"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense." -Emerson
"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing about." -Benjamin Franklin
Alma 26:30 "And we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our joy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some."
It is cloudy here tonight. There is no moon outside my window, looking down on me. It is comforting in a way, my moon. I am a night owl through and through, and so he accompanies me on my walks and wanderings. Tonight I find myself alone. Cate is still on her trip, and so my thoughts wander aimlessly. The walk to town square was a quiet one. The season here has yet to start, and so I am free to walk in the middle of the road (which happens to be my favorite place).
Have you ever had a time when all you wanted to do was walk for hours on end, and listen to your own thoughts? Thoughts about everything. To become reaquainted with yourself and you life; free from the noise and influence that usually encroaches itself upon you. That is my mind patturn tonight. Just me, and my thoughts, no people, no man on the moon.
The rain has come to Jackson Hole. I almost forgot about the rain here. Every spring we have a definate rainy season. A month or more of mostly rain - at least once a day. Being from the Seattle area originally, the rain usually makes me feel good, clean, and wanting to go for walks. It is May though and Winter here is just now leaving. I was ready for Summer to just jump right in. But it rains.
One thing I do love about this season is that it is the transition period from winter to summer. It's still chilly out but not enough to keep me inside all day. The lakes are all slowly unfreezing, which makes me want to go swimming (even if they are almost too cold to swim in even in the summer).
I still want to go for walks and breath in that fresh mountain air. Nature just seems so much more inviting in the rain... no idea why. I really don't know why, but a hike in the rain is one of my favorite things to do.
It was announced last night that a small team from the US military has caught and killed Osama bin Laden.
I was at work when this was announced last night. I may have mentioned this before, but I work at the front desk of a hotel in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. At the moment it is super dead, we have over 150 rooms to rent and last night we had people in 10. The hotel bar is basically in the lobby, and last night it was empty. Then the president got on TV and made his announcement. Every single solitary guest came down to the bar not ten minutes after he was done talking. Shots were given out, kids were getting chocolate milk shakes at 10pm. They were disappointed when our employees wouldn't let them buy us any shots. The rejoicing was immediate, spontaneous, and infectious. They were not alone in the sentiment. ...
There were many images of people singing "God Bless America" all over the news. Hopefully not all of them were as bad as the one above.
For at least a night the nation was united again. People from every corner got together and celebrated.
As for me.... not gonna lie, I immediately was sooo excited for this victory. I realize that this war on terror has been gong on for almost ten years now, but for some reason this feels like the first thing that has happened that was not a senseless act of death and destruction. I support our troops, and understand the sacrifices they are giving to help keep our shores free. I also feel with all my heart that with out our troops abroad that our country would have been a different place after 9/11. Some how though, that does not negate the feeling that young men are going to a strange land and never coming back, or the images of the bombings and of kids walking around covered in blood.
Last night though, that was a sweet justice. The celebrators, at least in this country, were thinking of one thing - September 11th, 2001. They were thinking about how we finally got the justice we deserved for that heinous act on our citizenry. I remember writing in my journal about how much anger I felt that day. I agreed 100% with Bush that we should go and find the people that did this to us. I felt relief last night. Relief because in a way I suppose I see it as a step in the right direction to end this war. There are men to take his place or course, apparently one of them is even his son. It felt good though, to have the one that planned the attack gone from this earth. My sister-in-law pointed out how cool it would be to be able to watch that judgment as he passed to the other side. I would have to agree.
It is with pride though that I point out that seemingly small group of people that are not celebrating Bin Laden's death with the rest of us. I really only do this, because a little while after Obama spoke I was online and my best friend got on as well and we were talking about it. She happens to be in that minority. They have some good points, moral points, points that make me feel a little ashamed of myself. He was evil, but he was a child of God. One more for Satan's army - what's to celebrate there? A life is a life, no matter how terrible he was. We should have waited at least for a trial of his crimes (I pointed out on this one what a kangaroo court that would be). I understand their points, I even agree with them (well not the trial one). I, however, am not a perfect person. Not even a little bit. So, if I had not been working when it was announced, I probably would have hit town square and joined in on the festivities.
So, I currently have my friend Cate's MAC computer while she is otherwise disposed so that I can help her with some work that needs to be kept up. Now, I have a PC myself, always have. Other than the few times that I have used her internet I am pretty sure that I have not used a MAC since like middle school. That was about 11 to 13 years ago.
Anyway, I was working and I noticed the photo booth icon at on the bar at the bottom of her screen. I had heard of it, but never played with it myself. These pictures are some of the results. Let us all just remember that I am weird.
This is me in my true alien form.
This would be the result if I were to show you my second tongue. Cute right?
Cyclops Tami.
Slightly creepy, and yet has an eerie beauty to it.
I just like how this one turned out.
This is what I would apparently look like if I randomly had a sketch artist sketch me and I was happy.
Ofcourse, there is always the possibility that I will be afraid of the sketch artist, so I guess this would be the result of that. Or maybe I am about to melt like that guy on Indiana Jones.
