I was reminded this morning at Refresh (the mom's group at my church) that today is September 11th. I'm not sure how it snuck up on me. I guess I should have known since yesterday was September 10th.
Today is two of my friend's birthday. Happy Birthday Mary! Happy Birthday Lindsey!
Today is EOP's anniversary of employment. And I forgot to send him to work with treats for his classmates, er, workmates.
Today is the 5 year anniversary of our first date, a double date dinner at Bell's Pizza and an on campus movie at MSU (Monsters vs Aliens). The day before the CMU vs MSU game (my and his alma mater, respectively) where CMU beat MSU in the last few seconds of the game (a very exciting few seconds for the Chippewas).
Today is the 13 year anniversary of the day the first major terrorist attack occurred on American soil. A day that still brings tears to my eyes when I retell my experiences from the day. One of our ice breaker questions at Refresh today was "what were you doing on 9/11/2001?" Most of the girls at my table were still in high school (I am not a young mom) or still in college, but I was out of school and in the working world.
I started to retell how I had stayed home from work that morning to go to a doctors appointment before commuting to work (80 miles one way). I turned on morning television on our 1 station that came in with an antenna and sat down for a little breakfast. Shortly thereafter, the show was interrupted with pictures of downtown New York and a tall, broken building with smoke billowing from it. As I told how I watched the other plane strike the second tower, I immediately choked up. That image is still so fresh in my mind, how horrified I was, how confused I was, what was happening? I was glued to the tv. It was hard to go on with my day, but I did, stopping at whatever television I could find along the way. I didn't want to go to work, but I did. I don't think much was done that day, everyone was talking about it, getting updates from spouses and friends at home who could get the latest news. I even had to go to my evening floral design class at LCC, which did not cancel classes.
A year later, I spent Labor Day weekend in New York with my friend Emily. We went to the site of the World Trade Center and also to the field where the plane landed in Shanksville, PA. I made a scrapbook of my trip and included my account of the day that changed me forever. Something I can share with EG someday to help her understand what happened.
I made another trip to New York with my friend Susan, Labor Day 2006 and I spent a morning at the memorial, which was built by then. The pictures are from that trip.
I remember, do you?
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