My brother in the National Guard is being deployed.
I guess he told my parents about a week ago, and when I was talking to my mom on Thanksgiving, she let it slip. I freaked out, freaked the fuck out.
His unit has been called and he will be stationed in Afghanistan, leaving in the middle of 2008. He will be a medic, and fuck man, I am scared. He will be there for one full year. One year! Christ.
I guess I am still kind of numb from the news. It's been on my mind quite a bit, and I can only imagine how my parents feel, compounding this with all the other shit that is going on. I talked to him on Thanksgiving and he seems OK with it, but really, who knows? I won't even see him for our visit in two weeks as he will be at some training. My God.
I really don't know what else to say about it.
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Even with that news on my mind (and tons of other things), I still managed to have a pretty good Thanksgiving. I picked Julia up and I was just SO happy to see her. It's amazing how she can make bad things go away. Anyway, we went over to Tina and Gina's for a big feast, and it turned out great. The turkey turned out great and both Julia and I ate so much. Julia played with Gina in her room and Tina and I got to hang out quite a bit which was nice. I opened up to her about a lot of things, and wow, we have very deep conversations about our life experiences. I dig that. I really never had anyone in my life who I communicate so well with. We talk about EVERYTHING. In fact, her and Gina and I all went out to dinner last night, and Tina and I have plans to go out tonight, which should be cool. Dinner and drinks, I guess.
Good news: Tina's best friend and my former neighbor Ali from Seattle will be visiting for Christmas, albeit it briefly. Tina and I and Ali will all go out on Christmas night and it should be great. I miss that kid. Ali and I always had such a great connection, so much so in fact that her and I applied to be on the Amazing Race. I found out later that we were immediately disqualified from contention because we didn't know each other for the minimum three years. Oh well. My brother Matt and I would win that whole fucking thing, but that dream is dead now.
Yesterday was Christmas Tree Day here at the Silly House! Julia woke up and tore in here and was all excited about getting started! We ate breakfast, turned the heat on (kinda cold here) and we began! As I put the tree together, I gave her the responsibility of getting all the ornaments out of the boxes and lining them up and getting them ready. We had such a great time, talking, laughing, listening to Christmas music. We had a pizza picnic in front of the tree, she put all kinds of Christmas window clings on the windows, and she put most of the ornaments on the tree. We even turned off all the lights and took a short nap right by the tree with her curled up next to me. Good stuff :) It's going to be a great Christmas and I'll post a pic of our kickass tree soon.
I really think that's about it. Oh -- major props to ABC to putting back on the air one of my favorite shows, October Road. I watched it Thursday night and it's on Mondays. Great show about a guy who comes back to town after 10 years and finds things have drastically changed. He's still in love with his old girlfriend, the chemistry is still there, but times have changed. She has a son, and the main storyline is the question if he is the kid's father. Great GREAT show with excellent secondary characters as well, including Eddie .... I picked up my shirts yesterday and spoke to that pretty girl there who digs me bigtime :) Anyway, she is very nice, but very Christian, and I'm sorry, but that's not my cup of tea .... Sara has actually texted me a few times stating she misses me, but I just don't have the heart to text her back. I'm quite disappointed that she has those mental problems (see below) because we seemed to have been a very good fit. Like I said, been there, done that. Besides, I have a daughter to protect. I'd really like to email her and just tell her how I am feeling, wishing things would be different, but I digress. It's really no use. Oh well, such is life .... today I am going to go shopping a bit and see what is going on. I'm keeping my eye out for a few new shirts and a new digital camera as my point and shoot shit the bed and I have been lugging around my professional camera recently. Great pictures, but no fun ..... I leave for Tampa on Thursday for the big show and then the following Thursday for home. Should be great, it'll be nice to get out of here for a while. It will be nice to see my friends and especially my family, who I miss dearly .... my friend Brad's wife let him know that he is getting served divorce papers sometime very soon. Poor kid. What a worthless whore she is. She'll get hers ..... So far, Julia is getting a Cinderella table and chairs and a crib for her babies for Christmas .... damn did I have a weird dream last night. Participants included Guns N Roses, my childhood friend Tony, and a birthday party for a cat which was very uncomfortable. Bizarre .... I might come home and paint a window today. We'll see.
Have a good weekend everyone and remember: the stupidest mistake in life is thinking the one who hurt you the most will never hurt you again.
