T-4: boiled garlic & specialty underwear.

well, here we go. Four days before my plane to Afghanistan & I'm curled up on the couch with a serious headcold. sleepy, coughy, with a headache that persists unless i pour a steady stream of honeyed tea down my throat. i'm popping boiled garlic cloves because the raw ones make me cry.

Don't know why i got sick. Perhaps it's stress. Or the weather. Maybe it was the late night i spent at REI stocking up on wicking fabrics and specialty underwear.

As it happened, the REI salesguy was a special forces marine who had just returned from Afghanistan. (I've given up being surprised at how many strangers I meet turn out to have just been or about to go.) He was very helpful, said he'd email me a better place to find a first aid kit - "what you need they don't sell here." (Ominous but kindly.) Unfortunately, my mom was shopping with me, which led to the following exchange:

MOM: So you were just in Afghanistan? How is it over there?
MARINE: It's bad. And it's gonna get a lot worse.
MOM: Really.
MARINE: Yes Ma'am. Taliban are going to try their best to make life highly difficult.
MOM: Oh my.
ME: Hello? Um, yes. Sir? Yes I just wanted to introduce my mother? this is my mom.
MARINE: Nice to meet you.
ME: So, uh, let's just keep it, um... [horizontal hand chopping gesture].
MARINE: Well the good thing is the people have decided what they want. The Afghans. They don't want the Taliban. They want freedom and democracy. We're going to see a new Afghanistan pretty soon.
ME: Well, great!!
ME: So... how about that there underwear?