in memory of steve

my friend steven gill was killed last week in Iraq. i didnt find out till today at work when i happened to run across the article on statesman. com. with the news came a mix of feelings -shock...sadness...grief.

i met steve in highschool and the interesting thing is i didnt like him much then. he continuously gave me a hard time and it drove me crazy...later he confessed it was his way of "flirting." i told him he sure had a weird way of showing it. post high school we somehow kept in touch and i started to get to know him as a real person...as a friend. we kept in touch while he went to concordia in IL, when he came back to austin, and still when he left for the marines. we'd catch up every few months or so thru phone or IM when he was home for a holiday or on a break from some sort of training. even last year we were thinking of taking a trip to vegas with some other people but then he was called back 'to duty' earlier than expected, so plans fell thru.

in highschool we had a class together right before lunch so when we were walking to our cars for off campus lunch he would always ask me if i was going to buy him lunch that day. and every day i said, nope. last time i talked to him he said that the next time we were both in the same city he would treat me to dinner to make up for all the times he would ask in highschool. guess ill never get that free meal...but its not really the meal ill miss.

war is real...and scary...and it took something tragic for it to become real to me. when it comes to worldwide news i generally dont stay informed bc i feel like it doesnt directly affect me. well, i guess it affected me this time. pray for the people that are fighting for us...because every one of them is someones husband or wife or mother or father or son or daughter or sister or brother or friend etc...