McFish for lunch, filet mignon for dinner: or, why it's not hard for me to move around

Sorry for the radio silence, readers; it's been a hell of a week and will be a hell of a next few weeks, so you're going to have to be a bit patient with your old embed in Palestine.

In any case, I got some interesting emails in response to my post on being in the development industry; it seems some think I may be about to blow. I'm not. Never fear; I may be here in Palestine, but I'm still the same old G. My heart is drinking a beer on a boat in Cape Cod, ideally while fishing; no worries there.

I also got a lot of feedback from people who, in essence, had stayed still since college. Never left New York, or never moved from their group of friends, or always had the same job. I get that - it's scary and sad to move, not to mention logistically a real pain in the ass. So why do I do it?

Well, I think it boils down to, I've always just been expected to. My parents got divorced when I was little, and my dad moved across the country to Florida and then California. I flew by myself for the first time at 6 years old. Tough little thing, I guess. Yes, in many ways I'd prefer to not talk about, this sucked, but in one major way, this was the greatest gift I've been given.

My parents were, and are, opposites, and for this I am so eternally, endlessly thankful. I'd fly to my dad's and be greeted with: "McFish are 39 cents today, it's Wednesday! Guess where we're going for lunch? I love Chateau McDuck!" To my look of dismay, he'd counter with "well, cheeseburgers are 39 cents too. And go to bed early, we're waking up at 4 am to go fishing." Well, ok then. I'd fly in to my mom's and be greeted at the airport with a harried 'put this on!' while shoving a dress at me, 'we have a fundraiser tonight'. She'd look in horror at my perennially unbrushed hair and pale face, hand me a brush and some lipstick (all this while driving 80 down a one way street) and say her classic line: 'you need a little color'. By this she meant, so much bright red lipstick. I sort of just happily acquiesced to both modes of living. Why not? McFish, fundraiser: two great options.

So when you plop me down with a goat head for dinner, or tell me I have to sit in the back of a car with three large breatfeeding women for five hours while driving over a mountain pass without a road, or set me up in a house with no hot water but so many cockroaches - yup. Can do. No prob. Guess that's how this will be now.

That's about all I have to say on this matter. I've done some great travelling in Palestine lately, with one of my best friends who visited. That was a gift; our friendship is a gift. I'm going to Jordan tomorrow for work/hiking in Petra, coming back to Ramallah for a day, then off to London for a conference, seeing my mom, and eating so much seafood and pork products. Maybe even a McFish. We'll see how lucky I get.