Now With Video Goodness!

It only took a week, but I was finally able to post videos on my previous "Christmas Spectacles" post!

So check it out here. 

(Each video took approximately 90 minutes to upload on my ridiculously slow internet connection.)

Underwhelming Weird Weather

I'm a little jealous that a great number of my friends and family members have had weird weather patterns this week, from the U.S. to the Middle East.  As much as I hate snow (which is a lot), I enjoyed the novelty of the giant snowstorms in DC last winter.  Or rather I enjoyed the paid week and a half off...  Anyway.

Weather in Jeddah has been unique this week, but, truly, it's nothing to write home about.  Despite that, I will.

Last Thursday (virtual Saturday), the skies were grey, and the sun wasn't shining - for the first time since I arrived at post.  Then, there was a thunder clap!  And a few drops of rain!  I immediately grabbed my cats and took them on the balcony to feel rain.  Which they didn't like.  So I grabbed my camera and took a few photos.  That worked better.  See below.  The rain lasted all of three minutes and only amounted to the few drops you can see.  The thunder and lightning persisted a bit longer.  All in all, exciting, but not nearly as exciting as a Metrodome collapse, snow in Cairo, or ferocious winds in Amman.

 

 

In other news, a few pictures of the cats and the tree...  Only one broken ornament and several others knocked off.  It's early days, though...

(Note:  I only allowed tree climbing for the first minute, for photographic purposes.  Since then, it's a quick squirt with the water gun.) 

Christmas Spectacles, NH Style

I've spent a long weekend unpacking.  Every box has been opened and looked at, and I'll estimate that I have 2/3 of things put away.  The remaining 1/3 is primarily paperwork from high school, college, grad school, and beyond that needs to be sorted through.  About 8 totes worth.  This will take me a while, so I am not too worried.  There's also a fair amount of random 'stuff' I need to work with.  But I'm feeling on top of things.  I wish my bookcases were here, though, because my coffee table is now too heavy to move, and the armoire in my foyer has about 300 books on it right now.  I honestly did not intend to ship so many books, including everything from my last two years of college, apparently.  Most of this will go straight back into storage.

So I'd like to take a break from unpacking for another Christmas-related post.  When I was home last month, we took my nephew and niece to do the rounds of Christmas displays.  There are three particularly good ones near where we live.  One is a neighborhood that decorates very well every year, with each house getting into it.  It's pretty, but low key.  And not nearly as interesting as the other ones.

One, which was unfortunately closed when we went, which was very strange, is Santa's house.  A local couple has been decorating their house and land and opening them to visitors for years.  They have hundreds of thousands of lights, every blow-up and lawn display known to man, lots of holiday scenes in display cases, and signs in either direction letting you know you're quickly approaching Santa's house.  Their house is decorated with a huge tree, dozens of noisy toys/displays, and hundreds of Christmas dolls and stuffed animals.  And if that wasn't enough, they dress up as Santa and Mrs. Claus and entertain kids and adults alike every night between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Other relatives dress up as elves.  They serve hot chocolate and candy canes.  They love to tell stories and make it truly magical for the kids.  And all because they love doing it.  They take donations to go towards the electric bill, which I gladly give.  They start decorating in September for a Thanksgiving-day opening.  Santa and Mrs. Claus dance in the street.  The elves knit.  Kids just gape and stare.  It's great.  Words cannot possibly do justice to the experience, and since it was closed the day we went, I don't have any good pictures.  (My pictures from previous years aren't very good quality.

The other spectacle is my favorite.  A guy spends countless hours programming his hundreds of thousands of lights to music.  And broadcasts it on an empty radio station.  So you can sit in your car in front of the house and watch the show.  Or, since the music plays outside as well, you can wander around the property and experience it in greater detail.  There are three different songs every 15 minutes; I think he must have about 20 songs by now.  He also dresses as Santa occasionally and hands out candy canes.  The kids enjoy it, but I think it's more exciting for adults.  So bear with me; I've posted below a couple of videos and a collage of photos.  You can get a bit of an idea, but know that I only filmed the front of the house.  The display wraps around and goes all the way around the house and on the back lawn.  You can hear the kids in the background making editorial comments.

(Update: the videos are not loading due to slow internet. I'll try again tomorrow.)
(Update #2:  one video loaded!)
(Update #3:  both videos loaded!)

  

Oh Christmas Tree... And Bratwurst!

