Reminiscences

I've been more nostalgic than usual lately, so I'm subjecting you all to my reminiscences of last year's birthday. Hopefully you will be amused. I know it's making me giggle to think about it...

Last year to prepare for my birthday Hannah attacked me with an epilator and then I got hennaed by her cousin. And then, since I was incapacitated (my arms were covered in vaseline and flour, then wrapped in bags and scarves to preserve the henna designs), I had to be hand fed. And Hannah attacked my eyebrows with tweezers. I suppose I was her beautification project for the evening, which was interesting and more than a bit painful.

On my actual birthday we took the girls out to lunch at Villa D'Angelo (the only "Italian" restaurant in Sana'a). Sahar wasn't aware of how spicy real Tobasco is, and, thinking it was like the normal hot sauce, proceeded to pour it all over her pizza. The look on her face, and the sounds that emanated from her mouth as she ate were somehow so tragically funny that Catharine, Stefano, and I nearly fell off our chairs with giggles. And Stefano broke the sunroof on Sabri's car. Just as it started to rain.

When we got back to school, Catharine, Stefano and Aun presented me with my gifts. I got a string of plastic blinking grape lights, the Decoration (a floppy pole of shiny tackiness), and the Computer (a plastic gizmo that played a song that said "I want to dance dance dance 'til the son goes down, I want to kiss kiss kiss 'til the sun comes up" as these two magnetic characters on the screen kissed and danced). I left the computer when I came home in July, but the other things I brought with me because they fit in my suitcade and were just too funny to leave behind.

On the evening of my birthday, a great heaping group of us from the school went to the Sheraton for drinks. I flirted a bit with Anders on the balcony overlooking the city then Suhail was clamoring for attention so I had to go say goodbye to him (he was going back to the States for 2 weeks). Stefano was getting drunk and nostalgic for his ex-girlfriend back in Italy and was annoyed with me because I wouldn't let him use my cell phone to drunk dial her.

Then Arthur showed up and we drank until the bar closed. I guess Arthur was having a nice time though, because he offered to take us back to his house where he had a lot of alcohol. So we all got to ride in the bullet-proof SUV. The best part of the SUV was that it had a loudspeaker attached to it. The silliness began when he told Anders about this. Anders took the mic and began saying to the people on the street "This wehicle* is property of the British government. Back away from the wehicle." This somehow developed into a fun game of driving sneakily up behind pedestrians and mooing loudly**.

Anyway, at Arthur's place we commenced with gratuitous drinking and silly dancing. Christine spilled red wine all over my sweater (she was borrowing it because she had gotten chilly). Stefano kept telling me he loved me, then drinking another shot. I was enjoying myself dancing with Anders and getting lost in the joy that is induced by good white wine (nicely chilled, of course).

Arthur was too drunk to drive us home, so we had to go in search of a taxi (it was around 3:30 on the 15th by then). This made me particularly happy as I was wearing 4 inch heels that were not even close to being broken in. Anders kept laying down and trying to fall asleep on the side of the road. Stefano peed on himself as we were walking. Fortunately before everything got completely insane and miserable we managed to find a small bus that could take all of us home.

Stefano asked if I would help him get out of his pee-encrusted clothes at home and I wasn't down for it (I was drunk and tired and had several large holes in my feet from the shoes) so he got all pissed off saying "It's not like I asked you to fuck me." I said I wasn't interested in that either which really set him off so he spent the rest of the ride cursing at me loudly in Italian. Jessica (who was the only other person there who spoke any Italian) kept grabbing my hand and saying how sorry she was that he was such an asshole.

Anyway, when we finally got home, Stefano was still mad, and completely insane. Apparently he got mad at the doorway just for being there so he said "Fuck you" and slammed his face into it. The next day he remembered none of it so it had to be explained to him why one particular place on his forehead hurt more than the rest of it. And why I wasn't talking to him.

After Stefano went to his room loudly cursing, Catharine (who had been at the office all night instead of out with us) pulled me aside and told me that my "boyfriend***" had left me a little gift. She wouldn't tell me what it was. So, when I got to my room, I found plastic blinking roses attached to my doorknob. They're ever so sexy. Hehehehehehehehe...

Anyway, that was last year’s birthday. It’s strange to think back and remember how different my life was. At that point I would have scoffed loudly at anyone who suggested I would be back in America attending university again. Life is so strange like that, I guess. And I'm curious as to what the next year will bring.

*Apparently Norwegians don't get along with "v" sounds

**If you can't do ugly foreigner things on your birthday, when can you?

***One of the guards, Abdu Salaam, loved me, much to my annoyance and the amusement of everyone else

PS The spellchecker thinks "Epilator" should be "evildoer" and I tend to agree.