My Stories 

I have been dying to try Roberto’s since the early buzz about the outlet began. I was heartbroken to miss the opening, so I jumped at the opportunity to try their new Friday Andiamo Brunch when it launched. So here I will just give a brief outline of how Roberto’s Andiamo brunch works. You are then guided to the Dessert Salon, a surprisingly social way to culminate your brunch experience. It’s mostly standing room only, but that’s often the perfect antidote to the few hours y

Watch out! Moving plants! If I were waiting for a sign to return to blogging, this was it. I was driving south on the E-10 in light traffic, which those of us who live in the UAE know is a rarity. I pass this crazy sign every trip home from Dubai to Abu Dhabi, but I am always driving too fast or in too much traffic to take its picture. Today, I was the only one on the road, so I pulled over. Back home, no one ever pulls over on an interstate unless they have a true emergency,

Can a girl get a comeback? I interrupt this blog hiatus to make a comeback. I’m back from my long blog “hiatus,” which better resembled a blog death–albeit one never officially pronounced was dead, which leads me to wonder: if a blog dies in this vast Internet forest and no one hears it, is it truly dead? I am not the only one to ambitiously start a blog, throw all my creative energy into it and then abandon it for a spell. The question is can it be resurrected? Here’s hoping

Firefly in Hand There’s something truly magical about summer. Even though some days are sweltering and really uncomfortable, there are always days and evenings with beautiful light, vibrant sunsets, lush trees and grass, blooming flowers, chasing fireflies, evenings filled with the euphonious sound of falling rain and refreshing breezes after the thunder storm. Can you feel my Magic of Summer, friends? I always enjoy following my friend’s Facebook streams in the summertime. T

Beer Fest 2014–the name of the event explains the photo, I sincerely hope. My very first and close friend, here in Abu Dhabi, is moving back to the states. Of course, people come and go–they do everywhere. Just this time last year, I was selling our family home, leaving our town of 8 years, which was a really long time for us to stay anywhere and preparing to move here; it was also a very sad time. It’s a bit different here though. This is not our country; we all know that ou

Alice Cooper now, please (I provided the lyrics in case you are too young to remember the song…sigh, I’m not!) Sing along. “School’s out for summer. School’s out forever.” Well, that’s a lie. School’s out only until the end of August, August 31st to be exact, details, details. Okay, many of you reading this, who are elsewhere, have been out a while, so this tune is, well, maybe out of your head, but not for us. Today was the last day of school here in Abu Dhabi for many kids.

Say hello to my little friend, er…goodbye… Every now and again you face a foe so fearsome you quake in your flip-flops. I met my match in a restaurant on–yes, you guessed it, Saadiyat Island–my favorite place in Abu Dhabi. On Wednesday night, I came I saw and I conquered a lobster. My foe was a crustacean, and he wouldn’t have seemed so formidable if I had not already been so sated. And, here I am, of course, talking about eating the darn thing–not slaying him. Someone somewh

Dragon Boating? Yeah, I did that in Abu Dhabi. #bucketlist It’s no secret; I love to try new things. I think I love trying new things more than I love the food, air or anything else so prosaic. Patterns and routines are more loathsome to me than any new adventure or challenge you could every throw at me—unless your challenge involves a big, jumping spider or is in the form of hurtling off a bridge with a rope on my one leg— fuhgeddaboudit; I’ll stick with air & water in that

Coming “soon”? The Opening Soon Saloon. Oh yeah, it’s the Opening Soon Saloon! It FINALLY happened! My sidesplittingly funny friend, Christine, shared this photo with me yesterday because she likes to make people laugh. Like me, it gives Christine great joy to make people smile–I love her for that—especially in a place like this where some things can be, well, rather frustrating, like almost everything. You always need to have a friend here who can make you laugh or to help y

Al Bahar Towers, the Honeycomb, Pineapple buildings, if you will. I have always loved Architecture; it is the academic companion to Art History, which is what I chose to study in school. I almost became an architect. I used to spend days on end, as a school girl, studying Architectural Digest and drawing every beautiful home I saw in the magazine pages. I stopped drawing them long ago, but I still am enamored by the creativity it takes to create a new and visionary style of d

The room was a little like this. I easily found the X-ray waiting room. It was not as you would expect if you were comparing it to a western equivalent, but I am learning not to do that. It looked almost like a children’s classroom with small chairs, all taken. It was standing room only. There were LOTS and LOTS more ladies who looked this time more pissed off than tired in this room. Yes, even the tired people appeared to eventually tire of waiting too. In the middle of the

Stationery store! Back to School Shopping Joy! Back home, I think my favorite part of back to school week is school supply shopping. There is nothing I like more than a well-stocked stationery shop, preferably a Japanese one. So, we just got our school supply list the other day, and I am itching to shop! But I have one very big problem! I don’t know where do I buy these things here. There is no Target, Wal-Mart, or even anything remotely like your failsafe: Rite Aid. Where do

Enough pictures already, mom! After a few practice runs, the girls got into their uniforms, tied their ties, hailed a cab and started fresh in their new school this morning. I am waiting for them to come home in the hotel praying that they are having a great day. The school the girls are attending here in Abu Dhabi is called GEMS American Academy. It’s really new so it has all kinds of kinks to work out, but it should be a very good year for them. Bill Clinton is the Honorary

Lucie made a friend in the pool the other day—a red-headed, little spitfire of an 8 year old girl named “Zaina.” She is originally from Jordan. They bonded across the hotel pool at very first sight. Some friendships are like that, aren’t they? All you have to do is take one look at a person; you just know that you will be fast friends. Even as adults this happens, but it is not as often based on appearance. It’s based on mutual interests, kids’ friendship, shared workplace, e

What a fitting title to my first real attempt at blogging. Confusing? Probably! It seems to summarize my existence to some degree. I own so many blogs. I have had so many seemingly fantastic ideas for blogs that just never took—I never thought I had anything interesting to report despite a clever title or catchy tagline. I know a decent writer can make even the most blasé incident sound interesting, and I have never been confident enough in my ability to do so. Here’s my test