What a great night! CP came over for dinner (halibut, steamed spinach and cous cous...YUM!) and we played some guitar. I downloaded the tablature for Natalie Merchant's "Motherland" and that has become the goal song...So, I learned C and we did D, G and E minor, too. I mostly practiced going from one to the other...My fingers are so spazzy, though, so it's kind of hard to do. CP tried not to laugh at me but at one point he had to admit that my fingers are a bit freakish. Anyway, he is awesome...and I look forward to my next lesson with him!

Today the images on the television were all about the toppling of this Saddam Hussein statue in the middle of Baghdad. There was a "crowd" of Iraqis standing around as some big piece of equipment along with some Iraqis and American soldiers made the thing come down...It was surreal to watch. The newscasters (Katie Couric and Tom Brokaw) kept trying to say that it was just like when the Berlin Wall came down...It felt like a stretch to me...especially when the crowd was maybe 100 people or so. Granted, they were pretty happy when it came down - made his head something of a soccer ball, spit all over it, kicked it and generally "celebrated" the symbolism. But the crowd was small. And an American marine had to go and drape an American flag over the statue's head, signaling to the Arab world what they have wanted confirmed all along - that it is our intention to occupy...not liberate...For sure, military brass wasn't happy about that flag draping and for the rest of the morning it was interesting to hear what the messaging session yielded as they tried to spin it...but they weren't happy because it gave Al Jazeera good footage, not because it was inappropriate.

As the war nears its seeming end, I can feel myself becoming more tense and anxious about what is next. I have less tolerant for the viewpoints that cling to this notion of liberation...when it is so clearly not what our intentions are. K___ and I were exchanging emails today about a range of war-related topics and I had to nip it, because I didn't like how stridently we were disagreeing with each other...I could feel my blood starting to boil and I remembered what I hard time I sometimes have when someone else's point of view is so off-base to me that I can barely look them in the eye.

There is so much to do this weekend to get ready for the next few weeks. I need to remember that I am still recovering from my race and that I need to let my body rest. As CP said today, rest is part of my training. But it's a bit of a mindfuck, this resting thing...and since I don't feel especially worked over from the race, it's hard to convince myself that I should just be sleeping in and maybe mildly exercising, to keep my body moving...

Anyway, it's time for bed (but first I need to review the Haggadah!)...I wish I could write more tonight. There are many topics to cover...in fact, the number of topics never seems to diminish...Sadly, time is a constant and so I need to pick and choose and some things will never get down on "paper" and that will have to be okay. Or perhaps tomorrow night or some other night I will spend more time and get it all out there.

Looking forward to starting my volunteer project with Just Think...I want to get back to service....