Last night, I did something fabulous

As I walked into the Opera house last night.

My mom and I set up a Skype date and I forgot about it before we were supposed to talk only twenty-four hours later.  This is because I failed to put it in my diary (I am sticking with the British version of this word as the one of my one-and-a-half friends here is Scottish and she says diary -- along with plenty of other words which I don't understand, I can barely have a telephone conversation with her -- and Eli obviously knows what I'm talking about).

I knew -- because it was in my diary -- that I was going to a concert last night with the AWG ladies at the Opera House.  If I had checked my diary, I would not have made the Skype date with my mom.  Anyway, she was worried about me and when I returned home, she wrote that she was glad I was "off doing something fabulous."  And you guys, I totally was.

It's the A Capella festival at the Royal Opera House, and last night I went to hear Sweet Honey in the Rock and Ladysmith Black Mambazo (they sang on Graceland).  It was amazing.  Neither group sang for too long and so the concert felt like it was over as I arrived, almost, the time moved so quickly.  (The only blip in the evening was when I tried to enter through the men's door.)  The concert attendees seemed to me to be largely expats -- there were not many abayas and while most of the people working in the theatre were men in dishdashas, I didn't notice too many others.  Also interesting is that the parking lot has pay machines but you don't have to pay.  Muscat feels like a small city -- it is -- in a lot of ways and friends, free parking is a nice perk.  One of the AWG ladies told me that Omanis get really mad if they have to pay to park.  So they don't.  I would love to see San Franciscans adopt that strategy.

Lib is in the hospital having her baby and I'm going to buy the baby a couple of CDs as I pretty much thought of them the whole time.  (Watch this blog for a little picture soon!)

Anyway, in addition to the concert, it was a day of VICTORIES for me in Muscat.  I placed an order a month ago on amazon.co.uk for Tommy's birthday presents.  There's a bookshop here that has a UK address, so you buy on amazon and put in the UK shipping address, and somehow they get the order here.  You pay 1 OR (so $2.60) per item for delivery, which is nothing compared to the price of books and Lego here.  I called them on Monday and they confirmed that my order had arrived, and so all the was left was for me to find the bookshop and pick up the items.  Sounds simple, but given my track record, I was anxious.  I asked Eli for some help, then I asked the woman who told me about the service for some help and then I set off.  And of course at the first turn I needed to make there was a detour.  But you know what? I totally figured it out.  I drove and drove and, then I happened to look up and notice the sign on a building that had -- as I told my husband last night -- about ONE HUNDRED other signs.  As I am not observant this was nothing short of a miracle.  Then, I wandered around the building for a solid fifteen minutes looking for this place.  But I found it.  PHEW.  I wish I'd taken a picture to post here.

THEN, I paid my utility bills!  You have to drive out to an office with your old bills (I have no idea what I would have done if I hadn't known the previous tenants of this house), stand in one line to get your current bill, then stand in another to pay them.  Except that there aren't really any lines, you just push your way to the front (taking extreme care not to touch any men*).  Exciting times!

I had a bit of a fail in that we baked cupcakes for Lizzie's end of term party and I used a box mix and frosting that comes in those tubs.  Then, I used some of the Easter m&ms that mom sent back with Eli to decorate them.  So, they look pretty much adorable but are full of crap that I really don't want my children to eat and probably shouldn't feed to other people's children.  It's pure laziness as I am a capable baker.  I hereby publicly vow not to buy any more cake or brownie mixes, since we have our kitchen set up now and I think I can buy everything I need except vanilla extract (because it contains alcohol).

I ran into the lady who owns the camels twice yesterday (once at the grocery store and once at the concert) and she assured me that I am welcome to bring the kids to meet the camels.  I am somewhat reluctant but I can't put my finger on why.  They would absolutely love it.  Are all kids nuts for animals?  Last night we barely made it to the park because a 'sausage dog' was out on the sidewalk and I couldn't tear the kids away from him.  Anyway.  It was sort of fun to bump into someone I knew -- I think it won't take long for it to happen a lot.

I have about a million other things to say but I need to get going.  The kids are on Spring Break for the next week and a half and so the next three hours are pretty much all I have to get non-kid jobs done.  (No, no movement on the babysitter front.)  Please all send good thoughts Lib's way. xoxo

*Did I tell you about how Eli walked into a meeting at work with two Omani women and stuck his hand out and they just looked at him uncomfortably?