Juxtaposition

Joe called me this morning just before my alarm went off. I'm always happy when my phone rings at that time because it's always him calling me to say hi. I started telling him how I had this really frustrating day yesterday. I went to bed early last night because I just needed to force my self to take a break. While I was watching Without a Trace I felt the baby moving around a lot. I looked under the covers and the next time she kicked, I actually saw my stomach move. My first reaction was "Creepy" and my second reaction was "Do it again." Despite the "alien" feelings, this has been a really fun part of pregnancy.

Usually I tell Joe this stuff via e-mail but today I got to tell him on the phone and hear his reaction. He was very excited and it was very rewarding to share the moment with him and to hear him be excited too. We talked for a few more seconds, and then Joe said "Hold on" and I heard this voice talking the background.

I could tell the voice was someone who had just received an incident report. I heard him say "...bomb at vicinity grid A57392724 [the location on the map]. We have two severely wounded soldiers...." and at that point I could tell Joe clamped his hand over the phone because I couldn't understand what the guy was saying anymore.

This sort of thing always leaves me very unsettled in a variety of ways. What stands out the most is that somewhere, someone else is just waking up, worried about their soldier. The news is coming to them - they just don't know it yet.

[eta: I just lifted this from the NY Times:

The American military said a roadside bomb north of Baghdad killed one American soldier and wounded two more at about 1:30 p.m. today during a patrol.

I suspect this is the same incident I heard about. It was about 1:45 pm there (6:45 am here) when I hung up the phone.]

GIP

Look at my new icon! Made just for me!

Thanks very much to maidengurl