Black Friday???

It will be a normal busy Friday at the malls today, no "Black Friday" in Dubai, in fact very little chatter about Thanksgiving day at work. We Americans did a lot of explaining about the tradition and what it meant to Americans, and the most common response I got from my Arab colleagues was "I have seen Thanksgiving on TV"...it looks nice...I was fortunate enough to celebrate a big dinner with Kelly, Hayley, Loren and her hubby, Juan and his wife and daughter, and our hosts Nick and Mimi. The food was very good, and I am stuffed. Now after everyone is gone, I am sitting here with Nick and Mimi waiting for the Cowboys game to start just after 1 am here. I do miss America, but it was a nice get together.
Bob's boss sent an email out late this afternoon offering a free turkey to all of our American employees, a little late since we had bought our big Butterball 18 lbs Tom Turkey on Monday...It is the thought that counts. Bob and Sandy celebrated Thanksgiving for the second straight year with Feda's family (Bob's equal in Retail) and Sandy heads back to Atlanta this weekend. Bob heads back to the states in Mid December.
It was a tough week at work, it felt like I was flying solo a few days this week. We had a new American concept start to do business with us this week, and I was fortunate enough to host Kelly and Bruce from the US on a couple of plant tours trying to find the right products for them. Reem is the sales rep (Jordanian American) that handles the account. Well I was my normal self, chatting away with Bruce and Kelly all day long. trying to entertain with my stories and mini education about the UAE to our two visitors. They had a franchise supplied body guard (Egyptian) that was driving them in his car and monitoring our conversations. Unfortunately, Reem did not fare as well for me. It turned out that Bruce's real name is Stu, and I had called him by the wrong name all day long. Reem told me after they had parted ways with us....sigh. She didn't know how to let me know while I was doing it. Sadly, I used some choice cuss words to let Reem know of my displeasure with her lack of business saviness to let her manager make a boob of himself. Fortunately, when I later apologized to Bruce/Stu, he was kind enough to share a laugh with me at my expense over my poor memory and name recall.
Now the interesting part of the day occurred when there Egyptian "host" through a fit about parking and the tardiness of our third tour, by abruptly ending the day, and removing our new found American friends.
We were victims of a scam that cost the country over 100,000 Dirhams this week. A company ordered all this product, then abruptly closed their doors and shuttered there warehouse. I felt really bad about being victimized by these thieves. I now know for sure that we are not immune to crime here.
Rodz started her new job as a supervisor at a beauty salon. the 10 am to 9 pm hours six days a week has Rodz worn out, but she is actually starting to enjoy it. I wish she would have been able to join us for our Thanksgiving feast.
My apartment is still not ready to be moved into, now they are saying Monday or Tuesday next week....I certainly hope they geterdone!
Well the Cowboys are about to receive the opening kick-off and I need to start concentrating....lol.
Hope your Thanksgiving was as nice as mine.