Beyond Tired
I'm still not sleeping. I wake up any where between 1:45 and 3:00 and don't go back to sleep until the alarm's ready to go off. I have a sleep aid I bought at Trader Joe's that is supposed to help, but it takes a while to get into your system. So at 3:30 last night I took an Advil PM.....and nothing happened. At 4:00, I took another one. BIG MISTAKE. Yes, I went back to sleep, until Michael woke me at 6:30. And again at 7:00. And again at 7:15. I feel like I've been moving through a layer of fog all day. I'm tired and getting irrationally crabby. I need a good night's sleep, preferably without the aid of medication. I need to be more coherent tomorrow a

This N That
Once or twice a year, I go through a period of insomnia. I can't sleep. Or I sleep really hard for two or three hours and wake up. I'm exhausted, not having slept past 2 a.m. for three nights. I am not sure what causes it except that it happens when the seasons change. Anyway, I'm really tired. And probably won't make much sense. Here's what's on my mind, though.My heart goes out to those soldiers and families who were killed or wounded at Fort Hood. I think most of us assume our soldiers are at least safe here on U.S. soil. What a sad thing. My boss' business partner passed away unexpectedly last night. That is the seventh person I know t

A Killing Without Honor
Police in Peoria, Arizona arrested Faleh Hassan Almalaki for murder. Almalaki, an Iraqi living in the United States, ran down his daughter, Noor Faleh Almaleki, 20 and 43-year-old Amal Edan Khalaf, Noor's boyfriend's mother. After two weeks in intensive care, Noor died from her injuries. Amal remains hospitalized. Noor left a son. If you haven't heard the story, I'm sure you're wondering why a father would run down his daughter with his car. The answer? His daughter had become "too westernized" and refused an arranged marriage, instead opting to move in with her boyfriend and son. This type of murder occurs a lot in the Middle East and Africa and is cal

The End Of History
It's the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. I was a senior in high school when the Berlin Wall fell. I was in college when the Soviet Union was officially dissolved. I went to Russia shortly thereafter. I grew up a child of the Cold War. It was always the US against the Soviets and that was just how the world was going to be. Then it all fell down. I remember sitting in my debate class and watching the special report on the news. I clearly remember Tom Brokaw talking about the wall coming down. I remember the images of people standing atop the wall with sledge hammers. I was a long way removed from the events that were happening in Berlin. But, as it turns

I'm Back
I'm going to post a lot more in a little while. I'm back, though. Sorry for the long absence. I don't have a good excuse so I won't give you a bad one. Needless to say, there is a lot going on that I want to talk about. So I will be coming back in a bit to post. Here's a preview of some topics: the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall; the morass that has become Afghanistan policy; a couple of really good books I've read; and the holidays. I'm sure there's more but that's what I could think of off the top of my head. So I promise not to have another extended absence. I will be back later tonight with more. Thanks for checking in (for t