Monday, January 29, 2007

Staying home

As it turns out, I'm not going to be making any trips back to the Middle East this spring after all. My company's Dubai office has finally worked out its staffing needs for the next few months, and they dod not include me. There is a possibility, as always, that my presence there could be required there later on this year as more projects over there get underway.

On one hand, it's probably for the best that I not travel over there right now. Being away from home for weeks at a time puts a tremendous amount of stress on Lori, and given her current situation this would probably be an especially bad time to leave her alone with Kirby. Besides, I've already "done my time" over there, so to speak, having cumulatively spent over two months in Dubai last year. Traveling overseas is a hassle.

On the other hand, I can't help but feel at least somwhat annoyed and frustrated. I was told before the holidays to expect to return to Dubai sometime soon, I mentally prepared myself (and Lori) to be away from home for awhile, and I even had ideas about bringing Lori out there for a week so she could see Dubai for herself. A few weeks ago, when I was asked to re-arrange my schedule to make room to travel over there, it looked like my departure was all but certain. To then be told "oh, never mind, we don't need you after all" is a bit of a let-down. It also elicits a bit of paranoia on my part: "why don't they need me after all? Did I not do a good job last time I was there?"

Oh, well, such is my work life. Now comes the fun part: working with my boss to re-arrange my schedule once more and find billable hours for all that time I was supposed to be overseas.

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