Thanks, I'll try.
It's really not so bad here. *knock on wood*
Okay, it's bad, but nothing like you could perceive just by watching the news. You watch the news and you wonder how hundreds of us aren't being killed each day, which is really deceptive. In the green zone I feel safer than I have in several other countries. At least here we're always armed and can defend ourselves, as opposed to wandering around third-world shitholes with nothing but a Spyderco because some shithead RSO doesn't want to offend the locals... Outside the Green Zone (which isn't all that green, really) is another story. You never know what is going to happen. Could be nothing, could be instant death - it's pretty excruciating on the senses, but other than a couple of rockets and mortar or two very now and then, things aren't so bad. Then again, I'm not out patrolling Basra, Fallujah, or Mosul... Yet.
Yeah... Those poor fuckers... They're like super-underpaid policemen that get the shit worked out of them. I've heard they're so undermanned that the guys are working 12 hour days with a four hour watch six days a week or more. Sucks to be them, for sure.
thank you, yeah, went out with him again. it wasn't wonderful. now i just have to make sure that i can avoid him until he forgets about me--yeah, i'm THAT girl.
i hope you can enjoy the holiday. wish you were in the states to celebrate it!