Today is D Day.  The day the ships of the Allied Forces stormed the beaches of Normandy. No, it's not a day traditionally remembered or celebrated.

But, Pk is a WWII buff and is interested in war in history in general so in our house, June 6 has always been observed with the Watching of The War Movies.

Usually, I sit in the same room and do something else. I mostly ignore what is on the screen and keep occupied with my own things.  This year, I told him I'd watch whatever he wanted (although I reallyreally rather not watch Saving Private Ryan again nor do I want to watch The Longest Day) with him.

We started last night with three episodes of Band of Brothers, the ones in which the Band parachutes into France on the eve of D Day.  I have heard how well made this series is and how good the acting, directing and special effects are but I was unprepared for how emotional it was.

Now, to be fair, it's time for my period so I'm a bit more easily weepy than normal.  But, think of the movie that makes you cry the most/hardest.  Got one?  Mine is Steel Magnolias.  I love that movie but it makes me sob hard enough to get a headache every time.  I love the portrayal of support and love between friends.

These few episodes of this show last night were worse.  The scene we ended with was so emotional last night that I had to pull up some Eddie Izzard to restore some balance before I went to sleep (and even then the feeling haunted my dreams).  Even my manly husband was overtaken by emotion.  It's inoccuous enough.  A soldier goes to a woman to pick up his laundry and she asks him if he can take some of the other laundry that has yet to be picked up.  As she reads off the names, he realizes they are all members of his squad that have been killed. (as I write this, I can see the look on the character's face and the tears are filling my eyes again).  It was an extremely effective way to show how great the losses were without an actual body count chart.

After last night, Pk said "you don't have to do this, you know.  I can watch them by myself".  My purpose was to share this with him and give him a person to talk about it with because these films bring out powerful emotions. 

I will say that I know that every generation has its good folks and bad folks and most folks fall somewhere in between perfect and awful.  The men and women of the generation that fought in that war seemed to have something that I don't know if we still have.  You can't compare wars to one another, each one is so different and the circumstances are so different (except for the tremendous sense of waste and the dreadful loss of lives).  But I've always thought that people are just people.  Now I'm not so sure. 

But onto more mundane and less profound, and profoundly affecting subjects.  We picked up Kate and Patrick from the airport last night.  They were in Jamaica for the week. 

It was an eventful week since Patrick asked Kate to marry him and she said Yes.  He told us before they left of his plans and it was killing me to know and to keep it to myself.  Fortunately, he asked her the night they got there so we could talk about it. 

They had a great week (Kate posted on Facebook that they were offered marijuana several times over the course of the week, she was amused by this).  Swimming with dolphins and having nurse sharks sit on their laps (!!!!!) being two of the highlights.

But now it's Thursday and we have a staff meeting which does not promise to be pleasant (are they ever, really?).  I'm off to find some poems for my group and gird my loins for the meeting.  Have a pleasant Thursday!