Both my friends e-mail me once a week. Not as much as you do. It’s more of them just making sure I’m alive than wanting to talk. Not like our e-mails.

If you think you’re eating enough, you probably still aren’t.

What site did you sign up for? What’s your profile like?

I haven’t heard anything more about my R&R leave again….

-Aaron

P.S. For real though, don’t cry over your aunt’s BS, all right? You didn’t do anything wrong.

From: [email protected]

Date: February 15, 2009 10:55 p.m.

To: [email protected]

Subject: Friends

Aaron,

I know how important my heart is, smarty pants. Everyone else freaked out so much over the diagnosis, I couldn’t. Do you know what I mean? I’ll never forget hearing my mom crying in her bedroom or my older brother, Seb, blubbering to Jonathan (marine) about it in the kitchen while I eavesdropped. My dad flew to Houston right afterward, even though there wasn’t anything he could do about it. I felt so guilty over it. The surgery I had is a procedure called a catheter ablation. It’s with wires that are called catheters, with electrodes at the tip of each. They traveled through a vein into my heart and the electrodes emitted a radio wave that created heat and destroyed the extra tissue that caused the problems. I wasn’t even technically asleep during it, and I got to go home the next day. :) See? It wasn’t that bad.

I didn’t fake being sick, thank you very much. That was both my brothers, lol. I was the good kid who never did that.

For the record, I’d miss our e-mails too.

I would rather chew my arm off than ask anyone for money, but I will if I have to. The last time I asked my older brother to let me borrow twenty bucks because I’d forgotten my wallet, he tried to tell me I’d borrowed thirty. I know he was just messing around, but that’s how all my family members are. They’ll tease me for it forever. It isn’t a hassle asking for favors. It’s just a pain in the butt.

My aunt used to make all the dresses herself that weren’t from a catalogue. It was her who taught me the basics. I guess I just feel like I owe her or something. She used to be really nice, but she stopped being so nice when I was about ten or eleven for some reason. I know you’re right about how I shouldn’t let her bother me, and I know she could’ve handled that situation differently so that they could’ve gotten finished, but I can’t tell her that. She wouldn’t listen and I would just piss her off more. I’m dreading calling her back. I’m a little sensitive. I cry over all kinds of things. Just yesterday I watched a video about baby elephants and cried. You’ve even made me cry before. I just didn’t tell you.

Constipation on top of already getting dehydrated back then? That sounds like a nightmare. At least you don’t have to take the medication anymore.

Want me to start writing down what I eat everyday so it can pass your approval?

……(Chirping crickets.)

I signed up for pairsmeet dot com. One of my friends has done the dating site game and said this one had the least amount of creepy guys. They ask a ton and a half of questions first, and I still haven’t gotten through them all. I got a free three-month trial. They ask things like how do you feel about kids, what’s your ideal date, put in order the traits most important to you… etc, etc. I’m kind of excited, but it might just be the caffeine I had today for the first time in weeks. There’s this free website another friend told me about… I don’t know about it though. It kind of seems sleazy.

I hope you still manage to get to take your time off. :) I hate to seem nosey, but how many months do you have left on your deployment now? 3?

-Ruby

From: [email protected]

Date: February 16, 2009 12:08 p.m.

To: [email protected]

Subject: RE: Friends

Ruby,

Wires going to your heart that release heat and kills heart tissue, no big deal.

I’m being sarcastic if you can’t tell. I’ll keep my mouth shut for now, but… I get it. You already have two brothers, you don’t need another one.

Don’t let your aunt upset you or make you feel bad. You didn’t do anything wrong. If she doesn’t get that, it’s her fault.

Send me a link of the baby elephant video. :] Don’t cry for me either, Ru. I can handle it all.

Better constipation than diarrhea resembling a busted fire hydrant. Once, a lot of us got food poisoning from bad meat in the mess hall. Imagine all those porta-potties being used to the max. You could smell them from a hundred feet away.

I wouldn’t mind a list of what you eat… Have you gained more weight?

Did you finish your profile? If you’re talking about the website I’m thinking of, don’t do it. Go to church. Volunteer at a hospital or an animal shelter or something. Don’t do that site.

They’ve told me I can still take my leave, but this isn’t the first time they’ve told me it was going to happen and it didn’t. If one of the guys here has a wife and kids and can get the leave to see them, I’d rather be the one who stays. I don’t want to be that selfish. I don’t have anybody who cries when I’m not around. I’ll be home in less than three months. I’ll live.