...and I thought I had seen it all after walking by a ski slope in the middle of the mall tonight--in a country with 90+ degree heat in winter. Apparently, I am living in the twilight zone. That's how I've been feeling as of late...with the financial crisis that just keeps going and going, piracy on the high seas (really? is this 2008?), fighting in the Congo, the election of a Black president of the United States, and all of a sudden I'm living in the Middle East in an apartment which is equidistant from the biggest mall in the world and the tallest building in the world. Now this...
And in the latest twilight zone news: the most expensive launch party ever was held at the Atlantis Palm Jumeirah in Dubai tonight, on a man made island no less...the party cost approximately $30M and featured fireworks that were seen from space... with only $2,000 guests, including Oprah. Some of the other guests are below. The Atlantis is made with 58,000 km of steel bars, which is more than 9 times the length of the Great Wall of China.
Left: Charlize Thereon, one of Hollywood's best dressed in my humble opinion...but I'm still trying to understand her shoes. Right: Mischa Barton wears a Grecian inspired one-shouldered dress.
Mary Kate sans Ashley
I am so confused by this all. On the one hand, my mantra is: "life is short, live it up" and all sorts of variations of "c'est la vie", but on the other hand, I feel very guilty--by association--I mean, I'm not doing anything ridiculous (except for a moment of weakness while "window shopping" online today, I cancelled the order within an hour!), but everyone around me is.
And just when I was starting to think the suggested attire was a long white dress...
Kylie Minogue was paid $4M to perform
Bollyood star Priyanka Chopra
And, so as much as I'm enjoying my time here --I'm not ungrateful, I'm having a great time living and working here--I'm a little disoriented. I really just don't know how to feel. I definitely feel a sense of shame after experiencing some of the things that I have in the past month. Anyway, this post is more personal than usual. Excuse the ranting.
Lindsay Lohan and Michael Jordan were there...
Want to live on the Palm Jumeirah? Take a peek at my pic of miniature replica homes on the man-made island.
Just for the record, had I been invited I would have gone to the Atlantis grand opening party tonight, and would have enjoyed it. But, I still think it's bizarre that in times like these folks can spend so much on something so trivial. What's wrong with having a $15M party?
