Me - 3*
Hayley - 3* (one before I hired her)
Juan - 2*
Bob - 1
Lal - 1
Nick - 1
Richard - 1
* - On Going
(Kelly has made it 4, but is disqualified because she is Canadian...lol)
Smile Nick, sorry though, you are still tied for last - not sure you weren't the smartest though, as you are the only one of us to have escaped on your own...I was hoping for time off for good behavior...after this week, not going to happen...I am now in solitary confinement.
Sharp eyed Fred pointed out my error in information from last week. It is a testimony that you see what you want to see. In Christmas 2011, the Dubai Mall had a four story high Christmas tree that dominated the main foyer in the mall. I went to the mall to go take a picture for this years blog. I was surprised to find that this year a golden pile of chocolate balls would make up this years Christmas tree. I took a picture of this "tree" and posted it last week, well Fred said to me "your tree looked like the Burj Khalifa"...Sadly, it wasn't a tree...Fred was right. I saw what I wanted to see.
This time last week, I would have bet that this past week would have been lonely and depressingly boring. No sign of Christmas at the new job, Kelly and Hayley busy with boyfriends...boy was I wrong. I decided that I should pay my American Restaurateurs Rudy and Valerie a visit.
You remember them, Rudy my 65 year old hero (married to a 29 year old beauty - Valerie), they own Cactus Cantina and I hadn't seen them in several months. One of my favorite Dubai servers also works for them (Janie). She always teases me that I am fat because I eat too many ice cubes, so of course now when I see Janie, the first thing I accuse her of is stealing ice cubes from her employers...
On Sunday, my old friend from Transmed (Elie Saber) called and their family invited me over to spend Christmas Eve with them. I spent my first UAE Christmas Eve in 2010 with them, and my parents and Fred both adore Elie. It was truly a sweet gesture since Elie is a manager at Transmed, and I certainly have left some raw emotions back there. This will probably be my last time visiting there...well, I will come back to the scene of the crime later in this blog...
At Barakat, I purchased some nice cross pens for all of my direct reports, and had them wrapped and ready to give them on Christmas Eve. One of the Filipino customer service associates organized a Christmas grab bag (bring a gift, draw numbers to see what gift you get) and we had a little office exchange on Monday afternoon. It was the first time they had celebrated Christmas in the office, and I was touched that they made an effort for the 3 Filipino's on staff and myself. In addition to the pens and my grab bag gift, I decided that I wanted to get something for "Choke", Barakat International's Nepalese office boy. He wears a couple of different well worn polo shirts everyday to work. He is well groomed, but doesn't have a lot of clothes appropriate for work. I went to American Eagle at Dubai Mall and picked out three different colored American Eagle polo shirts, had them wrapped and put in a box that said To Choke, from Santa. I snuck the box to his desk, a half hour later Choke was so happy. He loved the shirts, but he didn't know why someone brought them for him or who Santa was. It took a while, but finally one of our salesman showed Choke a picture of Santa from the Internet and I think he now gets it. He wore the red shirt to work on Christmas day, told us his favorite one was the blue one. He likes the blue one so much, that he is saving it, keeping it unworn - He says when he gets a girlfriend that's when he will wear it, so that she will be impressed. I think living over here has helped me to realize so many of the values that I should have always understood...Christmas is about giving...Choke was the highlight of my Christmas...
Speaking of highlights, or memorable Christmas events, I am sure that those 30 or so lovely Arab folks that I spent Christmas Eve with at Elie Saber's house won't forget this American or this Christmas anytime soon either. It started out nicely, I arrived with my Chocolate gift in hand for Mrs. Saber. The family room of the Saber's was already filled with their friends and Transmed work friends. One of the guests is probably one of the most attractive girls at my old work place (I will leave her name out of the blog for obvious reasons). I didn't know her very well when we worked together, she was in a different department, but was always friendly and greeted me with a warm smile. I didn't even know her name when we worked together, but I always enjoyed seeing her. she was accompanied by another cute 20 something colleague from Transmed that I didn't know well. I sat near them, as we enjoyed Christmas cheer and beverage we chatted about Transmed and my new job. I learned that my new Lebanese friend was proudly an American Passport carrier. Such a lovely young lady. She asked me in perfect English about where I was from in the states and then she mentioned how thrilled she was that Obama got reelected. I actually behaved (don't be too proud yet) and I asked her if she voted. She said no, that she was just happy that there weren't enough "stupid" Republicans to vote against Obama. whoops...so much for my new fantasy friendship. I politely told her that I was a lifelong Republican, and was curious what my party believed in that made us stupid.
She remained calm, but her voice raised a few octaves as she asked me if I had seen any of Michael Moore's movies? She was a big fan, and he had exposed the dark side of the Republicans. In a quickly quieting family room, I tried to explain that Michael Moore was not (in my opinion) a fact based guide for American politics, but more of a partisan movie maker. Well over a period of twenty or so minutes we went back and forth about how Republicans didn't want to pay their fare share of taxes and how just disgusted she was with those on my side of the political spectrum. Then came the Middle East share of this spirited debate. She let me know, that America should stay out of the Middle East, quit supporting Israel and stop involving ourselves in "their" affairs. I shared that we were allies with Israel, and as long as we (the US) were around that Israel would be protected from the extremest that want to wipe them off the map. She then shared that Zionist America was horrible and she hated our policies, that it was only about oil, and our troops and politicians should leave the Region now and stop creating instability here. Then came the moment that I crossed the line....( I know I am at a holiday party, at a friends home- surrounded by all Arabs and mostly Muslims, I should have never allowed this young woman allow me to ruin a party - yes we were a spectacle).
I basically said, "if you hate America and what it stands for so much, why don't you go to the US Embassy and turn in your passport"...well she was the bigger of the two of us, she ended our discussion, got up moved across the room, I officially became the pariah of the party. Elie came over and basically let me know that politics and parties don't mix, and the fun was over. I left a little later, only to have three of the other male guests catch up with me in the parking lot to let me know, how I didn't understand how evil the American Government was, and that Israel needed to go away...after another 20 minutes of spirited debate, I safely got in my car and drove away. Midnight had arrived, it was now Christmas...I spent the 45 minute drive home reflecting on where I had gone wrong...
I did email her an apology (I apologized to Elie that night), my apology to her has fallen on deaf ears...
On a brighter note, I got a Christmas card From my lovely friend Amy Bossi. She was and is such a good friend that I made in my St. Louis days....the card came yesterday to my office (3 weeks from the postmark). One of my other sweet friends from the past Linda (friends since the 8th grade sent me a note asking me for my address...it is simple, there is no mail delivery in the UAE, just post offices....everybody gets their mail through work....my address is ; PO Box 11286, Dubai, UAE
pretty simple, and thank you Amy for the wonderful Christmas treat. Speaking of the 8th grade, one of my all time favorite teachers (Connie Beale) has found me. She was my Wilson Junior High music teacher. I have enjoyed catching up with her....
As Rodz would say, the blog this week is "too long", Kelly is in Jordan with Sami, and I am in a dilemma about New Years Eve as a gorgeous "friend" has invited me to a New Years Party, that I of course wont attend. More on the complexities of being me later...I truly hope you had a meaningful Christmas, and that 2013 will be your best year ever. Thank You for hanging in there with me, hopefully, I will see you here next week.
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