...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Thursday, March 27, 2003
      ( 8:32 AM )
 
In Country

My Dad shared with me this morning some of the letters he's been sending Brother Jon since the latter was deployed to the Gulf four weeks ago. Each letter is a segment of a story about his arrival in Vietnam and all the starkly bizarre things he saw and heard as he made his way through his first days in combat in 1969. His descriptions reminded me of a Joseph Heller story and found myself lost in his words, reading stories I'd never heard him tell before. I guess my brother's position and location right now have drawn out a lot of memories for my Dad. Something they might have in common that he can share with his son amdist a swirling conflict. It was a sobering reminder to me of how many people in our country and around the world will never be the same because of war. It's a tragedy that war has to shape so many people's lives.

Holiday from Political Science Class

Today I am starting the first of two days off from work because we are packing up our apartment and moving into our first home. We found that with the low interest rates, actually purchasing a home would give us lower monthly payments than continuing to rent an apartment. It's definitely a fixer and requires a ton of work, but it is ours and we're finally moving in. So I will be offline for several days until the computer gets set up. I am hoping that the transition is not too traumatic for the Kid and that once we are there, he will happily begin to explore his new surroundings. Right now he is yelling at me that he is ready for breakfast. It is good to be able to feed a child, to take a break from the cloud of war and tragedy. But it's never out of my mind. How can it be?

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