December 05
Thank God for Cheeseburgers
I'm sure most of you have heard by now of the tragedy at one of our malls here in Omaha. Many of you have sent me emails and text messages asking if we are ok and yes we are. Thank you for asking and caring.

We are ok because of a cheeseburger.

We had plans to head out to that mall today ,that is further away than our normal one, to do some Christmas "wishing". It was about 10:40 a.m. and we were coming back from dropping my work off. Didda had been in rare form all morning, (that I should just call normal form from now on). She started throwing a fit about having a McDonalds cheeseburger for lunch, and no matter what else I offered her instead it was no good even if it was at the food court, she could give a shit less. And, the fact that it wasn't even 11 a.m. yet made less of a difference in her mind.

Knowing that after she had a breakdown about such a minor thing I knew that we were not going anywhere today so we went to McDonalds and came home.



My phone started beeping and ringing shortly after it broke on the news, and the second person was my sister who I assumed was calling to ask about our status. Actually, she was calling to ask if I'd seen their local news and what had happened there. She was asking because she and her best friend were working alone in the bank this morning and were robbed.

Here I was all full of relief because we were ok and had stayed away from danger today and my baby sister was face to face with a man with a gun. The realization of that hit me harder than our own aversion of mayhem.

What's odd in itself is, my sister had called me last night saying that she was very stressed. Her mind was racing and she couldn't calm herself down no matter what. She was in the beginning stages of a panic attack for no apparent reason. The reason, I see now was premonition.

Today, although not "Thanksgiving" I am saying thanks for the fact that we are all safe and sound. I am also sending my heartfelt thoughts and prayers to the families that are grieving for their loved ones that were lost today in this tragedy.