The 7 Words You Don't Want to Hear... when approaching a weekend checkpoint in Kuwait

"Stop the car.  I'm going to vomit."
No no noooooooooooooooo!!!!  Not HERE.  Not NOW.

So let me back up a little.  Riyadh (as in the guy from Riyadh who drove 7 hours last time to take me to dinner)  came to visit me this weekend.  It was lovely of him to take time off work, get on a plane, rent a car... all to come see me.

Expectations are NOT a good thing.  I was expecting romantic dinners, walks, spending time together. Always lower your expectations so that you're not disappointed.  I guess what I should have expected was more along the lines of, "I don't want to go to dinner.  I'm on a diet."  Em... ok... well, I'm hungry....  What about me?  I made a sandwich.  (Guess all that food I bought for his visit was for naught.)

When someone comes to visit you, you also find out a lot about their character.  Riyadh and I immediately were not well suited for each other.  He's persnickety.  By that, I mean fussy and annoying.  Too many questions.  Too much drama over little details.  It was tiring.

But, of course, that wasn't the "fun" part!

The first night he arrived, I offered to take him to visit my friends.  He had asked to meet my friends when he got here.  So I agreed. But that led to questions like, "Who will be there?"  "How long have you known them?" "Is it couples? What kind of people are they?"  Dude, are you coming or not?  I shouldn't have gone.  I shoulda known better.  Nipped it in the bud.  But, we went.

After 3 glasses, Riyadh is in the soup.  With one hand on one of the girls, the other holding my hand, he's whispering in my ear that I, "May be the one he's been looking for."   Oh, aren't I the lucky girl?

I decide it is time to go home.  We get into the car.  He's asking ME if I am ok to drive.... like I'm going to let HIM get behind the wheel.

The first time was on the highway.  "Stop the car....I'm going to vomit.  I'm sorry.  I'm sorry."  Ok fine.  (I'm wishing we had taken his rental car.)  The second time was closer to home.  I pulled off somewhere out of the way for that one.  "Where are we?  Are we close?"  We're almost home.... and then...  I see the line of cars with the flashing lights at the front.  Oh fuuuuuuuuu.....

And one more time.... "Stop the car....."  Oh nooo!!!!  Not HERE.  Not NOW.   OhmaGod, OhmaGod, OhmaGod.   That would have done it.  It would have been public and over.  But, he held it.

The cop took my license, registration, and civil ID. No problem there.  Then asked for Riyadh's. Luckily, I had asked him in advance to have it ready, and he did.  He still had a hard time just handing it to the guy.  The cop said, "Pull over to the right."

SNAP!

So, I did.  Various boys in other sports cars stared.  A ranking officer walked - not to MY side of the car, but Riyadh's side of the car, and asked for his ID. I was in the clear, but if they asked us for blood, I likely might have trace amounts (ANY alcohol is illegal and you can be arrested).  Not cool.  There was a lot of close-up-sniffing by the officer, discussion of family ties and general questions.  The guy knew.  Riyadh knew dude knew;  he finally fessed up and the officer basically told him, "why didn't you just tell me so?"  Let us go.

WHEW!!!

So, I took the back roads from there.  2 more vomit stops (one very close to a police station) and we finally arrived home. Riyadh had a nice comfortable sleep:  On my carpet on my guest bathroom floor.  I checked on him 3 times.  He seemed to be still breathing.

The rest of the weekend kinda went like that. We did manage to go to a few malls... that was it.  Even at the malls -  we went places, but not together.  He wanted to go walking (which I translated to seeing Kuwait alone).  I went and did my own thing - alone.

Bye!  Have a nice trip back to from-where-you-came....

And I missed seeing my Kuwaiti family on a Friday.  The first time in months and months.  I miss them so bad.  I don't want to do that again. I was all sniffly and whimpery on Friday afternoon.  Didn't like it 'tall.

.... but now, let me tell you about the BEST part of the weekend....

Desert Guy.  (Sigh)  Now, I know I shouldn't be re-warming leftovers after their expiration date, but.... It is just so comfortable.  Now I KNOW him.  I know how to deal.

Thursday night (before Riyadh showed up on Friday), I cooked dinner (yes yes, I did too!  Shrimp...)  and brought it over to the Hawalli Secret Hide Out (that's his secret hide out, not mine.  Mine is in Kabd.)  He and I and 3 of our mutual friends watched TV and talked all night.  I fell asleep on the sofa feeling completely comfortable in their company.  I woke up and DGY gave me hugs and kissed my hand.  Sigh.  FRIENDS.

DGY's friend, Z, asked me about this year and what I had done since I saw them in February.  I reluctantly told him that I needed to withdraw from everybody.  He said, "It sounds like you were broken."  I guess I was.  That is exactly how I felt.

When I was "broken", then I found Clean.  Maybe he was part of my recovery.  Maybe I could pick up the pieces and put myself together for something better.  I dunno.  I feel a lot more "solid" (if you can call it that) now.

DGY and I never talk about Teddy or any of the other friends.   We're just enjoying being together.  His friends seem a lot more supportive.  DGY and I are ONLY FRIENDS and that's the way I'm looking at it. I'm not making any promises.  I don't expect him to.  But it is just fun.  If it stops being fun, I'll stop visiting.

Note of appreciation:  Without La Senza prompting me, I might not have posted about this, but she seems to find hilarity in my life and foibles, so here it is.  Thanks, Girl.