It’s 1:04 am which means it’s officially Tuesday the 26th, one day before I take off. It also means The Daily Show is on right now and I’ve just realized it as I typed the time. I’ll be right back.

Ok, commercial.

So yeah, I’m taking off soon. Today is my last final, which should be fun. As the John Denver song goes, all my bags are packed and I’m ready to go.

Speaking of songs. Today I felt like listening to my favorite band the Counting Crows and I picked an album I’ve been avoiding for some time now: This Desert Life. I think there is not a lover of music out there who doesn’t have a song that personifies a moment in their life, whence upon randomly hearing it on the radio, a flood of memories lays siege to your mind. For me, it was a whole album. This Desert Life represents the best couple of months in my life as of yet, the summer after graduating high school till I was off to Canada to study. It was a “you’re only young once” kind of summer spent cruising, playing starcraft and attempting just about any activity that required less than 1% of brain usage.

As I crept home in the wee hours of the morning, I would listen to this album on my cd player and fall asleep to it. For that reason, This Desert Life, has become a pseudonym for Jordan and my love for Jordan. There’s even a big a poster of it in my apartment…

That is why I tend to avoid listening to it while I’m here, especially in the nostalgic months of March and April when everyone I know is flying off home and I’m immersed in books for the summer. But, (yes, I just started a sentence with ‘but’) given that I am leaving soon I thought what the hell. It is as memorable and nostalgic as ever; I kind of felt what smokers must feel like when they quit for a long time and then take that first puff again (disclaimer: in no way am I condoning the act of smoking or using it as an analogy for nostalgia). Every song conjures up memories, every line a doorway to a gallery of pictures; mental Kodak moments you keep to yourself.

I’ll show you what I mean by picking one line in every song on that album and maybe someone who is “metgharib” like me (is there an exact translation for this word?) will know exactly what I’m talking about:

1- Hangin Around: “I been hangin around this town on the corner, I been bummin’ around this old town so long”

2- Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby: “If dreams are like movies, then memories are films about ghosts”

3- Amy Hit the Atmosphere: “We’ve waited so long for someone to take us back home. It just takes so long”

4- Four Days: “All I want is something good, It gets harder every time . She is leaving here tonight, Take a breath Take your time, Spread your wings and rise.”

5- All My Friends: “Can you see her waiting there? Can you see her? Because I’m almost there. Can you see her waiting there for someone like me?”

6- High Life: “But oh, this desert life, this high life, Here at the dying end of the day. I wasn’t made for this scene baby, But I was made in this scene”

7- Colorblind: “I am folded and unfolded and unfolding I am, colorblind”

8- I Wish I was a Girl: “But I can’t sleep at night…”

9- Speedway: “I’m thinking about breaking myself. I’m thinking about getting back home. I think I been waiting for way too long. I’m thinking about getting out”

10- St. Robinson in his Cadillac dream: “And I keep thinking tomorrow is coming today, So I am endlessly waiting”

Anyone care to venture a guess at which two songs are my “favorites”?

Well this is what I’ll be listening to as I cross over the Atlantic, and into Jordanian skies. In my head I see the moment when the plane is descending and all I see are flickers of scattered Amman lights, while everyone is sleeping in a desert life.

A memory in the making…

Anyways, I’ve got to get back to burning the midnight oil, the redbull is wearing off.

Posted In: Moi