This has been one mother of a week.  Thank goodness it's Wednesday!  (The Saudi version of Friday.)  Work was very busy this week, including a lot of after-hour events.  Which I love.  Until my alarm clock sounds the next morning.  While I don't blog about my work, I do want to say that I visited two centers for children with disabilities this week, and I was blown away.  One was for children with intellectual disabilities, the other for physical.  Both had state of the art equipment and facilities, world-class staff, and amazing foresight and planning.  Every detail was thought of, and each center includes parents in every aspect so the therapies and adaptations can continue at home.  I can't wait to work with these organizations more.  Having spent some time working in special ed before becoming a diplomat, I almost teared up visiting these centers and seeing their resources.  And while they can't meet the needs of all children in Saudi with disabilities, they provide amazing opportunities for hundreds of children to be independent and eventually be productive members of society.  In a country where the rate for physical disabilities is roughly 7% and intellectual ones only slightly less, there's a huge need.  What an amazing couple of places.  Wow.

I had a very pleasant surprise today when I went to the post office - my Christmas tree arrived!!  I had completely given up hope of receiving it before Christmas, which apparently did the trick.  I set it up tonight, and it's perfect.  It's small, only 4.5 feet tall, but I set it on an underused end table in a corner, and it looks beautiful.  The cats, predictably, love it.  Callaghan has been climbing and biting and marveling all night.  I took some pictures and will post once I get the chance to download and organize the six million pictures from the last month...  I haven't yet put any ornaments on; I'll wait till the novelty wears down a bit.


I also received a commissary shipment today including bratwurst, breakfast sausage, and sliced lunch meat ham.  My freezer is content.

In other ways, today was sad.  I was issued my very first Blackberry, very much against my will.  I hate having a cell phone, and now I have two devices.  What I really hate about these things, though, is the fact that people see nothing wrong with checking them while I'm interacting with them.  I think this is the height of rudeness - BBMing, taking a call, constantly texting - while conversing or dining with someone, I do not want electronic devices to be part of the experience.  So I vow not to become one of these people. 

Anyway, I am going to work on unpacking and decorating and Christmas shopping online.  I got a new china cabinet from GSO today, so I can actually unpack and display my good china!  And table linens!  Yay!

Ode to Oneida

After a year and a half of Oakwood furnishings and then the welcome kit at post, I have been dying for good silverware.  Perhaps more than most things, I missed high quality eating utensils.  I am fairly particular.  I like flatware to be relatively heavy, but not overly so.  I hate eating off of forks with bent tines.  I like forks with four tines, never three.  I think soup spoons can run a fine line between large enough and too large for one's mouth.  Butter knives need to have some heft and not be too slim at the spreading end.  And you can never have too many teaspoons. 

When I went home for Thanksgiving, it hit me how much I missed good silverware.  I grew up with Oneida flatware; my parents still have the True Rose set they were given for their wedding by my grandparents, and now we have my Grandmother's slightly fancier Oneida set.  So a few years ago, in anticipation of my own kitchen, I bought a service-for-12 set from Oneida, in Flight pattern.  It's a mid-range line - functional for daily use, good looking, but not top of the line.  It has been in boxes since.  So imagine my complete and utter glee when tonight's box contained the entire Oneida set, including hostess serving items!!  I quickly switched out the flimsy welcome kit stuff for my wonderful Oneida.  And eating off it was a dream.  So wonderful.  The little things, eh?

This box also contained some other goodies, including a beautiful tablecloth I bought in Tahiti and promptly forgot about.  It's now on the table :-).  A lot of Easter decorations, including a kitschy deviled egg platter and salt/pepper shakers.  And, completely surprising, some gorgeous beaded decorative flatware I bought in South Africa eons ago.  I'd forgotten about these pieces entirely.  I have two serving spoons, a salad fork/spoon set, a sugar spoon, and six each of dessert spoons and forks.  They're good quality silverware, and the ends/stems (what are those called?) are covered in wire and beading.  Exquisite.  So exciting!  Plus, each set was tied with tissue paper and 'garnished' with a guinea hen feather!!  (If you read my previous post, you'd know about the guinea hen obsession...  I found that tablecloth as well!)

There was also a set of bamboo cooking tools; I am a sucker for wooden spoons, and the rest of my collection is in HHE#2.  These went perfectly into the pottery utensil holder I unpacked yesterday! 

It's past my bedtime, but I just had to write about my silverware.  I am such a kitchen gadget/utenstil geek...  And I've never had all my stuff in one place before.  Most of it is still new in original packaging.  So I'm giddy over my discoveries - not just seeing them again, but finally getting to use them!!

