Another Update

It's hard to believe Christmas is in less than 2 weeks! It doesn't look like Christmas here in Bahrain, but at least all the Christmas decorations remind me that it is the holiday season. We're doing well over here. Chris spent the weekend working a conference. His unpredictable hours can get a little annoying, and it's especially annoying when it interrupts our weekend. Oh well. At least he gets overtime for it, and it just so happens that he has this Wednesday and Thursday off because of Bahrain's National Day (the equivalent of our Independence Day). That sort of makes up for his having to work.

We went on a date on Tuesday night in prep for the working weekend. Chris took me to see New Moon (what a good husband since I know he was miserable), and it was an interesting experience. The movie theater itself was very nice and looked like any in the states. When we bought our tickets, the ticket guy made us pick our seats. Yes, we had to "buy" our seats like at a sports game or play. The only difference is all the seats are the same price, so I don't really see the point of doing it. An usher led us to our seats and then we waited for the movie to start. There weren't any previews and there were Arabic subtitles. They also cut out all of the kissing scenes. And I'm sorry, but New Moon is a really tame movie since the book was written by a Mormon and is made for teenagers. Nonetheless, they edit out all kissing and sex scenes in movies. I definitely don't mind the editing out of sex scenes but perhaps editing out kissing is taking it a bit too far since they don't edit out violence. They love violence. So that's not an issue - only kissing and sex. It's also ironic that cussing in public is illegal in Bahrain, yet they didn't edit out the few cuss words in the movie. I told Chris maybe he should stop giving me pecks in public, but he seems to think all the movies are edited somewhere in the middle east and then spread around the different middle eastern countries that show western movies. So we don't think Bahraini's care as much about public displays of affection, but we don't know for sure so probably won't be kissing in public anymore.

I'm not sure what we'll do with our four day weekend. We tossed around the idea of going to Dubai for a few days, but we haven't found tickets in the price range we desire. Tickets there are pretty expensive considering it's only a 1 hour 15 minute flight. The cheapest I've found is $200 and that's for a flight at 2 am. Most likely, we'll probably stay home and save Dubai for another time when we can plan ahead. Even though I missed Chris this past weekend, I did enjoy having some time to do other things that I don't get to do as often as I'd like: cuddling with Charlotte, sewing some Christmas runners to put around the house, and reading Sarah Palin's autobiography, Going Rogue.

(If anyone cares, so far I like the book. For full disclosure, I admit that I already liked her before reading this book and my intrique, interest, and support led me to buy the book in the first place. I'm halfway through, and contrary to what others may think, she seems like an honest person. Don't get me wrong; she's a politician and I'm sure every move of hers is very methodical, but there doesn't appear to be any political corruption or deceit in her actions, and even in the political spotlight, she still seems like "one of us", down to earth, and sensible. Also contrary to the picture that the media likes to paint, she seems plenty knowledgeable about politics. She recounts many decisions she had to make while holding office in Alaska, and I never thought while reading, "What an ignorant person!" I don't think you have to graduate from Harvard or be in politics for years and years to qualify for public office...even the highest office. I'd rather have an altruistic person who vows to uphold the constitution than someone who has been in politics for years and has allowed the system to make him or her both corrupt and out of touch with the average American - like SO many of our politicians today. If we can find someone who has lots of experience AND sincerely pledges to uphold the Constitution, then great, but I'm just saying that if I had to choose between the two, I'd go with the latter EVERY TIME. Sarah Palin appears to care more about the every day person than she does about appeasing fellow politicians, and she's seems most concerned about adhering to the Constitution and giving the government back into the hands of the people where it belongs, and that is a rare goal in politics these days. And for that, among other things, I would say she does indeed seem to be a maverick. My complaints so far [and I'm not through the book yet]: just like in the election and after, she's been repetitive with her catch phrases like "good ole boys", "hockey mom", etc. I wish she could find another way to get these points across as I think people use her repetiveness to make fun of her and add fuel to the fire. She also doesn't admit or write about many mistakes she's made over the years. So far everything she's ever done has been all positive and rosy. No one's perfect and she had to make some mistakes somewhere down the line. This is probably where she's being methodical, but I'll still hold out hope that she'll talk about some of her personal or professional mistakes by the end of the book. I'm still not convinced her stepping down as governor was a wise decision if she has presidential aspirations, but we'll see how it plays out and if running for president is indeed her plan. There's other conservatives who could potentially run for president in the next election and seem to hold a lot of promise and potential, so it could be an exciting election year in 2012. I can't wait; this stuff gets me so fired up!)

Charlotte's still growing like a weed and is solidly in 6 month clothing. She's certainly not swimming in them, so it probably won't be long before she's in 9 month clothing. We finally put the bumper in her crib because when we'd get her in the morning, she'd be wedged into one corner and an arm or a leg would be hanging out of the crib. We don't know how she wiggles so much in her sleep but she does. Silly girl! We talked about taking Charlotte to the swimming pool this weekend for the first time. I'm sure we'll do that whether we go to Dubai or not, so we'll be sure to take some pics! Have a wonderful Sunday everyone!