Saturday, July 14, 2007

Terms of Endearment

I recall when i was a teenager how uncool terms of endearment were. I remember the looks me and my girlfriends would exchange if someone called one of us "habibty" or "ro7y".... if someone said "2alby" i would literally cringe. It was icky, over emotional, uncalled for and oh so LAME.
The other day i was on the phone whilst driving back to work from a meeting with my life long friend next to me who also happens to be my boss and the snobbiest person i know, i was on the phone with a girl doing some work for us, and after i ended the conversation my friend turned to me giggling:

F: Did you realize that you just called her "ro7y"
Me: I did?
F: Yes, and habibty as well

I started giggling as well

F (reassuringly): It's ok, i do it too you know... well, maybe not "ro7y"... but the concept is ok now

I started laughing: why wouldn't it be ok?
and then i remembered our years of allergy to terms of endearment and smiled.

Somewhere on the french coast it became ok to say habibty, habiby, ro7y, love, honey, hun and even baby on the occasional highly highly affectionate moment. One day i woke up and i wanted to call people nice things, pamper them, make them feel loved, it has become an integral part of who i am...

This observation leads me to the most absurd of thoughts, are we THAT uncomfortable with emotions when we're young? Why is it that hard for teenagers to accept open affection? Why did i used to find this embarrassing and downright uncool? Why will teenagers push you away if you try to hug them?

Are we that messed up when we're growing up?

My BF has taken to calling me the most absurd things, i can only thank both of our lucky stars that we didn't meet a few years back when his calling me "konafa" would've been responded to by a dagger in the heart rather than a very appreciative sensation of being pampered..

8 comments:

KareemFromEgypt said...

Konafa???

hehe

my girl calls me the weirdest things too, and calling her the same thing back doesn't stop her bardo

next time call him Mr. Konafa and see if that freaks him out :)

or maybe that'll freak you out :p

maxxedout said...

How about "Bibi".
As in " Ezayak ya Bibi, wa7eshny."....

Anonymous said...

looool @ bibi
n, embrace the nicks and have fun creating some of ur own :)

KareemFromEgypt said...

bibi dih bashe3a :)

Daysleeper said...

well having recently left teendom, i can understand why someone would cringe at terms of endearment

it's just that it can be weird and superficial from someone you dont know very well

and it's a weird elitist shishifoofoo thing now "7abibCHy"

otherwise, it's really sweet when people really mean it :) and konafa is the CUTEST

Alluring said...

Konafa? now that's totally new for me.

I stick with baby, the husband calls me koko, don't even have the letters in my name, and now it will always remind me of Ko-nafa!

And whats Bibi?!

N said...

lol.

Bibi is definately still cringe worthy.. i can see you saying it kaf and i want to puke!

Alluring, bibi is either short for habiby, or sick for baby.. not sure, you can revert to maxxed out :)

daysleeper: 7abibtchy is still and will always be uncool in my books!

Kareem: nothing i would call him would freak him out but the first three letters of his name.
Wierd huh?

Forsoothsayer said...

yeah i don't think i would permit konafa...i nickname everyone but can't bear being nicknamed. i do call all my boyfriends, and my favourite male friends, babe.