Panda’s Surprise Visit

Hi

Prior to this past Friday, my wife had been after me for the both of us to go out to NYC and hit up Cairo’s Steakhouse. In fact, she was really adamant about it. I thought it to be out of the blue at first, but then I factored in the oh-yeah-she’s-a-chick factor and realized that this out of the blue persistence was nothing unusual.

She brought it up in the middle of the day while I was at work, so her suggestion came via text. Initially, I replied back with, “Ok, let’s see.” My wife, however, knows me well and promptly realizes that I’m trying to be politely non-committal about it, so a half second later, my iPhone convo-style text shows her response of, “No, I really want steak. Let’s goooooo!” Deep breath on my part and then I reply with a simple, “Ok, let’s do it :)” [1]. Of course, she’s thoroughly delighted. The rest of the week she’d randomly insert a “I can’t wait for some steak on Friday night!” comment. Who does she think she is? Me? I couldn’t help but to think that. It was slightly threatening to who I am, to be frank. Usually I’m the one that’s willing to go out to eat - especially if it involves meat! And especially to get up on outta da hood (Danbury) and to some civilization (anywhere outside of the Danbury area). Regardless, I went with it.

Cairo’s Steakhouse, Friday night:

I dropped the wife off in front of Cairo’s so she could start ordering considering that we were both pretty hungry and parking wasn’t readily available. That was fine with us because the weather was perfect and we always enjoyed our post-dinner walks, especially since we hit up a local Red Mango on the way back to the car.

I parked a block away from our Red Mango and begin walking down about 6 blocks to the restaurant. It was a busy night on the streets of the Astoria/Queens area (still familiarizing myself with all of NYC's burroughs), as one would expect it to be for a nice Friday night. The area we were in was dominated primarily by Arabs (presumably Egyptians), but, as you will typically find in NYC, there was a noticeable mix of ethnicities sprinkled throughout. Definitely not like the way it is back home in Chicago. On the walk back, I speak to Samuel Huck who was busy cooking up some steak and ribs of his own. Shortly after speaking with him, he texted me a pic of the food he cooked up. Mmm. Looked good and in turn got me hungrier, but before I know it, I'm in the restaurant.

This time around, I went with the burger. The first and last time we were there was with a friend of mine and his wife. His wife ordered a burger, which looked thick enough to be the size of a calf. As such, this was what I naturally had to get. The wife mixed it up, too, and went with this chicken dish, very succulent, that had a nice pile of garlic mashed potatoes to compliment it. The best part of my burger was perhaps the caramelized onions, but beyond that, it was OK. Honestly, I probably would have had more satisfaction with an A&W burger. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t what I was expecting from Cairo’s. Lesson learned: stick with the steak next time (or even the succulent chicken).

Before I continue, there are a couple things to note: Prior to our eating, two random statements were made from my in-laws. The first was when we had FaceTime’d my in-laws earlier to say “Hi,” and show them our new place. When my mother-in-law saw me, the first thing she said, very enthusiastically, was, “Happy Birthday!” Happy Birthday? OK, I’ve been married to your daughter for almost three years now, had my grand ol’ 30th celebrated at your home, know full well how closely you keep track of family and in-laws sal giras, but you say to Happy Birthday to me now? In June? Was Heena going to get me a gift? Was it a new take on Christmas in July, but now the version of my December birthday in June? It was puzzling. Fortunately for my mother-in-law, I am used to completely random comments from them. Well, mostly my wife. And brother-in-law. And father-in-law, too. Hmm. Ok, upon further review, let’s group them all back in that saying-random-stuff-to-confuse-the-son/brother-in-law/husband category. But for real, I was confused. Fortunately my wife was able to laugh off her comment and attribute it to “Lakhani humor.” Folks, this is a type of humor I do not even wish for my enemies. You have to be resiliently strong and brave to endure Lakhani jokes, and I guess that’s what I’m getting at when I speak of the random comments. Outside of these jokes, we get along 110% (ma sha Allah). :) [2]

The second random statement came from after I texted HP, my bros, and SILs a couple pictures of the food from the restaurant. HP had replied with, “Nice. How was his surp?” My what? OK, I had no idea what he was talking about, but I dismissed it and assumed that it was an iPhone autocorrect issue [3].

The wife and I carry-on with our dinner. Everything was nice. The weather. The food. My wife. My daughter. The masjid across the street where I had prayed maghrib and also heard a hafiz (I assume he was) with a beautiful voice, ma sha Allah, teaching a circle of students the Quran. Actually, it was really awesome. He would recite into the microphone a short passage from a verse of the Holy Quran in a melodic, spiritual voice. The students, in unison, would recite that same passage. One of the students mentioned to me that they do this every Tuesday and Friday between al-maghrib and al-isha [4]. And that you feel like you’ve memorized the verse at the end of the night because of the Hafiz's approach on teaching it. So beautiful, Alhamdullilah.

