Embassy Series

Two weeks ago I went to a dinner hosted by the Bahrain Embassy. (Small little country in the Middles East.) The Bahrain staff and ambassador were very friendly, talkative people. The food was SOOO delicious, but I ate so much that I didn't need to eat for several days.

I can't say that it was a lovely time. More like a very, very odd time.

First, as it usually does at these kind of functions, one man singled me out to fall madly in love with me and want to stay by my side the whole evening. (Does anybody remember that evening we spent with Britta at the Harvard Leadership Forum...?) And while you may be saying, "well, there you go, guy's do want to date you" let me say that these are not average people and they don't want to "date" me, they want to marry me two hours into the evening. That's a little fast for me.

Secondly, we were assigned seating. Six people to each round table. I had gone with one of my co-workers and his wife but we were not seated at the same table. And I'm not really the most social person amongst a lot of strangers, but I vowed to do my best.

The first person to come to the table was a middle-aged silky gray/blond hair guy. I introduced myself. He introduced himself. He was from Texas. I said, Oh, I've lived in Texas. What part? He wasn't really interested in trying to make a connection on that one. And we sat in silence. He, turning his back to me, to look around at the other people in the room, I drinking water to occupy myself. The rest of the six came at once. On my right was the Ambassador's secretary. She was very quiet and kept her eyes to the table the entire evening. To her right was a 60ish man from London who was an engineer of sorts, specializing in water-proofing plastics. To his right and directly across from me was a young Bahrain staff employee who just graduated from university studies in England, also in Engineering. Back to my left, was the man from Texas, who at one point said he worked in Defense, but at other points said he was a hedgefund manager. To his left was a man from Jersey. Very, Very much from Jersey. And the boss of the Britain man.

The conversation the entire evening was monopolized by the man from Texas, who I will from here on out call, "the jackass". He would ask someone a question, and then tell them their answer. He was the expert on England, Middle Eastern Customs, and water-proofing plastics. If other people tried to converse with one another he would interject himself with a smart-aleck comment.

Example: The young Bahrain man asked me what it was like to live in Boston. I say Boston is great! Before the conversation could continue, "the jackass" says "Unless you're going to drive through the tunnel." insert loud braying laugh here. oh so clever. you've heard of the Big Dig.

This went on about black pudding, football versus soccer versus rugby etc. And meanwhile, he his handing out his hedgefund business card left and right telling everyone how great his company has done and no one has been unhappy with their returns. And at one point he made a comment about "now that we let women drive and vote" and did a backhand slap across my shoulder.

The funniest part of this, is Jersey Man, sat quitely the entire night, just watching "the jackass" with a look of contempt on his face. I'm fairly certain he contacted one of his 'business partners' after dinner and put a hit out on him.

There are funnier things that happened that evening, but feel I must edit due to the people involved and the goodness and popularity of this series. But let me just say, there was some private operatic serenading and goading by two of the funniest old ladies who kept yelling out "c'mon baby! Sing us a song!"

It was an evening.

At the end of this long tale, I will say, the evening was another nail in the DC coffin. Not because it was weird. I liked that it was weird. But, because I came away from it knowing that I can find that kind of weird anywhere. No, not at an Embassy, but other functions. The Embassy part of it held no glamour or pull for me. Just one more realization that DC is not the place for me.

Disney World

Here is an overview of my four day trip to Orlando.

Saturday - arrived to beautiful 90 degree sunshine. Holly didn't come in until later in the afternoon so I spent the day relaxing at the pool; swimming, sun bathing, going down the water slide, watching other people, watching the little lizards play around me, reading. Yeah, it was super-nice.

Saturday evening was Halloween. We contemplated going out to do something but we didn't rent a car, and Orlando is not the really convienent place to be carless. The hotel did have a free shuttle to the Disney shopping area so we went there, ate dinner, and walked around and watched people. lots and lots and lots of people. on Halloween. Plenty of stuff to entertain the people watcher in you.

The photo below is at the Lego store. This was a giant Lego water dragon. It was really cool.










Sunday - We went to the Animal Kingdom. I LOVED it. It wasn't very crowded and we got to do a loop of the park twice. Rode all the rides we wanted and even had time to do some stuff we didn't really care about but was fun none-the-less.

The picture below was on a little walking animal tour. These are giant fruit bats. And I did not crop this photo to make the bat appear larger. They ARE large. but completely harmless. unless you are fruit. They were really amazing and I probably took more photo's of the bats than anything else the entire trip.













The picture below are of beautiful Mandarin Ducks. I had never seen one before, but fell in love. We searched all over the gift shops hoping to find a stuffed or carved toy of these ducks. To no avail. Holly kept reminding me that we are outside the Disney Demographic.











Saturday Night was spent looking longingly across the major highway at the CVS and 7-11. Orlando seems to have a thing against gum and all we wanted was popcorn, gum, and a cheap dinner. But without a car that was vain wishing. We ate dinner at the hotel next door. Hotel food.

Monday we went to the Magic Kingdom. We arrived early and was able to ride about 6 rides before the crowds came in. We rode the Pirates of Carribean in complete solitude. It was spooky great!

Once the crowds came we utilized deductive planning and the fast pass system and again managed to ride everything we wanted multiple times. I loved the Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh rides. Magical.

Below is a photo of Holly at the race track. (I don't think we're big picture takers. I made Holly take photo's of me, but always felt like a schmuk for getting in the flow of other patrons.)














The picture below is of the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House. I'm pretty sure I want to live on a tropical island in this 'house'. It was really fun and amazing.

























Winnie the Pooh, Me and Tigger. Yes, we waited in line to take this photo. A line longer than most ride lines, but it was so adorable to watch little kids walk up and treat Pooh and Tigger as if they were real. I've decided that when I retire at the age of 95, I want to go work at Disney and be like a train conductor on the animal safari or something.

Vacation - the bad

Just got back from a quick trip to Disney World. It was a ton-of-fun. I'll post the good stuff later with photo's, but first the bad...

Flying home - upon an already early arrival, found out my flight was delayed. When I got to my gate found out it was delayed by an hour and a half, then two hours. The PSA kept alerting us that homeland security had as on Orange alert, and then I overheard someone say that National had a 10pm curfew. I was a little freaked out!

I then found out that National ALWAYS has a 10pm curfew. But for a while, the delay, the orange alert and the curfew all had me alarmed.

Finally, we took off, 30 minutes after I should have already been home.

Pillows - The hotel bed was super-comfortable. The pillows however jacked your head up at a 90 degree angle. Try as I might I couldn't punch the things down! So I'd go to sleep on the pillow and then wake up off the pillow. And basically tossed and turned all night.

Food - It was Disney world. You can imagine. yeah, not my thing. Our last day in FL we finally got to eat oatmeal for breakfast and soup and salad for lunch. that's my kind of food.

Umm...I think that's all I've got for the bad stuff. Life was rough for a few days. :)