5 weeks and counting.....

The title of the blog was 6 weeks and counting but that was when I started jotting down things..now we’re at 5 weeks and since I’m posting today…5 weeks it is!

Another glorious weekend has come and gone and this one was the most relaxing one I’ve had probably since last year. It was much needed as I’ve just been feeling over Abu Dhabi, exhausted from my social life, etc. I know I know…wah wah wah you are all thinking. Ha. But when every night of every week involves some type of activity, it gets really tiring. I’m feeling much better today, re -energized and ready to take on the last 5 weeks. I was also starting to really miss home but have decided to just get over that since there isn’t anything I can do about it. Okay..this week wasn’t terribly exciting as I started saying no but here goes:

Monday was the last night my boss was in town (or at least the last night I had to be available). We had dinner with my old client at the Hilton and it was a nice change of pace since I’d never been to any of the restaurants there before. It was me and 6 guys, I’m pretty sure I only get invited to these things to mix it up. Ha. Oliver was in a foul mood so he sat at the end of the table and didn’t say anything. I was in no mood to be there but put on a smile as that’s just what you have to sometimes. Client dinners always take FOREVER so it was a little past 10 when we got back to Beach Rotana. Dean of course wanted to go get a drink and since I knew Oliver didn’t want to be around just him, I stayed but switched to water. There was clearly tension between the two of them so that made it kind of awkward (doesn’t this sound like my guests from a few weeks back?!?!) but I managed to keep them talking which became the third degree about my love life. The three of us sitting there talking was quite funny actually. I’m the youngest, divorced and in no hurry to get married again (or have kids, if ever) although am in an annoying situation relationship wise and hence the 3rd degree from them. Anyways…that’s far too long of a story for this blog. Dean is divorced, hates his ex-wife and is having issues with his kids. Oliver is never married and feeling stressed about meeting “the one” and having kids soon as he doesn’t think “the one” exists and he’ll have to settle just so he’s not an old Dad. It was a pretty depressing conversation. Lol. Oh..and then I was like Dean..what am I doing next month. We’ve agreed on moving to Boston..but have yet to agree on what I’ll be doing for work and its driving me crazy. He said I’d know within 30 days……sooooo helpful. At least when I got home and got in bed I fell asleep quickly!

Tuesday I just felt completely run down and had no energy for boot camp but went anyway. It’s the one hour of my day that I just forget everything that’s bothering me and usually wake up once we start. It was great for clearing my head, but it was certainly not my best workout. It was the first time I considered not completing some of the tasks. When I got home I had a call with my Coach and unfortunately, can’t divulge the outcome of it just yet but it was certainly better for my mood which the boys trashed the night before! Pearl Harbor was on and I of course started watching that and at 12:30 forced myself to shut it off since it’s a long a** movie and I just couldn’t stay up any longer. I never get more than 6 or 7 hours of sleep (all my own fault) and even this past weekend when I tried, I couldn’t sleep!

Wednesday was great. It was the first day in a long time that I just said I was going to leave work and do absolutely nothing. Granted it was only an evening but to have no other job work, no calls, no dinners, no bootcamp, no nothing was glorious. One of my friends was like..what are you doing…me…nothing. Oh..you want to come to dinner with us. No…I am making a conscious effort to do nothing thank you! Alice came by after a mini shopping trip to show me her new purchases but that and watching Invictus was about all I accomplished. Invictus was great. I had heard from a bunch of rugby players that they didn’t love it..and I can see if you are super into rugby that you wouldn’t, but not caring all that much about rugby I thought it was a solid movie! Oh…I also talked to my mom (she doesn’t count as a “call”) and got to talk to Dylan too. As soon as he knew it was me and he wanted to talk and talk he did for a good 15 minutes! He is so sweet and I miss him so much. I told him I’ve been buying him stuff on my travels and he goes…”You’re awesome Auntie Tina”. Melt my heart. We talked about Maine and all the accidents he’s had (as well as any my mom has had and the dog, ha!). Also got the scoop on my sister who is getting married this weekend. Long story, but yes, she is getting married this weekend and I’m keeping my mouth shut on the matter. I wanted to be asleep by 10pm since I was going to bootcamp the next morning but of course that doesn’t happen so 5:15am came pretty fast and I was really contemplating the extra 2 hours of sleep.

