If I could be any character in this book I would be.....

Sadeem Reminds me of myself because......

As I furiously read Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea, I grew in love with Sadeem. For some reason I have always been enthralled with Islamic culture (I'm Jewish too). I find their men very attractive, their women beautiful, and their customs intriguing.

In this book, Rajaa Alsanea divulges the lives and loves of her four close friends, though she changes their names and some details, this is insight into the world of Saudi Women who are otherwise shadowed by their men. The novel consists of Sadeem, Michelle, Gamrah and Lamee, also their love and family lives.

For some odd reason I am very taken with Sadeem; she is so open, even after being wounded by her first love Waleed. She knows what she likes, she has her mind made up, and she goes after it. The way she speaks, so sure of herself, yet so cautious, it reminds me of myself. She is so confident in the way she moves, in a way that men find extremely attractive. She is talented in so many reasons, and she is a shrink to her friends, she is not judgemental in anyway. She loves and loves until she gets hurt, and in many ways that is how I believe I am. She knows what to say and when to say, knowing sure that it will make a point. I relate to Sadeem so much, sometimes when I read the novel, I think I am reading about myself.

Girl, Get out of that Damn Rain!

Describe how a work of art, music, dance, theater, or literature has inspired you.

Ever since I was a child, I liked movies. Funny ones, dramatic ones, stupid ones, weird ones, and even the occasional foreign ones. I never understood them until about eight years ago, yes, I was slow, I am slow. Apparently movies actually have meanings. What an idea?

Movies are easy to escape in, to feel different, better even. I love old movies. Rita Hayworth, Ingrid Bergman, Audrey Hepburn, Katherine Hepburn, and even Grace Kelly are so relatable to me. I always wanted to be them, with their made-up faces and their corsets holding their rolls that everyone on earth has, even Marissa Miller. I loved seeing the rare photos of them making horrific faces, ugly ones even. I loved the way they walked, how eloquently they spoke, how when one of them walked in a room, you knew who it was. Their dead now, so we set our society to knew ideas of women that no one can match. We never go back to the old ideals. Of Old Hollywood, the Kennedy's, Mad Men. With movies full of emotion and special effects, most of us believe that the movies nowadays are better than those of yesterday. Which blatantly proves that most of us are wrong.

The first movie I ever saw was Singin the Rain' with Gene Kelly (no relation to Grace) and Donald O'Connor. I used to go out in the rain, on our slick driveway on a hill, and spin and dance like Debbie Reynolds (at least how I thought they danced). My mother would yell at me in her fake country accent (she's from Rhode Island), " Girl get out of that Damn rain." But I would just keep spinning until I fell, which meant I fell down the driveway (remember its on a hill). I would walk up the driveway with bloody knees and muddy hair and I would walk past my mother and say. "Totally worth it."

That movie made me feel, it made me live. With four brothers and sisters, the attention isn't always on you. Now that I'm older I am sincerely happy about that. There are times when all I want to do is be on that stage accepting that Oscar (I know this is cocky, I know I'll get one) and then there are those times when all I want to do is sit in my bed and sleep. If that is a disease, please comment.

No matter how much anyone ever tries, that movie, full of its jolly manner, has shaped my life probably more than anything has ever or will ever do. It gave me an outlook on life, I can't change or ever want to change.