the shame

we just got back from an evening at manar mall. let's just say that the day wasn't a good one to begin with, and when i thought it was getting better, it just crashed and burned.

to prime you on my mental state of affairs - julian was up for at least 1-2 hours last night freaking out about staying in his crib. sleep deprivation doesn't help me or him. we were supposed to go out to the store to pick up some stuff this afternoon, but he protested leaving. i figured i'd give him a few minutes to collect himself and then get going. and then he pooped.

and wouldn't sit still to have me change him. and i tried everything, believe me. everything except trying to rip it off and chase him around the house to get him cleaned up. i am NOT cleaning up every inch of the house because he's in the mood to be difficult. fast forward 3 hours and he still wasn't changed. disgusting. he finally let serge change him when he got home, and we promptly stuck him in a bath.

we decided to go out and get food (yummy indian food - chicken tikka and like a mountain of paratha). just as i was letting the carbohydrate buzz soften my mood, i have a moment of shame in the carrefour produce section.

i'm standing there trying to find some decent ginger root, as is a woman next to me. i comment on how the ginger is all bad, and she notices that the good pieces are way up top, so she calls over a produce guy to get it down for us. then she asks me, "where are you from?" and i say, "the US." so she goes, "oh, you're american. you americans ruined iraq. i'm from iraq. it's terrible." 

i guess i'll be telling people i'm swiss from now on. 

more than that, i wish the people who got us and the rest of the world into this mess would wake up and smell the coffee. serge was saying there was an article in the paper today about pakistan, and i can't remember who was quoted, but they basically said that the americans came into this/that region of the world to try and organize everything, and basically, chaos ensued. a "thanks for nothing". i don't know. i know everything is complicated, but we certainly get a much different picture of what's happening than that of what is broadcast in the US. 

and it's depressing.