Thursday was a long day. I got my a** up and went to bootcamp. It was HOT. It was the first morning session I did for the month and what a difference. By 7:30 at night, the sun has gone down and there is sometimes a breeze on the beach. At 6am the sun is shining and there is nothing even resembling a breeze. I was sweating so much it was dripping in my eyes and I couldn’t see..and of course I couldn’t wipe it off with my shirt cuz that was covered with sand. It was a great last session of the month but I finished a big sweaty disgusting mess. I ended up in the beach shower fully clothed and the cab driver was beyind thrilled that I soaked his cab. Sorry buddy. I gave him a good tip and did sit on the floor mat which made it a little better. Went home, got ready and then to work which I was hoping would be a shorter day since a lot of ppl leave earlier on Thursday. No such luck. I was still here at 6:45 and watching my nap time slip away! I managed to get like 20 minutes in before reception called to ask if I was okay….umm..yes I’m fine why? Well ma’am, your DND sign is on. Oh yeah……then leave me the f*** alone. Seriously what is wrong with people? She was like, its been up for 4 days..um no….it was up for 3 but Wednesday I let them clean AND had them bring me room service. Clearly I am alive and well and just don’t want you to bother me, but thank you for waking me up 20 minutes early when I’m tired. So I got ready and then went to meet Alice so we could head over to Yas. One of the girls she works with had 2 friends from London in town so a bunch of us went to Kazu, a Japanese restaurant at the Yas Hotel and ate at the teppenyaki tables. The meal was amazing. Prawn tempura, chicken/fillet teppanyaki with fried rice and veggies, topped off with tempura ice cream. I was in heaven….and insanely full! After this we went up to Skylite (the rooftop bar) and had a few drinks there but it was soooo hot and sticky. It was pretty dead (prob because its outside) and it was getting late although it seemed really early and not sure why. At about 12:30 Alice and I left the gang and went to Rush which is also in the hotel. Alice didn’t get to go with me the last time and wanted to check it out. Another girl, Sophie was meeting us and my new boot camp buddy Jill was supposed to as well although as it turns out, she took a nap Thursday after work and didn’t wake up til 4am. Oops! We had a good time, music was great again and a bunch of my other friends showed up so that was nice. Ohh…and Liana missed out big time. It was full of US NBA players who are here for 2 weeks or something and there are never tall black men here (her favorite!). She would have been in absolute heaven. Alice and I were joking that it would have been hysterical to watch her try to pick which one she liked best since there are never even tall people around, let alone numerous ones, who also play professional sports (another of her soft spots!). Agh well…she is in the Galapagos Islands which I’m sure is better. By 3 or so my feet were killing me so I went home, sucks that Yas is so far away when you just want to get home and in bed but I had no plans on Friday so didn’t mind too much.

Both Alice and Jill invited me to different brunch’s on Friday but I decided that I didn’t want to spend the day indoors drinking all day (has anyone counted the number of responsible things I’ve done this week? I think this is 3 or 4!). Instead I slept in, ordered room service and hit the pool around 2pm. It’s so hot in the afternoon and the sun stays til at least 4 so going at 2 is not a big deal. It was very close to almost too hot to tolerate hot but I persevered for the sake of my tan! Around 4 when the sun went down and the breeze started it was amazing. I passed out for a good hour and woke up all disoriented. Lol. Went back to my room and took a nap and then woke up and tried to decide whether I should see what people were doing, stay sleeping, or get up but chill out. I was pretty hungry so decided to get up and chill out for a bit but stay in. I actually ordered a proper meal from room service and tried to find a good movie to watch. Of course there was crap on so I watched American Idol instead and called my grams. She was very happy to hear from me and I know she’s not doing great right now so was glad I could help brighten her day. Alice and I were bbming and joking that we were both doing the exact same thing, 2 floors apart. It was great to just chill though. I got in bed around midnight and was quite excited for a full night of sleep but then of course couldn’t sleep. After hours of tossing and turning I finally managed to pass out.