But I digress. Like I said, it was a nice evening. Even the wife mentioned, “Isn’t this nice? Just you, me, and our daughter?” Of course I said, “Yes,” but I kinda wondered why she would say that. After all, it’s only been the three of us for the past 3 – 4 months now. So even if we eat out, it’s just the three of us. Then I realized that maybe she was slightly annoyed from the previous weekend where I had asked a friend of mine to hang out with us when we hit up a halal soul food joint. So, of course, I didn’t push the issue and just kept to my burger while playing with my daughter, who was busy pointing at every other person in the restaurant and then waving them to come sit with us. Adorable she is, ma sha Allah. I pick her up from her stroller and put her on my lap. My daughter and I were well immersed into our own little world when suddenly, I hear a, “What I heard is that steak here is amazing.” I turn around...

Lo and behold!

The great giant Panda himself. In the flesh.

I was shocked. Panda? Here? How can this be? I looked over to my wife who started laughing, “I’ve been waiting and waiting for this!” Yet here he was. Initially I thought it was a cool lil surprise, but I found it odd and convenient that Panda had to be here. I thought to myself, This guy is in town to either see another friend, attend a wedding, or likely for work. But then I received another surprise after an already pleasant one: The dude was in town to specifically see me. In fact, he was even going to stay at our place.

Let me write this again because it still kinda gives me goosebumps and is still kind surreal: The dude was in town to specifically see me. Allahu Akbar!

That bit of info was more of a welcomed surprise than his initial appearance. I guess I have to say that I found it to be very touching and quite, well, phenom on Farooq’s part to coordinate with my wife to pull this off. By the same token, I must also give credit to my wife who somehow managed to hide this from me and help pull of the surprise. Speaking of “surprise,” guess what HP’s comment of “surp” stood for? Guess why my mother-in-law had enthusiastically said, “Happy Birthday!” Granted, they could’ve blown it and it did make me think that something was amuck, but I eventually dismissed it all, which meant that the surprise worked.

Back to Panda: This guy is remarkable. He knows that before this past Friday, I was prepared to write him off. Because he has the need to shoulder the world's corporate work on his shoulders, he is absorbed into his own world filled with pie charts, stats, and pivot tables. As a result, he has cut out everything else that's superfluous (i.e. me). This blackhole in my life also meant that he was unable to call/text me back. So much so that I was going to remove him from my Favorites in my iPhone phonebook – a coveted spot anyone would normally vye for, of course. Thus enters the sheer brilliance of Panda. He knows that he’s broken the heart of someone and then he makes up for it by flying about a thousand miles over to hang out for not even a full 24 hours. Like one of my friends mentioned, everything from the past few months in now erased. It's like he's upgraded and rebooted an old computer (I wonder if that's really how he sees the world...probably).

Anyway, I now find myself thinking of raising his spot in my Favorites list instead of removing [5]. Dang you, Farooq, and you're loving ways!

MAD JZK goes out to my boy for flying in. It was a great weekend, though short, and I am fortunate to have you as my homie. And MAD JZK for my wife for helping to coordinate and keep this under wraps. Impressive, indeed. For that, you both get a Full JZK: Jazak Allah khair. May Allah reward you with the best in this world and in the Hereafter; May He (swt) provide you with the joyous happiness you folks provide me. Allah huma Sali Allah Muhammad. Aameen!


Side Notes:
[1] The use of expressions/emoticons in texting or emailing has always been an area of great internal conflict for me. If I’m happy or excited, and talking to my wife, I feel it’s OK to reply back with a “:).” But what if it’s one of the guys? Will they think I’m girly? Easily excitable? With guys, sometimes showing a certain level of emotion is downright scary. Like if I get a smiley face from, say, Taha, does it show that him and I are bonding about something? That we may just hug for an extra second longer the next time we see each other? I dunno. I do think that smiley faces and other emoticons can take you outside that certain level of emotion and can possibly make it awkward. Having said that, I still use it, but strategically; like when someone can’t pick up on the tone of a text message that might be sarcastic. Throw in a smiley face and instead of getting a, “You’re a d-bag” response, you’ll get, “LOL!” I think I could really post a separate entry on this fascinating and deeply deep topic.

[2] This use of a smiley face is definitely purposeful. It’s to indicate to my in-laws, should they be bored enough to read this, that I was just joking! (Yep, I’m trying to employ a little CYA right now! Clever me!)

[3] You must visit the website called damn you autocorrect (google it). Absolutely hysterical, but be forewarned that you might spend a lot time on it (and it also just might have inappropriate comments, too, so...umm...please share those ones with me).

[4] Please note the purposeful usage of "al-" in front of maghrib and isha. This was to copy the way the brother who I was referring to said it. I thought it was cool. Makes it sound even more powerful.

[5] I’m definitely cautious here as to mention who is on my Favorites list and who ranks where -- especially since one of my friends once saw it and commented, “Oh, wow. AJ is higher up on your favorites list than me. MBN.” Look, don’t call this catty or girl-like (my wife loves saying, “You and your friends are such girls” with all our excessive emailing, texting, appreciating each others attire, looks, etc.). This is a passionate brotherhood of exclusivity that I enjoy with all my boys!





Cheers