Lanky-town

I'm dreaming of a Lanky Thanksgiving....Hee! Can't wait to go to Roots and get a whoopie pie, have lunch at I's, hang out in the hot tub, have taco dip, go to the craftshow, see old friends and co-workers, and spend quality time with my very favorite people in the world. (Scott, sorry I'm going to miss you:<) Safe travels and see you all soon! Mwah!

I'm waiting......

for the other shoe to fall. It's inevitable, really. Now it's just a question of how much longer it will be. And I had really hoped that for once, that would not be the case.

This is for Carl.....

Here it is--my something worth publishing (well, not really, but something a little more substantive than say spam re: topical creams;>). So, last month J. and I went to see a photo exhibit featuring images taken during the war in Iraq. We went in support of the son of someone I work with who had recently returned from a TOD in Iraq. Dr. D is an M.D. in the Army and he put together this exhibit as the result of a promise he made to many soldiers to show these snapshots of what they were seeing everyday. Apparently, the Army now issues small cameras along with BDUs and supplies and the photos we saw were taken almost exclusively by soldiers in the Army, with the exception of a few taken by Marines.

Now, what we saw really does defy description, at least in my opinion, but I am going to try and explain as best I can some of what we saw. We saw images of children burned by phosphorus whose faces were horribly disfigured; soldiers playing soccer and football in the sand; patients being operated on on top of a dirty floor; soldiers sharing bottles of water with women and children; crying soldiers standing at a memorial of a fallen friend; a bloody leg that lay smoking in the middle of a road; bombed vehicles with burned bodies scattered about; Iraqi's kissing the hands of American soldiers; and more children with phosphorus burns. I cannot do justice to the images we saw, but I can tell you how very difficult it was to see and I was glad that I didn't see it alone. It's taken me a month to even put this on my blog because it has been hard to share what we've seen, albeit from the safety of an art gallery in Cincinnati.

And despite the few images of Iraqis who were obviously grateful for the presence of the American soldiers, there is nothing that I saw that ever made me feel that this war was justified. Not that I ever felt that it was justified, but here we are *trying* to rebuild Iraq, more soldiers are dying, and our government is too chicken to admit that we screwed up. And to me, the good that may result in the long run (new goverment, improved quality of life for women, etc.) will never be enough to justify the death of the innocent. So, there's my something worth publishing even if it did take me a month to get it up here.

The Offer......

Well, I got *the offer* on Friday. It's a great offer and, more than likely, the only one at this point. It's just not a good time to look for jobs in the UW system. I plan to accept in about 2 weeks once a few remaining details are hashed out, but now I'm struck by the realization that I will be living in Cincinnati (where 3-way means chili) for at least the next 2-3 years. Not that this is a bad thing, I really like it here, but it feels sort of strange. I had been hoping to return to the East Coast so that I could be closer to my favorite people and places but I guess that will have to wait a couple more years. I really do like it here. I like my job and my friends and the town (conservative though it may be) and the new boy (everyone, say hello to Jeff) and it's really nice not having to move. Well, I might move, but just to a bigger apartment. So, the offer......it's a good thing, as Martha would say. Time to get back to work.....