9/11

Today I did a couple of things that helped me think about the anniversary of the attacks. First, I watched the broadcast of Music and the Spoken Word. If you didn't see it and can access one of the re-broadcasts, I recommend it. The program was very nice. Some of the images got me teared up a little.

This afternoon my roommates and I went to a program at the university that involved a choir and our city's orchestra. The first half was Mozart's Requiem, which was beautiful, and the second half was a commissioned oratorio that was debuted today. It was also very nice. There were a few speakers, and I really enjoyed the words of one of them in particular.

I also recently watched a clip on Yahoo? about one of the passengers from Flight 93 (I think). From watching that, as well as some of the footage that was played on the broadcast this morning, I am reminded that there were many people who rose to the occasion that day, and I'm glad to be able to take something positive from that awful event. There were the people on Flight 93 who decided to act when they knew something was wrong (I was amazed to listen to calls from a mother to her son who was on the flight, encouraging him to do something to stop the hijackers), and there were so many people who helped at the towers. I was touched by footage of people covered in ash hugging others who made it out. It's easy to be cynical about mankind because there is so much selfishness, corruption, callousness, etc. I believe the 9/11 tragedy brought out the humanity in many people, though, and I think it's good to be reminded of that. It's good to remember what happened and to be reminded of what is really important - God, each other, our nation. I'm grateful for that reminder today.

The Hike

Yesterday was the birthday of one of my friends. Lu came to town for it. Friend wanted to go hiking; she knows that I am not a hiker, so I was assured that it would be a nice, Jamie-friendly sort of hike. I told the girls that as long as I was cool and hydrated I would be okay. I figured the hike would take a couple of hours; I purposely did not ask how far we were going, which I think was wise. My roommate and I met up with the girls a little after 10:00. We drove two vehicles so that we could leave one at each end of the trail - I'm glad that Friend had us do that.

Anyhow, we probably got hiking somewhere around 11:00 - we finished around 5:30. That's a lot longer than two hours. Fortunately, though, a) we were pretty high up on the mountain, so it wasn't hot, and b) I didn't run out of water. So, I was actually a pretty happy camper - or hiker, I should say. We picked raspberries towards the beginning of the hike. We saw lots of horny toads, as well as some butterflies. During the last couple of miles we got rained and hailed on twice, which made things kind of exciting. I was glad that Lu had a couple of ponchos with her and let me borrow one (I think I was already kind of wet by the time I got it on, though, so I wasn't dry for the rest of the hike). I'm also glad the girls were nice about taking breaks because the last part was up some switchbacks, which I'm not a fan of, and my lungs didn't like the altitude so much, either. There is debate about how far we hiked. Friend thought we were going around eight miles, but when we finally made it to the end, the sign said it was less than six. I really couldn't say, but it was kind of amazing to look back sometimes and realize how far we'd come.

So, maybe I'm not as not into hiking as I think I am - I think the key really was staying cool and having water.

5 Months

Another one by Sara Bareilles. And I feel better than that tonight, but I definitely relate to a lot of it.

Movies and Motorcycles

With tomorrow being a holiday, my roommate thought we could stay up late watching a movie, which we did. I hope I wasn't breaking the Sabbath. I noticed the sound of a loud vehicle outside at some point early on in the movie. I think such vehicles shouldn't be permitted in our neighborhood, at least not for a few months yet, especially during a wholesome, romantic movie.

80s

Yesterday I got to participate in a service project up on the mountain. I knew that it was possible that the ex-boy would be there - he's not part of the age group that was specifically invited to attend, but he really loves working up at the camp. Well, he was there; it was my first time seeing him since before I left for the summer. I'll not go into detail.

Also, I threw a Labyrinth party on Friday night. More than four people attended, so my roommate and I think is was a success. I looked up the top billboard songs from the 80s and played those leading up to and through the beginning of the party. We didn't even make it halfway through the decade - I love 80s music. And I love Labyrinth, so it was a pretty nice night.

One of the Bookend Boys

I was thinking about how I haven't written a dear friend of mine for awhile. I've talked about him many, many times on here - he's one of the people I admire most in my life. Anyhow, he's a busy boy and it usually takes several communications from me to him before I hear back, so imagine how pleasantly surprised I was when I checked my email a few minutes ago and saw that he had written. That should have tipped me off, but for some reason it didn't - he's engaged! Isn't that great?! It looks like he has found the girl who he wants to spend forever with, which is wonderful. I still don't quite understand how that happens, but I think I will sooner or later. I got to spend some time with the girl this summer, and she seems like a peach, so congrats to my friend. And to the his fiance - she's one lucky girl. :)

Elephants

Monday, I received a call from my visiting teacher, asking me if I had plans for Friday night. "No." "Do you want to go to the Josh Groban concert?" Yes! So we did. It was a great concert, although Josh was a bit crass. I was pretty disappointed in Michael Buble for the same reason when I went to a concert of his once. Because of that experience, I think I did not get as upset this time, but I still don't understand.

Also, I was supposed to go out on a blind date this weekend. I feel like there's a line in something Jane Austen that states that when a person gets married, the only thing left for that person is to try to get other people married, and when you're old and single, like me, you know lots of people who just want to help you out. Anyhow, I was actually looking forward to it, which I took as a good sign - up until this point, I haven't wanted to move on and date anyone else, so I think that shows progress. The blind date finally called on Friday and set things up for Saturday afternoon, but then he cancelled on Saturday, due to some legitimate reasons, I believe, but it was still a little disappointing. Oh well.

Not having a date on Saturday afternoon left me with more time to spend with my sister and her family - particularly my niece, who I baby-sat for a little while that evening. Which reminds me - earlier in the day I asked her what animal she would be if she wasn't a person. When I finally got her to answer with an animal, it was an elephant. I wasn't sure why she picked that, but then she started singing, "In the miritary style," and it made more sense. So we spent the rest of the day with me singing, "In the military style," and her replying, "In the miritary style!" She told me that I would be a bird, by the way, so I asked, "If you were and elephant and if I were a bird, could we still be friends?" "Yes." I'm so glad. We also sang Elmo's song several time, which, I'm sorry to admit, I started. It's such an annoyingly hard tune to get out of your head, and I've still had it in my mind today - uggh! We also danced, which was so much fun! What I love about babies is that you can be so stupid around them, and they don't care - in fact, they kind of like it. So I can dance as goofily with her as I want to, which I did. Maybe I'll post some pictures of the weekend here at some point.