Dorky ELF

Yesterday I flew to Dushanbe from Khujand. While the people were pushing and shoving and shouting and ricocheting off each other to get the registration table I noticed a foreign man with stark white hair standing some people away and his translator was with him who was Tajik. I asked the Tajik man if ALL of these people were going to Dushanbe. His answer was "Hopefully." I had seen the man only from the back and he was dressed really nicely but when he turned and looked at me I actually lost my thoughts for a few second. He was absolutely beautiful!!! I mean beautiful with a square face and a well defined jaw with a dimple in the middle of his chin. He of course had dark hair and dark eyes and five o'clock shadow. I actually cocked my head to the side and just admired his face and then woke myself up and was like "OH pay attention to what he's saying!" I was feeling all good, too, in my big, black, furry "Natasha" coat which makes me look sooo Russian. We chatted for some time and he reminisced about the days when men would let women and children on the plane first. I thought "Oh what a nice man." As it turned out the men don't let women and children on first anymore and people just MOB the check in counter. We were all tightly packed in with no order whatsoever and people had suitcases and bags with them. People who weren't flying were handing off bags of bread for random people to take with them on the flight. Khujand (allegedly) had the best bread in Tajikistan and people have grocery bags full of bread that isn't packaged but that they literally baked in their oven and were handing it to people to take to Dushanbe. I don't understand their system but their bread is pretty good! I digress.

So the nice beautiful Tajik man let me in front of him in line. I didn't see him on the flight and didn't see him again untl we were collecting our bags. We chatted and just talked about what we were doing in Tajikistan. I asked him his name and he gave me his card. He works for the UN DP in Dushanbe which is the United Nations Development Project and his English was better than perfect. I had to leave him because a woman on the plane insisted that she and her husband taking me to Bethany's (the Dushanbe ELF) house so I wouldn't have to get a taxi. Sadly, I had to leave. When I got to Bethany's house I had a ton of bags on me and I put them down and Bethany said "Oh, what's this on your back?" It turns out that one of the "Checked Through Security" stickers had come off one of my bags and attached itself to my back. There was NO WAY anyone wouldn't have noticed it. I thought "Smooth Sharon. Real smooth."