Uterus strings stretched tight!

Here I am crying goodbye to Big Buddy.

Call me crazy. I left Big Buddy and Mr. Big in Dubai while I flew all the way back to the states for six days to attend a conference in Las Vegas for work. I have never left Big Buddy for more then a single night with Grandma, so you can imagine how I felt.

Packing was easy since it was just me I was packing for. It was the mental baggage that was almost to much to bare. Trying to prepare myself to leave my two guys alone on the other side of the world, took me some time. I realized that this trip would be good for Mr. Big and Big Buddy. It would give them bonding time and just time together without me. I was also secretly hoping they would both miss me so much and realize all that I do for both of them ;) The plan was that Mr. Big would take Big Buddy along with him on his work adventures. Mr. Big's fellow Arab friends said that sons are looked at as prized posessions over here and are often taken with their fathers out into the desert on business. Let's just say that many adventures pursued while I was away!

London, Heathrow Airport. Crazy!

As for myself, here is my account about my adventures to and from Vegas. At the airport, since I flew out at around 8am in the morning, Big Buddy dropped me off in his pajamas. Here was our farewell hug. I had a hard time letting go of him. Yes, I cried the ugly cry.

Giant Harrods Bear where I spent my life savings.

Flamingo Hotel. No, I didn't see Donny or Marie.

Chinese restaurant. Fantastic Interior design. Felt surreal.

Dubai International Airport
Wow. I am stressed to death trying to find out where to go. I had two security screenings, a passport visa checkout just to get to the airport gate. I did get smart and decide to follow this young couple who I figured out was on the same flight as I. This really did help me out. They led me right to gate 113. At 8:30am they began to let us into the gated off with glass area (sort of like a glassed off cow heard area. I waited in line to get my bags scanned again and go through another medal detector. This time I stripped off my jewelry and shoes and breezed right through. I did notice however, that a cloaked gal was doing random baggage checks. She would actually empty out your entire bag, undies and all. Felt bad for a few people who brought really personnal items with them! What intrigued me even more was that this same lady would also pull random women into a small gray box of a makeshift room and do a stip search. Glad there was no strip searching me (this time)!

The plane was Virgin Atlantic. Here is my assessment...the seats are smaller than Delta, but newer. The staff friendlier. The goodies were great! Each seat had it's own monitor for movies. Watched two, Salt, and Inception (Both are thrillers and kept my heart pounding for two thirds of the flight!). That aside, there were a couple of really odd things that happened though...first, after all the passengers were seat belted in, I noticed that from the vents in the ceiling a visible mist started to pour in (what the Hell is this I thought!) Are we begin gassed right here on the plain! I quickly found out from the steward that it was just air-conditioning.  I guess he felt he owed me an explanation after the look of shear terror on my face! (I am pretty sure he peed himself laughing at me!). Just when you think things cannot get any worse, get this...after our flight has landed and the plane is parking, the stewardess says over the loud speaker that they are going to come through the cab spraying a "harmless" insecticide and that we may want to close our eyes for (are you kidding me! I am still trying to figure this one out). And then up the aisles they came with these small powerful cans that were spraying insecticide out on everyone. The mist was so thick, you couldn't see if you wanted to! I feel that at least 2 extra years had been erased off my life after that one.

The up side...they gave us a pair of socks, toothbrush, paste, brownie, candy and collectors bag. Probably because they feel guilty for poisoning all of us with the bug killer. We landed safely in London.

Interior of the Caesar's Palace

Yes, that is me with a Pegasus (the rainbow is hidden!)

Stretched Hummor was our ride to dinner!

Packed with loads of girls and only two guys!

London Heathrow Airport
My flight arrived about 40 minutes earlier than scheduled. Wow! We must of taken a short cut! Never heard of this happening before. London today was vey rainy and cold. After being funneled through several long corridors I got to go through the London security checkpoint. Fun times! These guys were way more thorough in their search of my bags this time. I had to remove my baggie of liquids, which in essence meant showing my undies to the entire line of passengers behind me (glad I packed my cute ones!). I also had to remove all of my electronic devices and place them in a separate bin. I must of looked like Radioshack with my 2 cellphones, an IPad, iPod, and digital camera. Once through this line, it was onto the American Airlines boarding pass check -in... another fun experience. This time I was asked 50 questions about my bags, the contents, who might of touched them, who packed them, etc. Once I got through the interogation,  I was pooped out into one giant area that had tons of seats in the middle with shops and stores lining the parimeter. Now, the currency in London is the Pound. I stopped in a cute store called Harrods and found Big Buddy a fun little Mini Couper with the British flag as it's paint job. Now it said, L12. This sounded pretty cheap to me, so I decided to buy it. Turns out that translates to $23 in US currency. Yikes! By this time I was committed and bought it anyway. (Hope he likes it)! My mum told me to get the fish and chips for lunch when I was in London...couldn't find one anywhere in the airport. :( Had to settle for a bagel sandwich with an apple. Turned out delicious. Boarded my American Airlines flight and was disappointed when I realized how old the plane was. Must of been older than Moses since the armrests had ash trays! I cannot even remember the last time an airline let you smoke on a plane. Great... I am probably going to die in this old rickety airplane with no TV screens in their seats that has ash trays in the arms! I will keep you posted. (One interesting thing I learned in London though, was that they love the Beatles and Paddington Bear).

