Already they'll be getting out the flags...

I having, hanging in my apartment, three flags.

This is the first one:


This one I got from a good friend of mine in 2001. He had joined the military right out of high school and was only in for like two years when he blew his knee out during training. They put him back together, but they had to discharge him. His last night in the military, he and a friend took down the flag that flew over their barracks (as they did each night), and they packed it away for him to take as a momento of his time there.

We met cause he worked near me when I was at Borders. He didn't live in the area here, he had moved here because of his girlfriend. When they broke up, she moved out of their apartment, and as all of their friends were really her friends, he didn't really have anyone to hang with. It was soon after that that we met, and became fast and close friends.

I helped him through a pretty rough time in his life, just being his friend. We hung out. He spent a lot of time here cause he only had a crappy apartment there, and it reminded him too much of her. After several months, he decided to move back home, which he hated to do, but he had no other real choice. The night before he left, I stopped by his apartment after work. We had some drinks and pizza and just hung out, knowing that it was probably the last time we were going to be seeing each other. He took the flag out, told me the story and said he wanted me to have it. I didn't want to take it, because of what it meant to him. But he insisted. And made me promise I'd hang it up and not just stick in a closet of anything. And it's been on my wall ever since.

This is the second one:


A Canadian flag I bought one trip to Toronto. It's been on my wall next to the American one ever since I bought it. Sorry, no big backstory to this one.

And this is the third:


This one I bought a few years ago in Toronto as well. And it's been up since too. And sorry, no other big backstory here either.

And when I move into the new house, they'll all be hung proudly on the walls there as well.

POLT Listening to "Quiche Lorraine" by The B-52's

I'm too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my skirt, too sexy for the other thing. - CJ Cregg, The West Wing