Friday, June 26, 2009

A week into P-Town

I've been in Portland, Oregon for a week, and all the greenery and fresh air is really making me euphoric. I've read two books this week: The Glass Castle (in Spanish), and Eat, Pray, Love; both of which are kind of Oprah's-Book-Club type books for middle-age lady divorcees, but both of which I managed to just sink my teeth into and enjoy despite my initial misgivings.

I also took a personality test and found out I'm an ENTJ, which doesn't really tell me anything I didn't already know about myself, but reminded me that it takes all kinds.

I also have spent hours and hours with old friends enjoying the pleasures of chatting about random dillydalliances like no time has passed at all over food and wine of varying types;doing crossword puzzles on the fuel of a hot cup of milk with espresso in the chilly mornings; and sometimes waking up to the beautiful, beautiful, achingly beautiful sonority of an acoustic guitar, resonating through the wooden floor, originated by the touch of a human hand, belonging to Dan's father, one floor above my cozy little basement enclave. I think heaven is a rich acoustic guitar, playing all the time, in a small room with carpets.

I also ate a gigantic ahi tuna steak smothered in cream and fresh mushrooms.

My old library is moving on, to enormous and fantastic new heights, without me. I lament not being a part of it. I'll be back sometime, though. If I'd had two lives, I would have spent one of them with you these years. But I only have one life. (Thanks for lending a sentiment, Jonathan Safran Foer.)

I went to Fred Meyer with my mother, and picked out the things I wanted to buy. I bought gummy dinosaur candy, and new sets of trivial pursuit cards. I bought gray eyeshadow, and a refill of all-purpose cotton balls. I remembered a time when we would have been walking through Fred Meyer together, and I would have had to ask her to buy such things for me, and sometimes she would say no. In fact, she mostly said no. Almost always. I would have been a tiny child, and I never would have imagined this future.

When we went through checkout, the guy offered me paper or plastic, and I chose plastic, and immediately felt like a pariah. For all I know, in the last year and a half, selecting plastic could have become an unspoken social crime; a faux paux of the largest magnitude, particularly within a mile of Alberta street. I had forgotten that we're in the land of people who bring cloth bags to the grocery store and compost everything they can see with the naked eye. More importantly, I had forgotten that plastic really is bad for the environment. I also forgot, initially, that one can drink tap water here, quite safely and enjoyably. It's been awhile.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

A romantic night out

Today we decided to go exploring around the Dubai Mall, and caught ourselves an 8:20 pm performance of the world's largest dancing fountain to Andrea Bocelli's "Time to Say Goodbye" - very inspiring (ha ha). It was awesome!

I was at the giant bookstore doing a little book shopping this afternoon and Dan-O decided to join me there after he got off work so we could grab some Taco Bell for the first time in over a year. We snagged some Chalupas and sat outside on the food court patio in some wrought iron & glass chairs & tables astride a massive moving water feature. I've never eaten Taco Bell in such luxurious surrounds.

Afterward we decided to take a walk over to The Address hotel to check out their 63rd-floor bar/lounge, Neos.

The Burj Dubai is in the background, on the 63rd floor of this building looking out the window we weren't even anywhere near the top. That is a tall, tall building, my friends. Anyway it was a pretty cool little bar, which served up the best marini Dan has had yet anywhere in Dubai. I had an alcohol-free "Ipanema" in order to remain designated for driving, which was also fairly delicious. The view at night was incredible.
After that we took a nice long stroll in the hot night around the lake and through the souq and past the fountains. There's an island there called "old town" which is all arabian-style with a bunch of restaurants and shops and things. We saw some apartments there and decided it would be a nice place to live - next mission, find out exactly how unaffordable it is. :)

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Yum!

I played a mean hand of poker and won this:

Otherwise known as a steak to remember. Dan-O's best steak to date. Thanks babes!!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Ewww!!!!

I have never once, in all the time I've been in Dubai, seen a live rat. Yesterday while I was walking out of work at night in the dark, I noticed a little movement out of the corner of one eye on one side of the lawn. A closer look confirmed: a rat!! A BIG rat. The first thing I thought of was our little cats that run around the area and meow for food at lunchtime, and I thought, there is no way those cats could take out this rat. This rat would probably fight back and win.

THEN - another movement to the other side. Another rat! And then... another! As my eyes adjusted to the dark and I started looking at the lawn and the foliage instead of the sidewalk in front of me, I saw probably 7 or 8 different rats scurrying away into the underbrush. Icky icky ick ick ick!!!

Is this something new? Have they always been here? Have I been walking out to the parking lot alone at night in the dark all year long without noticing the vermin at my feet? Ick ick ick!! I told myself this must be a new phenomenon, and I must stick to the dead center of the path and move quickly so that they don't decide to run out and eat my toes for dinner. Iiiiiiiiiick!!!

Monday, June 8, 2009

Quiz night!

Last night was quiz night at Aussie Legends so we ponied on down with 6 or 7 of our closest buddies for some ultimate trivia mayhem. We started out strong but sucked it up on Sports and Geography and came in 11th team overall, which didn't help us out with the bartab.

After quiz-time Dan-o got in on some "killer pool" (whatever that means) and I kicked some a$$ on my second-ever game of foozball. 

1.5 weeks until summer break! Yee-haw!

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Lazy Saturday

Today we went to see "Coraline' at the movie theater, which was thankfully free of screeching children and people answering their cell-phones for a mid-movie chat.

I was intrigued to notice all the signs pasted to the inside of the ticket windows informing us that "THE THEATER WILL NOT BREAK THE LAW SO DON'T ASK US TO" with reference to underage moviegoers and censorship and whatnot. 

We came back after the movie and decided to try, for the first time, the upstairs schvitz. (Schvitz = sauna.) It was pretty awesome! I can't believe we've never done it before. They had nice wood and hot rocks and a big spoon and everything. I've never schvitzed before because I always thought it sounded kind of icky, but it was very relaxing.

Right before the schvitz Dan went wandering around the locker room shirtless to find the men's room and bumped into an unsuspecting woman who said "sorry sorry!" and ran out as fast as possible.  Interesting.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Random Saturday Update

I went to the mall by taxi the other day and was dropped off at the "VIP" entrance. They had red carpets and guys decked out in ostentatious gold arabesque suits and white gloves to open the taxi cab door for me. 

This week we've been watching the French open. Due to the time difference, it comes on after work, which is convenient.  While I was at work on Thursday, Obama gave his speech in Cairo. We streamed it on the laptop and hooked it up to the big screen in the meeting room and put it on the big speakers. ("We" being the three Americans in the vicinity.) I think: if that guy can't achieve world peace, then it's really, really gonna come down to Miss America.

We're getting ready to come home to America in a couple of weeks for vacation, and I've never vacationed in Portland before so I think it's going to be fun. 

Other than that, not much news to speak of around here.