A Birthday Week to Remember!

Warning: LONG POST!

Well….I made it to 28 and am still alive to write about it today, I’d call that a successful week!!! It was a great week of birthday festivities and I’m sad to see it end although there will be many more adventures to be had so not too worried about it! Not like I need a birthday as an excuse to have fun!

Sunday was Pump and then a chill night. Monday was my gym and another chill night.

Tuesday was my birthday! Yay, Happy 28 to me! Ha. It was an overall great day
other than having to work! March 15th happens to be a huge federal tax deadline in the US so normally I am working a gazillion hours up to and sometimes through my birthday so being here and not having to deal with traditional busy season was a pretty big gift in itself. I did get to deal with getting extensions out for my client here but it was pretty simple and stress free so I was happy to help. I got to work and almost immediately got a gorgeous bouquet of flowers from my Mom and Dylan. They made a great centerpiece for our cube area and smelled amazing as well. Oh wait..must back up…first….I came in to work, walked around the corner to my desk and started laughing. There was orange silly string sprayed everywhere as well as a beautifully wrapped present with bow and card awaiting me. I figured it was Liana but didn’t see her at her desk. She eventually came over from the kitchen with a telling grin. She got me a fab gift….a heart rate monitor watch so I actually know how hard I’m working out and so we can compete…lol. I’m thinking it could be a positive, if I do work out as hard as I think…or it could be depressing when I find out I’m a huge slacker everyday!!! Of course when I went to pump on Thursday I forgot it so its making its debut tonight. Okay so then flowers….lots of Happy Birthday’s etc. A few of us went to Jones for lunch, sat outside and had my favorite chicken Caesar salad and then Sergio, the manager who knows us pretty well, brought me out an amazing cake. So sweet. Then came back to office and we all got called in for a meeting, which was cupcakes for my bday. They were tiny and delicious and thankfully I was only forced to eat one! Finished out the day and then went home for a quick nap (I was exhausted all last week, not sure what’s wrong with me but I’m run down). So I power napped for 30 minutes or so even though I wanted to go to gym due to the sweets I was forced to eat, but I had been the prior 4 days and was tired and it was my birthday so said screw it and napped. Liana walked over and then we both walked to the Le Royal for dinner at Oceans. Alice, Phil and Bushy (no not his name but his nickname) met us there and we had a delicious dinner and lots of bubby. So when the bill came, Bushy suggests credit card roulette (he might not have seen the bill at this point….3600dhs or about 1,000 USD). He won/lost. Poor guy..but took it like a champ and paid up. Thank you Bushy!!! Then we went over to Sax which is the club next door as they started doing karaoke on Tuesday nights and I’ve been wanting to check it out. There weren’t a whole lot of people there and the singing wasn’t great but we made the best of it. There were so many songs in other languages that kind of sucked for us. Anwar came and met us at this point so there were 3 guys/3 girls. We decided we would pick a song for them and they would pick one for us. I NEVER sing, EVER but somehow got conned into this. So we pick Barbie Girl for them, they pick something and Liana and Phil go to put in our requests. As it turned out, they picked the exact same song for us. What are the odds of that happening?!?! Liana compromised and they sang Girls Just Wanna Have Fun instead and we sang Barbie Girl. And by we, I mean Liana and I. Alice, the most Barbie doll looking one decided to play chicken and sit and watch. See if I invite her to my bday again….just kidding Alice, you know I love you anyway! Was funny on the parts with Ken/Barbie cuz Liana played Ken and I Barbie. I don’t think anyone in the crowd was pleased with our performance but it was funny and at least I did it. The worst part was trying to read the screen as instead of having a nice blue backdrop with white words, it was like a moving city backdrop and I could barely read the words (and no, I don’t know the song by heart either!!!). Liana also rapped Eminem and did a fantastic job keeping up. I was impressed. We stayed out til about 1 and all decided for a Tuesday, we were gonna call it a night. Smart choice as I was pretty tired on Wednesday although not hungover so that was a plus.

