Banal Yet Surreal

Sometimes, every once in a while, I forget that I'm in a war zone. I have three email accounts here, a cell phone, air conditioning, a gym, pool, books, and good food that I don't have to pay for. Yesterday I went to pick up my laundry -- ready in two days rather than the promised three because customer service is a priority -- and when I pulled out my wallet to pay for it, the staff looked at me quizzically and said, "But Sir, it's no cost." I think I've spent all of $10 here, all on mocha frappes at the Green Beans, the 24-hour lounge/cafe in the middle of the freakin' embassy complex.

Well, I guess that doesn't count the military-approved ballistic Oakley sunglasses I purchased at the PX my first day here. (But I used my credit card, so it doesn't really count.) I also bought replacement clear lenses and a hard case that I later realized I wouldn't be needing -- and have unsuccessfully gone three times to try to get a refund. Unsuccessfully not because the PX has a policy against refunds -- that would be bad customer service again -- but because the credit card machine is temperamental in the special Oakley store part of it. The last time I got a bit frustrated and the clerk responded, "Relax dude, it's not my fault -- we're in Iraq."

That's the thing, I could understand if the store didn't take credit cards, or didn't offer refunds -- reasonable under the circumstances -- but once you raise expectations, well, expectations are raised.

Also, while the PX has plenty of flat-screen TVs, the latest DVDs, magazines, laptop peripherals, and all the rest one would find in at a decent (albeit small) Walmart -- as well as a nearby Subway and Burger King -- it's out of what I most need, an alarm clock. Though "that's on order, sir, so any day the convoy should bring them."

It's funny really: Here I am getting annoyed about having to spend a bit more time going back and forth to the PX when there are helicopters and missiles flying overhead at all hours, and car bombs killing scores of people a couple of miles away...

Sometimes you just have to smile and shake your head and get back to work.