Of love and war

So, it seems that in my excitement over having rounded the corner on my first year in LA, I overlooked another important anniversary this weekend - our country's three year mark at war. I don't remember where I was exactly when the war began (unlike when I learned the news of the Gulf War in Ms. Beshke's 9th grade English class), but I do remember how I spent that St. Patrick's Day weekend: doing the New York Times Sunday Crossword under a tree in Central Park with a boy who would later teach me what a bitter broken heart really felt like. Boo for March of '03 and kicking off things that probably shouldn't have been started in the first place.

A few weeks after that first date we came home from brunch at the Plaza and learned that NBC News Correspondant David Bloom had died. Bloom had been reporting from the desert in his then-groundbreaking mobile newsroom, and suffered a fatal pulmonary embolism from, essentially, doing his job for too long without stretching his legs. When we turned on TV, the news was covered on every channel through the various graphics and news crawlers that were so popular in the months that followed 9/11. Barely weeks into the war, we had lost our first recognizable figure, one who was widely considered to be a rising star in the unfolding drama.

It was a shock to me; he had been on the Today Show every morning, and, like we do with many TV stars, I had developed a sense of familiarity about him - like if we met, we'd be good friends. The boy was crushed. A fellow news reporter who actually bore a resemblance to Bloom, I noticed that day, he took the news hard. I don't know all of his personal reasons, but I can only assume he felt some kinship - on a greater level than my imaginary friendship - and that losing Bloom to the job they both loved was like staring a losing battle in the barrel of the gun and going in anyway.

I think the boy is a producer now, or at least picking up some work as an extra. The war, on the other hand, is still fighting the same battle it was three years ago.