Wednesday got through work and then went home for another power nap (yes, I’m getting old). The original plan months ago was to do a dinner at Cipriani on Yas Island and then go out to Allure for ladies night. Allure is only open W-F which is why we did a second dinner. Or because I’m awesome, either way! So after Alice reserved everything, she got a call that a private party had booked the entire restaurant for the night but that there was a small Japanese restaurant we could go to (the normal one is Italian which is my favorite). I guess it worked out since I’m off cheese for the month and it would have been very difficult to do Italian with no cheese. BTW..I’m 20 days in and going strong!!!! So we drove out to Yas, had a very good dinner, albeit very very very slow. For the no customers in the very small space, you’d think it would have been easy to get things. Oh..Liana and I ordered Saki cocktails that came out literally like small shots. We were like…umm…this is $25?!?! Hers looked like a urine sample. At least mine was pink!!! There was also this girl “working” as the hostess or piece of furniture, not sure which. She was the most airheaded spaced out girl I’ve encountered in some time but gave us all a good laugh. So then we find out that not only have these b*stards taken over the restaurant, they have also reserved the club (all owned by same person) until 1 am. Well we finished around 11:30 and were not going to wait around. Liana was like let’s just pull the usual, walk up like we own the place and see if we can get in. Okay cool. Well in the meantime the waiter sees us going upstairs and is like, umm..there is a private party, you can’t go up there but let me check and see if I can get you in. Bad idea. Liana and Alice had already started rolling up and as figured, their plan worked. Nobody checked a thing. I went in right behind them but at this point the waiter was up there talking to security about getting us in and saw us and pointed us out. So without him we would have been golden. Anyway…we went in, walked around, found a place outside and lasted about 5 minutes before security found us and asked us to leave. It was a National Geographic party..ha. We like animals too! I didn’t even get a chance to do a mock NG cover with my animal of choice. BOOO. I kindly let all the bouncers know they RUINED my birthday…lol. The good part was that I was home and in bed at 12:30 and didn’t feel like death on Thursday! Oh also, one of the super sweet Emirati girls that works in our group came over right when I got to work and dropped a Tiffany bag on my desk. I was like ummm…..I’m not sure I can accept this but then didn’t want to make her feel bad. She got me a really nice, totally me necklace (I’m wearing it today!).

Thursday was another Pump class to work off all the food from T/W and then I was a total bum. Went to the grocery store to pick up a few things and was asleep by 11pm. Our plans for the weekend had been a million different things that kept getting changed for various reasons but we finally settled on something a bit spontaneous, going to an African themed birthday party of a friend of a girl Liana met 2 weekends ago on Bahraini island (no not Bahrain, this was an island off the coast of Abu Dhabi). So we got up early and went down to the fish market where the boat was leaving from (our dumba**es walked THRU the fish market….and people ask me why I don’t eat fish!). So Liana’s friend Sophie is not there but we eventually see people dressed up that clearly were going to this party so found our way to the boat as more and more people showed up. Still no Sophie. People were all, how come we’ve never see you ladies before…ummm…because we don’t know any of you, lol. Finally Sophie said she was on her way but at this point we figured screw it, we were going for it, everyone seemed pretty nice! We ended up on the first boat over sans Sophie and the ride was quite interesting. We got stopped by 3 separate Coast Guard boats (you know in case we picked ppl up in the water between point A and B) although at this point the water was still fairly calm. And then we got out in the main body of water and that all changed. We were in the front with 4 others….all of us ended up completely drenched as wave after very large wave slammed into us. It was quite comical although not totally enjoyable. It hurt to sit down yesterday from where I was bruised (I was worried about the sky dive harness but alas, I was fine!). So we FINALLY get to island like 90 minutes later and it’s just one big island full of sand. Perfect spot to set up a party! The other boat was a bit behind us with the speakers/grill but we set up what we could and started boozing and making friends. Oh…..and the bathroom experience. Ha. I should probably keep this to myself but what the h*ll. So almost everyone had to pee once we got there and I am not a big fan of going in the water. So this one girl literally jumped off boat and ran (she had to go bad!) and then came back and was like, okay bathroom is over that sand dune. So I walk back there and cop a squat and it was hysterical….just sitting there looking in every direction at sand. Lol. I felt like I was in the middle of the desert. The other boat eventually shows and they’ve got generator powered speakers (they were very prepared), got the grill going and the booze kept flowing. Booze, mixed with sun, mixed with some special Brazilian vodka/coconut drink resulted in a very drunk Cristina/Liana combo. I met a Russian girl who I danced with for at least an hour. Lots of spins and twirls. In the sand. Drunk. I’m sure this did nothing to help! We had a blast though. OHHHHHH…..and….I met a girl from MAINE! So I’m usually one of the only Americans and for awhile was…then this girl rolls up and I hear her say she’s from Maine and I’m thinking, okay I know I’ve been drinking but what did she just say. Yep. Small freaking world. We were on a little island with 30 people and 2 of us are from Maine. So we of course became instant friends since lets get real, most ppl from Maine never leave Maine let alone end up at an African island party in Abu Dhabi! HA!

