guitars and good-byes

Today I lay in bed dreading getting up because once again I stayed up too late by the pool. I wanted to sit with Angie for awhile last night but I’ve been sick and not much fun. I don’t know if its bacteria or stress. Anyhoo, she wasn’t home. So I walked out to the pool and ran into Pierce and Tom, the two guys playing the Gibson mini jumbo guitar. I sat with them and we sang some songs and eventually were joined by a two more guitar players and another five on-lookers. We sang the good songs again, Hank Jr, Randy Travis and the Eagles…then some more modern stuff that we were surprised those guitars knew how to play. I sang some REM and 4 Non Blondes and then there was the Green Day songs which sound awesome in a guitar circle. Simple is where its at and Green Day and “This One Goes Out To The One I Love” are simple. I finally walked back to my hooch around one.
This morning I sat in my office waiting for 0900 when the DCMA guy (Cliff) and I would go to the Convention Center to get people to sign sub hand receipts at the user level. I sipped coffee and knew Angie would be in soon to say good-bye. She came in giddy and anxious, a car bomb exploded rattling the windows, she wrote down her email address and phone number in my notebook. We chatted until Cliff came in. Then I gave her a hug and said good-bye. It’s a word some people say they don’t use but its an action we can’t avoid. Angie I know you’ll read this so know that you, along with Shane made my trip to Baghdad more than bearable – in some ways it was…fun and a time I’ll enjoy remembering. Maybe we will get together and pitch that song to that pretty Canadian girl once we both get back to the great Northwest.
At the Convention Center the property we’d inventoried a month ago was scattered to the wind with my name all over the hand receipt…such is life. Someone else will sign for it soon. Cliff and I walked over to the Al Rasheed for lunch. While there I bought a really nice oil on cloth painting. The guy wanted $100, I offered $60 and got it for $75. Its got lots of texture, almost like worked leather around the border which encloses a dark eyed Iraqi girl wearing a yellow dress with two red flowers in her hair. She might be Mexican instead of Iraqi but the painting is by a local artist in Riav Al Kizi (sp). The guy rolled it up and shoved it in a tube which I’ll likely mail home rather than carry.
Back at the palace I made my commercial travel plans. Six days and a wake up.