MIA

A Beautiful Day at the Hilton Resort

Another two weeks have gone by which I need to catch you up on. Last week I was unable to blog, because I used that time to drive around Kuwait and find where I had to go the next day.

Okay, here’s a quick recap of my week May 18-May 23rd. I wish I was home to party with Ryan and Steve on their birthdays, but I was sending them happy birthday vibes all day! I got to see the new release, Angels and Demons. I was impressed with the movie- of course the book is a hundred times better, but at least the movie stayed fairly close to how I remember the book. On Saturday I went to support my friend in her basketball tournament. She played in college, and a few other girls on the team also played in college, so I knew they would be a good team. They didn’t disappoint… but I must say I was a little embarrassed for the other team who scored a total of 9 points (I think) the entire game. I think the other team scored around 60 points. I so wanted to go play for the other team- I could have been their star player!

Tamera and I. This is my friend who is the basketball player.

Anyway, last Sunday I used the time to find my way around Kuwait. The next day I was to pick someone up at the airport and then take them to the temporary lodging facility (TLF). Well, I knew it would be dark when she flew in and I really had no idea where the TLF was, so I needed to drive it during the day and get an idea of where I was going. I hate driving here when I know where I’m going, so it adds an extra element of craziness when you are trying to find your way to a new place. Needless to say I spent a good chunk of my day driving around and I did not have a change to blog. It was a good thing I did drive it though, because there is no way I would have found it in the dark or on my own. My friend actually met up with me and I followed him to the TLF. Sunday, night I hung out with Tamera, my friend, who was leaving for home in the morning. I am happy that after 15 months she finally got to go home to be with her kids.

Okay, so Monday (25 May) was Memorial Day. Have I mentioned how much I love holidays? It was so nice to finally get to sleep in and have a “Saturday”. I went with some co-workers of mine to the Hilton Resort and enjoyed a wonderful, all-you-can-eat breakfast. It was pretty tasty, and so it should be for 8.5 KD (about $30.00)! We then went out shopping and enjoyed the lovely, hot day. It really was nice to go out shopping and just enjoy my day… until about 4pm that is!

After Breakfast at the Hilton... Every holiday I've gotten a picture of me and the water!

A cemetary... a little different then what we are used to!

As mentioned earlier I had to head to the airport and do my “Sponsor duties”. I didn’t have to leave for the airport until about 7:30pm, but my stress headache started about 4pm. I was stressful for me to drive in the dark and in heavy traffic and finding places I had only been to once before. So, my holiday was cut short. Anyway, I headed out, and made it to the airport without any trouble. The flight was delayed, but it didn’t say for how long, so I looked in all the little shops in the airport and kept checking the board for arrival information. Sure enough, about 20-30 minutes later the flight had landed. I don’t know what this gal looks like or anything about her, but I told her I was a short, blond girl who would be wearing hot pink shirt and to meet me in front of the Star Bucks. So, I was expecting her to find me. About 25 minutes later there was still no sign of this person, but I did receive a phone call from a co-worker who just spoke with the escort service and was informed she never got off the plane. I had to confirm if she was on the plane to begin with, so thus started the scavenger hunt of where to go in the Kuwait airport when needing passenger information. I was told to go upstairs and it is in the corner near a certain store. Okay, easy enough, I thought to myself. That is until I got to that location and had no idea where to go from there. So, I asked someone and was directed down this long, empty hallway. It felt like I was in a back alley where I wasn’t supposed to be. Anyway, I found the airline and the door is locked. GREAT! Now what? There were two gentlemen in the hallway and one was talking on the phone. The other, in broken English, said he can help as he pointed to the guy who was on the phone. Okay, so I waited for a few minutes. Once he was off the phone he said he does not have the key to the office and told me that people were still making their way through the airport so I should go wait a little longer. So I went back down and waited for another 20 minutes looking around. No sign of the gal I was to pick up. So, I headed back upstairs and this time the office was open, and there was a different gentleman inside. I asked if he could tell me if this lady was on the plane. He said she was not. Hmmmm, very interesting! I asked if he was able to see if she was on any leg of her journey and the guy was very hesitant to help me any further. Apparently I should not have been there and he shouldn’t have helped me in the first place, he was just trying to be nice. So, I was happy I didn’t have to drive to the other locations, but pretty ticked my “Saturday” got cut short for nothing. I got home around 10pm. The bad thing was this lady was MIA and no one had any way to contact her. We didn’t know if she was stranded somewhere, if she had cold feet and wasn’t coming, if she was okay…. Until she called me the next day around 4pm. Turns out she never left due to bad weather. She did eventually make it here, so she is no longer MIA! On Thursday, May 28th, I got to experience the hot sun of Kuwait since I was outside for a site visit all day. It was 122 degrees that day! Let’s just say I have never sweat so bad when I was not exercising. My garment top was completely soaked! The wind came along and made it even hotter. I’ve heard the wind described something like this…it feels like when you open the oven door and get that blast of hot air on your face. That is a pretty accurate description. Being in the sun all day seriously drained me. I was so exhausted when I got home so I didn’t work on updating my blog- sorry. In fact, it got to be about 8pm and I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I laid down for a 10 minute power nap and when I got up from the nap I pretty much got ready for bed and went to sleep a little after 9pm that day. Crazy! As we were driving back from the site visit we passed a guy selling ice-cream on the freeway! It made me laugh. He rode his bike up the hill and parked it along the side of the freeway set up shop. The funniest part about it was he had a customer when we drove by! Oh, this place cracks me up!

Well, that is all from me. Only a couple weeks until I will be home to visit- wha-whoooo!

