The toll of the desert...from Facebook frustration to John the Ugly Diner

Ramadan is ending this weekend, and the slightly cooler temperatures of September are right around the corner, relief is in site. It is funny how you can have little things fester, and become bigger issues than they should. When these little things blow up, they can quickly be put back in their place by real events that surround you and your friends lives. I neglected to mention last week, that Steve (my boss at Transmed) had returned back to the UK because his father had passed away. He is due back this weekend. RK, the GM in charge of the "meat and seafood" division of Barakat, had his uncle die in India while he was vacationing, and he will not return until next week now. Both of these men were retired and had lived full lives, although if you are close to them, the pain you feel from missing someone that you love and care about is very deep. I turn 50 in October, and there is a sobering effect of reaching those years where heart attacks, cancer and other ailments seem to start claiming more victims.Two days ago the news of death had arrived to me, for Rick Fowler. I doubt many of the readers of this blog knew Rick, but we had been in the same fantasy baseball League in Atlanta for over 20 years together. I had always enjoyed his friendly banter, and he was a stand up guy that shared the love of baseball that I did. He was a couple of years younger than me, married with children. In the last month he was diagnosed with Cancer, and taken from the living in rapid fashion. I didn't get a chance to say goodbye, and his passing reminds me of how precious life is and how you should cherish those friendships and people that you interact with everyday. You never know when that last conversation may take place.
It seems so trivial to think of the challenges of life that I (and I am sure most of you) face everyday. I bemoan the fact that I feel my biggest failure in life is and continues to be the inability to find that life mate. It seems simple, you find a nice girl, fall in love - get married and live happily ever after. I have an intense fear of growing old alone, and as I hit 50, and hopefully many more years it appears that I probably will face them alone. It seems depressing, but when I compare my challenge to Rick Fowler's family or my close friend Wes who lost his spouse (Lori) to cancer while she was still in her prime. The challenges that my friends and family have had with divorce or much worse, I realize that my big fears are nothing more than minor challenges. I am blessed, please forgive me as my trivialities are bemoaned as mountains, when we all know they are nothing more than mole hills.

Kelly is in Turkey for the weekend with her beau Sami. They left Thursday, but before she went we enjoyed an Iftar dinner together (the one I won on the radio a couple of weeks ago). The food was average (I am being gracious) but the company and conversation was magnificent. We don't get to enjoy the daily smiles and frowns since we now work for competitors, but our friendship and bond is closer than ever. During our evening, my sweet friend Kelly shared with me that she didn't really care for my Facebook profile picture. It was a picture taken at a dinner I attended during October of 2010 in Paris, France. I always liked it, looked like a successful business man enjoying a nice business dinner. Kelly felt like it made me look stuffy, and didn't portray the loving, happy, caring friend she has grown to know. It seems she took a picture at her surprise birthday dinner last week she thought would suit me better. As we said good night, she let me know she would "email that picture to me, change your Facebook photo". (yes - you are in the midst of one of John's "speed bump" in life stories).
It seems so simple, my good friend Kelly is looking out for me. Wednesday night, I got that email from Kelly. There I am, in splendid color looking ok, except that the background made my thinning hair vanish in the photo. Couldn't highlight my worse feature, so what to do. I looked at my pictures and found one taken by my good friend Yvonne right before I left the States in May of 2010.

I changed my profile picture to Yvonne's - not Kelly's. Let the pain begin...friends and family left many comments about how great I looked, I had lost weight, and how cute I was. Yes, "was" is the operative word, it has smacked me between the eyes, I have let myself go to the dogs, hair loss and weight gain are not the dynamic duo...time to get a trainer for this dog...We will revisit!
IHOP has opened it's first location in Dubai, and yes I behaved poorly in my initial dining. my waiter was a nice young man of Philippine heritage (time for the truth to set me free). I decided that I wanted to have country fried chicken and eggs (I was channeling Cracker Barrel at IHOP) I asked "Oliver" - (We will name him to protect him) if they had country fried chicken and he showed me the picture of Country fried "steak". I quickly pointed out this was beef, not chicken and I inquired again about having country fried chicken. He said "yes we have". I said "where is it in menu", he leafed to the dinner section and again showed me a picture of country fried steak (this one with veggies), I said, "no Oliver, this is beef",,,"Are you sure you have chicken?" He once again said yes, I was fretting over the fact of trusting Oliver and then knowing the odds were high that I would be severely disappointed with whatever Oliver delivered to my table that was not country fried chicken that he was promising. I spotted a manager hovering in my area, and I called her over. She quickly pointed out now to my poor server Oliver as sweat poured down his forehead and dripped from his nose, that they did not have country fried chicken, I thanked her, ordered the country fried beef, and yes I was disappointed. I will visit IHOP again soon, and order better....like pancakes...I get it....

In my new series, "get to know my new colleagues at Barakat", this week we meet Professor Bigith.

Bijith is a very fit young Hindu from the southern part of India (a reoccurring theme at Barakat). He works as a Key Account Manager in our protein division of our company and reports directly to me. In the nicest way I can, I would describe Bijith as "opinionated". I gave him the moniker of "Professor" due to his strong stances of fact about things he knows little about....He argued recently with me about things that Transmed stocks (he knew they did not stock shortening oil, I of course knew that it was the top selling item at Transmed, with three full containers a month being sold - there was no convincing him...In our brief encounters he has also shared his frustration with America for being for Pakistan and against India, no reasoning seems to seek in....yes, I am making light of this, but it is a trait of his that must change soon. This week, Professor Bijith gave me American history lessons...It seems that he thought Obama may not get re-elected, mainly because of the unfairness of "white" Americans that took the land from the blacks when we invaded America from Britain...sigh. I did not know where to begin, fortunately, Suresh (another Key Account Manager from southern India) quickly stepped in, and explained to a disbelieving Bijith, that the black Americans were from Africa that had been slaves set free by Abraham Lincoln, and were brought there as slaves from Africa by the whites. He went on to proudly say he took American history in school...Sounds like we are going to have fun listening to the world according to Professor Bijith in the upcoming months.

Muzzy and Kumail are leaving for a week in the Seychelles, while Kelly comes back from Turkey mid week, could be a little quiet this week. The good news is Hayley returns from the States today and with Ramadan ending his weekend, maybe life will get back to normal. Eid begins Sunday (it is a three day celebration marking the end of fasting and Ramadan) and I can hardly wait.
My life is full, I have relatively good health, great friends and a good career. I am thankful for my blessings as I remember my friend Rick and his family and grieve over their loss. I look forward to seeing all of you soon, and we should all cherish the time we have together on this good earth.