So around 5pm the boats were headed back…Liana and I got on the same boat but she was on one side of the front laying down and I on the other with 3 others smooshed (anyone know how to spell this word btw?!) between us. I was under my towel the whole time to stay as dry as possible and when we docked and I popped out, she was so excited to see me. Apparently she thought I was on the other boat or she had lost me. Lol. We laughed a ton and then went home smashed..it was about 7pm. Liana goes..how bout this…lets go home, get cleaned up, and then go out….to which I immediately vetoed and said the only place I’m going is to bed! I did manage to make a stop in the shower and had yet to realize how much sun I had gotten. Was out cold by 8pm and then woke up at midnight hot and hurting. It was hangover time and then I realized how sunburned part of me was (mostly face, ears, upper back) and my body was hurting from the boat. At this point I’m thinking oh wow, this is great shape to be considering sky diving tomorrow! Thankfully I went back to sleep a few hours later (once I woke up I was doomed…Liana and I were both up blackberrying each other!) and then woke up at 9am feeling like a new person. My sunburn had mostly faded to tan and I even went up to the pool for a quick sunbathe before we were off to Dubai. We were excited about what a cheap day it was…about $28 each, until I realized that I broke my camera and ruined my Burberry sunglasses and Liana lost her phone. It just became a very expensive day. Not as bummed about camera as I needed a new one anyway but I loved the sunglasses. I had the case, not sure why I didn’t just put them in the case instead of what it looks like I did….and crushed them in the sand for quite some time.

