Xmas ala Norman Rockwell

Norman Rockwell is Christmas to me.
The iconic cheer and togetherness shared by American families this time of year. Although I have become disillusioned by the entire holiday “thing” I still fondly remember my childhood Iowa holiday seasons. The snow outside punctuated by a warm house filled with family noise and smells of roast turkey or goose permeating the air. I’m saddened to think those times are gone forever. In the spirit of the Christmas season I wish everyone good health and happiness.

Without thinking too much about it in specific terms, I was showingthe America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed.
—Norman Rockwell

Hazy Morning

0630 view

Long way from the 33rd floor to the ground!

Another Sight Shot.

Here's another one. Not as focused as the other, maybe if I had a tripod. Anyway, I'll send a few morning shots after I download them.

Here’s the view from my balcony. I took this within 1 hour of arriving at my new home. I must say, my little dive camera takes fairly nice night photos.

Sweet Escape!

I received a call to interview for a job on the 23rd of last month. It was a very good interview, I missed only one question. I received the usual spiel that I would get an answer either way in 3-4 days. The very next day the job I interviewed for was reposted. Even though this seemed to be a bad sign I waited until the 5th day to send an email of inquiry as to my situation. I was informed that my interview notes would be added to the interview noted of the applicants from the repost and a decision would be made. At least it wasn’t a No. I started searching thru other job postings in an attempt to get out of my current location. Few stood out, one in Kuwait, but nothing that would have been as good as moving to Dubai. When I had almost forgotten about the whole affair I get a friendly phone call from an HR representative in Dubai asking if I would be interested in a follow up interview. I accepted, hiding my certain glee. The second interview was given by the business segment manager, all four travel supervisors and the senior HR generalist. I got a huge amount of positive feed back from the group and closed the interview with a very good feeling. I got the standard post interview HR shtick about being notified in 3-4 days with a decision. I must have made a good impression. Approximately 7 hours later I got a preliminary job offer. I was a bit confused by the email as it did not convey anything solid. The exact wording was “We would like to inform you that we have considered you for our Travel Coordinator position in Dubai. We would like to make you this preliminary offer, pending approvals from all sides concerned.” I wasn’t left with a warm fuzzy feeling so, I conveyed my acceptance and now am waiting to move to Dubai. After everything I will finally escape Iraq to a whole new place where I can have a beer if I choose. I won’t know what to do with myself. No more body armor or bunker drills. No more incoming alarms from rockets and mortars and best of all, no more ass clown boss! Although I think Dubai is actually just a false sense of security. It has the largest concentration of expatriates in the middle east. There is tight security but I don’t trust any Arabs, too difficult to tell who’s a fanatic just pretending to go along long enough to blow you up. At least there is a movie theater.