Being Utterly Spoiled

OK, Im feeling really spoiled right now. I guess this is one of the reasons why I live in the Middle East. This is the good life. Im presently operating out of a Home-office situation. I already went on and on about the nice location of the place. But let tell you about another little perk, one that Im almost embarrassed to admit due to its scarcity in the U.S. We have a live in maid. Live in maid’s are quite common here as opposed to the U.S. where only the upper-upper class have them. Instead the live in maid’s here are quite inexpensive much like the female version of the laborer or construction worker. Im not trying to dehumanize maids and laborers, Im just trying to paint a picture of what life is like for most people that live in the Middle East. Almost every home Middle Class and above has a maid. Most are from the Philippines, Sri Lanka or India. Its almost expected that you will have a maid because the buildings are built with maid’s quarters in tact. The maid’s quarters consist of a tiny room, and an attached bathroom. Maids make about as much as a laborer around $400-$500 a month. Many are very glad to have employment as the economic situation in their homeland is usually much much worse. Most maids work about 6 days a week. I always try to treat the maids and the other people with me, better than most. This is my way of being a blessing to them as they are to me.

Here are the perks, I never have to clean and Im encouraged to leave my underwear on the floor…literally. She asks me at various times of the day if I’d like tea or coffee. We have a system worked out for Diet Coke. So whenever Im hungry I just ask her to make me something. I buy the groceries ahead of time and set the menu. It’s a pretty neat situation. I can already tell Im becoming very spoiled.

Since Im working in a home office situation, I can roll out of bed anytime I want. The key is for me to get the work done. Today was supposed to be the weekend. But I wound up inspired and was writing a script until 2:30 am. As long as the job gets done and beats the deadline it doesn’t matter what hours I keep. That said, when Im in production I usually work a 12-14 hour day. Because its fun, I don’t really consider it working anyways. That’s such a benefit to be able to do what you love.

I did wind up taking a break today and I went over to the Mall of the Emirates. It’s not the largest mall in Dubai. That is the Dubai Mall which is the largest mall in the world. Still this one is pretty stinking huge. It took me about 20 minutes to walk from one end of the mall to the other and I was walking fast. Plus there are four other floors I didn’t get to. It has like four food courts. This is the mall that has the indoor skiing slope in it. There are just so many cool things to do here…plus Im right across from the beach. My life is pretty ideal right now (thanks be to God). I feel like I am so utterly blessed even though I don’t deserve it. Really there are only two things that could make my life better at this point. 1. To have Jennifer by my side again (She’s moving at the end of December for sure) 2. To have a restored relationship with my children. I do love and miss them so.