Surprise!!!

It’s 8:00 about an hour before our third round of the Funniest Person in Bahrain starts. Im a little nervous about this one. We are missing three of our performers who are traveling for business. Plus this is our first contest in nearly two months. We’ll get in a regular routine after this. Im waiting on the chairs to be delivered and two more stage pieces. In all the worry about deadlines, cash flow and managing a company, I have to remember I have to perform too. Our show is very similar to Who’s line is it anyways. I’d be the drew carey without the glasses. If you want to see clips of the past two shows, they are on the facebook group page “The Funniest Person in Bahrain.” Im really using Facebook to promote the show and our company. Almost everyone in Bahrain with an internet connection here is on Facebook. Its an amazing phenomenon.

Speaking of facebook…its my birthday today. I am 41. I didn’t really advertise that it was my birthday. Last year everyone, except my parents and sisters, seemed to have forgotten about it, which I mentioned yesterday. So I was gearing up to be low key again. My kids forget to call. This is the second year now. Im not sure if its my responsibility to remind them of my birthday. So I try to just forget about it.

So because of not being with my family, I tried to let it slide without a lot of fanfare. But then there is facebook. Natasha, our graphic designer who is an avid facebooker, happened to mention Happy Birthday to me late last night. So this morning, Im editing away in my office and in Natasha walks with a cake followed by the rest of my staff singing. I was absolutely surprised. It felt really great having all 20 of my staff in there smiling, patting me on the back, and shaking my hand. They really like me and it made me feel very special. The chocolate cake had a screen print of the magazine cover I was on a few months back. I guess they make them with edible ink. What’s more, the Filipino girls brought in lunch for everyone. It just really made me feel very special. What’s more, I nearly got 100 messages from my facebook friends wishing me a happy birthday. Some from old friends from my past, some from my current friends and some from people I barely know. I felt a little like George Bailey from It’s a wonderful life. Im fortunate that I have been able to make so many friends from all over the world. It helps alleviate the pain from the loss of my immediate family.

I was really focused at work today. I have to extend our History of Seaports video by two minutes. I was thinking about how to do this the right way for the past two weeks. Im starting to see the light start to emerge out of my deadline tunnel. I was so overwhelmed when I had three projects to do. These are all major projects. But once I got the first one done, I could start focusing on the second one, which I should have finished by tomorrow and then onto #3. So at first they were all quite intimidating, now they seem to be falling like dominoes. I want to wipe the slate clean, because the sooner I finish them, the sooner we can invoice, and the sooner was can fix the cash flow situation.

I need to reflect a little bit more about the party at work. It was really genuine. They really like me. They really like me. I have never been a general manager before…but I’ve had various roles of leadership. I think Im a very good leader because I really care about everyone. I think they realize this and it was given back to me today. We took a lot of pictures which I’ll post on the blog. One of the more proud moments I’ve had was standing next to Khalifa and the cake. I really like and respect Khalifa and he feels the same.

Well I have some contestants showing up now…the show starts in 30 min. and we still don’t have chairs. I better get cracking.

Thank you for all of your prayers and well wishes.