Christmas #1 - UAB and HHE, Yay!

It's Christmas!  For the first time this month!  I predict two more.  Actual Christmas.  And the delivery of HHE number 2.  Today, my UAB and HHE number 1 were delivered.  The UAB was packed recently, so I knew most of what was in there.  I was excited to see that I put my Wii and Wii Fit inside, in addition to my blender and all my linens.  My bed is now fully customized.  I have my memory foam and better-than-down mattress pad, 1200TC sheets, a better-than-down all season comforter, egyptian cotton blanket, and my amazing down duvet with damask stripe cover.  Plus two better-than-down pillows and two better-than-down plus memory foam pillows.  Plus my body pillow.  Plus my panda, a large stuffed animal I've had since high school.  So while my bed is overly warm and Brookstone and Macy's own my first-born, I am now sleeping in a cloud.  So wonderful.

The HHE is all from storage.  I haven't seen some of it since July 2009.  I haven't seen most of it since 2004, or even before then.  I shipped more than I needed to, with the intent of getting rid of a fair amount.  And though I've only opened about ten boxes so far today, I already have a good pile to give away and a huge trash pile.  All of this stuff needs to be inventoried, so I'm taking one box at a time and doing it right.  My spare bedroom is floor to ceiling boxes, but it's not as bad as I first thought.  The little bit I've done today has already made a huge difference.  I am appreciating how much of this is packing materials, the environmental concerns notwithstanding. 

My cats have never been happier.  Packing materials are like catnip.  They're alternating between jumping out of boxes to scare each other, purring at my side to tell me how happy they are I brought the boxes into their lives, and chasing each other through the maze that is the spare bedroom. 

What else have I discovered.  Let's see.  A gorgeous jewelry armoire I bought in 2005 and had yet to unpack.  Lots and lots of beautiful hand-hooked wool rugs from my tenure working retail.  Dozens of CDs that have yet to be imported onto this laptop, including my favorite Christmas album and three Lyle Lovett CDs I'd been looking for.  Books galore, including high school and college yearbooks, all the copies of computer magazines I wrote for in high school, the last three Harry Potters, and a bunch of unread novels.  I am really glad I switched to Kindle, though the lingering thousands of pounds of books I own still exist.  I know there are boxes and boxes of Christmas ornaments.  I worked at Hallmark for ten years, so my collection is large.  All my decorative and functional items from trips over the last ten years are in the boxes; I can't wait to see some of them!  I have an entire collection of guinea hen stoneware and related items from South Africa.  (I am somewhat obsessed with guinea hens.)  I found the few boxes of things from my grandmother when she sold her house and moved south a few years ago.  This includes an exquisite tea set; I don't yet have a safe cabinet to store the pieces in, so I only unwrapped a couple and gushed before safely storing them again.  Six million photo albums.  Stuff from my college dorms that will probably mostly get thrown away.  And many, many boxes of miscellaneous 'stuff'. 

I have been planning my dream kitchen my whole life.  Most of my dishes, glassware, serving glassware, electronics, pans, and gadgets are in HHE#2.  A few gadgets were in my UAB, which was fun.  And there's kitchenware scattered throughout HHE#1.  I'm hoping to find my silverware somewhere in there.  Haven't seen it since 2007 or so.  Not entirely sure it made it into a shipped box.  Hoping it did.  So I'm gleefully packing away the welcome kit items as my own, far superior, items arrive. 

Lots of framed photos and art are appearing, which is great.  When it all comes in I'll have a fun time hanging it all.  For now, fun to look.  I am beyond thrilled to have found a duplicate copper wall plate of the one hanging in my parent's kitchen, which I bought in Bosnia in 2001 (Erin:  Mostar).  I've always loved that very simple plate and completely forgot I bought one for myself.  A $10 purchase, but I am so excited.  Sand paintings from Lesotho.  Acrylics from a friend of my host family in Hungary.  My own attempts at artwork from elementary and high school. 

So while I'm angry at myself for shipping so much, frustrated by the small housing at post (a long story), overwhelmed by all there is to do and unpack, I'm excited.  And I have motivation to keep plugging away at it - the drawer where I'm storing my Christmas presents sent back with me by my family is currently blocked by boxes.

Oops, My Bad.

