4 Month Mark, Wow!

It’s officially March and I’m sitting here wondering where the last 4 months went! I arrived in Abu Dhabi 4 months ago today. I knew the time would go quickly but not as fast as it has. Thankfully my secondment was extended last week so instead of being 2/3 of the way through, I’m at the half way point! I’ll be in the UAE through June and then headed back to the US for good.

Sorry for the delay in writing this week….a part of me was considering skipping this week as last week was just full of stress and change and I don’t really feel like revisiting. Here is a quick rundown:

My boss from the US was in town and I knew we were going to be having the, what’s next for you discussion which I was fairly anxious for. After months of not worrying about the future, I knew it was time to figure it out. The role I’m in here in the UAE is now out for hire…they are looking for a full time person to replace me. When I first got here and loved it so much, I wondered how I would make the decision at the end whether to stay here, leave my firm, move to the UAE, etc or to go back. As the months went on however, I realized that I didn’t want to stay here; I am not ready to leave Big 4. I also decided I didn’t want to stay in the UAE so that was two things off the list. I had a really nice chat with my local boss last week too (I thought it might be fairly uncomfortable for 4 months if she was trying to get me to stay) and she said selfishly she’d like to tell me this is right for me but she knows it’s not, and that I need a few more years in Big 4. Huge relief. So next was making the decision to call it quits with my boyfriend of 4 years. I know I’ve never discussed him in this blog but ideally all of you knew about him! So yeah, I knew coming to Abu Dhabi would be a make it or break it trip for us and in the end, it gave me the clarity I needed to call it quits. We had four really great years together but I know he is not right for me. After going through one divorce I wanted to make d*mn sure I knew so was glad to have this time away to figure it out and so again, I am relieved. The worst part about all of this has been telling everyone, so I’m knocking a decent number of conversations off my list with this post.

What all of this does however is leave me with a blank slate of possibilities. I will likely not return to DC as I was ready for a change anyway (making it 4 years in one place is impressive for me!) and too much of my life there revolves around Shaun. I’m ready to go build my own life. For my specialty at work, Boston, NYC and San Fran are the major players. I’ve ruled out San Fran as no part of me wants to go West Coast (sorry Carly, you know I love you!). NYC is attractive because all my really good friends are there but there really isn’t anything else about it that makes me want to go. I lived there once and left for a reason. I go for weekend visits and am always happy to leave. And I know my office there is a mess sooo…. That leaves me with Boston. The cold makes me cringe but it’s a much smaller city which is way more my style and it’s an hour from the beach and from skiing which is a huge plus for me. Skiing in DC has been anything but exciting the last couple winters. The indoor slope in Dubai is probably steeper than the mountains in the DC vicinity. Anyway….trying to make this decision from afar is quite frustrating but at least I bought myself some time with the extension. I’ve reached out to lots of folks around the firm to get advice on locations, what’s best for me professionally, etc and have started researching living, housing, etc. Ideally over the next few weeks I can come to a decision I’m comfortable with. Moving is going to prove a massive pain in the a** as I am essentially going straight from here to Maine for a week with the family but I’m trying not to worry too much about it as things will work out they way they are supposed to.

In other excellent news, Maria is coming to visit in June! Her coming was contingent on my extension going through so as soon as I got word, she got the time off and now we are planning for a week of fun. It works out really well too cuz her week here will correspond with my last one in Abu Dhabi so I will have some time off work to hang and can go out with a bang (the rhyming was not intentional!).

What else…..the week itself was not super eventful other than making huge decisions, ha. By Thursday night I was shot and starting to get sick so did nothing. Friday I did pool for day, then cabbed up to Dubai to meet Liana at her fabulous Fairmont suite. Her friend Beth had come over from Doha for the weekend so they were already up there. We were going to a pajama (fyi, everyone else spells it pyjama which I quite like but always makes me laugh) party for a friends 30th birthday. Big mistake. I should probably just leave it at that. Ha. I know you would all hate that though so here goes:

The party was supposed to be at a villa in Dubai, hence getting a hotel in Dubai. So I cab my a** all the way from Abu Dhabi to Dubai we have drinks and dinner at hotel, get ready (this was the best part of the night and we should have just stayed!) and then get in cab. Well the villa was in ABU DHABI! Not kidding. The road between AD and Dubai you know when you enter or leave AD cuz there are trees right up until Dubai. Well this party was in tree land. Not only was it in AD, but it was in the middle of nowhere AD. So we get dropped off and responsible me is thinking, how the h*ll are we going to get a cab home from here??? Foreshadowing at its finest. So a 45 minute cab ride is a huge buzz kill already and then we found out we had to pay. Umm….what? Apparently the villa’s are only meant to hold 25 ppl so anyone above that had to pay. Well at this point, we’re all the way here so what else would we do, leave? Liana tried to work her magic but for once, it did not work. This should have also been a sign the night was going downhill but we continued on. Party was egh. Didn’t really know many of the people there, the DJ did not have hip hop to play, and it was just one of those, not feeling it type nights. I pretty much stopped drinking after we got there but Liana did not. She ended up in the absolute worst shape I’ve ever seen her. Apparently she participated in a sambuca drinking contest (and likely won, ha). So at one point she just disappears and Beth and I have no idea what happened to her. Well Beth eventually finds her, passed out in a bed. So we decide, okay let’s go (it’s like before midnight at this point) and I’m thinking oh thank god, I’m so ready to leave. And then we try to get Liana to move…..not happening. So after like 30 minutes of convincing her that going home so she can wake up at the hotel is a much better option and she is ready to go, until the puking starts. We finally get her outside and then are like…hmm…how do we get a cab. Not easily. The villa security ppl were trying to call us one but the closest driver was at the Dubai airport (at this point we’re closer to the AD airport!) so we’re like no way, there has to be someone closer. So we call the guy that dropped us and he agrees to come back out but was going to be like 30 minutes, fine, better than 90. So now I’m on the sidewalk, with Liana’s head in my lap trying to make sure she is okay. At one point this became my left arm and I now totally get how guys arms fall asleep when we lay on them like that. I kept moving my fingers to make sure I could. Lol. More puking and then Beth went to walk to the security hut (where the cabs would have to stop) to see if she could figure out a closer one. Bad idea. She came back a mess. She somehow managed to completely bust her a** (she was fairly sober at this point as well) which resulted in a whole sleuth of injuries. When she came back to us on a golf cart she kept saying she broke a tooth and I could tell her face was banged up but thankfully no broken tooth. Some missing toenails, scraped up knees, hands, chin, nose, massively swollen/bruised hand (def looked broken but turns out it wasn’t). Anyway..I can not believe she came back in the shape she did. Oh I forgot to add…Liana didn’t have a whole lot to say throughout all this but did kept saying “ Everything is BAD”. She was so right! Ha. Anyway..cab finally comes and hours after starting, we make it back to the hotel and pass out. The fog was so crazy on the ride back…was actually pretty scary to be driving in.

Saturday was lots of laughs about the night before and what a mess it was. Beth had to get back to the airport and Liana and I spent the day at the pool. Was nice and relaxing and much needed after a long week.

I am now sick which sucks. I felt it coming last Thursday but have done a decent job fighting it. I’m currently drinking one of those Vitamin C tablets in water and it’s disgusting but ideally will help. I did still hit the gym the last 2 nights and feel the best when I’m working out. Liana is in Kazakhstan this week for work so I’m forced to hit my own gym and have no one to get me through the days but I’m surviving so far. She kindly reminded me this morning that a new blog wasn’t up yet so this one is for you girl. Happy its hump day and looking forward to the weekend!