Finding Dulcinea - Part 1

I think every man does what he can until his destiny is revealed to him - Japanese Samurai

This is a true ongoing story.  Actually it all started on May 15^th 2011 as I was taking part of the LebLaique march for a Lebanese Secular state.  I arrived at the Ayn Mreissi starting point a bit late so I caught the procession from behind.  As I stepped up to catch the crowd, I noticed her. She was here again this year.  I had seen her in last year’s March and something buzzed big time inside me.  I decided not to act upon it then since my personal life was a tad bit complicated to say the least.

I couldn’t believe that out of probably a thousand marchers that Sunday I would bump into her first (took that as a sign). Needless to say the buzzing from inside went berserk. It was really odd; after all, for a thirty something fellow who’s had more than his fair share of failed relationships and fake love stories, such feelings would immediately be neutralized and recycled into not even the back of the heart but somewhere far less glamorous. 

But I couldn’t help it. This woman has awakened the man inside whom I thought I killed and buried a few years back.  I started walking within the group of people she was walking along with.  I kept internally checking if I would lose interest or probably get extremely offended by something she would say, but nothing of the sort, and the more I was in her surroundings the more the internal buzzing intensified. I wouldn’t categorize it as stomach butterflies, but rather some kind of intense internal tingling effect every time I laid my eyes on her. There was something about her energy, aura, being, call it whatever you want that had me completely drawn to her. It was so odd I was thinking to myself “would you snap out of it already!”

I made up my mind that there is no way she would be leaving this march before I spoke to her and get her coordinates somehow.  So by the end of the march, I stuck around Sami el Solh square and as she was leaving I followed her trying to make up some kind of excuse to talk to her.  She stopped and asked some marchers for a sign they were holding during the day’s festivities.  She took the sign and kept walking towards the Grand Theatro building, as she tried to walk left onto the main walkway of the Parliament area, an army officer stopped her and apparently forbade her from walking onto the heavily guarded area with that sign.  She walked further by BLOM bank vitrine where there was a garbage bin. She tried bending the sign to fit it into the bin; I had caught up with her and said:

• -          “Ana bekheda iza ma baddik yeha”

• -          “Ma 3am bikhallini el 3askareh faweta ma3é 3al maktab” she replied removing her sunglasses, revealing the most penetrating blue eyes I have ever seen.

• -          “Ma fikeh tkouné 3ilmeniyé wou tfouté la jouwa” I said jokingly (still mesmerized by the whole episode and her eyes were not making things easier either)

• -          “Khida inta, bil 2allilé bit rayye7né damiriyan” and she flashed a wonderful smile and walked back towards the army officer.

I stood there thinking “wow she sustained a three sentence conversation wholly in Arabic”. I watched her walk away, completely surrendering to my weakness for Lebanese women who DON’T speak the “Hi, Kifak? Ca va!” language.

Then I realized I didn’t ask her for her name, or what she does or where she works. I walked fast back to the upper entrance of the Parliament area, she had disappeared.

I can’t get her off my mind since.

And I can’t stop thinking about how I let her off without any contact detail.  Damn, she could have been the “one” and I watched her walk away lost in thought and an exquisite internal buzz which I have never experienced.

So during the past four days I’ve been brain storming about how I can find her.  I know I don’t have much to work with but I know this much:

1.  She has chestnut color hair, natural color not dyed. (Couleur Châtaigne)
   
2. Blue eyes
   
3. On that day, she was wearing a black tight biking pants and a white jacket.  She was carrying on her back a red sports bag, I think it was an Adidas (not sure)
   
4. She had 2 silver rings on her left hand; one of them had a purple stone. (I didn’t notice a wedding band – Geez that would be a bummer if she turns out to be married – but hey let’s keep it positive for now)
   
5. All I know is that she works in the protected area of Solidere where the parliament is. So that area stretches from Costa/Blom bank on the upper level facing the Grand Theatro building all the way down to the area past parliament building/Abed Clock area.
   
6. I am speculating that she must have left her bike in the office that day and was returning to get her bike and leave the sign at her desk.

-        

I know it sounds like we are looking for a needle in a haystack, but this is what I have now and I can’t think of anything else to do at this point except going through every office in that area. (Creepy if you ask me. I might be love struck but I am no creep)

So I am thinking why not use the help of the digital population in Lebanon?  I mean if this can get on facebook there might be someone who knows someone who knows someone who might know who she might be.  Twitter can also help.  

Yalla, in this age of faceless materialism and mindless consumerism, I am appealing to your most inner human decency to pass the word around and help me find her. Again she could be the one and I would hate myself if I just lost her through the tiniest crack.

I am no expert in digital media penetration so I am seeking your help in getting this message across. 

PS: please if you somehow know who she is, I kindly ask you to respect her privacy and not use her name publicly.  Just give her the email address of this page.  Maybe she doesn’t want to have anything to do with all this (sweet) mess or again she could be married or in a serious relationship, then the only decent thing to do is to walk away.

Thank you.

Quixote.