Her Lebanon to do list

Her Lebanon to do list. As important and exciting as the trip itself. Hers starts the moment she gets on the return plane, with the stuff she intended to do but didn't get to. And it suddenly bulges a few weeks before the planned trip: People to see, places to visit, and things to do, bring back and eat. As the years pass, her list has fewer people to see. Thankfully, those that truly matter are almost all still there. Seeing their dear faces temporarily heals all her longing and aches. There are more places to visit--old ones that were home to her memories and witnesses to her early years, and new ones the "tourist" she had become had never explored before. Of course, there is always space reserved in the suitcase for the kishik, the pine nuts, the rib rimman, rose water and flower water, not to mention knick knacks for her future art pieces. There is also always space in her tummy for her mom's handmade 3arous labneh (aka labneh drowning in a garden of aromatic herbs, cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes, makdouss, olives and olive oil) and her stuffed koussa, warak 3enab, and malfouf dishes, for Universal's batata sandwich reminiscent of her college and dating years, a fresh off the fire man'ousheh rivaled by nothing in the world, an Abou Arab kaakeh with ash'awen cheese and harr, Kababji's 3intabli sandwich, Hallab's crispy znoud es'sitt, and so many more. Sounds like she's coming from a famine struck country, doesn't it! Yep, the years pass but the list never loses its magical euphoric power, nor does the countdown ever stop, whether it's days, weeks or months, or God knows when until the next trip...