My cats have been driving me crazy tonight.  Jumping on counters, jumping on the table, jumping on the stove (when it was on), jumping on the refrigerator, jumping on me and the computer.  Whining.  Crying.  Knocking over their full water bowls.  Getting into cabinets.  Biting me.  Shredding all paper in sight.  Lather, rinse, repeat. 

It didn't help that now two of my three A/C units in the kitchen/living room are not working and it's hotter than blazes in there (I really should call someone; the first one being broken didn't bother me so much...).  So I was grumpy.  And spent most of the evening yelling at them, throwing them off of me, squirting them with water (my training tool, not a medieval punishment, I promise), and just generally being disagreeable. I chalked their behavior up to punishing me for leaving for so long.  Or perhaps for leaving to go to work today.  They're cats, who knows.

Then I went to make sure their room was all set for the night.  And realized they were out of food.  Now, they had food when I left this morning, so they weren't starving.  But it still made me feel bad.  I filled their bowls, and they immediately settled down and starting gobbling up their Meow Mix.  They're quiet now.  I feel like a bad pet owner. 

Ask me if I still feel this way at 4am when they sense impending daylight (in several hours) and start meowing outside my door for their morning wet food allowance. 

I promise never to take the internet for granted again. Or at least until the next time I lose home internet.

(Written Monday night... Didn't have home internet until a few minutes ago.  Long story...)

Fair warning:  this blog is a random collection of thoughts.  I'm exhausted and jet-lagged, a dangerous combination.

I arrived home in Jeddah at 11:45 last night, after 28 hours of travel.  My very good friend L, who is from the same town as me and now lives in London, was able to get on the same flight to Heathrow as me.  So we traveled down to Boston, hung out in Logan, and then flew to London together.  That made the first 13 hours of travel a whole lot more fun!  Plus we wrangled two seats next to each other, despite the best efforts of the surly and passive-agressive American Airlines check-in agent.  About halfway through the flight we tried to figure out the last time we'd flown together.  Even though we travel together as much as possible, we usually drive or meet somewhere.  We realized it was back in 1995, when we traveled to France for three weeks for a twinning inauguration between our town and one in southern France.  Accompanied by two other close friends and three adult chaperones, we had the time of our lives on that trip!  That was actually the first flight for both of us as well as our first overseas experience.  We both got hooked.  L has lived on several continents and traveled widely, just like me.  Our friendship has endured for two decades, and we're always dreaming of our next trip.  (The current shortlist:  Morocco, India, Turkey.)

I had a relatively short layover in Heathrow (3.5 hours).  That may sound like a long time, but it can take up to two hours to transfer terminals there, so you just never know.  Luckily I had plenty of time after clearing security and airline check-in, so I had a hearty breakfast (including pork, of course) and was able to spend an inordinate amount of time (and money) at Harrod's.  More on that later.  Anyway, the next flight went smoothly, and we landed in Jeddah only a few minutes late.  I breezed through immigration and customs (thanks to our wonderful expeditor team) and was on my way home.  My driver looked at my three suitcases and just shook his head and laughed.  So, I did a little shopping in the U.S.  Mostly for foodstuffs I have a hard time getting here.  Salad dressings.  Jams.  Seasonings.  Clotted cream.  You get the idea.  I weighed my options a few days before leaving home and decided it would be about the same price to ship my purchases as to buy another suitcase and pay the extra baggage fee.  I opted for the get-it-quicker option.  And just now, when I unpacked, everything came through intact!

Ever since Hattie's untimely and tragic death, I've been overly paranoid about leaving my cats.  Even though my housekeeper comes by every day and checks in on them (she's amazing like that), I still can't help but worry.  It has nothing to do with the level of care they're getting (stupendous) but with lingering emotions from the trauma of losing Hattie the way I did.  It was really only the last few days of my holiday that I realized that the worry was weighing on me, when I started having nightmares about coming home and finding them dead.  So even though I rationally knew they were fine, I didn't really relax until I walked through the door and saw them healthy and happy.  Jeddah's airport continues to be a difficult place for me to be because of the memories of Hattie's ordeal.  And I spend a lot of time there for my job, which both helps to normalize the place and serves as a constant reminder of what happened.  It's an interesting emotional roller coaster.  I often sleep poorly after a trip to the airport.  Time heals, though, and it's getting better.  And the two furballs currently curled up on either side of me help too.

I went to sleep last night thinking about how to rearrange the furniture in the guest bedroom so as to maximize space.  This morning I walked in the room to look at the dimensions and found that my housekeeper had already moved the furniture into the exact configuration I'd been thinking about.  We never talked about this.  I think she can read my mind :-).

