It has been a thousand years since I wrote something on my blog or actually since I had the desire to write or say what has been building up inside me for all that time.

Those who know me and who have been following this space know that I would have had a lot to say about so many things that took place in Jordan and internationally. I cannot say that I was following the blogging world like I used to as well and I miss being a part of this community … what happened to this community by the way? Are we living in separate worlds now? Have we gone distracted from what brought us together in the first place? … I really wonder!!

Anyway; 2009 is a very bad year so far … I cannot think of one good thing that can be described as “made my year” kind of experience … ever since it started and it was a chain of bad things happening one after the other without breaks in between …

For example; after so many years of working without breaks, I decided that I was going to take one long vacation this year, and I started planning the whole thing starting from putting a budget, choosing a destination and then working out the details. So I decided that I wanted to go to the states, partially to visit my brother and sister there (and guarantee a place to sleep ) and the other part is to get a chance to visit a new place and do some shopping … etc.

After securing the budget, I applied at the embassy and got myself a visa … then I submitted my vacation to my boss and got the approval … so far so good …

I was supposed to travel mid April and come back mid May and everything was set.

In March, I started getting abdominal pains that were unbearable, I went to the doctor and I was told that I have an infection in the abdominal area caused by some stomach ulcer of some kind and that I needed a gastroscopy and I scheduled the procedure; the result was that I had ulcers and that caused bad infection in the abdominal area and I needed a minor surgery to remove the infection and place a drain to give it way to leak and cleanse … I know … not fancy …

Now, I did the surgery and it was not minor if you know what I mean … it hurt like hell and I had to stay in bed for a very long time. It turned out that the infection was worse than we thought and it needed more time than we anticipated but it should be a matter of time only as long as I clean it and change the pads everyday … so there was no harm in traveling!!

I did not change my reservation and now thanks to the new regulations, if you do change it, you have to pay a certain amount of money as a penalty, so I was feeling OK and I went ahead and got on that plane flying to Chicago.

The trip to Chicago was not bad, it was practically empty and we had several seats to stretch and maybe get some sleep but I could do neither, because I had a cut in my abdomen and I could not stretch or bend comfortably and it was very noisy so there was no way I could have slept, so it was like an on and off naps here and there. When we landed, I realized that I was feeling sick and that I have got food poisoning, you know the symptoms with all their ugliness and it took all my energy to stay focused until I got on the connection flight to st. Louis. When I finally reached my destination and found my sister and her husband waiting for me, I made it to the car and crashed. I did not even see any of the scenery along the way, I was too tired and too sick to see.

For the next ten days, I was at complete bed rest and I could not stand straight … my wound was severely infected, I was exhausted from the 24 hours trip (including waiting time in the airport and the connection flight) and the food poisoning took the best of me, so I could not eat because nothing stayed in my stomach and I was desperate to get out of bed because I did not want to lose the rest of my vacation. It took 10 whole days after which I was at least able to get up and go out. I had many episodes of dropped blood pressure, dizziness and sweating but I could get back on track … barely anyway …

The good thing is that I was able to make full use of the rest of my vacation … had tons of fun on my shopping spree … I have nice things to remind me of the time I spent there and lots of photos that I will share in another post … but I just wanted to share with all of you an example of a bad sequence of events that happened to me recently and caused my absence … and to explain to all my friends out there that I might have been away and did not contact you … but it was for a reason … I miss you all and love you all and I am now OK … I will need another gastroscopy in a couple of months … but the worst is behind me …

Next time I will share with you my experience riding the arch and visiting the botanical garden and the horrible flight back to Amman … no more RJ for me … so stay tuned …