Veteran's Day

Today was the Veteran's Day assembly at the kids' school. Houston (and the 8th grade band) was playing a song for the assembly, and he really wanted me to come. And Zane, as a Boy Scout, was helping escort the veterans to their seats. And so i went.

I don't usually think of myself as being particularly patriotic. I mean, i'm really happy that i live in the United States, and i'm super-thankful for all of the rights and privileges involved. I'm totally a pacifist - not a fan of war, ever - but at the same time, i totally respect people who are willing to sacrifice for their beliefs and for the good of the country, and i'm thankful for them. So Veteran's Day is always kind of a weird day for me. I'm totally thankful for the soldiers and their sacrifice, but i totally wish that there wasn't ever a need for soldiers. (I know i'm completely ridiculous. I do.)

So ANYHOW. I was at the assembly today, and the veterans all came in to the gym with all of the kids from the entire school, from young 5's to 8th grade, and then we stood up to do the Pledge, and halfway through the Pledge my eyes kind of welled up. There were the little kids all yelling the Pledge because they know it, and then there was this WWII veteran right in front of me, and...sniff. And then we sat down and the band played and we sang along for the second time through, and i was fine. And then they played parts of all of the official songs of each branch, and the veterans from each branch stood during their song...and i got all teary again. (I did NOT, however, get remotely teary during the "touching" poems. Poetry. Bleh.)

I seriously teared up like, 3-4 times. I'm kind of a dork.

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We finally revived book club after about 3 months. Maybe 4. A ridiculously long time, anyhow.

And then we hardly talked about the book. Which is fine, except i felt a little bit bad for Katie, who was there for the first time.