Gubbi of Arabia: Expat Life in Dubai

I blogged last week about the idyllic vineyards and puppies side of our recent trip to California. But because you know I always strive to paint an accurate and honest picture of my experiences, I thought I would share with you the flip side of our time in CA, in the form of terrifying revelations from a happy hour bar tab - look closely and I think you’ll share my terror at the following discoveries:

1. There are still Americans who name their children “Krystle.” In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, I am forced to assume that this moniker - and its particular spelling, evocative somehow of both the Southern hamburger chain Krystal and the word “gristle” - was selected without irony. 

2. Alex’s sixty-something father is referred to in official bar-tab speak as “Scottie Hottie” by Krystle and her colleagues, the blonde twenty-something bartenders at his neighborhood watering hole. 

3. There are apparently places in America where you can buy 8 drinks for $17.16, and yet we actively choose to live 10,000 miles away from those places in an alcohol-unfriendly Muslim country where we’re lucky to get 2 beers for $20. I can only interpret this as a sign of dangerously, perhaps tragically flawed decision-making… what will we do next?!