"55th exit, damn, damn, already we home"
June 12, 2006
Yesterday was Mini�s birthday, but because we all had work we decided to meet up for a birthday dinner/soccer watching on Saturday evening. Our birthdays are just 5 days apart, and as usual around this time of year I�ve been feeling�older. It really hit me when I remembered that Mini and I held a joint 16th birthday party in Kuwait. We rented out a hall in a hotel and invited all our friends. A lot of things happened that night�Colin and I settled a lot of our issues, and he gave me a gift I take with me wherever I go till this day. It�s kind of cheesy, but it�s a pewter paper weight. The note that came with it said, �Sorry if I ever weighted you down.� I also had my first slow dance with a girl, to �No woman no cry� of all things, but that was kind of a joke. I tried my first piece of sushi. I also got drunk�on water (don�t ask) with my friend Hassan. It was a great event, which is partially captured on a videotape sitting somewhere in a basement in Western Pennsylvania.
Anyway, that was ten years ago, but it in no way feels like it. And so I end up marveling at how time passes, and how so little and yet so much seems to have happened in the interim.
On the way back from Mini�s dinner I got stuck behind a white BMW on an up ramp. The car was moving so slowly that I assumed some old man or some overly-cautious driver was behind the wheel. Once up on the overpass I pulled in next to the car, but did not look over to see who the driver was until he started speeding up and weaving in and out of cars. As we both exited off the bridge into �my� neighborhood I looked over to see a rather fine-looking young man behind the wheel. Once off the bridge he zoomed off, and I assumed that was the last I�d see of him. I turned onto the beginning of my street and soon found someone zooming up behind me, flashing their high beams into my rearview mirror (this is typical Cairo driver behavior). I moved into the right lane, and realized it was the same white BMW. At the moment he passed we both turned and looked right at each other, until he hit the accelerator and moved on down the street. From then on it was a game of tag down the street. I sped up to catch up with him, pulled up beside him, and then he wove in front of me. We got to the traffic light, and he managed to squeeze past just as traffic from the other direction began to move. I was stuck at the traffic light, and I watched him zoom right past my house, make a left, and disappear for good. There aren�t many popular hangouts in the area. I wonder if he was going home, and if we�ll get to play traffic tag again soon.
I got home just after midnight. As it is considered very bad luck here to wish someone a happy birthday before the actual birthday, Mini had enforced a strict �no early birthday greetings� rule. When I left the restaurant they were in the final few minutes of the Ivory Coast/Argentina match, and I didn�t want to call Mini to finally wish her a happy birthday lest I interrupt a tense last minute play in the game. So I sent her a text which read, �Happy Birthday! Aqbal mit sana!� which is Arabic for �May you live to be one hundred!�
Mini replied within seconds with, �Only if you�re there with me.