Please Lord let me survive this 8 hour flight from London to Chicago.  If I live, I promise to be a very good little girl...I swear!

The flight went well. I met a very interesting individual who had been living in Kuwait. He gave me the low down since I am scheduled to go there in my near future. In Chicago (what a huge airport) my new friend helped me find my way. Thanks! My next flight...Chicago to Vegas. What...the plane looks like a toy plane. Smallest plane ever! Luckily, the fight was not full and I got a row to myself. I was so tired that I layed down across two of the three seats and took a cat nap. Wonderful!

This cute purse kept hooting for me to buy it. Why didn't I?

It felt nice to arrive in Las Vegas. How I have missed the states! I arrived a night early so I got a room at the Flamingo. No wireless interent. The good news is that my iPhone decided to start working again so I called family to chat. Oops. Forgot about the hour difference time change and called family at 1am. Sorry. Noticed that the window in my room was shattered. Now, I am on the 22nd floor and this disturbed me a bit. Looked like they placed a tinted piece of window screen on it to hold it together for now (I wonder if someone tried to jump?) If you look at the photo, you will see the dark window on Marie's forhead...yeah, that was my room!

The next day I met my co-workers at Caesars Hotel right across the street from the Flamingo. I believe the three of us had a great time. We learned a ton at the conference. The first day we ate at this really cool Chinese restaurant. The interior design was surreal. We were able to watch one of the chefs throwing dough while making noodles. The next night we were invited to dinner with one of our vendors. They picked us up on a stretched Hummor! It was so much fun. Once inside, it was fun to see it was fully stocked with booze and it also had pornographic music videos playing on the two TV screens! It was a blast (the funny thing is the two guys pretended not to notice the music videos. We caught them lookin! When I had a few minutes, I found this super cute purse that really wanted me to buy it...unfortunately, I didn't and will regret it forever.  The rest of the trip, well...as the old saying goes, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!".

Emirates Flight. Largest plane I have ever seen. Double decker!

Interior of plane was super nice and clean!

My flights home were very interesting also. I thought I would make life even more interesting, so I bought a large plastic Caesar's sword for Big Buddy. I put it in my carry-on baggage since I didn't check any bags. It was really fun seeing the eyes of the guys scanning the bags when they realized I had a sword in my carry-on bags. All in all, my bags were searched twice, I was stripped searched once and the palms of my hands were tested for bomb making materials (because you know I look like a prime suspect). On the flights back I stayed awake for the full 32 hours. On my flight from Vegas to Chicago, I got lucky again and had an empty seat next to myself. Now in Chicago, things got a little tricky. I only had a 50 minute layover. I literally had to run from the moment I landed to the next flight which I barely made! Thank the lord. On the Chicago flight I flew next to an American solider. He was serving in Egypt and had been off duty for two weeks. He was heading back to serve. He seemed a bit sad. Once I landed in London, once again I only had an hour and 15 minutes to get to the next flight. I walked very quickly and made this flight just in time also. Now this flight was my favorite by far. I got to fly on the Emirates airline. Fantastic! It is like flying first class for everyone. Everything was super clean and there was extra leg room. The T.V. screens on the back of the seats were super high tech. The plane had three cameras on it that you could toggle through and see what was going on outside the plane. I totally loved this. They also had tons of movies, music and games to keep one entertained. The food service was superior. The food tasted fresh and healthy. One thing I was completed fascinated by was the attire of the airline attendants. They actually wore these hats with part of a turban that would hang down. Very interesting! On this flight I sat next to a kind gentleman who was born and raised in Abu Dhabi, but had moved to go to school to London. He was married with two little kids. He was flying to India to see his parents. This 8 hour flight seemed to "fly" by and before I knew it I was at the Dubai airport!

Loved everything about this. Kept me busy!

I arrived on a Friday at like 1am in the morning. I was secretly wishing to see Big Buddy and Mr. Big waiting for me, unfortunately, Big Buddy was asleep so I grabbed a cab.

Home safely. I was so happy to see both my guys! I think they missed me a ton! Watch for Mr. Big's accounts on the activities they did while I was away!

Attire of the airline attendants. Very interesting!