#partinggifts

[filipino76]

April Fool's Day, 2004. Day 1 of our mission as convoy security. My personal job was to operate the 50 caliber Browning M2 Machine gun, which usually placed my truck at the rear of the convoy, also known as the one to get attacked first. It was no joke arriving into Tikrit, Iraq. It was no joke what the parting gifts I would receive and carry for the rest of my life. To be honest, I would still do this all over again. Especially with the 1058th brothers and sisters I served along side with. It was an honor to serve alongside that group of heroes. #ptsd #ptsdawareness #airforce #navy #army #marines #1stID #combat #veteran #Iraq #OIF #aprilfools #2004 #partinggifts #1058 #family #brothersinarms

[divinelydirty]

''Twas a CHAOTIC day!!! But...one filled with only the hottest of jamz. #gregcartwright #partinggifts #vietcongpornsurfers #granderoyale #sugarplumfairy #diamonddogs #maharajas #flamingsideburns

[lundfud]

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So much sourdough. #breadmaking #bread #baking #partinggifts (at Seattle's Chinatown-International District)

[thingstotellmymom]

Last Gifts From My Mom

My friend called me today and discovered that you had died.  Every time I have to tell someone, it’s like you just died all over again.  She said that I was not to feel guilt over anything, because that’s common and she knows I did nothing wrong. (Of course I don’t agree.  I won’t ask if you do, I’m sure you’d find something wrong with my care of you those last 9 months.)  I said I feel guilt because I sometimes think I traded my mother for a new house, because it was my inheritance from you that I used for the down payment.  And she said, “Your mother was leaving. She was never going to stay.  You don’t think she is happy you live in a beautiful house now, and her gift enabled that?”

I hope you see it that way.  I hope you don’t think “Shit, I was barely cold and she made an offer on that house.”  Yes, the house I love, and you loved, with the woods and the deer in the yard, and the apple tree and the grape vines.  I wish you could have lived in it with me for your last few weeks, looking out the window at the deer eating all my apples. 

Is there time in the afterlife?  If there is, Happy New Year.