Sarene, you are already missed!

I am having a rough morning. On the one hand, now that Ramadan, and the feast holiday Eid that celebrates the end of the month of Ramadan have concluded, everyone is back in the office, laughing, chatting, and drinking tea and Nescafe. On the other hand, I found out that a close, longtime friend of my mom’s died yesterday. We had known she was sick only a short while so the end seemed to come very suddenly. She made beaded jewelry and beads, being so small, inexpensive, and easy to pack, were always something I would look for in my travels to bring home for her. I had already scouted out a couple Egyptian jewelry shops.

I wish I could be home to give my mom a hug.

I also have a miserable headache from breathing in God-knows-what the last two days. It was just me in the closed office with two smokers yesterday, then last night my roommate caught a hoard of ants mounting a guerilla attack on her cereal box, freaked out, and sprayed a noxious cloud of ant poison around the kitchen floor without any warning (not like I could have run for my gas mask or oxygen tank if I’d known what she was going to do, but I could have opened a few windows). The smell of poison (which at least now I know what poison smells like – bonus!) still lingered this morning, along with the early morning smell of pollution rising from the street 8 stories below my apartment. I think I have developed smoker’s lung in 2 weeks.

My supervisor, Mark, came in today with fire-engine red eyes. He and his wife have adopted a second street kitten that he might be allergic to. Yesterday he wore his glasses but he thought he was better and came in with his contacts today so now that his eyes are burning, he doesn’t have the glasses here to switch to. So basically both of us are cranky and in pain. Going to be an awesome day.