You Gotta Do Wyoming

My friend Tracy just called to tell me I need to go to Wyoming. I would slay in Wyoming. The college kids would petition Hollywood and make me a star. That was very kind of Tracy. It is kind of her to look out for me. Unfortunately, I have more important things to tend to. Like fake apartment hunting and admiring my fading beauty in a hand mirror and googling love interests' ex-girlfriends for a half hour. Here, I am not kidding. Folks, how is a girl to make it?

A Vietnamese landlord hugged me today when I told her I just got back from Vietnam. Poor lady. Now she is in America, where yuppie girls fake apartment hunt for their own amusement. If you ever get tired of being you, just come up with a fake name, fake situation and start looking for Apartment for Rent signs. "Yes, I am looking for a three bedroom. It would be me and my two adopted children. My husband, their father, is out on the road. You guessed it, steak knife sales..." Am I really fake apartment hunting? Perhaps I really am interested...These cards. I hold very close to chest. Yes?

Folks, the book recommendation of the day is the beautifully written Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Anthony Shahid. I'm only on page 27 so PLEASE hold your questions. So far, of note:
--"Nobody walks into a room in the Arab world without being greeted. Nobody." That's great. If it's true.
--"They're going to burn the forest to kill the fox," says one Iraqi artist nervously, days before the Americans come.
--You really get the sense that these Iraqis are far more sensitive, worldly, and informed than George Bush could ever hope to be. The absurdity of the situation sickens you--the idea that this nitwit from Texas has the power to terrorize these people in an ancient land on the other side of the world.
--Iraqis don't frequently use the word for freedom, but the word for justice comes up often. Here in America we're really heavy on the freedom, and not so into the justice lately it seems. We use the word for freedom in ads for cell phone plans and maxi pads and pills. Justice and fairness, that ain't our bag.