Some days make more sense than others...

Highlights of yesterday include:

Marwa and Nick take the train to my place for a visit. I pick them up from the station. We grocery shop and bring home yummy food for what should be a lovely afternoon of eating, visiting and maybe taking a walk on the castle grounds.

I tell Marwa and Nick that I have to leave for a few minutes to pick up Faisal from the train station. I tell them that he's a bit antisocial and that he doesn't want to meet my friends, but that it should be ok, even if he just wants to work upstairs while we visit. Faisal is an independent film maker (read: He's interesting, moody, and dirt poor). Having spent my life around artists, his need for solitude is simultaneously annoying and consistent with my experience with artistic types. Live and let live.

I pick up Faisal from the train station. On the way home, I tell him that Marwa and Nick are there. He does not want to meet them. He's not impressed that I didn't mention it earlier. I tell him that I tried to call but his phone was off. He's not feeling social. He does not want to come to the apartment. We sit in the car calmly discussing options. I use my "talking to artists" tone... this is similar to my "talking to 6 year olds" tone, but with more eye contact and longer pauses for them to reflect on how what you are telling them resonates with their soul. I drive him back to town so that he can work from a coffee shop for a couple of hours. I'm more baffled than I expected to be, but can't worry about it. I drive home looking forward to explaining to Nick and Marwa why I'm alone.

I arrive home. Marwa looks at me, looks behind me, looks at me... says "noooooo". I say "oh yes".

We start to prepare lunch and I tell her about Faisal. We can't seem to get the oven working. We turn the knobs, check the cable, flick the lights on and off. Nothing. "Maybe it's the fuse" we agree. Let's check the fusebox in the garage.

We struggle the garage door open. It seems blocked by something. We get halfway to the fusebox. The security alarm in the main house goes off. The cat is in the garage and starts flipping out. Marwa and I are frozen. She says "Run"! We do, laughing, thinking the alarm will stop any minute. It doesn't.

We're back in the apartment. Nick is waiting for us with a "what the hell is going on" look on his face. He's holding a frozen pizza.

I realize that I do not have my landlord's contact information. I put in an emergency weekend call to the rental agency and miraculously get Nicole on the phone. She gives me the landlord's number. I call him. He does not answer. We wait... we turn up the music, and make lunch.

I start to worry about the cat. I phone Nicole back and ask her to phone the police for me (they are a Dutch-language service). She calls back to say that if the police have to come to the house that I will be fined. I make mental note to leave Belgium immediately and never return. She advises me that I have to call the fire department.

I'm feeling very grateful that Faisal is not here.

I call the fire department. Marwa, Nick and I eat lunch. The Fire Department arrives. The fire department is smoking cigarettes. I open the garage door and the traumatized cat goes screaming past us and probably spends the rest of the afternoon chasing large dogs. The fire department cuts the wire on the alarm and then asks for my name. Then my phone number. Then if I am single. I thank the fire department for their help and retreat into my apartment.

I call Faisal -- 3 hours have passed -- to tell him that I am driving Marwa and Nick to the train station and that he can let himself into the apartment.

I drive Marwa and Nick to the train. When I get home Faisal is inside. He takes off his wet pants and hangs them over a chair. I forget that he has been a weirdo. Faisal has very nice legs.

He also has a sore throat. The unspoken implication is that I kept him waiting in the damp day and he's now sick. We drink jasmine tea and I teach him to play "Set". I beat him mercilessly.

We start a conversation that takes hours to slowly wind along a path of tenderness, hilarity, confusion, anger, coldness and ultimately to the certainty that I am not going to see him again.

All things considered equal, I realize I'd rather be alone in my nutty life than spend time with people who make me crazy.

Today I'm going for a Lebanese brunch and then I MUST stop putting off packing for Australia. So far, all I've packed is my plane ticket and my credit card.