Holy emotional weekend.  It started with the fairytale of a lifetime and ended with the death of pure evil.  Sort of like a Disney movie on crack.  I've cried buckets all weekend for people I will never meet.  Is that strange?  Tell me I am not alone here.

In fact, the capture and kill of Osama Bin Laden is possibly the only thing that could make cable networks stop running the royal wedding on a constant loop.  Not that I was complaining.  I watched it about three times. 

While watching the news coverage of Bin Laden's kill, I was instantly brought back to that day.  Like everyone else, I know exactly where I was standing (next to my dresser) and what I was wearing (a yellow towel- just got out of the shower- I still have that set of towels to use for the dog) and what I was thinking (Katie Couric has lost her mind...no way a plane flew into a building....this is why I never watch morning TV...why did I turn this on today...I should turn this off...OMG there's another plane...).  But my most prominent memory of 09/11 is actually that afternoon.  Life paused.  So I was home from classes and my roommate was home from work.  And we were sitting in our living room together just watching TV.  Not sure what to make of everything happening around us.  We had both talked to our families- all were safe.  And then...what?  It was sort of that in between period.  Immediate panic was over.  I was in Indy so I didn't really feel worried at that very moment for my own safety.  But no one knew really where to go or what to do that evening.  I remember that blank, empty feeling.  The uncertainty and unease.  The long pause before you looked up to say, "now what?"  For me, thinking about that day immediately brings me back to that hollowness.  I didn't like that feeling then and I don't like it now.  The feeling is fresh and immediate and feels very present with just the phrase "nine eleven."

It's so new, that I am not sure I would say this victory feels like closure.  But perhaps in a few days, it will feel that way a bit more.  Also, I feel so strange celebrating a death. Even of a horrible terrible person. It still feels bizarre to be happy about death.  It does however remind me that we are not donkeys and elephants (Two animals that are not native to our own country, by the way.  Actually they both have origins in Africa.  Chew on that for a spell.) and tea bags (Make the non-native animals looks so much better, don't they?).  We are one nation.  I hate how the media immediately made this political.  Sometimes, some things are just about doing what is right.  It was right to capture that evil soul.  From the bits released tonight, it seems that this has been in the works for quite some time.  I'm incredibly impressed that the bravery from the President on down to the soldiers who took part in this mission.  I am grateful that we have so many people working hard to keep us safe.  I hope people focus on the actions of skilled soldiers and the President's great words, and ignore all this blue vs red vs Donald Trump bologna. 

The United States of America captured and killed a man who terrorized not only our country, but the entire globe, for a very long time!  As my Martha would say, "it's a good thing!"

And is anyone else rooting for Harry and Pippa (adore that name, by the way) to have next royal wedding?