Don't judge a town by its size, but by the strength and heart of its people

Today, my hometown of Cedar Falls welcomed home Taylor Morris, a local war hero and Navy bomb detection expert who lost parts of all four of his limbs in an explosion in May. This is his first time home since his deployment.

I was driving down Main Street in Cedar Falls on my way to my sister's house and was overwhelmed with a strong feeling of pride for my small down of Cedar Falls, Iowa. Everywhere there were flags, and almost every shop had some welcome tribute to our celebrated soldier. I couldn't help parking my car and walking up and down the street to take photos. I'm proud to be apart of a town that takes pride in its citizens and shows love for our community as a family and a whole. It was so touching that so many people took the time to welcome Taylor at the airport, to organize a welcome route and to decorate to let him know just how much we appreciate his service and sacrifice. He is an inspiration to us all.

Read more about it and see photos on the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier website.

Here are the photos I took. Click them to see to see them larger. :)

The Cedar Falls Theater

The windows read "Welcome Home Taylor" and "We're PROUD of you!"

Most of the bars/grills had contributions as well. There were lots of balloons.

Even the little trinket and clothing shops joined in with their little touches and sidewalk signs

Flags lined the street, landscaping and shop fronts.

Three Pieces of News, A Lecture and A Vent

Literally what the title says.

Three Random Pieces of Exciting News

1. Looking forward to recording some of my music with my friend Phil Gould on the 31st! Just for fun mostly, but depending on what we make, it will probably be used for promotional purposes to get myself out there and to use as background music for my Kickstarter video to fund my first record. Also, I want to submit them in a search for music by songwriters 21-years-old and younger for the chance to be on a soundtrack for an independent film. Yes. I'm almost twenty-three. But they don't need to know that. The strategy here is to submit my music, they love it so much that they want to use it, find out I'm not twenty-one and use it anyway. I'll keep you posted on how that works out.

2. I guess its safe to tell you all now, I was offered the administrative secretary position at Trinity Episco Church in Waterloo on Thursday!! They are happy to train me for the skills I lack, which is incredible as I'll finally be able to list them on my resume for future jobs. I will hopefully be starting September 10th or sooner.

3. No Shame Theatre! Cedar Falls Chapter starts September 7th for the new semester! Start writing or perfecting your sketches and pieces for the upcoming shows and be there or be square!!

A Lecture

Honesty is something I highly value, respect and expect out of myself as well as others. If there is anything in this world that I hate more, its dishonesty. I don't care if you lie out right, or if its a lie by omission of certain information. Say what you mean, mean what you say, and have what you say filter into and match up with your actions. The truth is void when its replaced with a contradictory action. If you are dishonest because you wish to avoid conflict, because you want to continue in your dishonesty, or because you don't want to hurt someone, you will most likely just be in it deeper when the truth finds you out and you're caught with your pants down, rather than if you had just been up front in the first place. Especially if its the latter of the three, because it usually means that the person you were dishonest with found out you weren't telling the truth, and thus the lie cut deeper than the truth, because on top of it all they were betrayed by someone they cared about and trusted. Being honest may be hard sometimes, but its worse if you are dishonest and it costs you someone's trust, a possible friendship/relationship, and your own moral character.

Just my thoughts (and, as always, strong opinion) based on personal experiences that resurfaced during a recent conversation. I guess I've always been of the opinion that honesty and straight-forwardness was never a lot to ask for.

A Vent

My favorite part of working customer service at the bookstore is when someone calls in looking for a book that is 10+ years old that they are convinced is brand spankin' new because of some program they saw om PBS or a talk show. When I inform them that we don't carry said book, can't order it and can't even find it on the internet because it seems to be out of print, the customer on the phone demands to speak to someone older than me (because clearly you can tell my age just by my phone voice) who will know what obscure title and celebrity author they are talking about, because I am obviously too young to know who "The Little Rascals" are and how to use the internet.