pray for peace and pray it's enough

It's been a good week. Other than the weather (rainy, cold), both my country and my state elected the people I was rooting for; the first time since 1976 that North Carolina has gone democrat in a presidential election. And then my brother finally got his butt in gear and proposed. So he's engaged and I feel it's been a long time coming. Yay! "A wedding! I love weddings!"

Props to those who get the quote. Those who don't, boo.

I also had dinner tonight at "Breakfast in America", a diner that serves honest-to-God American food. I ordered a bacon cheeseburger, fries, and a milkshake. It was amazing. But I'm going back there sometime to order their breakfast, which is available all day, and they serve pancakes and American-style bacon. I. Cannot. Wait.

Saturday night I leave for a short trip to Rome. A long weekend and I'm going to Rome. Life is good. I'm excited for gelato and pizza, and I'm going to be seeing an old friend from high school too who's studying abroad there for the semester. Good times. I'll be sure to have someone take a few photos of me so you can see that I'm actually here and not just making this all up from a dorm room in Columbia. But also for me, so that I can see that I'm actually here and not in an extremely vivid La-La land, which has been known to happen from time to time.

In political news, I'm pleased with Obama's chose as Chief of Staff, and I'm liking the people he's got picked out so far for his administration. Experience, intelligence, and a willingness to listen and change are what we need in our leaders right now. Hope, too, and not this fear-mongering of the modern world where parents don't let their kids play in the backyard unless they can see them at all times. Those who claim it's Obama's fault our economy continued to go to pot in the past two days can just answer me this: what exactly is he supposed to do when he's not even the president yet? Economies are reactionary things, especially when they consist of stock markets and corporations. The impact we're feeling now was created in the past few years, not last night.

That's all to say for today. I'm living an amazing enough life that people actually want to read about it? So that's pretty cool. I hope I remember all this in my old age.

PS. Paris has Christmas decorations up.