The Club Is Open

I was getting ready to take my evening constitutional last night and I went to get some cash from our secret stash. Right next to all those portraits of Madison were some errant of British pound notes. Seeing those took me back to the day before we left for Lebanon, specifically to our last lunch in New York. We had fish and chips with our friend (and my sometime-collaborator) Malcolm at the Chip Shop in Park Slope, Brooklyn (an establishment which, by the way, I was impressed to see get a little screen time in the Supersize Me special features). I believe we had haddock and chips and Amy drank a pint of Stella, which she doesn’t normally like, but they were out of Strongbow cider Old Speckled Hen. At one point, Malcolm handed us an envelope containing £50 because he knew we had a 4-hour layover in Heathrow. Last night when I saw those remaining pounds, I missed Malcolm and was touched again by the thoughtfulness of the gesture. So, I want to take this opportunity right now to give a tip of the hat and a salty salute to Malcolm Hearn.

Yesterday I kind of had a “good day a the office”….I was able to do an unassailable¹ 9 hours and successfully merge Gaylord Entertainment’s online application process with their agent registration process, and enable applicants to edit their .xml applications. Fascinating stuff, really. I’ve actually been having some real difficulties (mostly of my own creation) with my work lately, so it was nice to clock out and take a stroll around the ‘hood. I literally hadn’t left the homestead since coming home Friday night. I was surprised again by the fact that we have a Subway and two McDonald’s (not to mention a Wimpy and a Starbucks) within like 7 blocks of our house. It was around 8pm and everything was closed or closing, so my secondary mission of finding a place that sends faxes internationally was a bust. I’m trying to do some remote banking so that we don’t have to pay $3 every time we make an ATM withdrawal. Thank you very much, JP Morgan/Chase. They also charge a 3.5% “conversion fee” if we take out funds in Lebanese pounds. For that reason, we–along with a few other of our American friends–always withdraw money in USD, which you can actually do at most ATMs. I have to say, I have never handled so many $50 and $100 bills prior to moving here, as that’s mostly what the ATMs dispense. In case I haven’t mentioned it before, US currency is accepted almost everywhere at a flat 1500LL=$1 exchange, somewhat to the consternation of the government.

Back at home, Amy prepared a predictably wonderful chicken and black bean stew and she predictably sold herself short: “Ugh, the beans are so undercooked.” But seriously, we’re like the Cleavers minus the Beaver.

After dinner, we checked out one of the local joints, American Dream. We chatted with the owner, who’s been more or less involved with the place for 44 years, and he treated us (not for the first time) to his own creation, the TGV; tequila/gin/vodka. He said that he changed the recipe by adding more gin. I’m not sure that there’s a right direction to take with such a concoction, but adding more gin is definitely not it. Mercifully, he gave us small portions.

We asked about the place next door. American Dream: Restaurant and Pub is next door to American Dream: Disco Pub. He explained that he rented it out to some Egyptians who “have girls that dance and make drinks.” I wanted to say, “Yeah, it’s ok…we know what a super nightclub² is.” But we barely had a chance to get into our salted carrots and pumpkin seeds before getting a text message from Carrie asking if we wanted to meet up in Gemmayze. Carrie left this morning to go spend 10 days in the States.

We took a service taxi towards Gemmayze, but ended up getting out downtown. People were out celebrating the release of Samir Geagea ³ and there was a lot of traffic, so we wanted to give the driver an opportunity to not sit in traffic for half and hour for a dollar and change. Walking over to Gemmayze, we passed by Martyr’s Square and noticed that all the tents were down and the streets were open. Ever since Hariri’s assassination, people had been camping out protesting one cause or another and the final holdouts were protesting Geagea’s incarceration. The police had closed the streets around the square, presumably for safety reasons.

After meeting up with Carrie, the three of us ended up at Brooke’s, a place I believe I’ve mentioned in a previous post. I’m glad that Amy posts about all her adventures because if one were to judge our experiences in Lebanon based on my posts alone, one might think that we’re a couple of barflies. Carrie left around 1am because of her early flight, but we got kind wrapped up in conversation with the bartenders and lost track of time till after 3am. Talking politics here is an always interesting and sometimes revolting (both bartenders are Bush supporters) experince. We’re also actually friends with one of the bartenders, Mike, and we may take a trip to Mt. Lebanon with him next weekend.

In deference to Amy’s claims that I’m too “complainy” in my blog posts, I will not mention the fact that the cab driver over-charged us 2000LL on the trip home.

Today we learned that there was actually a gun battle last night in response to the Geagea release. I actually just got off instant messenger with Carrie, who was enjoying her own layover in Heathrow, and I remarked on how absurd it is that we so easily absorb these sorts of current events here. I believe my exact wording was, “Pssshhhh, par for the course.”

In other news, there was apparently an assassination attempt on former US-installed Iraqi PM Ayad Allawi in Lebanon recently. The odd thing is that I think it was just announced today, there are no details being released, and the casual observer might think it’s just an attempt by Allawi to give a salty salute of his own to Amal.

And a propo of nothing, here are some pictures of Amy in our “home office”. Amy said yesterday, “In the next place that we live, can we not have so many cables everywhere?” Don’t say anything about Amy’s tattoo and don’t steal my code.

footnotes:

1. I say “unassailable” because I have a real complex about the amount of time I work and the amount for which I bill. Sometimes I’ll work for, say, 12 hours but only bill for 4 because I feel that I only got about 4 hours’ worth of work done. Amy is alternately amused and irritated by this situation. So, an unassailable 9 hours is basically working for 9 hours and billing for 9 hours.
2. From Let’s Go Middle East 2002:
   

   LET’S NOT GO THERE. A word to the wise: so-called super night clubs are common in Lebanon. Many visitors wrongly assume that “super” means “very good.” Those in the know simply call these clubs “brothels.” So unless your planet is lonely, avoid this scene.

   Amy and I accidentally went to one of these called The Candel [sic] Light the first time we were here. Amy argued our way out of paying way too much for a couple beers. The elderly pimp tried to pique our interest by saying that one of the ladies had said Amy looked like an Egyptian movie star. It was a totally bogus scene at the time, but hilarious to look back on. Especially the part about Amy refusing to be ripped off (whereas I was ready to just pay and get the hell out). Incidentally, the joint in question is about 2 blocks from where we currently live.

3. Pronouced like Zsa Zsa. He had been held as a political prisoner for 11 years. I don’t know all the details