que será, será

From an article about Caroline Kennedy's book, "A Family Christmas," written by Maureen Dowd in today's NYT:

"...The book includes the solemn and sardonic, including this verse from Calvin Trillin, yearning to escape the shopping zoo and endless loop of Der Bingle crooning and “Jingle Bells” jingling:
“I’d like to spend next Christmas in Qatar. Or someplace else that Santa won’t find handy. Qatar will do, although, Lord knows, it’s sandy.”

Ha. I got a kick out of that.

Anyway, I leave tomorrow for Dubai! (Though, to be honest, I am really a lot more excited to have my two favorite girls with me in Qatar, seeing where I live and what I do everyday.)

And I've decided that timing is never on anyone's side. Somebody is always leaving, somebody is always busy, somebody is always tired... so I think it's okay to live in any given moment and sparingly think about the future of things - depending on the subject, of course. Sure, sometimes it leaves you lost when the future actually arrives, but at least then you have the fanfare and surprise of something fantastically unexpected. Planning and work help to mold a future that you want to have, but you can never really know the future anyway....

Que será, será... but with some insha'allah in there as well. :)

this is what my christmas looked like

christmas eve day

The only thing I want right now is to be home. No matter how much holiday music I play on iTunes and how much I pretend there is snow outside, christmas doesn't feel like christmas without family, the big ham or turkey or lamb dinner followed by pavlova, the wisconsin winter and that ridiculous christmas tree made out of lights that mom always insists on putting up.

... and Bing Crosby is singing, "I'll be home for Christmas... if only in my dreams..."

Updates

TEN DAYS until Miss KE and Miss EZ meet me in Dubai for an incredible five-night four-day New Year's Eve extravaganza! I just made reservations for the first dinner of the New Year at the Burj Al Arab, the only seven star hotel in the world, pictured below in a photo I took last week when I was in Dubai for a meeting.

Also, there are no eggs in Qatar. Apparently Avian Flu was found in Saudi, where all of our eggs come from, and there is now an import restriction. Which makes it kind of hard to make all the Christmas goodies I was planning to eat.

Today is the 130th Anniversary of Qatar's independence and Eid begins tomorrow.

"Campaigns...

"...only behave well when they’re far ahead or far behind. When they’re all bunched together, teetering between victory and disaster, they get sweaty and sloppy and borderline insane."

Barack's Blast From the Past _ NYT _ December 15, 2007

well, they changed my traffic signs to a brighter yellow...

Back from Dubai... the meeting with the U.S. went spectacularly well, and everyone emerged with a renewed sense of dedication and enthusiasm for the Qatar expansion. We're all finally on the same page and have committed to staying that way.

Question number 351 was answered today: the smells and feelings are the same, oddly enough... and I think I love Fall in Doha almost as much as I miss Spring in Madison.

And today I was cruising to meetings and errands in our cute little Swift, window down, hair blowing in the wind, singing....

...i'm just a curbside prophet
with my hand in my pocket
and i'm waiting for my rocket to come...

... while thinking about next year and contemplating possibilities...

... and being thankful that nothing is definite just yet.

<3

I've been working for 13ish hours (more or less) straight today. Yeah. I can't help it. I love my job. :)

I've been ridiculously productive today. My ToDo list is shrinking dramatically, and then it grows a little, and then it shrinks a little bit more. I had two great meetings with two great members. I had several really great conversations with some friends in the States [you know who you are]. Overall, a great day.

Oh yeah. I still have that application to finish... better get to that. Wish me luck.

my new favorite color

I was greeted at the airport by three of my favorite people in Doha, and as we went to the parking lot, the girls informed me that we traded in our old, yucky nissan tiida for an awesome new suzuki swift.

Soooo cute!! I love it! And now we'll be able to find it so much more easily when we lose it in the parking lot... it definitely doesn't look like every other car in Doha. And it totally matches my cell phone, too.

Talk about color coordiated. :)