Setting the Scene

Out of work slightly early.  Grocery shopping completed.  The weekend is officially here.  Yes, I do realize it's Thursday, but this is Dubai, where our Fridays are your Saturdays and your Sundays are our Mondays.  Anyway, this is not just any weekend, mind you, but the weekend I have been looking forward to with unbridled anticipation.  Tonight:  Early Christmas pot-luck dinner with neighbors at The Spaniard's place.  Tomorrow:  Melrose Place Rooftop Party.  Saturday:  Day by the pool and the start of the three-day countdown to my vacation of the century.

Allow me to break that down for you.

Early Christmas Dinner:  Christmas is about two weeks away, but with everyone traveling during the holidays (a pretty standard occurrence in these parts, considering the relatively poor showing of Christmas cheer and/or the lack of snow beyond the mall's indoor ski slopes), we decided to celebrate a bit early.

Neighbors:  I've lived in a brand new studio apartment right on the beach since October, and I love it.  Considering I'm spending more than half my salary on the rent, I better.  All the tenants moved in around the same time, so bonding was inevitable, but I don't think any of us expected to be living in our very own "Melrose Place".  Friendships were made, dinner parties were thrown, cocktails were poured, and neighborly love became a free-flowing phenomenon.  And, of course, gossip abounds. 

The Spaniard:  I like to think of myself as a pretty smart girl, and I certainly know better than to "shit where I eat".  Additionally, considering I have recently gotten out of a relationship, a boyfriend is the last thing on my mind.  Just between you and me, I thought my exotically good-looking and flamboyant Spanish neighbor was gay.  However, my apparently broken gaydar and every bit of reason flew out the proverbial window a few weeks ago while on a camping trip to an Omani beach.  Spaniard and I have been inseparable ever since, but we have made a concerted effort to hide our budding relationship from the Melrose Place rumor mill. 

Melrose Place Rooftop Party:  Our apartment compound already hosted a massive rooftop party back in October, and this will be Volume 2:  Christmas Edition.  DJ, lasers, smoke machines, and a movie screen are all on the agenda.

Vacation of the Century:  Leaving on Tuesday after work...Four days in London, two days in New York City, five days in Miami and the Keys to spend Christmas with the family.  Finally, the trip will culminate in Sydney to ring in 2009 and explore Australia.  I guess now I should let you in on a little secret.  There's a reason I'm jet-setting halfway around the world to the land of Oz, and that reason is a 6'4" English hottie who we shall call Travis, otherwise known as "the one that got away".  I haven't seen him since we spent two amazing weeks backpacking together in northern India two and a half years ago, and as obsessive as this may sound, I have not stopped thinking about him ever since.  To say that I'm excited to reconnect with Travis would be an absolute understatement (and before you call me boy-crazy, just know that the Australia trip was planned long before Spaniard was in the picture).   

Anyway, more on all that later.  But tonight is the Christmas Dinner at the Spaniard's, the weather is cool-ish, and I'm feeling festive!  I'm heading over to his place now (which means walking downstairs and over to Block 1) with my grocery store purchases  to start cooking.  My contributions to tonight's menu will be stuffed artichokes and a roasted sweet potato dish...