Saturday I got up around 11 and hit the gym so I wouldn’t have to deal with it after hours at the pool when I very likely wouldn’t have gone! Had a great workout and then hit the pool. Go out a bit earlier then the day before and I’m pretty sure it was hotter. Plus I had just been at the gym and even though I took a cool shower, my body was still all pumped up so I was just dripping sweat (yummy huh?!). Alice came and met me about 30 minutes later and I ordered one of my favorite club sandwiches for lunch. I also decided that having every weekend at a beach resort is pretty much like a mini vacation. What am I gonna do when someone doesn’t bring me food pool side???? Because it’s been so hot, you kind of have to get in the pool ever 20-30 minutes although the pool was pretty hot, as was the shower. Last weekend it was chilled, not so much this weekend. We hit the pool swim up bar for a frozen margarita but called it a day at 1 since we’re both trying to be good (I swear this is like #6 or 7….who am I?!). Left around 4:45 after a quick nap and hit the coop with Alice. We were both totally inappropriately dressed and got lots of looks. I had a sweater on since my beach dress is completely open in the front..unfort. the sweater is also open in the front so it was either wear it backwards or walk around with it held shut. Was a bit annoying but at least I didn’t get thrown in jail! We decided as we were checking out that for being such responsible career women….we are like children when it comes to home life. Neither of us had purchased anything that could even begin to resemble a meal or an attempt at cooking. My usual is: nuts, cheese, cereal, diet coke, gum, chup chups w/gum (like a blow pop). I do normally buy turkey slices but they didn’t have any normal stuff (and by normal I mean American brands). I changed and then hit the mall so I could get a mani/pedi even though I really wanted a nap. They didn’t have room for 45 minutes so I walked around the mall…got a new workout top (since I ruined most of mine in the wash…at boot camp its been a non issue since we have t shirts we have to wear but if I’m at the gym all week, I need clothes!), found a cute day dress and then went to my appt. Some of the bball players were in the sports store..the employees were amazed that anyone could be that tall (cuz everyone here is so short!). Went home and had some dinner (part of the meal that I ordered the night before that was way too big for me) and watched some tv before hitting the sack. Of course I was exhausted, didn’t take a nap, and still slept like crap. I’ve just been tossing and turning for hours…I guess its cuz I have a lot on my mind but getting very frustrating. I eventually fell asleep at some point only to wake up to the call to prayer at 4:13am. Why does anyone need to pray this early?!?!

And now its Sunday again! No boot camp for the first time in 2 months (they are taking a week off between last session and next as the owner is on vaca) which is partly sad because I love it but partly good because 3 days a week I end up sitting at work for longer than I need to since there is no point in going home first. I hit the Rotana gym instead and got a good cardio workout. I ran on the treadmill for the first time in 2 months (well other than 2 or 3 1 mile cool downs) and a 3 mile run after spending the last 2 months running on the sand was like running on air! I have never been a runner, I just do it because it helps me lose weight, but it was amazingly easy tonight and I felt fit!!! Boot camp has been awesome, it never really gets easier since its always changing and I can def see a difference after two months. My body is pretty hard, especially my abs and legs. My arms are def more toned and my butt is getting bigger. I started noticing that a couple weeks ago when my pants weren’t quite as comfortable. Either my shoulders or back are also getting bigger since my suit coats don’t fit as well…that part I’m not terribly happy about, but I don’t think I look bulky or weird either so I guess it’s all for the best. I plan to spend this week doing cardio and abs since we do so much leg/arm work at bc and I’ll be back to that next Sunday.

This week should be fairly quiet….Alice has convinced me to go out tomorrow night for Monday Club which hasn’t happened in ages since people have moved away, etc, but one of the founding members (I believe) is in town from Singapore for one day and wants to revive it. I figured I can handle one night out right?!?! And then Thursday we head to Oman after work. The place we’re staying at looks amazing and its about 10 deg cooler so it will be a nice break from the AD heat. We plan to go snorkeling and do a dolphin watching trip so that should be really fun. It will be nice to take one last trip as well…and will mark country #5 this year (not including the US!). I’m also glad to be getting away from AD and having another peaceful weekend with the girls. Gotta save up some energy as I know my last couple weeks here will likely be full of activities and Maria comes so it will be jam packed.