I’ve been thinking a lot about the earthquake and tsunami disaster over the past few days. Trying to figure out what to say about it. 80,000+ people dead. Hundreds of thousands of people homeless. Millions of lives and livelihoods forever changed or destroyed. It’s hard for me to wrap my brain around, and I realized that I haven’t been able to come up with anything to say for exactly that reason — I just can’t comprehend the enormity of the disaster.
The stories about the celebrities that survived sort of offend me. What am I supposed to say — hooray, a supermodel lived, so it’s not as bad that 80,000 others died? Somebody from the UN called the US stingy, so the Secretary of State made a statement arguing that we’re not stingy — are we seriously going to worry about petty arguments when thousands, if not millions, of people suddenly have inadequate medical care, no home, no food, and no clean water? An already poor area of the world was just completely flattened. Let’s concentrate on what’s important — helping them.
Sigh. Stuff like this makes me think about how unfair it all seems — how can we be so rich while others are so poor? While southeast Asia tries to pick up the pieces, my mom and I have spent the better part of the past two days shopping. So strange. So surreal.
For anyone like me (and Jen) who is a bit overwhelmed by the thought of where to send money, try Amazon, which is where I chose to donate. One hundred percent of the money sent there goes to the American Red Cross, which is sending many different kinds of assistance to Asia. They’ve already gathered almost $3 million from 50,000+ Amazon users.
Yesterday I made a necklace and earrings for myself at Beadlush, and found bike shoes that actually fit, unlike the ones I got on Christmas morning. (You’d think that a size 43 for the brand I was able to try on in Houston would be the same as a size 43 for the brand I told Mom to order. Of course it wasn’t. I needed a 44. A 44. I hope my monster feet haven’t decided to grow even more.)
Last night I saw my high school friends again, minus Cayce and Dave but plus Jes and Don. It was great to see Jes and hear her stories about med school. And Don totally cracks me up. But the biggest news is that as of the 26th, Andrew and Sari are finally engaged! And when I say finally, I mean it — it took Andrew seven and a half years of dating to finally ask. The funniest part is that Sari was surprised; she hadn’t known it was coming, even after all those years. The ring is absolutely beautiful, with an emerald set in platinum and two small diamonds on either side. I’m so excited for them, and it also puts another wedding on my calendar for sometime in 2005. They haven’t decided whether it will be in Charlotte or D.C. (where they both live now). But it will be fun.
Today I got to see David’s apartment, then he joined Mom and me for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. Mmm, it was delish. He headed to work while Mom and I shopped some more. I got a Carolina t-shirt to wear to the Tire Bowl tomorrow, a cool picture frame, and a new Life is Good shirt since my old one is too big. The Christmas money I got is quickly being spent!
