Friday, August 11, 2006

Apologies readers (well… those of you still around at this point), I’ve been busy with… life.

I spent some time (Read: endless nights) buried under paperwork and camped out at FedEx trying to finish up Medical school applications and mail them out. An old classmate and a good friend of mine called to say he’s in town and if I’d like to get together and catch up, I took the chance to get away. It’s become an annual ritual of ours… I like it, it gives me a sense of belonging as we remember the old days and share dreams of our (now) respective futures.

So we settled at the deserted restaurant overlooking the pool with foreign kids splashing about as their parents looked on, content with their false sense of security, just because their gates happen to be guarded by rusty tanks that Saudi guards use as giant Gahwa tables. Seriously, they lean back sipping Arabic coffee and popping dates—the fruit— from their post on top of these huge army tanks, while blonde westerners prance about boldly inside the barbed walls… and nooo one sees the irony in this. Anyway, I digress.

I fiddled with the strap of my purse that I shamefully dropped a few months’ rent on, and marveled at a time when I stuffed all I needed, a pack of gum and a 100 Riyal bill, into my back pocket. His phone rang and he absentmindedly dug out his checkered wallet and placed it on the table. I smiled remembering a time when his pockets were simply decorative; he would borrow the 100 riyals, and eventually the gum from me...

Funny, I thought, how things have changed. Wasn’t this the same restaurant where a bunch of us ate a huge pizza only to realize none of us had money, we ended up pawning everything from our watches to a pair of shoes to the waiter. Weren’t those the doors next to the restaurant that led to the hall, the one where the girls and I all in matching leather pants (heh… noot recommended in this country, even if that lying calendar does say it’s December) marched into a party we knew absolutely no one in. Ah... and there’s that road behind the pool where we lingered, hand in hand, and I had smiled up at him and thought I couldn’t be happier.

But today, we sat demurely, napkins properly on our laps, and between conversations of my Med school angst and his Masters troubles… I realized we had lost .. it.

The good sense to love easily and live passionately...

| 11 CoMmEnTs| -- Posted by [[ On My Own ]]--|Permanent Link|

11 Comments:

FINALLY

Apology accepted...but gotta tell you that people (*hint hint* like me!) do check your blog and wait for 'something'. So yeah.. finally!

" I realized we had lost .. it. The good sense to love easily and live passionately... "

A killer of a realization.

The blogosphere misses you, come back L :(

PS. so wait, does this mean you're applying elsewhere now?

By  Sedna, at 11 August, 2006 03:59  

Your posts always hit home with me.

"Growing up" and becoming an adult is the scariest thing in the world to me :s

Good luck with the Med school applications. Hopefully you'll get accepted :)

By  Taqo, at 11 August, 2006 11:11  

Well, I'll always be around ;)

I absolutely love your posts. I'm a big fan of yours

I can always relate! No matter how different our lives or we might seem.. You always touch me

We've missed you so.

Please write more often

By  Bassem, at 12 August, 2006 01:23  

i miss the good old days...

By  Dr.Lost, at 12 August, 2006 01:50  

I tried to post a reply yesterday, as I told you, but my connection went beserk and I gave up.

I think I was going to post something along the lines of "Life's a bitch" and another attempt at being witty :P

By  Anonymous, at 12 August, 2006 04:12  

When all else fails resort to tickling :)

By  MiYaFuSHi, at 14 August, 2006 01:56  

I think this is officially the blog I like reading most.

I get that feeling now too. When I hang out here with the closest of friends, friends I've been with for more than half my life, in places I used to go to every day, it just feels...theres just this dull sense of nostalgia. But even that isnt strong, its just a vague stirring of feelings. And that question always comes up, where did the time go? We were so young, how were we so stupid? So carefree?

Your posts really do take the reader to a different place, and theres no other blog I read where that can be said.

By  illogicist, at 15 August, 2006 02:16  

Sedna:
I know yoou'll always be a loyal blog checker :)

I'm tryyying to get back to the blogging momentum but it's just.. sporadic lately.. and I figure even that's better than deleting it.

I'm a senior, graduating.. and ya applying to different Med schools and maybe some Grad schools once I get back.


Taqwa:
Glad you like em, and thanks.. hooopefully I will get in.


Bassem:
Thanks B. very touching :).
and needless to say, I'm a fan of yours as well.. although a silent one recently thanks to snail net out here in saudi.
Glad we can relate.. heh, means I'm not alone.


Dr.Lost:
So do I.. :)


Mochy:
Heh.. invisible attempt at wittyness registered. Thought that counts ay?


Miya:
Now why didn't I think of that!


illogicist:
Aw.. you guys are such flatterers. I don't know how my head manages to fit through a door after reading your comments.
I appreciate it :)

I agree. It is vague, because despite all life does go on. I just wonder if that's it... is all that is left a memory? or maybe it gets better.. ?
The present has been a disappointment so far.

By  Trevelyana, at 15 August, 2006 04:00  

Interesting how when time passes so do feelings, but not the memories.

I did the same thing some time back, before I got married, and I missed the feelings we shared, it just wasnt same and the meet descended into something warm, but a bit uncomfortable.

Kind of like a dead end that you cannot stop running into.

By  أبو سنان, at 15 August, 2006 07:59  

"Ces't la vie" i believe is the best statement.. times keep on changing and our lives, focuses, interests and friends keep on changing.. and you don't realise it untill you are hit by a blast from the past, an old friend, an old place or an old memory.. its sad but true.. welcome back.. you have been missed

By  frogman, at 16 August, 2006 17:58  

isn't it kinda refreshing yet depressing?

i mean, closure is good and bad at the same time..

madree, what i mean.. but do u get where i'm going..?

time is the greatest healer..

i guess you got your closure babes..

By  Baroque, at 22 August, 2006 17:35  

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