The Start of the Madness

So the story starts before I even left for Dubai. Lets go all the way back to Labor Day.

I returned to the office on September 2 to a host of e-mails. About 8:15, I get a call from our Corporate office, requesting me to attend dive training. After a heart-to-heart discussion, I concede maybe this dive training is a good idea. Training is to last for 3 weeks in Key West. I am to leave in 6 days on Saturday.

About 8:45, my regional director walks into my office and asks to talk. OCC has just gotten a request to send a structural engineer to assist on a high profile project in Dubai. I now know, this is a 20 square kilometer mixed use development on what is now a vacant marsh. There will be small (for Dubai) hotels, condos, town houses, at least one school, a hospital, new canals for pleasure yachts a marina. The trip is to last two months. I am to leave 5 days after I return from Key West.

The day comes to leave for Key West. I'm at the OCC-NJ "summer" office party and I hear, just about perfect timing, Hurricane Ike is headed straight for Key West. The trip is postponed, but we remain on standby for the moment Florida Keys Community College gives us the go to come down.

The next week various trips are on and off and on again. I get a few more days to work on my infamous projects and desparately scramble to prepare to be away for effectively 3 months. Training in Key West has been rescheduled from Sept 13 to 28, with not a single day off. The night before I left, like a good boy, I went to sleep early, since it was a 5AM flight. 11PM, the airline calls, my flight has been cancelled, they can't get me into Key West until after class starts. I tell them this is unacceptable, I need to be there. American airlines found me a flight on Delta, I just had to connect in Atlanta, instead of Miami, no big deal.

I get to the airport to find out that since my flight is less than a 24 hour booking, I get the full security search. I have to empty my bags in front of security and they bomb sniff my computer and my phones. Finally, a week late and a big hassle later, I finally land in Key West.