) just settle for my vegetarian pizza.

The roads are a safer place without me.

Driving terrifies me. There I said it. I’m scared of getting behind the wheel and navigating the streets… especially the streets in Lebanon. They are such a disaster. No rules anywhere, motorcycles crisscrossing all over the place, no street lights, cars cutting you off without so much as a warning, people who choose to walk on streets instead of sidewalks… the list is endless.

However, you’ll be surprised to learn that I do actually have a driving license, even if I don’t put it to use. My parents are always nagging me to get a car because they don’t want me riding cabs everyday, and they always end their argument with, “If you never wanted to drive, then why on Earth did you go and get a license?” In fact, my mother said that to me just this morning, which is incidentally what prompted me to write about this.

Well, to be honest, I did want to drive at first, but my driving adventures weren’t really encouraging.

Facebook keeps asking what’s on my mind.

This yummy dessert is stuffed with Nutella. Absolutely to-die-for. (Photo Credit: http://krispykreme.co.uk)

Well, Facebook, I’m not in my best of spirits I can tell you that. There have been ups and downs, occasional bursts of fun and escape from reality, and frequent headfirst collisions with the hard reality… no cushions. Sometimes I wish I could go back a few years, when I only had to worry about grades and weekend plans.

You can say that this is a status update of sorts. Or maybe a sort of mini-journal entry. Either way, so as not to bore you with all the details of my mundane life, I’m going to write about a few select highlights. One important such highlight is that this weekend I indulged in my first chocolatey treat in weeks – a chocolate dreamcake doughnut from Krispy Kreme. I had been planning to hold out a bit longer on chocolate, but really, who can resist a KK doughnut? Plus, I do believe I earned it. I’ve stuck to my diet and exercise throughout this period and lost more than 15 pounds, which is excellent if you take into consideration that I only started three weeks ago!

I missed my own blogiversary!

Out of curiosity, I went back to the very first post on my blog – no don’t go looking; it’s nothing special!  – and to my dismay I found that it was dated 12 March 2012. This means that Zen Scribbles is now 1 year and 1 week old. I can’t believe how quickly the time flies! Sadly I’m on a self-imposed chocolate ban, so no celebratory treats for me today. =[

(Photo Credit: http://whengeekswed.com)

If you had told me last year that I was going to keep up with this blog for a whole year, I would’ve laughed in your face. I’m terrible at committing to blogs, and this current one is actually the result of two other failed projects. That said, I’m really pleased I stuck around for so long. So many things happened; I met a lot of fellow writers and made new friendships, one of my posts got freshly pressed, I came across some awesome new reads and learned a few things along the way.

During this year, I learned…

From A to Z.

Between chocolate withdrawals, near-death escapes, power outages, work and technology’s attempts on my life – namely through locking me up in an elevator by myself for nearly thirty minutes – I have not had much time to blog, so it’s always fun when somebody tags you to answer a few things about yourself. Who doesn’t like to talk about themselves?

I was nominated for the ABC Award by Derek at Station Deva – thank you, Derek! – and the requirements for this particular award looked like fun; all you have to do is, for each letter of the alphabet, write about something relevant to you. For this I nominate Wordsurfer, The Afictionado, Impressions of a Princess, Michelle Proulx, Rarasaur, thematticuskingdom, Becky Says Things and Blogs-Of-A-Bookaholic. Feels good not allowing the award to die for a change, haha.

Onto my ABCs!

A room I’ve always dreamed of.

Kids usually dream of owning big houses with swimming pools when they grow up, occupying awesome jobs like astronauts and firefighters and detectives, they dream of the day when they’d have a swimming pool in their backyard which they could jump into from their bedroom window… so compared to them, I’m definitely a little under-ambitious. Well okay I still would like that swimming pool.

I, however, the little bookworm that I was, always dreamed of having my own personal library. Along the years my reading tastes might have changed, my job choice changed, my personality changed… but my desire for a library remained strong and consistent. I can picture it clearly as if I were actually holed up in it.

Ha. I wish.

Q & A with the lovely Dianne Gray, author of The Eleventh Question!

As part of my resolution to read more indie novels this year, I picked up The Eleventh Question by fellow blogger, Dianne Gray, and did not regret it once. A short and easy read, this novel tells the story of Arista, a teenager with a less-than-idea living situation, who goes through the eleven stages of enlightenment through a series of events that test her and make her ponder the true meaning of life, while in the background a Seer and her apprentice observe her and go through a journey of their own.

I really enjoyed this book. The writing style was great, and the story kept me hooked throughout. I was curious to see what the eleventh question was, and I thought Dianne did a good job choosing which events led to which question, and the end of the book was quite satisfying.  

When characters leap off the pages. Literally.

Some authors have this amazing ability to make their characters so real and vivid you feel as if  they were sitting in the room with you, telling you their story. I love those characters. I wish I could write them, but I know that’s beyond my current abilities.

There are these characters… and then are those who actually jump out of the pages. I watched Ruby Sparks yesterday. It tells about a writer with a horrible case of Writer’s Block who one day dreamed about a girl called Ruby Sparks and started writing feverishly about her, only to have her step out of the pages and become a real person and the object of his affection.

The best thing about days off…

… is snuggling in a warm bed while everybody else in the house wakes up at the crack of dawn getting ready for school and work, especially when it’s pretty cold and rainy outside. It felt like payback for all those hot summer days during which I was the only one getting up for work and walking around under the baking sun, haha.

Oh, if only I had a cat to snuggle with! (Photo Credit: http://www.redbubble.com)

It also gives me the chance to acknowledge and show my appreciation to all the blog lovin’ I’ve received lately.

“You’ll have a tale or two to tell when you come back…”

I watched the Hobbit this weekend. To say I loved it would be an understatement. The movie invoked a lot of emotion within me and I reacted with it throughout the 2 hours and 49 minutes. I laughed, I tensed up, I cried, I sat on the edge of my seat, I got goosebumps, I wrinkled my nose in disgust, I oohed and ahhed… I was simply taken with it.

I was also a little bit envious.