I Graduated! Finally.

The day came and went without any pomp and there was definitely no circumstance but, it was a milestone worth talking about, none the less. I am now the proud holder of a Bachelor's of Arts in General Studies, concentrating in: Business, Sociology, and Dance. Big title. I'll hang that on the wall right next to my Associate's of Science in Biology.

I think I will take a break from the assigned reading for a while and stick my nose in the books that I want to read. Oh, and I have a great recommendation if you are looking for more literary stimulation. Check out Lamb by Christopher Moore. It is the Gospel according to Biff; Jesus' hilarious and irreverent, childhood best friend. He tells tales of their adventures during the missing years of Jesus' life – between young teen and thirty. Apparently, Jesus (called Joshua) and Biff were the original inventors of Cappuccino. The royalties on that must be a mint. Maybe that's why Starbucks charges so much for their coffee?

Doug and I took a short trip to Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt on the Sinai Peninsula to celebrate my graduation. We went diving, got sunburns at the beach and came home with a bad case of the Pharaoh's Revenge (that's the nice way to say it). All in all it was a nice break from Kuwait and fantastic place to visit. I highly recommend going, and bringing Immodium. Nice people, those Egyptians. I would include pictures, but we didn't take any. I know; never been to Egypt before and we left the camera in the hotel room.

Well, there's not much else to say about that, so I'll give you an update on the new job as well. I still really enjoy working for the magazine. It has been more hectic than usual; last month and my first full month, we published the magazine's biggest ever issue (172 pages). This month we are publishing our annual Living Spaces and Design Guide along with the June issue.

I've been running around to furniture stores taking pictures and writing product reviews. In case you ever need to know; walking into a store with a camera is about the quickest way to make managers very angry. Of course we get permission to be there ahead of time, but the message isn't always passed along to the guys with the radios, manning the exits.

I'm settling into the rhythm of Middle Eastern business, sort of. There is the language barrier even when both parties are speaking English. For example, I thought I was taking a phone message from someone named Patti. My boss was confused when he returned the call asking for Patti only to find that the company had no such employee. There was, however, a Fadi in accounting. Yeesh! Close enough, right?