Some words [to go with photos]

I don't have much time, but I wanted to write some words to correspond with the slew of photos that were posted to mark events. Sunday was possibly the most polarized day I will ever spend on earth. The afternoon was dedicated to a lesson in shooting. The Staff Sergeant commended my abilities, although I'm still not certain that he doesn't have to compliment his girlfriend...especially when she's armed :) I was proud of myself both for aiming and hitting the target in accordance [kind of], and also for braving the unknown. I'm a girly-girl to the core, but Sunday afternoon I shelved the princess tiara for ear and eye protection and pretended for an hour or so that I was someone else. It was nice break.

The evening brought me back to my usual self in a kind of overdrive. A friend of mine, whose boyfriend is also in the army and in Iraq, came over to spend the evening [and into the morning] baking more cookies than my kitchen has certainly ever seen at once. It's funny how loving one suddenly makes you susceptible to caring about them all. The least we could do was bake and ice and sprinkle a few pieces of home [200+ cookies]. Cumulatively, we catered to 68 troops...all of her boyfriend's platoon and my adopted soldiers [plus 20]. While I am lucky [lucky, lucky, lucky] to have The Staff Sergeant here, I've befriended or renewed friendships with a couple of girls who love their guys despite the divide. It's a different kind of commitment with different kinds of trials, and I'm awed often at their strength. I hope when my time comes I can be half as tenacious as they are. Because we could and because we love our two soldiers, we baked to keep vigil. I cannot ever do more than imagine what it's like to be at war for Christmas, but I'd like to think that a humble token of sugar cookies and the knowledge that someone blocked out time and energy just for me, because I was [at war] would at least make me smile. And even I know that sometimes that's enough.