Hm.

It has been a chaotic week in the lives of people I'm close to...bad car accidents, a family feud and not the fun-TV-game-show kind, deaths of close friends...It's been a week to reflect. I am grateful for what I have, who I have, where I am.

On this gloomy day in October, I cried at work. Linked to from one of my new favorite blogs , I read an article about Officer Mark Daily written by Christopher Hitchens, in Vanity Fair. I haven't been that moved by an article in quite some time. I don't have many words to express how I feel about this. With emotions ranging from deep sadness and an overwhelming sense of loss for someone I didn't know, to anger over the reasons we have taken it upon ourselves to "fix" other countries, to confusion about my actual stance on this war, I sit here and think. I think about how my brother, Brandolian, was gung ho about joining the Army after high school, right before we declared war. I had very selfish reasons for his not going, then with the timing of when we went into Iraq, Brandolian decided to move to San Luis Obispo instead. I was overly thankful for his decision - I can't imagine losing him in the way that Officer Mark Daily's family lost their son, husband, and brother. I want to thank Officer Daily for serving our country, for giving his life for what he believed in.

Cheers to everyone in my life!