My Dear Sisyphus: Scenes from a Memory

I realize its not written nicely and not catchy enough, but i write it to document my memories, and for nothing else.. If my thoughts are incoherent or incomplete, just let it go..

During the past year and a half, I've gotten to know one of the closest people ever to me.. You may know him by his real name, K. (not to be confused by Amrika's Karembu!) or you may know him as my friend, or you may be friends with him.. One way or the other, chances are you know him. He is leaving soon, sooner than I'd like to think, TONIGHT, to a new territory and a new life.. brave? Very.. Envy him? more than he knows.. Worth it? Possibly so.. Stupid? Certainly hope not :D Will miss him? Like hell....

So given that my scope in gifts is limited, I give him a _very_ customized gift.. no its not a scarf i knitted for him, although he could use one where he's going!
I give him a blog post..

Scenes from a memory....

His First Time: Orientation and CP
First time was in his newcomers orietation here.. I was still new at my job, and I made it my personal cause to make sure that everything is smooth and everybody is happy.. anyway, so after a session on a tool called CP, i found him standing with H -our CP authority- in deep conversation.. i walked up to them and stood to make sure all is ok and the guy doesnt have any issues... Of this day he later told me, "i found you -a girl i didnt know- walking up to us with this BIG grin on your face.. and you stood with us just listening to what we're saying.. and i wondered who you were and what you were doing imposing on our conversation like that."

His blog and lame pottery classes
I got him on my msn list, and i discovered he had a space there where he blogs.. he was writing about pottery classes, and i was thinking "wow this guy is so cool" until he said "i have one word for you.. LAME!" :D

His "Honey, can we jump now?"
One of his posts had this line.. It was then when i knew i was getting to know someone different, he was up to adventure and wondering why "change" isnt a good word in our culture.. he wanted to be able to take chances without looking back..

His "Souad Massi" pickup line ;)
He discovered Souad Massi and i was there to witness it.. we used to comment on each and every song and what it made us feel.. one day he came in the morning telling me he was in cilantro wanted to get me coffee but didnt have my number (JUST ASK FOR IT) so I gave it to him... Next day at night, he sms'es me saying he is at Cilantro and Souad is playing and that I wouldve enjoyed it... It was the best pickup line he couldve EVER used :D

His Eternal Question: Is the juice worth the squeeze?
Days came and went, and he came up with the juice theory.. in this theory, he established that instead of waiting on "What-if"s he would just do it... He would make the effort then see if the juice was worth the squeeze... My verdict? it was soooo worth it!

His Sunshine
-enough said!

His Promised Land
He told me about his plans to leave in Summer 05 when we were outside Costa (a place we both dislike).. back then i thought this was still more than a year ahead and it was too early to talk about it... well, turned out a year is not that long anyway.. Everyone has a "promised land", a place where they dream to make home.. his promised land was Canada and he was halfway through making this dream come true..

His Cilantro
Cilantro witnessed our best times and most meaningful silences (in fact, Cilantro was the only place i can actually stay silent :D).. our first was Cilantro Zamalek, but others came along.. a couple of days ago, we were walkng there and ran into the same eternal rababa guy :D which was funny because altho he appears to stay there, we ran into him before at the other Cilantro at Abul Fida.. Cilantro is the place we never got tired of.. Korba in particular witnessed dozens of discussions and talks..

His Zamalek
Zamalek... what can i say? :D Breakfasts, morning walks, late night walks, his solo Thursday night drives that i envy.. the nile, the marriott, 26 July, the ahwa at the end of 26 july where we had tea :D, pizza by the nile in ramadan, the Tao shop near Tabasco where i got my bracelet and he got his dried rose candle...

About candles, for some weird and unknown reason, i got Kareem a total of at least 5 candles throughout the time i knew him :D of course he later admitted that he doesnt particularly like candles, but the ones i got where mostly chocolate/coffee themes, and the one shaped as an icecream sundae (amazing replica) and of course the dried flower one..

His Sa2ya
Our cursed place.. no matter how hard we planned it, we could never go to this place together... i've gone tens of times and so has he, but never together.. interesting how such a place can have that effect on us :D

His New Job

His Fortress
Basata was his Fortress of Solitude like he calls it... his last visit was in November 05.. i always hoped we can arrange to go there once since i've never been there and i wanted an expert.. but maybe in his next vacation...

His Blog-jacking! (or is it mine?)
in our infinite talks, i used to go like "Now _that_ is a bloggable thought" whenever such a thought came up.. he thought i was stealing his ideas, when the truth was that i was his muse :D

His New Blog
He started it as part of a personality/identity change he was going through..

His Flying Partner *the manga incident!*
He had the (bad) luck to sit next to me in a plane :D for those who dont know, i love flying yet i tend to get really airsick, so i take motion sickness pills.. thing is, i usually take more than i should, so i end up being literally "stoned".. So am having the window seat (since i dont get to move a lot in a plane) and i open the window, stare at the lovely clouds then turn to him and ask "Di ghoyoom di walla manga?" dont ask what i meant because i honestly dont know! the closest (and only) explanation was that i wanted to say they looked like cotton candy :D

His Birthday
"Cigars & Red Wine for Children" by the Nile :)

Our Discussions
Long long long arguments and discussions about men, women, right & wrong, religion, politics (very rare!), books, movies, music, work, work, work, career issues, work again, people, attitudes, family, friends, work tani.. travelling, and finally, my nemesis, Canada.. actually before him, i never gave Canada a second thought.. now i almost like it :D


K.-

You're Homer's Sisyphus and I'm Voltaire's Candide, and between the two of us, we create an impossible yet beautiful world. Pleasure and pain, lots of pain :D

Here's looking at you kid.... With all the luck in the world to one of my bestest friends ever..


I have spoken. (borrowing his line)


N.