elleflies | Happy New Year

I spent last New Years curled up on two seats on the left hand side of a Turkish Airways Boeing 777 on the way to Adana, Turkey via Istanbul. I don't remember much of that particular flight, except for the fact that I slept through the arrival of 2007, both in the time zone we were heading towards and the time zone we had just left.

This year my feet are firmly on the ground even though I'm suffering from a heavy dose of Jet Lag - which seems to be par for the course with me. My life wouldn't be normal unless I was either Jet Lagged or getting over being Jet Lagged or just about to become Jet Lagged all over again.

I'm currently in Kuwait and they seem to be gearing up for quite the party. Albeit, a sober party as this is a dry country. The catering guys out of Ramstein, Germany gave everyone on the crew small bottles of Champagne before our flight to Al Udeid, Qatar (where we stopped before continuing on to Kuwait) and sadly having Champagne at midnight was not to be as none of us wanted to spend our New Years in a Kuwaiti prison.

Back to the topic of the party: I won't be attending. I had dinner at the Japanese restaurant in the hotel (my Captain rocks my socks as he bought my dinner) and the exhaustion coupled with the overly exuberant use of noisemakers courtesy of the table behind us convinced me that I was better off doing the "drop and drool" in my room as opposed to the hotel lobby.

I find it oddly appropriate that the past two years have kicked off in the Middle East in one form or another. For all the traveling I do a good portion of it revolves around the Middle East. I'm either coming or going from here and some of my dearest friends and in one instance a little brother (THE little brother) are directly affected by the decisions made about this part of the world and the consequences of those decisions.

Lets hope that 2008 rings in a year of decisions and consequences that won't cause the middle east to rip itself to shreds. I won't hold my breath, but one can always dream.

And lets hope it also sees all the soldiers I brought over to this part of the world, getting back on our planes whole and healthy. I love my job but sometimes talking to them about their experiences over "there" breaks my heart.

So to everyone: I hope you're New Year's is wonderful and that 2008 will be a year people will remember fondly.