BACK -- in the State of Qatar!

... you don't know how lucky you are, boy --
Back in the State of Qatar!
(mental note: finish rewriting those lyrics for next talent show - it's gonna be HUGE!)


Yes, we're back in Doha after a long and exhausting summer. I'm not even going to go into how hard it was to leave Pittsburgh, both emotionally and physically. In short, you know the saying "you don't know what you got till it's gone"? Not always true. I said so many goodbyes, by the end I just shut down and only dealt with the folks who side-tackled me on the street. But my parents' neighbor told me a story about how her family moved to England (I think it was) for a few years when the kids were small, and when they returned everything was right where they left it. So I have hope. Just in case there's anyone left in Pittsburgh who doesn't resent us.

In the meantime, I'm unpacking. I've got almost all of the suitcases empty and put away which is good because any day now the container will arrive at the house (it's sitting in Customs now only a few miles away) and we'll have a big job reacquainting ourselves with our worldly possessions.

For those who've asked, the flight and navigating airports alone with three kids worked out fine, but we had a lot of help. This would have been much harder without business class seats, red-carpet lounges, and the Al Maha welcome wagon / visa and baggage expediting service at the Doha airport. The hardest part came the day after we arrived, when I had spent two nights with a total of four hours' sleep (A's schedule was as upside down as her stomach). Survive and advance. It's been much better since then, and we're all sleeping at night for at least 6 hours at a pop.

Next posts: what's different here, what's the same, and what's just plain screwy.

A Quick Homecoming Before A Long Going Away

(Another guest post by Daddy-O.)

“I’m homeless, in between jobs, and living with my in-laws.  How are you doing?”. 

I had my answer ready to go. But to what question?  As luck would have it, my high school reunion was scheduled during the few days we had between moving out of our house in Pittsburgh and flying to Doha. The luck part is that we were planning to be in Michigan to visit family at that time anyway so I was able to attend. My lovely spouse (and your regularly scheduled mistress-of-the-blog) showed that she can be an extraordinarily good sport and agreed to come with me. Whew. Didn’t want to have to add ‘umm, she couldn’t make - she and the kids moved back in with her parents’ to my answer.

The question, of course, was ‘how are things going?’, ‘what have you been up to?’, etc. All the standard high-school reunion questions. I had my answer all ready to go. It was fun to see people’s expressions when I answered. Many different flavors of ‘uhh, sorry I asked.’ But in almost all cases it was a good conversation starter, rather than the conversation killer it sounds like.

I guess that’s because I am fortunate to be able to explain that these were all good things, in their own way - homeless because we had sold our house a few days earlier (which greatly impressed my Michigan friends who have watched the housing market collapse locally), between jobs because I’m moving to Qatar in a few days to start an exciting new one (sounding good to my friends working at GM and Chrysler), living with my in-laws because we’re visiting on vacation. It wouldn’t be so fun without the follow-up. Given the state of the economy and the housing meltdown in Michigan, I’m afraid that some of my classmates probably had similar answers but without the fun follow-up. Michigan’s economy really is that grim now. I wish them the best. It’s sad to see your home town and the people you grew up with suffering.

As with the last reunion I went to ten years ago, this one was a lot more fun than I expected. Although only a few of my close friends from high school made it to the reunion (those of you who did - thanks so much for making the trip), it was fun to see how people had grown - in most case more body, less hair - and chosen to live their lives. Even my good sport of a spouse seemed to have a good time.

Oh yeah, the elephants. I posted a picture on the reunion web site of your intrepid adventurering family on an elephant ride in Sri Lanka prior to the actual get-together. Apparently it generated a lot of interest. Before even making it to the registration table at the party I had three people stop me and ask what we were doing riding an elephant on the other side of the world. For the rest of the night, almost everybody I met wanted to hear about the elephant. I guess my concept of what’s exotic and far away has changed more than I realized in the past couple of years. Sri Lanka seems a lot more exotic to my friends in Michigan than it does to my friends in Doha. Funny how your perspective evolves, sometimes without your even being aware of it...

A Fond Farewell to Friends

(A special guest-post by Daddy-O)

Moving isn’t fun. Helping your friends move, probably even less so. That’s my big insight after spending the past couple of months somewhere between living in Pittsburgh and living in Doha. (I’ll just keep thinking the big thoughts, that’s what I’m good at...) One of the upsides to the whole experience has been the chance to recall why we’ve loved living in Regent Square for all these years - our friends and the community that we’ve become part of.

That’s where the helping your friends move comes in. We dragged the process of moving out seemingly forever - pack a shipping container, hang around for a few weeks, head off for vacation, come back, pack a storage container, pack our bags for Doha, hit the road, etc. Through it all, our friends from the neighborhood were amazing. Need us to watch the kids this afternoon? No problem, send ‘em down. Need some help moving the furniture out to the container? No problem, we’ll be over in a few minutes. No time to cook tonight? We’ll stop by with some food. I was deeply touched by the outpouring of support and friendship over the past couple of months. It meant a ton to me and made it possible for B to get through the experience at all.

Thanks. You’re great friends and wonderfully generous. We’ll miss you while we’re away and look forward to rekindling our friendships when we return. Of course, if you ever find yourself in Qatar, look us up. We’d be delighted to see you.