it tastes so good when it hits ur lips!

I went to my first party Thurs night ANNNNND I paid for it ALL day on Friday… It hardly occurred to me that I hadn’t had a cocktail in two weeks… I have to say, I do miss a nice glass of wine or three with dinner – but GOD BLESS AMERICA, I do NOT miss hangovers!!! L Since booze is illegal over here the only place you ever really see it is at a social gathering in someone’s home. It just so happened that this past thurs a couple was having a going away party – and lucky me, my husband knew someone who knew someone and we sorta tagged along. Peter’s friend from work and his wife had just come back from Holiday so he scooped us from our apt before heading to the party to have a brief meet and greet at their villa (which is ginormous – I want one!). First thing’s first, he brought me a bottle of vodka during pick up – I already heart this guy! Peter was like, ‘it’ll be gone in a week!’ Ummm, NO SIR! I’m happy to just sit there and look at it. Just knowing it’s in the apt actually makes me feel more at home. I’m treating this stuff like GOLD! Like LIQUID GOLD! Ok, so after lots of hugs and thank yous and more staring at my pretty bottle, we loaded into his car and off to the villa where I met his lovely wife and their ADORABLE 2 little boys! Cocktail numero uno was served as we chatted and got to know one another – I haven’t had a soda in years but I had a vodka and coke and it was YUMMMMsicles! Mmmmm, down the hatch!

Yay! Party time! All four of us rode together to another villa not too far away and I was a little nervous on the car ride over. I mean, I was super excited to be out of the house and socializing with new friends, but I felt bad crashing a stranger’s party. As soon as we got to the party we were greeted by a super sweet woman who kissed me on both my cheeks and welcomed us into her home. For the love I wish I could remember her name! But she’s also married to a Peter – I DID remember that! ;-) There were probably 8-10 other peeps already inside and she pointed us to the bar. I did a little jig on my way ova… WOW! They had everything! Beer here runs about $250 a case and don’t even get me started on how much liquor can cost… It’s a black market folks. People try to bring it in at the airports all the time, and when they get caught it’s confiscated… and VOILA, it’s now available on the black market… I had another vodka and coke b/c I don’t like to mess with a good thing. Butterflies were gone and I was ready to meet some people! I spoke to Peter’s wife for a long time, we talked about having pets here (I was so curious why I haven’t seen any dogs – they are thought of as unclean animals here, partially understood…) and where she was from (Denmark) and what she did here (housewife and proud mother of 1 dog and 2 cats). EVERYONE I met was from somewhere cool and had super interesting stories and awesome accents… I felt so vanilla. Oh well, I yam who I yam!! I even spoke to a guy named Mohammed Ali, but he said I could call him Joseph ß Great name! ;-) I was telling him how Peter and I were just married a little less than a month ago and… then just like that he was in the middle of one upping me by telling me how he rescued a girl from drowning when he was only 15, ran into her 30 years later and they fell madly in love. He went on about the trips and the spoiling and I felt like my cheeks were starting to cramp b/c I had perm-a-grin, THIS is what movies are made of!!!! (Insert super cheesy romantic melody here). Sadly, she was crazy and things didn’t work out so much… Tough luck Joseph… He exchanged numbers with my Peter so hopefully we’ll revisit this character later… We left after cocktail number??… and HOME!

Eye spy a little caeeeeesar’s!! YESSSSHHHHH!!!! My sweet husband indulged me... FYI, I plan on trying all the pizza joints here – but I will NEVER order Little Caesar’s again! While this chain is one of my favs back home – their Kuwaiti location is in need of some serious quality control. There was loads of cheese, no complaints there, but the SAUCE… HAD to be ketchup. And so I went to bed, disappointed. Only to wake up and waste the entire Friday in bed – where I normally spend my weeks. :-( SO ANGRY! I felt so terrible that I actually ate a piece of leftover pizza. I use the word ‘ate’ loosely, more like I tore a piece off the slice with my teeth and let it dissolve in my mouth – sound gross? It was… I made it out to the couch at one point and managed to stay awake through the movie ‘Fred Clause’. Peter had a soccer game and promised to be home to take me out to dinner. In case you haven’t noticed, going out for meals is the highlight of my day. We went to a little Japanese place up the road and we had some miso that didn’t quite taste like miso and some very delicious mixed fried rice and teriyaki chicken. I pretty much only order chicken out now… I found out why the beef tastes different.

All the meat here is ‘halal’, meaning that it has been drained of blood. Halal means ‘lawful or permissible’ in Arabic, and means that the meat may be eaten. Blood, among pork products and alcohol, is forbidden in the Qur’an and may not be consumed according to the Islamic law. The food here is delish, but I knew the beef was missing something, particularly when I cut into my big fat steak. I’m learning something new everyday…

Saturday was a new day and the last of our weekend!! We made breakfast and loosely planned our day. First stop, new shoes for Lydia – YAAAAY! I’ve only had heels and flip-flops and my dogs have really been taking a beating walking around in this sand box. I found some that were PERF but they had a stain on the left shoe. You can’t buy new shoes that don’t look new, sorry. I already had my heart set on them though! L We looked a few more places and then found the same walking shoe but it was in patent leather. PASS. I love patent, but not on a WALKING SHOE! ßThese shoes are necessary, not an attempt to be fashionable.

Looks like new shoes are on the shopping list for this week. Hmmph! We stopped and ate at a place on the water. We eat a lot, huh? ßThat makes me happy! Pat, if you’re reading this – it is at this restaurant where you will find a tower of fish MUCH larger than the one we ordered in Chicago – serves a group of like 6 peeps, we would have ordered it if you were here! After lunch we walked it off at the Sultan Center (grocery store). We did much better this time and YUP - I rode the magnetic escalator again! HAHA! I love that thing!

Final note – our house hunt has come to an end!! We are still in the town Mahboula, which I was hoping to leave… only because the translation of the word is ‘crazy lady’. It’s funny b/c I was really liking the way that sounded until Peter told me what it meant… All kidding aside, this crazy lady has found a place to rest her noggin and I could NOT be happier! Our freight shipment won’t arrive until May 22^nd and then we have 10 days for it to pass through customs, so were lookin at beginning of June to be in our new place… No bathtubs, but we DO have a dishwasher! J It’s a 3BR/3Bath plus room for Joseph (the bro-in-law, not the heartbreaker I mentioned earlier). We’ll have plenty of room for guests so please consider Kuwait for your next Holiday destination! ;-)