"Africa: Meredith "
Ok, I'm tired of giving the same answers to the same questions over and over. Everybody has asked the same thing and everybody wants to know the same details - the more sordid the better. So for the benefit of everyone on this list, I'll go over this one last time:
Her name is Meredith.
She is a chemical engineer who (currently) lives in Houston.
No, we didn't know each other before the trip.
If it didn't work out, we could always go our separate ways. It's a big continent.
No she didn't ditch me for a family of chimps.
Yes, she's hot.
Yes, we got along great.
No, we didn't hook up.
No, I didn't get any.
Yes, I tried.
No, I'm not gay.
Yes, I'm sure.
In March of this year, I planned to leave Wavefunction for a local e-commerce development firm. I wrote about this a few months back. Following this failed exit attempt, I agreed to stay until June 1 in exchange for one month paid severance (in addition to my three weeks of already accrued vacation). I was originally planning to spend my month with my brother traveling through Europe. My brother, however, decided that a new Prelude was more important than a European vacation and spent his savings at the local Honda dealer. I wasn't about to wait for Ken to save another three grand only to spend it on 12 inch woofers, sway bars and a supercharger, so I decided to split without him. I had to decide between a climbing trip across Australia or a month in Africa to do Kili and a safari.
Right about the same time, I ran into my friend Natalie at the American Chemical Society Convention in San Francisco. Natalie and I had met a few years earlier when she visited Wavefunction for a training seminar. We were both climbers and spent a day out in Joshua Tree ticking off a few classic routes. A year or so later we met again in Yosemite to send the lost Arrow Spire.
Out of the blue, she asked if I was still planning to climb Kilimanjaro.
"As a matter of fact, I am thinking about going this summer", I replied.
Natalie is very energetic (one of the few people who can talk more than me), and speaking at her usual pace of 1500 words a minute began to tell me all about her friend at Exxon, Meredith.
"My friend Meredith who is really cute and single is taking a four month sabbatical from Exxon and is going to Tanzania to climb Kilimanjaro this summer and she is looking for someone to travel with and I mentioned that I knew you and that you also wanted to do Kilimanjaro and since you are about the same age you might want to go together and I promised I would ask you about it when I saw you at the ACS meeting so are you still planning to go?"
Or something like that.
"Um, ok. When is she leaving?"
"June 1st".
I'm not sure if I believe in fate or Karma or destiny, but I do believe very strongly in opportunity and seizing it whenever possible. And this opportunity seemed golden. I told Natalie that I would call her after the conference to find out more about Meredith and the trip.
So a few weeks later I gave Natalie a call and asked her about Meredith. Meredith was at the time trekking in Nepal, but I did get her email address. I learned that she was tall, brunette, a chemical engineer from Ohio, single, had blue eyes, spent all her afternoons running on the treadmill at the Exxon gymnasium, and was (according to Natalie and her rapid fire description), very fun and very pretty.
A few days, a few emails to Nepal, and a few phone calls to my travel agent later, I had tickets to Nairobi.
We spoke a few times on the phone after she returned from Nepal and worked out a few of the gear and itinerary details. But I never saw Meredith until I arrived at Gatwick Airport in London on June 2. I told her she would know me by my characteristic black bandana. She walked up to me at the gate, "You must be Jim."
My first thought?
"Woo Hoo!"
Meredith is 5.10" with long legs, brown hair, and absolutely stunning blue eyes. She is lean, athletic. And (for the benefit of the boys on this list) she is…um….well put together.
Meredith and I really began to get to know one another during our first night on Kili. We were up till nearly two in the morning talking. Talking about work, school, careers, relationships, men, women, sex, Africa, likes, dislikes, life. Good get to know you speak.
We were getting along great, and we had lots in common. I thought for sure I was gonna hook up by the end of the trip.
But on night two, I learned all about Steve. Meredith is madly in love with a boy named Steven, a recently rekindled college flame who was, during our little adventure in East Africa, climbing in the Bolivian Andes. Meredith spent the trip talking about her boy Steve, waking from vivid Lariam induced dreams of her boy Steve, and blushing at regular, apparently steamy email messages from her boy Steve.
I am the only man in the world who can spend a month sharing a tent in the African outback with a beautiful, unmarried American woman, who finds me attractive, who has the same interests, and still fail to get lucky.
Sigh.
I got over it.
But that didn't stop us from flirting (Steve, I promise, nothing happened). About day two she was christened with the title "smoking-hot climber betty". I was "red-hot climber boy". Or we just referred to each other as bad ass mother f---ers. It was our motivation on Kili. You know you can make the summit if you're a bad ass mother f---er. But I digress.
I told her that under different circumstances, I would have liked to pursue a relationship with her. She told me that under different circumstances she would have liked the same. I kept hoping Stevie would hook up with some single Peruvian hottie and decide to stay in the Andes to raise llamas and a house full of Quechua kids.
Considering how much Meredith would blush after every visit to the Wildcat Cyber Café in Arusha, this was very, VERY unlikely.
But we agreed, should Steven turn out to be a COMPLETE idiot and decide to pass on the smoking hot, smart as hell, leggy, athletic, blue-eyed brunette who likes to rock climb, mountain bike, backpack and travel the world, then I'm next on the list.
Somehow, I don't think Steve is going to make that mistake.
Regardless, Meredith was just what I needed. I would like to think I was just what she needed. I really couldn't ask for a better travel partner. Meredith and I were in similar emotional states. We both were totally unsatisfied with our careers. We both had, for all intents and purposes, quit our jobs to take this vacation. We both felt trapped by the decisions we had made and the lives we had carved out for ourselves. We were both trying to escape, and trying to figure out just where we wanted to escape to. We both needed a shot of confidence. We both needed a change.
Because Meredith and I had never met, because we were on the other side of the world, away from everyone and everything we knew, away from the people we were, I think we were able to more accurately be the people we are. Perhaps more to the point, we could be who we wanted to be.
We took risks. We were chased by elephants. We swore like sailors. We laughed way too much. We probably saw way too much of each other. After 14 days of sharing a small two-man tent, you haven't got a lot left you can hide. So we shared a lot of stories, maybe a few secrets. And rest assured, Meredith, they all remain safe.
I wouldn't want to jeopardize my place on the list.
