Day Two: still kicking, like a kicking rockstar!

I don't have much ridiculousness to report yet from the work end. There's a ton of stuff I have to do, but I feel like that's a good thing, since I spend eight hours (or more) a day doing it. So, yes. Work is satisfactory. What is MORE satisfactory is the overall way I spent yesterday. Here is my schedule.

7am - wake up (sortof)
7:15am - wake up again
7:30am - wake up for real, put on clothing
8:00am - work begins (it's bad news, don't you think, that I am already pushing the limits of how late I can get up, and it's only my third day?)
4:00pm - work ends. Stuff happened in between, but none of it is worth commenting on here.
5:00pm - I go out!
7:00pm - I come home
7:30pm - I go out again!
11:30pm - I come home

LOOK at me. I am so BUSY. and FANCY. and COOL.

Okay, so let me tell you about my excursions. The first was a landmark event - the first time in my more-than-five-years in Saudi that I went out of the house alone. Obviously, I had a driver, but the important element is that when I got to the mall, I got out alone, I went in alone, and I did my shopping alone! Last time I was here as a student I was required to bring a maid with me whenever I left the dorm, and before that when I was here with the family I can't imagine why I would have gone out without a family member or a friend... so! I am finally a free and independent woman. Doing my own shopping, buying some books and laundry detergent AND A SIM CARD. OH YEAH BABY. I have a cell phone. It is such a relief. Not having a cell phone made me feel like I was missing a limb. In Saudi, the cell phone is, in fact, a limb, and without it.... I arrived three days ago, and yet whenever I tell people I don't have a mobile they look at me like I've just told them I didn't bring any clothing with me. Yes folks, not only am I going to work naked, but I am doing it WITHOUT A CELL PHONE. The horrors!

Of course, for the first hour or two of owning this SIM card it wasn't working, and I was throwing myself hither and yon in frustration, wailing and gnashing my teeth. But then Penny, darling lovely Penny, touched it with her magic fingers and suddenly it worked. Ah, the joys.

So after my adventurous single-woman excursion, Mona picked me up for a Team Fabulous dinner at Caspar & Gambini's, the neat modern restaraunt that I enjoyed so much last time I was here. I had mint with lime (yum!) for the first time this trip (I will have to learn how to make it) and met one of Penny's friends, Lamees, who seems fantastic. I'm making new friends already!

Also, for reasons I cannot reveal, I may be required to go to Hyderabad, India this summer. Who? Oh yeah. That would be me. Ha! Writhe in jealousy, you wanna-be awesome people! I am the real deal! I'm so awesome I get to go to India over the summer! here will be an event. And I am going to be the weird white girl who dresses in a sari and makes a fool of herself for her friend's entertainment. There was some discussion that pole dancing might be involved, but I think that before I go that far I should probably take some pole dancing lessons. After all, if I'm going to be a shameless American hussy, I should at least do it with style. It would be really embarrassing to be an awkward shameless American hussy.

Anyone know of pole dancing classes in Saudi Arabia?

There are a ton of other plans in the works which are all very exciting. Suffice it to say my sister was jealous of me yesterday. And this is the sister who spent last year in Cairo smoking shisha and being awesome. She's jealous of ME. Ha!

Okay, off to work! Hopefully I will get some time to sit around and be bored this afternoon, maybe do some laundry, take a nap, etc. Being fabulously popular and busy takes its toll on a girl after a while.

Bwahahahahahah!