Anxiety

So tonight my flight leaves California bound for home (Florida). I leave at 8:10 tonight, and my flight lands in Tallahassee at 11:00 tomorrow morning. I have a layover in Las Vegas and in Charlotte before I get home.

When I first started my job, they flew me to Houston from Cincinnati to finish my training. That was the first time I had ever flown, and I was extremely excited. I wanted to sit by the window, and looked out the window the whole time. Now I've flown so much that all I care about is putting me on an aisle sit as close to the door as possible. I hate waiting for other people to get their luggage out of the overhead compartments when I've got a 20 minute window to catch my next flight.

Anyways, that's kind of an unrelated tangent. If you've read any of my earlier posts, you know how awesome I think my girlfriend is. Well it is finally time for me to meet her dad. That is a little informal however, a little more aptly put I have an appointment, or interview with him.

My girlfriend has not once in her 29 years introduced one of her boyfriends to her dad. He is an old fashioned middle eastern male, who lived all but the last 10 years of 70 in Iraq. He went through the overthrow of the monarchy, the rise of Saddam, the Iran/Iraq war, and the first Persian Gulf War. He was a fairly important person in society, a law school graduate from American Universities, a member of the Iraqi Olympic Hopeful Soccer Team, a Professor, and a true patriot to Iraq the nation. He could have had his pick of anyone to marry his daughters. Money, power, education...any or all of that.

Now she has told him that she plans on marrying a white American who dropped out of high school and got his GED. Needless to say this was a hard thing for him to swallow. Again my girlfriend showed her strength in staying true to her convictions in the face of such an intimidating man. His initial reaction was one of anger and disappointment. I can understand, you go through what he has gone through and now you go from picking your daughter's husband to not having any control over the situation.

Not to mention that my girlfriend is his youngest daughter, and I'm a full 7 1/2 years younger than her, with no college to her two degrees.

When she told him that she wanted him to meet me, he agreed, in Arabic. Then he switched to English, "I'm gonna be tough!"

I appreciate that. I know how I'm going to be to any guy who tries to date my daughter. I'll be sure to take him through a tour of my gun cabinet the first time he takes her on a date, and I've even thought about making them drink from a can of soda so I have their DNA. My little princess will hate me, but that's a long way off.

Well, I'm nervous. I don't know the proper etiquette to even go into a traditional Middle Easterner's house, much less tell them I'm interested in marrying his daughter. Yesterday I bought a new pair of slacks, a button up shirt, and polished my dress shoes. The only way I can think of it is like any other job interview, only this position is "Husband to your baby daughter". I have been complimented on my manners before, and I've been told that I'm not a bumbling idiot, but still I'm anxious. I was nervous when I met my last girlfriends parents, and this is a whole new beast.

So tomorrow I will dress up and shave, buy a box of bachlawa, and go off to meet him. I know he will tell me I'm not good enough for his daughter, and I know he will instill the fear of God in me, and I know that he will more than likely be pretty mean to me.

All I can do is tell him he's right. No one is good enough for his daughter. I don't deserve someone that is so wonderful, but I love her more than anything in this world, and would gladly spend every day trying to deserve her. That is all I can promise him. That I'll love and treat her with respect, and grow old with her. I will do my best to win him over, but she is afraid for me, as is her sister. I'm traveling in uncharted territory now. My girlfriend wanted to be with me while we had this talk, but something told me that was a bad idea. The last thing I need when trying to earn the respect of an old fashioned man is to have a girl jump in and try to protect me when he is rude or mean to me.

So off I go, into the darkness, with no real guide. Here's hoping.