It was a good day

Today has been a good day. I had to do some driving around and for some reason, everything just looked a little better, or queer (in a good way), or flowing today. I caught myself wishing i had a video camera as i drove down the dusty street and just taking notice of the jolly little puffs of dust kicked up by the tires of the truck in front of me, and how everyone that i passed on the road seemed jolly, even a guy outside of his car with the hood and trunk open and a rag in his hand, obviously having some kind of problem. I noticed at that moment how the sun was setting and it was so red and nice and glowing and kind of making a really pretty picture in the sky even over this typically drab landscape. it all came alive with a warmth and somehow i landed on some weird baghdad radio station that was playing some nice western and westernized arabic pop music and it was all very upbeat and added to my general good mood. I was pulled over by some police for a random search and for some reason... maybe he sensed my good mood... he just asked me about being in the air force (because of my weird badge) and when he found out i was an 8 year army vet, he just waved me on through. The grey hairs in my beard must be working in my favor with the whippersnappers. I teetered on like that all the way until i got home, and the fijians were even especially good natured, waving me through with 'hello mr. mark' and 'bula bula'.

sooo.. the cool thing that happened was pretty minor, all things considered, but it was still pretty cool.

a few days ago, i helped one of the iraqi kids get out of hot water with his boss by rebuilding a pc and cleaning some virus infested thumb drives and he went home to baghdad on leave... when he came back he brought me a box of goodies from his local bakery and it was all so yummy...

one of them was like a flaky crust with dates, another had peanuts, and another had pistachios. The best tasting ones, I couldn't quite figure out what was inside, but they were all gone in an instant. So thanks to my dear Iraqi friend for the tasty treats, I'm sure it was a huge pain for him to cart all the way back here and deal with it on the bus and all the checkpoints, etc. so this was a huge deal for me. Heartwarming to say the least.

i was feeling well chuffed about that so i thought i'd share it.