I just read that Saddam Hussein has been hanged in Iraq. Why does that make me feel nothing but sadness? I'm sure he was as bad a person as they say he was. Responsible for much pain, suffering and death. Perhaps it is the hanging that bothers me. Maybe it is the fact that his trial just ended and this means he gets no appeal like Americans do. Maybe we need the passage of time to feel numbness about executing someone. Like 12 years from now, they'll kill Scott Peterson and we'll all just shrug and go on.

I don't know. I just feel sad. I read today that his execution was imminent and I tried not to think about it. Cause I couldn't shunt aside the fact that he is a person and he must be scared to know that he was shortly going to be hanged. I am sure that isn't an easy way to go. Man. He was allegedly the source of so much evil and I just feel a painful empathy for the scared and alone man preparing himself for his death after a trial that could have had no other outcome.

Maybe it is because this is the doing of my country, done in the name of freedom, done in the name of the American people and our war on terror. Done in my name. This execution was done in my name. That may be why I am taking it so personally.

My husband is awesome. He really is. This morning at 7:30, I got up and got Jackson as usual and went into the living room. David had not left for work yet, he was down on the floor cleaning the carpet. Apparently one of our cats, probably Sam, left us a rather gruesome present. David spared me most of the details, but the words headless rat were used. And the head apparently was nearby. And my wonderful husband got rid of the carcass and cleaned up the mess before Jackson and I got out of bed. Nice man. BTW, Chem-Dry makes the most badass carpet solvent. It doesn't have much soap and almost no fragrance. It works by using carbonation to bubble the dirt up to the surface. And there is no visible rat blood on my living room floor. Chem-Dry Carpet Cleaners, people good product and service.

I finally ran out of sample migraine medication and had to get my 5 month-old prescription filled. It had to go through a whole bureaucratic process before the insurance company would cover it. The docs apparently prescribed me way more than necessary. They wrote the script in August at the height of my headaches and migraines. So a 30 day supply is 18 pills. But I don't have 18 migraines a month. I have maybe 2. Thus the rigmarole with the insurance company. But they covered it and I have enough migraine meds to last for at least 6 months - or 18 migraines, whichever comes first.

I had to pay $75 for it, but Aetna paid $350! 18 pills cost over $400. Wow, good thing I am just above the level of the American working poor. Good thing my husband and I don't work at Wal-Mart and have no health insurance. Good thing I have a credit card that can help out when I have to pay for headache meds and $500 MRI's that would cost the uninsured $3000. Good thing we are all living just one good illness away from having nothing. Just forget about it, middle and working class. Forget about it and go stand in line for three days for a Playstation 3. Fuss and fight over who says Merry Christmas and who says Happy Holidays and forget that our congresspeople get to keep making their current salary for the rest of their lives while our pensions and social security become relics of a bygone age. Forget that the cost of a 4 year degree will soon be into 6 digits and won't guarantee our children any measure of success...

Um. Sorry. I was trying to write a positive blog about how good I have it. My husband didn't leave the dead rat for me to find this morning and my insurance company actually shelled out a little bit of the $300 a month we give them. These are good thing that I am grateful for. Sigh. I need to go watch the daily show...