Worn out from shopping on Memorial Day

Camel Ridin’ and Trap Settin’ Good Times

Hello all! As many of you know, my internet has been off and on the past couple weeks, so I have been unable to catch up on my blog… but don’t you worry, I’m back! My time the past few days has been taken up with preparing a talk for today. So now that is over I feel like I can focus on the other items on my list… like updating my blog and getting Jenny pictures for my book! Last week was pretty exciting, well, for me anyway. Sad when little things like seeing a movie are now considered extremely exciting. I think that is a sign of working too much and not having a life. Anyway, I got to see the movie Wolverine in the “theater” and enjoy some popcorn. Hey, it’s free so I figure I should take advantage of that. I didn’t get home until extremely late and still had to get up for work the next morning, but it was fun. Last week was also very exciting for me because I finally got to ride a camel! I was lead around in a very small circle, but it was still awesome to ride a camel. One neat thing that I was going to write about last week, was I saw a Sheppard out with his sheep. It was cool to see one man, staff in hand, and a whole lot of sheep just following. Those sheep trust the Sheppard and the Sheppard must have known his sheep pretty well because he didn’t seem too concerned that some of them were right on the edge of a busy freeway with a lot of crazy drivers (seriously some of the sheep were about 5 feet away from the edge of the freeway). My thoughts turned to Christ and how He is the ultimate Sheppard. He knows us well and we should trust and follow Him. One neat thing that I was going to write about last week, was I saw a Sheppard out with his sheep. It was cool to see one man, staff in hand, and a whole lot of sheep just following. Those sheep trust the Sheppard and the Sheppard must have known his sheep pretty well because he didn’t seem too concerned that some of them were right on the edge of a busy freeway with a lot of crazy drivers (seriously some of the sheep were about 5 feet away from the edge of the freeway). My thoughts turned to Christ and how He is the ultimate Sheppard. He knows us well and we should trust and follow Him. So, it’s gotten above 100 degrees here several times. Last Sunday, however, was the first and only time I have actually turned on my Air Conditioning. I love being warm! It is going to get unbearably hot here, even for me, fairly soon. For now, I do love that it is about 80 degrees when I walk outside at 4:30 in the morning!

A farewell dinner for a co-worker

Okay, now news from this week. I have had an unwanted roommate this past week – I had a mouse in my apartment. It’s a good thing I don’t freak out at mice, spiders, creepy crawly things, etc, but I definitely don’t like them! The little mouse was rather cute, and I tried to let him live by simply shewing him out of my apartment, but the little guy was too fast for me and came right back inside! I am embarrassed to admit, but when I finally acquired a mousetrap (the regular, nothing fancy about it, mouse trap) it took me about 30 minutes to figure out how to work it! I even had to read the instructions! I’ve never set a mouse trap before- first for everything I guess. Well, after feeding it several times, since the trap never triggered, I finally got him yesterday. I was really sad that I had to kill the cute little guy, but I am glad my guest is no longer here. Thursday I got to come home early (early for me, even though I still worked a 9-1/2 hour day) due to a dust storm. Dust storms are kind of cool. It reminds me of when I fly and we go through a cloud and you are in dense fog. Well, in this case it is sand and not fog, but it looks very similar. It also sounds like it is raining, but it is not rain… it is sand pounding against your car. Oh, and the wind is pretty strong and blowing you all over the road- good times! I can definitely see how a really bad dust storm could be extremely dangerous if you are caught driving in the storm. Okay, so here are my two funny driving stories for you: 1. As I was driving down the freeway there was a police car that was also cruising down the freeway in the same direction as me. The weird thing was, the cop car had its lights on, but wasn’t going fast nor was it pulling anyone over. Seriously, the cop was only going like 120K (which is the speed limit), and everyone was flying by him. So I, too, passed him and went on my merry way. Weird!

2. I was on the freeway heading home the other day when I noticed a bus suddenly pull off to the shoulder and stop. Then I saw a guy exit the bus and hop the freeway cement side barrier and head down the hill. Got to love that buses will literally stop anywhere, even on a freeway! I’m still doing well on my no sugar diet. It’s a good thing I have some raisinets though… otherwise I don’t know if I would be able to stick to it. Okay all you smart people figure out the pattern… 103, 105, 108, 109, 110, 111 HOT! This is the forecast for this coming week. I might even have to turn on the A/C again. I hope it is nice and beautiful for all of you and you are enjoying pretty May Flowers!

Its May!

Here we are to May already... that means I can now officially say I will be home next month! Okay, its only going to be for a short time, but it will be nice to be with family and friends while I am there. It was nice to chat with my family this week when I called home to wish my Mom a very happy birthday. Most of my siblings were able to be home this weekend and they threw her a rockin' party! Sorry I was not able to join you, but thanks to blogs and lots of pictures I felt like I was there- good times! My claim to fame this week is meeting Mr. Harrington. He is above General Nichols and the boss of Mr. Parson's who I met recently. I know it doesn't mean a whole lot to you, but in my career field he is pretty much the highest you can get. Nice, huh? So, this month I am doing my no sugar diet (with raisinettes exempt of course :^) - I love it! It makes me feel so good and really makes me pay attention to what I am eating. Feel free to help me out and hold me to it! There really is not a lot to blog about this week, but I do have a picture of the week for you. I went on a site visit last week and on our way back this is what we saw:

It cracked me up! That takes up three lanes!!! I'm pretty sure they think it is nothing out of the ordinary and don't even have guide trucks on all sides of it for the safety of regular traffic. Nice!

Alright, here is hoping you all have a fabulous week. Love ya!