Worrier Prince

I come from a long line of proud worriers. Yes, you read it right, not a long line of Warriors. I wish. I was raised to turn the other cheek, bend over, make approving cooing sounds and beg for more.

My parents are just like the jewish parents you see on woody allen movies. They make a mountain out of every molehill. Scratch that, they can take the spin of the neutrino or a boson particle, and create a volcanic eruption.

Case in point. I went out jogging this morning. The power went out within time period. As soon as I put my first foot inside the door, the first thing my mother said was, "did you turn off the light as you went out?" It has no satisfactory answer. But that's pointless. She does this out of habit at every opportunity, and it manages to raise my blood pressure too, EVERY TIME!

My favorite dad story (he turned 74 yesterday) was when he'd ask me to come home from Karwan Bazar (one block away from my house) during the Maghreb prayer call because the area is "not good". Never mind that my office, opposite the Pan Pacific, isn't exactly South Central, LA. Or that my office hours covered a satellite broadcast to UK, starting at 1am. He read an article in the newspaper that someone was hurt, so there's that.

Taking a cue from Annie Hall, "no wonder I grew up to be so nervous". Well, Alvy Singer lived under a roller coaster. What's my excuse?

Over the years, I have trained myself to act cool, not shake my hands so much, slow down so that people will understand what the heck I'm talking about. But I think after the mugging incident on new years day, I'm regressing.

When I jog in the morning, I nervously look behind me in case someone hits me from behind. I constantly pad my trousers to see if my wallet is there. I lock and unlock my room four five times to ensure that a. water heater is off, b. power outlets are off, c. the toilet seat is down, d. I haven't left anything behind. My life has become unmanageable because of all these added worries in my mind.

The scariest thing is, I'm becoming more and more like my progenitors. And my friends have started to comment on it too.

Help! Well, or just get out of the way.