YOKOSUKA, JAPAN -
Sitting here in a Percocet induced haze, balancing my laptop on the bag of frozen peas that are delicately wrapped around my bits-n-pieces, it occurs to me that the guy who just took a scalpel and a cauterizing rod to my scrotum could use some constructive criticism.
YOKOSUKA, JAPAN -
I learned how to set a broken nose from a Little League umpire.
I remember Hank Shied clearly. He always smoked a pipe between innings, and I loved the smell. His lip had a calloused spot where his pipe rested against it. He had reddish-brown hair and a redder full beard. He had a deep voice, which surprised me because he was skinny. He wasn’t very tall, and I think he slouched a lot. But, he also had a flair for drama. When Hank was behind the plate everyone knew it. He rung-up 9-year-old kids like it was the seventh game of the World Series.
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YOKOSUKA, JAPAN -
On the day we conceived our first child, my wife and I had $32 and some change in our bank account. I was a second-year-law student, unemployed, and well on my way to racking up $80,000 in student-loan debt and another $22,000 in credit-card debt. My wife worked part time. During the summer break between my first and second year of law school, our impecunious state caused my wife to take a job in New York while I took a job in New Orleans. At the end of the summer, on the day her employer went bankrupt, he owed her about about $9000 in back pay.
Naturally, we decided it was the perfect time to get her knocked-up.
YOKOSUKA, JAPAN -
In Afghanistan, death is a much bigger problem than it is in the United States.
According to the CIA Worldfact Book, the average Afghan newborn will only live about 46 years, if lucky. Afghanistan has the world’s second highest infant-mortality rate – 166 out over every 1000 children die in their first year – and the second worst maternal-mortality rate – 1,900 deaths out of every 100,000. In Afghanistan, just staying alive is a challenge.
I learned this because in September of 2007 the U.S. Navy sent me to Kabul.
