Back to the Motherland: It's HAPPENING!

Dubai is back on the travel calendar - this is HAPPENING! Cutting through the red tape has ceased and I am scheduled to depart in a week. I have guarded optimism, mind you, simply because I have learned (over and over and over again) that nothing is guaranteed. But I have a plane ticket, and that's the closest I've gotten so far so it's looking good. YAY!

It's been an otherwise busy few weeks. I got to celebrate the marriage of my friends Jason and Ben at their home in New Jersey, and the car ride with Alex, Mostafa and Brandon was nearly as entertaining as the wedding festivities. And thanks to the magic of Facebook, Mom figured out that we were near the town of Ewing, NJ where generations of our family are buried, all the way back to the Revolutionary War. Our hotel happened to be less than a mile from the cemetery and the boys were gracious enough to let me explore it for a little while before we headed back to DC. I had to call my great uncle John to have him guide me to the three spots where our people are, otherwise it would probably have taken a few hours for me to find them. I didn't expect to be as overwhelmed with emotion as I was, especially as I stood over the graves of my great-grandparents. I've heard so many stories over the years and I'm so very grateful I finally got to spend a few moments with them. I will never forget it.

Oh hey guess what - the government re-opened! After almost 3 weeks I got to go back to work and spend 5 hours going through emails! I will admit, the time off was pretty nice (especially since we got paid for it) but I was going mildly insane towards the end of it. Let's just hope it doesn't happen all over again in January.

I went to a few concerts, one of which was 2 Cellos (that's the name of the group - super creative, I know) and it was amazing. There was a meet-and-greet after the show and I was reduced to a babbling teenaged girl in the presence of what I consider freaking rock stars. Words escape me to describe the experience, but I will say that I cried at one point during the show - actual tears running down my face. They were that amazing (or I'm that obsessed with them, either way).

Obviously the biggest news is Dubai. DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI! This. Is. Happening. And I'm pretty sure I get to go to Casablanca to give trainings for a week in the middle of it, no big deal. I'll miss Thanksgiving with my family in Florida but I'll be home for Christmas (I dare you to get that song out of your head now). I might even try to pop over to Cairo for a weekend to see all my other family. Anything is possible! Deep breaths, one thing at a time, everything is as it should be.