I just realized that it’s been over a month since I last made an entry!  It’s been busy and I’ve been in the States for a good chunk of that time.  I left for my first trip home on October 2nd.  The flights out of Dammam are rather limited so I was on one that left at 4:30am.  I thought that I’d go to work on Oct 1st, go back to the apartment and get some sleep then have my ride pick me up about 1:30am.  Since my departure day was also the beginning of Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) and Eid (week long holiday) the transportation department at work insisted that I get to the airport no later than 11:30pm on the 1st.  I didn’t know this until I got to work that day so hadn’t planned to be up for 3 days straight!  The airport wasn’t as busy as I think they thought it was going to be but it did still take me about 2 hours to get checked in and through customs and security.  I’m also the type of person that HATES to be “cutting it close” when it comes to air travel.  The Dammam airport really doesn’t have much to do while waiting for flights in the middle of the night!  I bought a cheese sandwich, diet Pepsi and read my book.  My flight from Dammam to Dubai (about 1 hour and 15 minutes) was mostly uneventful except for the guy in the middle seat next to me that apparently felt that at least part of my seat belonged to him as well!  What a jerk!!  Thank goodness the flight was so short and he wasn’t on my 18 hour flight to LA!!  I would probably have been arrested when we landed!  Once we got to Dubai the sun was up and it was a beautiful day.  The first thing I noticed when I got off the plane were women without coverings!!  Woohoo…..  In my time here I’ve learned to avoid looking in the general direction of women but the occasional really nice pair of shoes will catch my eye!  I think I just walked into the terminal and stood there for a few minutes just looking around.  The next thing that struck me was that the terminal was TOTALLY packed with people!!  I’ve been to busy airports before and I’ve been to Dubai before and never have I seen this many people packed in.  It was difficult to walk.  I ended up asking someone working in one of the stores what was going on and he told me that this particular day happens once a year and everything, EVERYTHING in the shops is 20% off.  That includes everything from candy bars to watches costing tens of thousands of dollars!!  I was in line behind a very tall (probably 6′-3″) beautiful blond woman who was shopping for perfume and bought just under $3000 USD in that single purchase!!  I made a comment about her really liking the Tom Ford line of perfume and she told me that she does this every year because it’s the cheapest you’ll ever find Tom Ford.  Ok, I get that, but $3000 really??!!  She had several other bags so based on what I saw I can only imagine how many thousands she had spent!  I’m guessing that day sees sales at the Dubai airport in the millions!

So, after eventually making my way through the terminal to my connecting gate I pleasantly found out the plane was about half full!!  And this is how I think…..if it’s half full they must have available seats in Business and First Class, so really, how much would an upgrade cost?!  I’m thinking that getting a couple hundred is better than having those seats empty….yeah?  Oh no!  For me to upgrade it was going to be just under $3000!!!  I admit that I’m now a snob when it comes to sitting in coach or economy as they call it when it’s an international flight but even I won’t consider paying that much for more room and better food!  In retrospect maybe I should have!  I’ll get to that in a bit.  Anyway, I get on and take my “economy” seat.  At least I’m on the aisle with an aisle behind my seat as well.  I learned on my flight over that this is a very good seat to be in as one can stand behind and still have headphones connected and watch movies.  I would have had a row to myself if some guy hadn’t decided to take the seat at the other end of the row.  There went my chance to lay down! I would have asked that he move but I’m much to timid or nice to do that.  Surprisingly I was not as tired as I should have been so I started out watching movies.  Actually I started ready my book but once we got off the ground and all the announcements were done then I started watching movies.  Don’t ask me what movies I watched….I have no idea and I started to try to remember but decided that it wasn’t worth the effort because most likely you don’t really care anyway!

The flight from Dubai to LAX was just over 18 hours and it went pretty well.  I met a 12 year old kid from India that just competed in a Rubic’s Cube contest.  He was the youngest there though he didn’t win.  I asked him about how long he’s been doing the “cube” and he said about a year.  The flight attendant then asked him how long his average time was for solving the “cube” and he told us it was around….get this….40 seconds!!  To which she promptly said what I was thinking….show us!  He handed it to her and she twisted and turned until it looked thoroughly mixed up and handed it back.  The kid then looked at all 6 sides then looked up and said he was ready.  The flight attendant said “go” and his fingers took off in a blur.  Several times during his maneuvering of the cube he was looking at us and not at the cube!!  38 seconds later and it’s done!  Wow!  I told the kid’s mother that I had solved the cube once when I was young.  The middle white block is a sticker that covers a screw holding it all together…..I took the screw out and put it back together the put the screw back in.  So, which of us is the most impressive; me or the 12 year old that followed the rules??  Don’t respond – I don’t really want to know what you think!!  Hahaha…

Here comes the part about why I maybe should have considered paying $2.77/minute.  About 3 to 4 hours before we got to LA I started to notice that my left leg was beginning to hurt.  Yup, you guessed it – blood clots!  You know, those things that can kill you and they are always telling you to make sure you avoid when on long flights!  The frustrating part is that I was up walking around, standing, stretching – I even used the restroom at the top of the stairs just so I could go up and down stairs!  My first week at home had me in my doctor’s office twice, at an imaging center and then the pharmacy.  Before I came back I was at the doctor 5 times!  Now I’m on blood thinner most likely for the rest of my life!  It really sucks to get old!  I’m now on this drug called Xarelto (rivaroxaban).  The first 3 weeks of the prescription was $535!  Thank goodness for insurance!!  I brought back a 90 day supply because that’s how long I’m going to be here before I can get back and get more.  The tablets are small but look like little orange Ninja throwing stars and in some ways are just as dangerous.  Apparently the “downside” to this drug is there is no way to counteract its effect.  So if I’m in an accident and I’m bleeding the only way to keep me from bleeding out is to continuously transfuse until this drug is flushed from my system!  Now I’m afraid of a paper cut!  Or at least I was until this afternoon when I got one!  It only took about 10 minutes to stop bleeding!!  Woohoo….I’m alive!

I had a great time at home overall.  Got to see friends and hang out and get paid for it too!!  Of course there were stresses but I won’t bore you with those!

Now I’m back in Saudi and just completed my first full week back.  Only 11 to go before I get to come home again!!  The weather is actually about perfect here now; upper 80’s to low 90’s during the day and mid 70’s at night.  Of course there is the sun though I did experience a cloud this afternoon while sleeping by the pool!  Must be fall!!