The new love of my life!

"When the heart speaks, the mind finds it indecent to object." ~ Milan Kundera

It is quite interesting - the story of how we met... I will try my best to describe it here, but I'm not sure words will do this meeting justice. I'm not normally a spontaneous person, but maybe I need to re-think that because I have done a number of things this past year that definitely qualify as "spontaneous" (e.g. joining a rock band). Come to think of it, most it has revolved around music... hmmm... But I digress.

It all began Wednesday night with a broken "A" string on my guitar. Unlike most professionals, I replace each string as they break, rather than replacing them all when one breaks. So, I went into my stash of strings... 2 E, 2 B, 2 G, no D, NO A!!! WHAT IN THE WORLD?!?! How do I NOT have another A string? I was quite upset because it was too late at night to go out string shopping and besides that I have always bought anything guitar-related in NY. I didn't even know where the nearest music store was around here! Of course, like any intelligent girl of the 21st century, I Googled "music stores," which didn't really return the results I was looking for. I tried again, using the keyword "guitar." BINGO! There was a guitar shop about 5 miles from my apartment. I went there last night, right after work. I had a little difficulty finding it at first since it is a bit of a hole-in-the-wall. But I was impressed the moment I set foot inside the store. There were guitars hanging EVERYWHERE! I mean, BEAUTIFUL guitars! The two men inside were very helpful. I told them what I needed and they got it for me. It was all quite easy and painless. As he was ringing me up, I had to start asking questions about their guitars (I can't help it!). Well, we got to talking, and one thing led to another... He pulled out an Epiphone, and that was it. I was gone! Growing up, Dad always played an accoustic Epiphone... I guess the happy childhood memories of dancing on the porch while Dad played probably has something to do with my affinity for Epiphones. But whatever it was, I knew I was in love. I had no choice. I had to have it. So I bought it. Ten minutes later, I walked out of that little hole-in-the-wall store with accoustic guitar strings and my first real electric guitar, complete with a hard case! It was definitely the least thought out purchase I have ever made in my life, but I'm not sure I have ever bought anything for myself that has made me happier.

I'm still in shock. I played it all last night, but in the morning when I woke up, the first thing I did was look over at where I had left it sitting to make sure I had not dreamed the whole thing up. I opened the case and gazed in awe at my beautiful instrument. Yup. It's really here and it's really mine! =P

National Cheesecake Day celebration...

I mean there really is only one way to celebrate National Cheesecake Day and that is to eat cheesecake! So, like good little citizens, N. and I made our way to the Cheesecake Factory last night. We waited on the long line up to the hostess desk only to be told that we would have to wait another hour and a half. We, however, did not let this little setback stop us. We went shopping at the nearby Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn. When we went back to pick up one of those little buzzer things that let you know when your table is available, N. found an open table at the bar, so our wait was not that bad after all. =) Actually, it was kinda funny... just as we were paying the bill, the buzzer went off (it would have been a 1 hour and 45 minute wait if N. hadn't found that table for us!). Oh, and did I mention that the cheesecake was only $1.50 a slice?! Yeah... it was a good day. =)

Actually, you are wrong, but don't let me keep you from your ignorance...

One of the many things that drives me crazy is when people use quotes out of context. I mean, really! If you try hard enough you can use other people's word to prove just about any point. I see this done with the Bible all the time. Lately, though, I have heard several people use the same quote and each time they used it to mean the same thing - not what the author meant however. The quote I am referring to is "Ship's passing in the night," from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Solitude. People seem to use the phrase to talk about failing to connect with someone (e.g. an older woman comes into the office looking for one of my co-workers... I tell her "oh, you just missed her, she stepped out for a minute." The woman replies, "we are like ships passing in the night."). I was sorely tempted to correct her mistake, but I just smiled and bit my tongue. Longfellow was not talking about missed connections (as it is listed on Craigslist.com), but rather how our relationships on earth are fleeting - there for a moment, and gone just as quickly as they came. Read the whole verse for yourself:

Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing,
Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness;
So on the ocean of life we pass and speak one another,
Only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence.

When "Happily Ever After" ends a little differently

For Web designer Patrick Moberg, then 21, from Brooklyn, it was love at first sight when he spotted a woman on a Manhattan train last November. But he lost her in the crowd so he set up a website with a sketch to find her --http://www.nygirlofmydreams.com/. Unbelievably in a city of 8 million people, it only took Moberg 48 hours to track down the woman.

The "dream-girl," Camille Hayton, said she dated Moberg for about two months but it just didn't work out, and now they are "just friends."

I just thought this was a great story (a little stalkerish, and not really something I would have necessarily appreciated, but cute in its own way). I think what I liked most though is that this fairy tale did not have the typical ending. I'm sure both parties are much better going their seperate ways, rather than having an elaborate wedding to create the illusion of the perfect ending. Instead, they lived happily ever after... single and carefree. =)

Justice prevails...

President Bush could have commuted the death sentence of Ronald A. Gray, a former Army cook convicted of multiple rapes and murders. But Bush decided Monday that Gray's crimes were so repugnant that execution was the only just punishment. Bush's decision marked the first time in 51 years that a president has affirmed a death sentence for a member of the U.S. military. (click here for full article)

Now, I love our military. And anyone who knows me can tell you that I have a special affinity for the Army thanks to my time in Ramadi. But there are some people, regardless of job title, who just do not deserve to live because of all the lives they have ruined. It may sound callous, but I do not think capital punishment is utilized often enough in this country. So, hats off to the President for actually making the hard decision and allowing the just punishment of one who destroyed the lives of multiple innocents!

Welcome to POHA

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has declared a "Period of Heighted Alert" (POHA) for the next year, beginning August 1st. While the national threat level remains at Yellow (at present), intelligence analysts will be encouraged to increase productivity in following terrorism leads, while others will be working on contingency plans should anything happen despite our best efforts. The reasons for all of this: the DNC, the RNC, the national election, as well as the transition into a new presidential administration. It should be an interesting year to come...
It might actually turn out to be safer in Iraq... (just kidding). =)

Exciting times

It just makes my day to log-on to my computer in the morning and read about the success we are having in Iraq. The past month has seen a steady increase in these good news stories. Here is an excerpt from an article I read this morning:

The United States is now winning the war that two years ago seemed lost. Limited, sometimes sharp fighting and periodic terrorist bombings in Iraq are likely to continue, possibly for years. But the Iraqi government and the U.S. now are able to shift focus from mainly combat to mainly building the fragile beginnings of peace - a transition that many found almost unthinkable as recently as one year ago... That does not mean the war has ended or that U.S. troops have no role in Iraq. It means the combat phase finally is ending... The new phase focuses on training the Iraqi army and police, restraining the flow of illicit weaponry from Iran, supporting closer links between Baghdad and local governments, pushing the integration of former insurgents into legitimate government jobs and assisting in rebuilding the economy. (click here for full article)

These really are exciting times! It feels like we have been at war for a LONG time, but to finally see results makes it all worth it. Oh to go back over there and be a part of it all... *sigh*