[DubaiSis]

We've had a rough year. My husband lost his job 3 months ago from a COMPLETELY douchy company who won't pay to send us or our stuff to the US and in fact made us repay the rent we hadn't yet used since rent here is paid for a year upfront.

I had some big issues with what seemed to be every one of my friends moving away (either back to the UK or US, or onward to places like Peru), and power struggles that I don't need to bore you with. We didn't get to travel the way we'd hoped (fear of losing job followed by actual loss of job kind of puts a damper on vacation planning) and that's a bummer. I lost my Grandmother and I'm about to lose a longtime friend to breast cancer but can't be there with her now (frankly, I don't know if that's good or bad). We moved to a great apartment in the spring and we've been really happy here, but they've just started building a new apartment building RIGHT outside our beautiful big floor to ceiling wall to wall glass windows, and we can look forward to 1-3 years of excruciating noise if we stay here. And all of this stress has not been kind to our waistlines, so we can look forward to TRYING to start a diet and exercise regime we can stick to and make work.

The good news is we love Dubai and we're still here. Mr. DubaiSis has some good leads that could keep us here, send us to Qatar or England, and we're hopeful for positive change within the next couple months. His MS is in remission and he hasn't had an exacerbation for more than a year (knock wood), and my travel agency business is doing great. November was my biggest month yet!

For 2012, I hope to get a couple group travel outings off the ground (buzz me if you'd like to hear about a yoga trip to the Himalayas in March!), fill my Norwegian Fjords cruise group next summer, and actually go a few places just for fun. For him, I'm hoping he gets a job that is less personally stressful and more fulfilling both monetarily and psychologically. His 80's punk band is set to perform next fall in Orange County so I'm hopeful that will come off as planned. And as always, I hope to discover my waistline in there somewhere. In lieu of that, I hope the Mayans are right! But let's not give up just yet...