Our jump was scheduled for 3pm so we left around 12:30 to make sure we had plenty of time. Got to Dubai around 1:30 and sat on the JBR for a coffee/hot choc as the nervousness started to set in. I was looking at all the delicious treats at Starbucks thinking I should probably eat the tastiest looking as it might be my last shot. Ha. I was good though. So around 2 we headed over to the drop zone and met up with Sergio and Dolly. Sergio turned 30 on March 5th and had been wanting to sky dive so when he found out we were, he decided to join. Him and I were the two virgins. Oh..and he calls me Caesar Salad Girl cuz that’s what I order every time Liana and I go to Jones so he got me a fab book about salads. He said he tried to find the history of caeser salad but couldn’t. I think the replacement is perfect..there are sooooo many delicious looking salads and he said I can pick a few and he’ll put them on the menu at the restaurant. Sweet! Unfortunately they can’t be named after me but at least I’ll know. HA! Dolly is Liana’s friend from Doha who has been in Dubai for a couple weeks (I met her at brunch last week) and she jumped once in Australia but 8 years ago so we decided she was essentially a born again. Liana was on her 3rd jump so def the resident expert! We got there right as a whole group were landing so that was kind of cool to see. I was surprised at how small the parachutes seemed. Somehow sitting at the actual site was more calming than Starbucks. Oh and on the radio on the way over we heard Gone and some other song like…last day of your life….I was like CHANGE THIS SH*T!!! So we all go check in around 2:45 (as we were told come 15 mins early), filled out some forms signing our lives away and then were told it would be about a 2 hour wait. WHAT?! Turns out it was more like 3. We’re sort of watching the sun fade, have totally lost excitement and now are all just starting to get angry (and by all I mostly mean me). Ha. I was like it’s going to be dark and the pictures are going to be sh*t and its cold and blah blah blah. At that point none of us were really scared anymore as we just wanted to get the show on the road so maybe they do that on purpose?! When it was finally our time to go get suited up we all rallied and tried to look alive. I got a great instructor and videographer/photographer. Each jumper has their own picture person that jumps with them which is pretty awesome. I now have a great DVD and CD full of pics. Both were Brazilian and nice guys who I felt comfortable with so that was a plus. Liana got the one she had been eyeing for the past 3 hours (wonder if that was coincidence?!). Sergio was probably the only uncomfortable one as he wasn’t super thrilled to have a dude strapped to his back. So we’re goofin off and trying to get everyone excited (they had all been jumping all day and were def tired) and then finally go to get on plane. There were the 4 of us from our group and then a bunch of guys jumping solo. Everyone sang Happy Birthday to me on the plane so that was fun. And then I started looking outside. There is actually a great frame from the DVD at the moment happy birthday stopped and I looked outside….sheer terror on my face. HA!!! So the instructor is telling me what to do when I jump and I’m shaking I’m so nervous. Hold on….let me reverse….so when we’re getting suited up, I’m all being tough girl Cristina going…can we do some back flips? I was a gymnast…I can do it. This was meant to be a joke. Note: Do not tell your sky diving instructor this as a joke. He will not believe it’s a joke. So he’s like, when you jump, you need to throw your legs and head back immediately. Got it. So we jump and my legs immediately go forward and bam..the back flips start straight out of plane and I’m thinking OMG!!!!!! I MESSED IT UP!!! I didn’t put my legs back. Well now looking back at the way we exited the plane vs everyone else, he meant for this to happen, I really had no choice!!! After the 2nd or 3rd flip I got my bearings enough to get into the correct position at which point it finally set in that I was flying! It was so incredible and surprisingly unscary once we were in the air. Getting out of the plane was the hard part as you are looking down going what is wrong with me and can I actually do this?!?!?!? I asked my instructor what happens if someone gets up and doesn’t want to jump..he said it depends on if they are stronger than him or not. Got it. I didn’t think I’d be okay with the jump until the chute was pulled but I was actually fine. It was much more fun without the chute!!! However, once we pulled it there was that sense of, oh good, I won’t die today and then we started to play around with directions and spins and we even suspended in the air for a few seconds. They let you work the chute which was pretty cool. The view of Dubai and the Palm as the sun was setting was pretty awesome. I would like to do it again during the day but this time of night was actually quite nice and the pictures did come out so I’m happy. Apparently Liana’s photographer was stoned so her pics are not as good but there will def be a next time. She wants to take the course this year to get her license to jump solo. I have a few friends coming over (2 in April, 1 in June) that now all want to go so I think I’ll be making a few more jumps and totally happy with that. It was a very cool experience and I’m glad I had the balls to do it. By the time we got down and all calmed down, it was pretty dark and we waited for our videos. We were meant to go to the Hilton for dinner and a drink (we really wanted a drink prior to but you can’t have alcohol in your system for the 12 hours prior..and you certainly wouldn’t want to do this hungover!) so we just drove home. It was a pretty quiet ride home as the 10 days prior had been full of bday events and we were both exhausted.

I got home, loaded pics, watched the DVD a bunch of times and reflected on a great week. This adventure for me has certainly been full of firsts and I’m loving all (well almost all) of them. This week should be pretty quiet….lots of gym and hopefully getting over feeling so tired. I haven’t had a steak or any other red meat in over 2 months so I’m thinking maybe its time. Or maybe the lack of cheese?! Anyway…the next big trip is looking like Doha in 2 weeks so Liana can show me her old stomping ground. We were meant to go in January but then we went on a Bahrain run for a bit so it’s finally time. Ohhh…and…..remember Mr. Sapp from last weeks entry, he just booked a fight in London the first week of May and Liana is working on getting us flown out there for it. We can see Katie and I’ve never been to London so def. excited.

I apologize if you are asleep by now..that was a long one!