One week after the horrific shootings in Sandy Hook, I am overcome by the outpouring of love and support. Our weekly newspaper, which covers just our town, was filled with evidence of the compassion of people everywhere.

A man from Mississippi anonymously bought lunch one day this past week for every person ordering a sandwich at the General Store. Amazingly, 2 others did similar things on 2 other days.

There have been so many teddy bears and stuffed animals donated, that today the town is having a toy distribution and has invited residents to stop by the town hall to pick one out. Our local paper is doing the same thing.

Local businesses are finding ways to give to the community as it grieves. The local sports center opened its doors to children and arranged for all sorts of children's activities to give kids and their parents a break from all the goings on here. Over 2,000 attended.

The Parks & Rec Dept is raising funds for a memorial to those slain. Close to $2 million has already been raised toward scholarship funds. A local chiropractor is giving away free adjustments to locals who need it. Therapy dogs from all over the country have arrived here.

A woman from Iowa, a teacher, drove all the way to New Jersey, where she had friends, baked 240 pies, and then gave them away to passers-by in front of our old town hall. A church in Hartford, CT made up hundreds of doggie bags filled with peanut butter dog biscuits, which are now being made available to dog owners in town. It's really quite amazing.

The newspaper's letters to the editor column was filled with letters of support from as far away as Scotland, England and Australia. There were also many full page ads from out of state individuals, organization and companies I'd never heard of expressing their support.

The vigils in neighboring towns continue and the makeshift memorials have multiplied on every major intersection of the town, filled with candles, toys and flowers. The one surrounding our famous flagpole, which stands in the center of Main Street, had to be moved elsewhere because the pile was becoming a traffic hazard.

I truly hope these children did not die in vain, and that the momentum inspired by the tragedy will lead to meaningful new legislation concerning gun control. You don't need a Glock to go hunting. Private citizens don't need military style weapons, period. Or ammo clips with 30 rounds in them.

Ludicrously, I heard an NRA representative on an NPR talk show suggest that teachers be allowed to carry firearms inside the schools. How many more lives would be lost in the panic and confusion of another school shooting?

More recently, I heard the NRA has suggested that a police officer should be on the premises of every school in America.I am quite sure they have only suggested this because they've heard the outcry against firearms in the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings and they realize that if they remain silent, they may lose the ability to carry certain firearms.

So they are trying to shift the conversation from making it harder for deranged individuals or high-powered weapons fanatics to obtain them to simply beefing up police presence in an elementary school.

Today was a pretty nice day.

My boss, my boss's boss and a co-worker at the new job gave me those little gift bags full of goodies...mostly sweets that I don't need or especially like, but it was nice just the same. (Actually, one of the items was a large bar of designer soap, something I can use.) There was extra food in the kitchen this morning and in the afternoon we had a Secret Santa exchange.

I picked out what turned out to be a kid's toy that looks like a karaoke microphone with a built-in recorder, really the last thing that I'd want, but the woman next to me said her kids would love that kind of thing and said she'd trade me her gift, a nice glass carafe, made in Poland, with a very contemporary shape to it. I was happy to trade.

I was also surprised I even got a small bonus in my paycheck. Just $25, but you have to remember I've been there about one month now, and for at least half that time, I haven't actually worked due to my illness.

My fifth trip to the doctor was Tuesday night. Told her I'm still sick, runny nose, coughing, very tired, still the plugged up left ear. She drew blood, gave me a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia and looked into Lyme again. Everything came back normal except my "sed rate," which stands for sedimentation rate, is sort of high (35 instead of the normal range of 0-20). It indicates there's an infection somewhere in my body but that's all it tells you. The only thing she's still waiting for, and which I'll have to wait til Monday for, is the results from the Quest Lab that drew yet more blood to see if something...a culture...would go in it. If nothing does, I guess that's pretty much definitive proof that I DON'T have a bacterial infection, which my PCP had said I had very early on. It would explain why antibiotics haven't really done anything. Yet if it's viral, this has gone on very, very long. Normal duration for viral is 7 to 10 days; I've been sick a month.

So now I have yet more doctor's bill and lab bills to pay in the coming weeks, yet I'm not sure we're anywhere closer to finding out what my problem is.I sense my PCP is running out of ideas, altho she suggested that even tho I feel no pressure in my sinuses that she could do a CAT scan of them to see if that's the problem. I think I may pass on that.

Perhaps my body will somehow rally now and recover on its own. I am still taking raw garlic cloves multiple times a day and today i also picked up some elderberry extract and, for my ear, a mullein/garlic mix; you just put a few drops in your ear several times a day. We'll see how that works. At this point, I'm desperate.

I still have to wrap a few presents and tomorrow I start dethawing the turkey (a freebie from Thanksgiving, gift from employer) but aside from that I guess I'm ready for the holiday.

I applied back in late November for a contract, p/t real estate writer job and only heard from the hiring employer yesterday. He got a ton of responses and "narrowed it down" to 12 people, including myself. I had to fill out a detailed online questionnaire about why I'm best for the job. It only pays $20 an hour, but I'd grab it in a heartbeat as it's better than the $12 I'm making at my other p/t job plus it's work at home. So I actually would LOVE to get that job.

I have felt so out of it for so long. Someone at my job today mentioned I was so soft-spoken, but I didn't have a chance to tell her that I'm soft-spoken because I can't properly hear how loud my voice is with my ear plugged up, and so I guess it sounds like I'm whispering or something.

Thankfully, I've started doing a few other things at my job so there's at least a bit of variety in what I've previously described as "stupefyingly boring." It's all very detail-oriented. And she asked me to write a blog as she knows I can write, and I did that. At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to as I charge 7 times more for doing so as a freelancer. However, I decided I should do it because it will raise my profile in the company and perhaps the prez or others will take notice that i have greater abilities than as a proofreader and could possibly be offered more to do or maybe get a promotion or f/t job offer someday. So, I swallowed my pride and just did it, writing about how college students can build a credit history.