And now back to Harrod's.  I knew when I planned this trip home that I would be spending Christmas away from my family for the first time ever.  So while I soaked up family and holiday spirit while home, I also apparently decided that Christmas was going to come to me.  I ordered my first artificial tree (which may not make it here until after Christmas) and several LED candelabras, bought decorations for my office (glittery penguins, a camel, and a flamingo - because they're pretty), ordered a fruitcake and familiar Christmas goodies, and bought traditional mince pies at Harrod's.  I didn't expect the sweets to arrive so soon, but I picked up my fruitcake this afternoon.  It's in the freezer; I'll take it out when I'm needing a holiday pick-me-up in a few weeks. 

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That's my random blog post of the day.  I've had a VERY busy and somewhat stressful week, although fruitful in many ways as well.  My UAB and the first of my HHE shipments are being delivered tomorrow, insha'allah.  Of course this isn't the fun HHE shipment but rather the random one from storage.  But I do get to see what has been in storage for up to 10 years...

Radiation and Groping and Blurry Groins, Oh My!

Due to the nature of my job and lifestyle, I travel frequently.  Which means spending a lot of time in airports and on planes.  So I've been observing the growing hubbub about airport body scans and enhanced pat downs with curiosity and horror.  So I'm going to vent in the following paragraphs.  It's my blog, after all. 

My mother said something the other day that made a whole lot of sense.  She noted that people COULD complain about so much having to do with airline travel, but they are choosing to complain about the one thing that is being done FOR them.  Look at it this way:  we now pay for checked baggage, food and drinks, leg room, early boarding, pillows, head phones, and all manner of other things we used to get for free when we flew.  We put up with surly flight attendants, even surlier fellow passengers, and seats that are less comfortable than those in a doctor's waiting room.  All of these issues deserve complaining about, and we've seen some as changes have been instituted.  But the complaints and public outrage about full-body scanners and enhanced pat downs, which are there to keep us safe, is  way, way out of proportion, in my opinion.  This is not being done to us so much as for us.  There's a big difference.

I was lucky enough not to lose loved ones on 9/11, but I watched the Pentagon burn from my college campus, encountered tanks on the street corners in Georgetown, and mourned along with the entire nation.  And maybe it's just because I've been living in Saudi Arabia, where the media has been heavily covering the recent toner cartridge bombs, but I feel we came very very close to another horrific tragedy just a few weeks ago.  I wonder if our collective memories don't extend back to last year and the underwear bomber?  Is that why we're so up in arms about the implementation of scanners and pat downs?  Are we focused on cargo and checked baggage these days and don't recall last year?

I agree, there are definitely concerns about the technology and/or radiation of the scanners and about the invasiveness of pat downs.  And I think those who simplify the issue by saying, "if you don't like it, don't fly," aren't acknowledging the very real concerns of millions of people.  But I do think we need to work with TSA to find solutions rather than trying to disrupt travel by opting for pat downs.  I am glad National Opt-Out Day wasn't a success (for the sake of so many holiday travelers), and I laughed when I read accounts such as, "That's it? That's all there is to it? Why is the media making such a big deal? I've received more invasive pat downs just going to a rock concert." 

When it comes right down to it, enhanced pat downs need to occur privately and preserve as much dignity as possible for both parties.  And we need to address radiation and privacy concerns for full body scanners.  But TSA has been tasked with keeping air travel safe, and it's a daunting task, and they are not implementing these measures for fun, no matter what the critics may say.  And speaking as someone who flies a lot, I want my fellow passengers adequately screened.  I want to be able to relax.  In my teeny, tiny seat.  With a teeny, tiny soda.  Under my own blanket and resting my head on my own pillow, with my own headphones.  With no leg room.  With a crying toddler in the row in front of me.  And in back of me.  With an inedible meal on my tray that doesn't lie flat because the person in front of me is reclining their seat.  With flight attendants who wake me up frequently with long advertisements about credit cards over the PA system.  And a fellow passenger in the window seat next to me who insists on getting up every five minutes but refuses to switch seats.  And $200 poorer because I checked bags.  And, most probably, on an American carrier on a trans-Atlantic flight that doesn't have in-seat entertainment...  Can you tell I'm really looking forward to twenty-seven hours of travel this weekend?  But, and it must be said, going through security at Logan and Heathrow is the least of my concerns.  Bring on the screening!

*The blurry groins reference in the blog title comes from Dave Barry's airport security experience.