No, "Thanksgiving in Iraq" isn't necessarily a contradiction...

...I mean, there was turkey, ya dig? I have to admit though, I was actually more excited about Halloween this year than Thanksgiving. Believe me, I was all about ghost stories and such (partially because sitting around sharing taotao mona stories reminded me of home). I didn't publish a Halloween post, of course, because of the loss of two of our guys (see previous post). My mind was elsewhere. Thanksgiving, however, even though I almost completely forgot about it, left me with a definite, profound, physical reaction, so I guess I can't help but post something about it. So here goes...

There was a lot of food, and I ate too damn much of it.

Otherwise, it was a lot like any other day. And what am I thankful for? I'm thankful that we thus far haven't taken more casualties, that my friends and family haven't forgotten me even though my communications with them tend to be few and far between (sorry about that!), and most of all I'm thankful that we'll be heading home soon. I can't say when exactly, but soon. Of course, I'll be even more thankful when we're actually home. I'm also thankful that today, my buddy recieved the autographed picture of Tera Patrick that he promised me. The visage (and otherwise) of that great mult-ethnic goddess who straddles the porn world as a colossus now occupies a special place in my locker, next to my big-ass "Women of the Real World and Road Rules" calendar which has featured Miss November (AKA that Christina chick from "The Real World Paris") since around May or so. And isn't that what the holidays are all about?