Bad start, better finish

[jay]

This morning, hopeforyou and I went down from Pasadena to Northrop/Grumman, in El Segundo, for a demonstration of their software for designing vehicle health management systems for future space vehicles. We were a bit late, and there were also lots of grey slides with too much extraneous information.

Then around 11am, a woman came in and exclaimed proudly, "Our B-2s are in the air now over Iraq!" I felt uneasy... even queasy. Northrop made the B-2s... while I could understand pride in one's handiwork, these things were killing people in downtown Baghdad while we were sitting there munching doughnuts in our meeting. Icky. I didn't say anything, and just turned away from her.

We left around 2pm, finally... then sat in creeping traffic on the 405 . But then the day improved markedly... I got to have lunch with Hope and shaktiqueen and her adorable toddler (smile). The food from a local restaurant was excellent, and shaktiqueen had made some chocolate-pecan cookies (whose crumbs I'm finishing off as I type this, back home). Then the delightful ame_chan arrived, with her two daughters (same ages as James and David), dog Pico, and her lovely red hair ;-). Followed by giaxcomo, home from work early. It was relaxing, friendly, and felt... somehow life-affirming, amongst the kids and dog and a mug of hot tea.

Then Hope and I left for home around 6pm, arriving about five hours later after a deep and diverse conversation during our drive back. :-).

Comments

[cathouse-blues.livejournal.com]

I had to walk out of the lunchroom yesterday at work. The armchair generals were in full force. I bit my tongue and held my peace why they bitched and moaned about how we should've levelled Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Russia back in '91, and how we should do that now. But I couldn't bear it anymore when they started talking about a supposed $14,000 bounty that had been put out for dead Americans. That was more than I could stand. I - politely as I could - asked them to change the subject, but they refused and started accusing me of not wanting to listen to the truth. I explained that those dead Americans they were talking about were my husband (estranged though he may be), his friends, my friends, and the husbands and wives of friends of mine. At this point in my life I don't want to have nightmares about Somalia. They still didn't get it, so I had to leave. And of course, I had nightmares last night about bodies being dragged through the streets. I'll never be able to explain how much I hate this.

[mikz.livejournal.com]

Even hearing about this secondhand made me queasy. Sorry that you had to go through such an experience!

I've linked to this entry in my most recent entry—hope that's okay.