"Sometimes without goodbye, sometimes without hello."

The number of Americans who have died in Iraq has now exceeded the number that died on September 11th. I've been thinking about this, hoping it would never happen, pretty much since we first invaded, and it's affected me a lot more than the anniversary itself. Or maybe it's a combination of the two -- 9/11/2001 marked the beginning of a tumultuous period in my personal life as well. It's the day when Katie, with whom I'd been smitten for a few months, first felt something reciprocal. Our 5th anniversary is in a few weeks.

I don't know where I'm going with this... it's just that it's weird that the two things are forever linked for me, you know? It also feels a little strange that the ways that it affects me to think about 9/11 now are so startlingly different from the way it affected me at the time.

I'm also running on an uncharacteristic amount of caffeine, so all mental connections are being made faster and stronger and much more circuitous. I swear my blood is humming, and if I finish this cup, it'll be playing Rach II.

It's been awhile. How are y'all?