As much as I try to not let it bother me too much, the war is really getting me down. Our own people are dying, and if you watch any of the foreign press, you see that civilians are dying and being injured as well, stuck in inadequate medical facilities. It's not a pretty thing.
Things are disturbing at home on two fronts. The first is in the realm of public opinion. One of our local TV stations aired an e-mail message from some guy who absolutely didn't get it. He just went off on people not supporting the war, confusing the fact that those opposing it aren't anti-troops. How fucking stupid does the guy think people are? At this point, all anybody wants, for or against, is for our people to achieve quick resolution and get home.
The second problem is that, with casualties mounting in our own military and Iraqi civilians, the pressure is on more than ever to find the "weapons of mass destruction" that we said were there. This entire invasion is based entirely on the idea that Saddam has these weapons. If he doesn't, somebody in Washington has a lot of explaining to do.
So while I pretend to not care too much about what's going on, I try to keep things "normal" around me. We had a small party with just some of our closer friends on Friday night. It was nice to have the close friends there together, especially since I haven't seen some of them in awhile. We had beers and a little DDR and talked about "good old times."
Sunday, Steph and I had lunch at Red Robin and did a little shopping. I picked up one of those new Gameboy Advance SP's, because I'm a gadget geek. I needed something that I could use to kill time at volleyball tournaments and on airplanes, so it was a fairly worthy impulse buy.
We also watched the Oscars. It's weird how, in some strange way, beautiful movie stars make me feel better, I guess in that there's something nice and "pretty" in the world, outside of my wife and family. Catherine Zeta-Jones is still beautiful, even though she's about to explode with a baby. Julianne Moore is still striking over 40. Salma Hayek and Jennifer Lopez still keep that fire for the Latin ladies. Renee Zellweger is cute, but God I wish she's put some pounds on. I dunno, that was about all I got out of the Oscars. It's only about how pretty the actresses can be.
And speaking of being pretty, Stephanie is at home right now playing with hair color. Everybody loves the red hair, now she's touching up and dealing with the roots. It's an involved process with many steps, but the payoff is worth it. I think she gets to be more and more cool every year. That's my wife!
So there you have it... strange thoughts in strange times. It's so hard to get perspective. I wonder what's going through the heads of my volleybal kids right now.
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