Formal Observations

So I went to the Booklover's Ball tonight. For all of you out there that don't know, the Booklover's Ball is an annual fundraiser given by the Denver Public Library to raise money. It was my first time, so I wanted to share a few observations with everyone (that is if anyone ever reads this anymore).

First of all...Have you ever felt like the Bride of Frankenstein? Well, after my roommate spent a good one to two hours helping me do my hair, makeup and finding something formal to wear I felt almost put together. When I looked in the mirror I didn't recognize myself. Between the tucking in, lifting up, volumizing and accentuating I felt like bits of this and that were pulled together to make me more presentable. But kudos to Laura...she's a miracle worker.

Second...some women should not wear certain dresses...popping out is never a good thing.

Third...It's always interesting when you're the minority at dinner...yeah...

Forth...It can be hard to get a waiter's attention, I found that pssst works really well. And you know, once you make friends with them. They'll take really good care of you.

Fifth...walking around a plaza in bare feet at 10 pm in October can get you some pretty strange looks.

Sixth...Finally, if you're going to crash a formal party, don't show up wearing jeans, sweatshirts with unkempt hair and try to get free food and booze out of it. You will get caught...

Nothing much...

So I just realized that it has been seven months since my last post and nothing major has occured. I am still alive and trying to keep out of trouble. I haven't had any real adventures since I returned home from the Middle East. Although I do have to say that I would love a little warm weather right now. At the moment I am sitting in the Denver Airport taking a last minute flight to Salt Lake to spend the holidays with my Aunt and her family. other than a few trips between Denver and Reno and Denver and Salt Lake I haven't had much diversity in my travels. Except going to Disney World with a friend for a week life has been basically work and home.

I guess I better go, it's time to answer the cattle call and board the plane...can we say moooo?

I have arrived

Just to let everyone out there know I am back safe and sound in the US. After 40+ hours of traveling, dealing with customs in three countries, a 15 hour layover, and lack of food I am glad to say that I have returned, and even more so to say that I am "home". I loved my trip, but I think my view was a little tainted this year due to the "little" cold I had for ten of the fourteen days I was there. And the consequent lack of sleep from said cold...

As for everything else in my life, I 'm not sure if I'm ready to start work on Monday, all I can really think about now is a nice soft bed...

To everything there is a season...

Ok, so as much as I love the middle east I have to say just a few things here. First, I have never been so tired in my life. I had forgotten what it was like ti dig for six hours straight in the sun, wind, dirt, and heat. Second, my lower extremities have never been so sore (we're talking from the waist down, I realized that I have muscles that I never knew I had). Third, archeaologist are small and compact for a reason. It's pretty difficult to angle yourself into a small corner of sand three feet deep in a trench when you have a lot of mass to you like I do.

My other thought is that I am so grateful for the life I have back in the US. I really miss it right now, especially my own bed. I do have to say that I think that I am completely over my cold, at least all but the dry heaving cough. But I am still not allowed to be in the kitchen without some kind of quarantine...it's kinda nice, but aggravating as well.

Finally, I have to say that I am tired of being offered antiquities to take home. We have been approached by three museum officals in the last two days of work asking if we would like some kind artifacts. We keep telling them no, but it is strange considering that last year we were here for a month and no one approached us for antiquities. I hope it ends soon, but we are all getting worried that there are more sinister plans going on.

So that is life right now. I don't know if I will be able to get online again before I leave, but if not, I will talk to you all soon. And please, someone pray that I can make it back home in one piece!!!

To dig or not to dig, that is the question

So I have to say that as much as I love it here I am getting tired of being an attraction when a group of us walk down the street. I think I'm beginning to understand how it feels to be Amish in the middle of Vegas. I mean we, I probably most of all, stand out more than anyone else does. Being tall, blonde, and overweight kinda tends to draw attention to one's self when everyone around you is smaller, darker, and more graceful.

Aside from that, we are still waiting to start digging. We finally got the ok to start, but by the time it was almost 10 am and we still had to get the equipment out of storage. So we aren't going to be able to start today. It would be ashame if I were to come all this way and not be able to do some excavation work.

Although all those out there with a conservation/archives background will find this funny. As we were getting the supplies and artifacts from last year out of storage today I almost had a heart attack. I have to say that the ideas of conservation and preservation are quite different here than at home. So we go into the basement of the museum and there is a small chicken wire cage that holds all the recent acquisitions. Thankfully it was locked, but items were strewn all over the floor and shelves in very percarious posistions. Meanwhile the museum staff (including someone from the conservation department) are standing there smoking around these 3000 year old sculptures. I then look over and one of our group is climbing up the shelving unit to reach a box. Then as they are transporting them over to the house to be drawn and photographed they decided to put all of the pottery shards and glass fragments on the back of a tow truck to drive them across town. Let me just put it this way...if you have ever driven in Europe or South America compound that by two...

I have to run, but hopefully I can post more later.