UPDATE: Saturday afternoon I saw 5 large helicopters in the sky near my house. At first I thought they were news helicopters but I quickly saw they weren't normal helicopters; they were those hotdog-shaped helicopters used by the military (or Airforce One). They seemed to be traveling west directly above Rt. 25 and then veered to the north (toward Sandy Hook) at the flagpole.

We didn't learn that President Obama would be visiting my town until last night, but my friend said what I saw was a security detail meant to scope out the route in advance. However, news reports have indicated the President will arrive at Bradley International Airport in Hartford. I guess if he is then driven to My town (a good hour-long drive from the airport), then the security issues still need to be worked out.

It was an impressive sight.

I have also heard that the superintendent of schools has hinted that Sandy Hook School may never reopen. This, after I received a robo call last night from our town's first selectman saying that all schools in my town will be closed Monday and then all except Sandy Hook School will reopen on Tuesday.

If I were a parent, I would want that school razed to the ground. How could any parent feel good about sending their children back there? Although budget votes are always contentious battles here that pit seniors and frugal-minded folks against school supports, I suspect that if the subject of building a new elementary school comes up to a vote this spring, it will pass, easily.

Original Post:
The national news media has descended on our little town. As you approach Sandy Hook Center, which resembles a small hamlet, it's bumper to bumper traffic, and cars with lots of out of state plates are lined up parked on both sides of the road.

Satellite trucks are everywhere, TV crews and reporters are interviewing people on the streets, cops still have the road leading to the school blocked off to traffic, but they're allowing people to go to the firehouse (not sure about the school) on foot.

It's a very small and picturesque little Center. Historic 18th century homes line Church Hill Road as it descends down a hill toward the traffic light. There's a liquor store, Figs Restaurant, a Subway, a diner, St. John's Episcopal Church, the Demitassee coffee shop and a few other stores. There's the Pootatuck River that meanders through the Center, behind all the stores, and you can enjoy a lovely view if you sit on the back deck of the coffee shop. The sidewalks are brick, and the merchants have been working for years to revitalize the area.

People are out walking with bouquets of flowers and impromptu memorials filled with votive candles are all over town. Someone bought 20 Christmas trees, 1 for each child, and set them up. Saturday mass at St. Rose is packed right now.

A man was standing just off the interstate exit holding a sign that indicated he was from some town in NJ and that they support us. Other signs just said "Say a prayer." You can tell who the press is becus for some reason they all seem to dress in all black. It's all very sad.

I heard a few reports that the shooter was some sort of troubled genius, which makes me very angry. They shouldn't be turning him into any kind of figure that others would emulate or we'll have copy cat killers who harbor sick fantasies about becoming famous before they go out. Obviously this was a sick individual. No one in their right mind would hurt an innocent child.

I am sure that most people who live near the Center are hunkering down this weekend because you cannot venture out without getting stuck in bumper to bumper traffic. We saw a few familiar news faces out there.

Now that it is dark, I'm sure the disparity of festive Christmas lights and greenery on all the shops and homes down there is going to feel so unsettling against the backdrop of what happened.

It's hard to go about my normal routine. Although I don't personally know anyone with children in that school, I feel so distracted by the enormity of what happened, and I know that Christmas will never be the same for so many people.

Today, my hometown made national headlines, for all the wrong reasons.

A local elementary school here was the scene of the latest lone gunman gone berserk. Twenty-seven people died this morning, most of them little kids.

I worked all day at the p/t job I've been at for less than a month. I absolutely could not believe this happened here.

I was concerned about trouble getting home from work tonight, as i heard someone saying earlier in the day the police were doing car by car searches, but that was really in a different part of town and didn't affect me at all.

I am sure I will be hearing much more about this as the days go on. You probably know as much as I do at this point. A 20-year-old man is the suspect, and he shot and killed his mother, a teacher who worked at the school, as well as a bunch of other people, before he died.

As someone here was already quoted, "we thought this was the safest place in America."

UPDATES: A friend of mine told me this is going to hurt my property values, because people will forever link "Mytown" as the town where that awful massacre took place.

I don't know many people here with kids this age, although The Author has a young niece who worked as a teacher at that school. She had the day off yesterday but went in anyway and was there when everything happened. Luckily she is safe.

My friend R. is coming up this afternoon. He wants to see what is going on in town now and is stopping by to pick me up. There is national news media all over town, doing interviews at iconic landmarks around town. There was a prayer vigil at a church last night, and another one at the high school tomorrow.

Saturday update: The national news media has descended on our little town. As you approach Sandy Hook Center, which resembles a small hamlet, it's bumper to bumper traffic, and cars with lots of out of state plates are lined up parked on both sides of the road. Satellite trucks are everywhere, TV crews and reporters are interviewing people on the streets, cops still have the road leading to the school blocked off to traffic, but they're allowing people to go to the firehouse (not sure about the school) on foot. People are out walking with bouquets of flowers and impromptu memorials filled with votive candles are all over town. Someone bought 20 Christmas trees, 1 for each child, and set them up. Saturday mass at St. Rose is packed right now. A man was standing just off the interstate exit holding a sign that indicated he was from some town in NJ and that they support us. Other signs just said "Say a prayer." You can tell who the press is becus for some reason they all seem to dress in all black. It's all very sad.

I heard a few reports that the shooter was some sort of troubled genius, which makes me very angry. They shouldn't be turning him into any kind of figure that others would emulate or we'll have copy cat killers who harbor sick fantasies about becoming famous before they go out. Obviously this was a sick individual. No one in their right mind would hurt an innocent child.