horribleness and happiness on Halloween

First with the horrible part, I suppose. A colleague of mine was injured in Afghanistan this weekend, by an improvised explosive device. He's got burns and sight and hearing problems right now, but he's alive and he'll heal and he's on his way back home. A soldier he was with, as I understand it, didn't make it. When I learned he was off to Afghanistan and the project he was working on, I was worried something like this might happen. I don't know him too well, but what I do know of him, he's a warm guy with a sense of humor and joie de vivre that I appreciate. This is why I hate war.

We have a friend stationed in Iraq at the moment, too. I haven't worried too much about her because I don't think she's seeing direct combat per se. But damn. I do worry about her mental health on her return; depending on what she's been exposed to, I suppose. Trauma like surviving an explosion, or battle or whatever, fundamentally changes you. I'm keeping both of them in my prayers as well as the family of the fallen soldier.

Now for the happiness (because that's what gets us through the day, right?):

Ein - I learned today we will be getting a full week off of work at Christmas. Whee! I'm sure it's unpaid, but a week off is a week off. I'll take it.

Zwei - Cute costumes tonight. We had a toddler Mad Hatter accompanied by a grown up Alice. A teenaged girl with a lime green spiderweb and plastic barbed wire around her neck. ("Are you a psychedelic spiderweb?" "No, I'm a dustbunny - and would you believe, some people keep barbed wire behind their couch?!") A ninja with vampire teeth. I kept trying to insist he was a vampire ninja, but he swore he wasn't. A quartet of 10-year-old girls: a witch, a devil, an angel and something else. A cat burglar.

Drei - Wonderfully friendly children. Some good friends trick or treated by our house tonight and brought with them a friend and her sons. I'd only ever met the boys once or twice before. They're 4 1/2 and 2 1/2 years old respectively. The girls as always were delightful - excited to find participation ribbons on Babydog's crate. The boys were just adorable. As they were all leaving to hit up more houses, the 2 year old (dressed in a Jiminy Cricket costume) flung his arms up for a hug. Then he stuck his tongue out and started humming. So I hugged him and picked him up under his arms and held him in front of my face. I copied his face and sound and the two of us were there, at arms length face to face, tongues protruding humming against eachother. I think he could've done that all night. It was awesome!