I'm alive, sorta...

Ok,

Not much time here, but here we go...with my last post I mentioned Petra...Well, my cold did get worse, and the next day we had to leave for Syria...so I only have a few comments/observations to make and then I have to run...

First, when traveling between borders be prepared for long stops at the duty free shops on both sides...such as one to two hours at each place for misc. items...(not any of us bought anything)

Second, always make sure you have food with you, because being scrunched in the backset without food for eight to ten hours while you are sick can tend to make you a very cranky person

Third, when arriving late at night make sure that you have all the keys you need to get into the place you are staying in for the night...if not...it might take another two hours to get in, and calling half the city of Damascus to do so.

Forth, when you have a sore throat, headache, cough, and slight fever don't climt 900+ steps to get to the top of the mountain otherwise you might be quarantined in the house a few days later while everyone else gets to go exploring and shopping in Damascus.

Fifth, always have twice the amount of medicine you think you will need, otherwise you will be miserable for the majority of your trip.

Sixth, bring ear plugs and sleep medication

Seventh and finally, when all else fails...pray like there is no tomorrow...because there might now be.

That is all I can think of right now. Like I said, I'm alive and well, except the cold, sore throat, lack of voice, extreme cough, and no sleep. Tomorrow we should at least attempt getting to some work. We are in Palmyra now and it feels great to be back here. I do have to apologize that I may not get to bring all of the things home that I promised everyone, as the only day we had to shop was yesterday and I was stuck inside with this horrible cold. But, as always, I will do my Sally best and see what I can find.

I hope that you all are well, and that I will be able to see and talk to you all soon.

Rocky Bread, Dust Storms, and Heat Exhaustion

Hello everyone, it has been a long two days, so please excuse my spelling and grammar. Once you hear about my life you will understand.

So I made it to Jordan just fine. The four of us women made it through customs fairly unscated, except me nearly taking out several cars with the luggage cart I was pushing. I have to say that pushing an engineering tripod is vary difficult when it's hanging off the sides and the parking lot is a little too small. So we left the airport and got to Madi Wusa (the town we are staying in). After running to the grocery store we were eating a late snack of flat bread and jam when I broke a piece off and discovered a very large stone in my piece of bread (apparently they use hot stones to cook the bread and sometimes then can get lost in the bread. I thought it was an air bubble...)

That night was a very restless night as we are staying in a house on the edge of town that has donkeys, roosters, dogs, and is on a main road. Of course I was jet lagged and woke up at 2 am and couldn't get back to sleep. Of course there was no hot water, that would be too easy so that mornings shower was a little cold. What was horrible was that that night a dust storm had blown in and the option of going to Petra wasn't really in the cards as we couldn't see anything. So we drove around looking at the sites around the city. Which was fine by me because I still wasn't over my cold.

So we were able to sleep alittle last night, at lease I got more thant four hours, but my cold has gotten worse. I have to say that I really don't like being sick. I have never has such a sore throat, I have all but lost my voice, and that's not the worse part of it...

We were able to get to Petra today as the dust has settled and I have to say it is one of the most beautiful things that I have ever seen. If I could I would post pictures of it, but let me just say that it is gorgesous, and a huge tourist trap, but still gorgegous. I ahve blown through several sets of camera batteries, but it was worth it. So here I am walking down this long narrow canyon with a cold and feeling fine. When it is decided that we need to walk up to the top of the mountain to see everything else. Well...let's just say that I am not hiking again for a very long time!!! What happened was this...

I was doing fine until about twenty minutes into the hike (we had already walked three to four miles at this point) when I started having trouble breathing, my throat was hurting worse, and my energy was failing. We were about a third of the way up when we came to these stair, that according to Dr. Finlayson were "not very bad and not very long". Well, flash forward an hour and I'm not even up the stairs, sweating profusly, having trouble breathing, and feeling like I am going to throw up. So I kept being told "it's just around the bind" and "one more flight of stairs and it will flatten out..."

On several times there were more than one flight of stairs and it never did flatten out. I finally rounded the corner and the group that had gotten there before us gave "us" a standing ovation. Well for two hours I layed on a couch with a cold bandana on my face trying to cool down. They think I was on the very of heat stroke. But I made it down safely, the stairs were scary, but at least I didn't fall off a cliff or get run over by a donkey...yet.

So here I sit with ten hours of dust and dirt all over me, trying not to swallow because it hurts too much, and trying not to talk because somewhere in the day I lost my voice...And to top it all off we still don't have any hot water.

I have to be running, we have a dinner appointment tonight and all need showers, with no hot water, but that is where we stand right now. We are leaving for Damscus in the morning to pick up the excavation equipment and then we start digging in a few days in Palmyra. I'm not sure what tonight or tomorrow will bring, hopefully not heat stroke or pneuminia, but as of this moment I am alive, but barely...

Take care one and all and I'll talk to you all soon.