I was doing a very unique project.  On Monday May 28 2007, the CEO says, "there was a major terrorist attack in Lebanon yesterday." Let's do our Wednesday and Thursday strategy meetings in Lebanon instead of my office to show our support.  They could use our patronage.  Uh...okay...

So we all board planes and fly to Lebanon and have this beautiful gigantic resort all to ourselves.  Literally 15 of us and like 100 hotel staff to look after us in a luxurious resort (and "California" climate and topography, to boot) that had been frozen in the 1970s, the height of Lebanese grandeur before all the violence stopped all tourism for decades.  I swear there were ghosts there in those empty courtyards.

Anyway, I expected either Roger Moore or Don Henley to walk in at any moment.  It was so surreal to be in such a spacious, immaculate time capsule with bombs and smoke in the distance, being waited on and constantly served the best foods in the world.  Many of the Board members were smoking in the meeting rooms like it was still the 70's.  Belly dancers brought in to entertain in the evening.  "Hotel California" kept running through my head as I wondered if I would ever leave.  

I was right--getting back on that plane required the most effort (four hours of me shoving my way through crowds of desperate people who know how to shove back, trying to get out of Beirut) I've ever experienced, but every single time I hear that song, I am immediately transported back there.

The resort, if you're curious--it looks more updated now: