Not corporate Hollywood tonight

In the world of entertainment esp. TV we have guest stars. Well I enjoy being experimental as much as the next guy so rather than hearing from me today, I have invited a guest star "Mr BUA" to speak on my behalf with the topic of his choice. You see I am swamped today and he really wants his pie coffee at MidRats and we are quickly running out of time. So without further adieu… I present Mr BUA…

Your regularly scheduled blogger is trying to avoid the existential blues by staying one project ahead of himself. In his place he has left you in the completely incapable hands of Mr. Bua. This is the second entry I have typed tonight as Hollywood's guest blogger. The first was light and pithy, full of literary joys and wonder. It was as if I swept you up and whisked you down the highway to Baghdad. And it would have been completely full of crap. Therefore, by Hollywood's standards it would have been a blockbuster… but it also would have cheated you.

You'll be happy to know Hollywood is fitting in well here – he is slowly trying to take over all our operations and planning, all the while protesting about the obstacles being placed in his path. When he first arrived, Hollywood was destined to be the next Mr. Bua. It is good that did not happen. It happened to me and I am still trying to figure out where five months of my life went. I think what I find refreshing about him is that he actually, genuinely believes the Kool Aid he is trying make everyone else drink. Honestly, to see him get worked up over a project and head in to sell it to leadership is like watching Mr. Smith head to Washington. Now, you must believe me when I type that I am not writing this to garner his favor or play up to the home crowd (Hollywood and I still argue over whether or not any publicity is actually good publicity). But when I see him return from a trip around the IZ where has had a chance to interact with the people of Iraq, it is like watching an excited, little boy. I know, I have a little boy and they both blather on endlessly when they are excited.

Okay, he just kicked my chair and told me that I have to write something related to me and my time here. The other night Hollywood, Capt. Kj and I sat around at midnight chow talking for hours. We laughed harder than I have in months. I have been here longer than both of them and to be honest, over that time I have looked through the glass darkly while here. That laugh, that deep from your gut, thank goodness your bladder is empty or else you would have a problem, makes you gasp for air laugh was the best thing that has happened to me since I have been here. I owe them both for it too. You can lose yourself in your work here real easy. One day you are unpacking your seabag and the next thing you know it is five months later and you feel like you've aged a million years. You don't write home about it because you know the six o'clock news already has them worried enough about you. So a lot of us bottle up and trudge on, focusing on the work of trying to solve this riddle called Iraq. But work doesn't make you feel alive again – it's the people that do it. That laugh reminded me of who I actually am.

That's it for me. I need pie and coffee before I hit the rack for the night. If you get the chance, I encourage you to read any of Ernie Pyle's books. If a journalist wrote in that style today, he would be accused of propaganda and selling out, but to me no one brought the life and experiences of the average GI home better than he did during World War II. It is shame the home front doesn't have that understanding of today's GI, but maybe one of these bloggers will be able to get the job done. Maybe even Hollywood.