The Circus

Apologies to my small but loyal readership for the lack of posts. As I'm sure some of you were wondering, I got my wrist slapped (yes Tommy, just my wrist) for posting on the reconstruction efforts. It was probably justified given my current role over here.

So, for now at least, I'll give in to the Man and focus my posts on the mundane absurdities of life in Iraq. For instance, in the midst of a unprecedented civil unrest and violence due to the bombing of the Shi'a holy site last week, we had not one but two parties this weekend. The first one was an "Arabian Nights" theme held outside under tents with Iraqi food, shisha (water pipe), belly-dancing and libations (okay, not everything was in theme!). The following night, we hosted the "Bag-Daddies" - the International Zone's very own cover band. They put on a great 2-hour set in the courtyard in front of Susan & my house. We even had a bonfire, built inside an old Humvee tire rim.

Susan and I watched the movie "Jarhead" last night about a Marine in the first Gulf War. At the end of the movie, the main character narrates "we turn the inside of our hootch into a circus, and inside of this circus we cannot be injured, inside of our circus we cannot be touched."

"But we are insane to believe this."