Staycation and History in the Making

I'm behind on posts. It happens. I'm going to try to catch up on some important life events over the next few days. First, as Mike mentioned in his last post, my good friend Anna visited me over her spring break. We had a really good time as she vacationed and I staycationed. Beaches, wine, ballgames, minor celebrities including Miss Maryland and the Harris brothers from Deadliest Catch, shopping, and good eats were all had that week. See some earlier posts for some good pics. Anna was a trooper and enthusiastic about sleeping for 5 nights on "Chocolate" - the nickname she gave my brown couch - while she was here. We had such a great, relaxing time. It was a little disappointing that we didn't have warmer weather. We went to both Santa Monica and Malibu beach, but I was in jeans both time because it was a little nippy.

As many if not all of you know by now, it has been an eventful night across the world. For posterity reading this, 3 hours ago, President Obama announced that American Special Forces killed Bin Laden. It is hard to describe the mix of emotions that I'm feeling. It is tough to take pleasure in death. But seeing the spontaneous gatherings of Americans in D.C. and New York make me proud to be an American, and I feel, perhaps hopeful is the right word, that Americans have reason to celebrate in the elimination of the worst enemy my generation has seen. I remember the exact seat in which I was sitting in my senior high school economics class on 9/11 when I learned that the towers had been hit, and I remember how my stomach dropped the first time I saw video of the second plane hitting. I think I will remember, nearly 10 years later, that I was sitting in my overstuffed pink chair tonight watching West Wing with Mike when he showed me CNN's homepage announcing Osama's death. We stopped the DVD and turned on live TV, and I suppose the rest is history.

Some of my friends from D.C. have been posting on Facebook about heading to the White House. This is the first time since we moved that I wished I still lived in D.C. Even living outside the city I would've been tempted to brave the traffic and craziness to be a part of history in Lafayette Park. Anyhoo, I'm sitting on my couch chanting with the rest of the country: U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!