Apparently, I missed Afghanistan

Well guess what ... after almost 10 months, I'm finally doing something interesting enough to blog about. Since I last documented my adventures, I was in the Dominican Republic for four glorious months.  It was wonderful, I never wore shoes, spent my days on the beach, had some friends visit and became used to the enormous bugs and mosquito bites.  I finally returned home near Christmas Eve and surprised my family, resulting in a wonderful Christmas after I had missed two due to being away. Reintroduction to "home" was a bit strange and I spent many weeks just feeling disconnected because nothing was familiar in comparison to what I had experienced over the past two years.  That slowly ebbed and some semblance of normalcy finally settled in for me.  Now for the other parts...

Good-bye you evilly funny, wonderful woman!

So far, 2012 has been some type of Mayanesque apocalyptic bag-of-burning-shit-on-your-doorstep kind of year - you try to sort it out, but end up with hot poo on your shoes that you then track all over your proverbial house.  While in the Dominican, I was informed by an extremely close friend that she had pancreatic cancer.  There's really not much good to say about that as you are pretty sure what the ending to that movie will be, but have no idea how long it will take to get there.  In her case, six months.  Fortunately, I was home for the last four, spent some great time with her and was there, with her partner, as she moved on to her next big adventure.  It was incredibly sad, a huge loss and really changed my thinking about many, many of life's journeys and our purpose here while passing through - all for the better I might add, but I would have greatly preferred to cull the same information in a different manner.  Did make an excellent friend in her partner and realized that I was actually capable of showing a level of compassion that I usually kept well hidden.  So I can chalk through "watching your friend die" off my list of life experiences.

If you're in a relationship, leaving for two years - even with some fantastic vacations thrown in there - does not parlay into the best of outcomes when you return home.  We worked hard to salvage that well worn relationship, but there were too many loose strings in the sweater and the damn thing unraveled.  So after 9 years, that went kaput as well.  Welcome home!  You're life is now full of very tough lessons learned.  In addition to all of this, I was absolutely unable to find a professional job.  Oh yes, there were some flirtations with employment, but I felt a stinging suspicion that I was asked out on those dates just to question me about my old flame, Afghanistan.  That good for nothing bastard has, for the time being, ruined me for many employment opportunities stateside considering the current job market situation and the fact that my most recent skill sets don't obviously parlay into white bread work back in the U.S.  I, of course, think if you can get it done there then you can do anything at home, but it may take quite a time before someone recognizes those aspects in my resume. Anypoorme, these three themes for 2012 were really bringing me down ... and then the old boyfriend came knocking with an offer to come back for 90 days AND I JUMPED ON IT!  So now, I sit in Dubai typing the first of many new entries into my blog.


Although 2012 has had some intense challenges, there were some bright spots as well.  Other than spending time with my excellent and supportive family and friends I really have not accomplished too much in the form of entertainment since I have been home.  My biggest life commitment surrounded the acquisition of a small, furry devil who is named Django ... but just like all devils, he is known by many names - "Stink" (he is housetrained on a potty pad), "Nugget" (he's a nugget of all good things rolled into one), "Bo" (courtesy of my mother) and "Jingies" (that slipped out one night after too much wine, and it stuck).  To summarize... I love this puppy and he's helped me immensely in dealing with the challenges of 2012 - often he is one of them, but I don't care.  He's a positive force even if he often thinks his name is "G#* Dammit Django" - I had to leave him behind for the 3 months I am gone and was quite torn up about it.  I hope I don't return home to find him lounging on the kitchen counter tops like I did with the cats - my huge pet peeve, literally, but the counter lounging cats are going with the other due to the breakup.  I will miss them very much though and so will the dog since his life's ambition is to know where the cats are at all times.

Django Wolfgang aka Devil

...So, I'm currently in Dubai awaiting my flight in a few days to lovely Kabul.  To go along with the theme of "challenging" for 2012, my travels so far have been just that.  Everything is working out they way it should, but after an enormous amount of vein throbbing stress.  My 15 hour flight from Atlanta was delayed for 13 hours, requiring a hotel voucher, the purchase of an Atlanta T-shirt and shorts to sleep in, 2 hours of sleep and then back to the airport - the good news is that I had been able to upgrade to Business Class so I was pretty comfortable when we finally left the gate. 

View from plane approaching Dubai

Beautiful full moon the first night here

They had to change out an engine ... a bit of TMI if you ask me as I would have been satisfied with the normal "bathroom needs fixed" excuse we usually get.  I met up with another new hire on my project immediately after arriving in Dubai so that we could go and get our Afghan Visa's at the Afghan Embassy.  She had no problems but I, on the other hand, didn't have enough blank pages left in my passport to satisfy the Afghans ... so it went like this - cab to American Embassy, American Embassy only takes electronic appointments, cab back to hotel to make appointment, finally drop my bags in my room, appointment can't happen for 6 days, make appointment, inform my employer that I can't fly to Kabul the next day but rather the next week,  walk to the office (it looked much shorter on the map) in incredible heat, meet my Dubai office co-workers while covered in sweat and with no shower for almost 40 hours, walk back, collapse in bed, wake up 3 hours later not knowing where I am, at last a hot shower, 3 glasses of wine courtesy of my purchase at Duty Free, a sleep aid, wake up next morning at 3am and in the gym by 5am... 

Today I worked from the office and laughed out loud when several people I met the other day didn't recognize me - I suppose I clean up well!  Today ended with a flurry of similar hand clenching experiences while trying to figure out how to get my cash advance wired to my bank - 3 cab rides and 3 stops later, I finally end up at an Exchange in the Wafi Mall, mission accomplished, and I ended my frustrating experience with this:

Glass of wine at Raffles Hotel Lobby Bar

Delicious!  In Dubai, if you don't buy your alcohol at the Duty Free store at the airport, your only options are to drink in hotel bars.  The hotel I'm in does not have a bar, so I literally wander around the desert until I hit the next hotel.  They are close, but so huge that the walk is further than you would anticipate.  So, Friday and Saturday nobody works here - that equals two days off while being paid to wait to fly to Kabul - not bad!  I'm planning to hit the gym and then lounge in the pool for the afternoon.  It's actually as hot at home as it is here ... and that's sad for you guys, because it's incredibly hot here.

Before I sign off, I must share that I stepped away from the computer to storm out of my room in order to flash some stink eye to the Arabs standing in the hall talking at extremely loud decibel levels ... only to find nobody was there and it's actually the ass-munches in the room next to me.  I can hear them through the connecting door and the one is a chatty obnoxious a-hole.  Now I don't feel bad about my alarm going off for an hour in my room while I was at the gym early this morning...

Hope everyone had an fun-filled July 4th!

Drink of the night - back to good ol' Chai Spiced Tea