"man jobs"

I’m still in the United States yet, with only a handful of internet-search keywords and picture clues about Abu Dhabi, the UAE, the Muslim world, to tell me what I’m getting myself into. How do I prepare for this, besides updating electronic equipment, packing up, and ditching my tank tops and shorts for clothing that will cover my physical self away from my new world?

One of the things I’ve done is to take myself on a solo backpacking trip. Very lovely experience, very grounding, very meditative. Met some nice flora, some edible(peppermint, yucca, grasses of various sorts), and met some fauna (deer, raccoon, an amphibious campmate, a merganser) along the way. Avoided the poison ivy and resident bear and rattlesnakes. Soaked in natural hot springs, bathed in cold mountain streams. Sang songs to myself. (Why is it that I never get GOOD songs in my head? Always those sappy old 70’s love songs with very little musical value ...) Encountered people claiming to care about Ma Nature (biology students) who were the most disrespectful camp neighbors I have encountered in the back country. (Please, don’t walk into someone else’s camp site and pretend they aren’t there! A simple “hello” will suffice! And PLEASE! Don’t shine your flashlight into someone else’s tent at night! Luckily, I also encountered lovely people, like the young couple, on their prenuptial week in the woods. Overall, my lil’ sojourn was delightfully necessary for my sanity and health, and I have renewed my faith in my personal “church,” existence itself on this natural planet, whose molecules have been my own, will become my own, and return again when it’s time. I am not only intertwined with the natural world, I am of nature. How I treat it, other conscious beings, I treat myself.

But, I digress. What I really wanted to write about is a frontier of another sort, one that I have feared beyond any bear encounter while equipped with peanut butter sandwich in hand. What is this great challenge of which you speak, Michelle? Cars.

Cars? Yes. Cars. The buying and selling of them. Until now, this was “Dad” territory. In this western world, in this age of “anything you can do, I can do better” post- women’s lib, where male and female roles have crossed and melded so much, it is no wonder that there is such confusion on how to treat each other anymore, what’s acceptable, what’s not. Now, I’m not saying that I’m moving to the Arab world because I prefer strick gender guidelines. I’m as “lib” as they come. I have my own silent struggles, such as with my own gentlemanly father who holds doors for women and walks on the street side of a sidewalk. Okay, “struggle” is a strong word. “Awkwardness” is more appropriate. (It isn’t that I think it’s wrong for him to do it. I simple can’t understand why it isn’t as nice for me to return the favor!) So, I’ve always tried to do things for myself without depending on males to do for me. And yet. There is this car thing. I have to sell my car. EEEK. Daddy! Help!

How many of you know the percentage of women in car sales in the United States? The statistics from 199...oh, I’m kidding, I really don’t know of any studies being done on that yet, but seriously, how many of you have dealt with a female dealer or private seller, or private buyer for that matter? I’m sure they exist, but so far, ALL of the inquiries I’ve gotten are from men, and, get this, all of the ones I’ve had actual conversations with are looking to buy a car for a wife or a girlfriend. So, I’m NOT insane. It IS still culturally ingrained. The last “man” job in the western world: car buying and car selling. Women, if you have ever handled a car transaction on your own, I hereby deem you “Bad Ass.”

So, did I ask Dad for help to sell my car? Oh, heck yes! And it still might come to that, if my e-ticket comes and it hasn’t sold yet. But, I’m trying to cut a new tooth here, and why? Well, here it is folks: I am going to buy or rent a car soon. In an Muslim country. On my own. Scary in the United States to infringe on another gender’s territory? Yes. Scary in a world where women don’t really even SPEAK to unfamiliar men? Need I say...YESS?!?! I can’t say more about that, since I really have no clue how that part will play out. I’ll letcha know.

So, as far as selling my car here goes, I know all will be fine. I’ll sell Palomita, my lovely dovely, my little piece of popcorn, my dependable Toyota who has served me well (under 76,000, mostly highway miles! It’s got a 6-cd changer, all the maintenance records and PINSTRIPPING, just in case ya know someone who might be interested). I’ll jump through some red-taped hoops, try not to say the right things the wrong way, and send her off to a new home. Just like those last boxes of books and camping equipment that I need to comb through and pack away, it sounds like a more daunting job than it will be. I have faith. My very own brand of it. And all will be as it needs to be. Inshallah.