The 9/11 post

Yesterday I went to bed looking forward to today because today marks the halfway mark of my pregnancy! Only 20 more weeks until Bradley and I will have a DAUGHTER! That we can actually HOLD! With our ARMS! Cannot wait. (Also, on another note, after my whiny post, my nighttime nausea has let up SIGNIFICANTLY! How awesome is that?
Magical, magical complaining.)
Anyway, when I went to go post about meeting my halfway mark on my facebook I saw everyone else's posts were about 9/11 and I realized I'd had a total brain-fart and forgot about what today is. It's September 11th.

I used to tend to get very emotional each year on September 11th. Probably because I spent my early years in the NYC area, and had we been there still when 9/11 occurred, my dad might not even be alive. (He worked right across the street from the WTC in a building that was crushed by debris on 9/11/01). It shook me up a quite a bit in 2001 (I was in 7th grade). I know it felt real to all of the kids going to school with me in TX, but I felt like I had closer ties to it than a lot of my classmates did. I had elementary school friends whose parents had died. I'd been in those buildings several times. I saw them in the skyline constantly throughout my early childhood. I spent that day wondering if my parents' friends were dying. If my friends' parents were dying. Each September 11th after that, I would withdraw a little and relive it, as one of the only people in my school with real ties to New York and the people there. I think that isolated feeling (combined with routine adolescent angst) is probably why I would get so emotional. It's interesting to be back in the NYC area now, so much later because I don't feel that way anymore. I am in a huge group of people, each of whom were deeply affected by 9/11, and I feel less sad. That probably has a lot to do with the fact that it's been 11 years, but I also really do think being in a group of people who all spent that day wondering the same things ("Is so-and-so alive? Did he/she go to work today?") eases the ache of the memory a little.

Every year at least one person asks me if I remember where I was or what I was doing that day. So I figured I'd just write it down SOMEWHERE, and a blog seemed like the appropriate place. I remember that day perfectly. I think we all do. I had early morning piano lessons on Tuesdays, before school. My lesson was over at 8 am, and my mom came to pick me up and take me to school. It was just me and her in the car. She had talk radio on, and told me to listen up, that something had happened to the twin towers. Naturally I was concerned, but not OVERLY concerned, because my friends' parents who worked there had all survived the 1992 bombing with no injuries or anything so I figured this was just 2.0, and would blow over soon. At that point, we didn't know a plane had actually flown into them. The car ride to school from piano was a short one, so without much further information, I hopped out of the car and headed into school.

I walked by the library and saw a giant huddle of kids looking up at the TV. The news was on. I peeked in the doors and watched a plane fly right into the first tower. And then watched the replay over and over until heading to my first class (Reading). I was sort of in a daze for the rest of the morning. The teachers all acknowledged that something had happened, that a plane had flown into one of the towers, but they were instructed not to turn on the TVs to let us watch anything. We all thought it was some bizarre accident. I went to Math, then choir, when I got a call from the counselor's office.  Karen got a call too. Her dad was there to pick her up. I overheard him saying the person flying into the towers did it on purpose. I got to the office, and my mom was there in tears saying the other tower got hit too, and she was here to take me home for the day. The TV in the counselor's office was on. Sam got called down too. The three of us stood there silently crying and watched as the towers collapsed live on TV. My mom signed us out and we rode home listening to the news on the radio. We spent the rest of the day watching the news together and making phone calls to our friends in New Jersey and Connecticut.
/end/

There we go. That whole day is documented. I don't want to think about it anymore. Obligatory downer post = over.
Ugh I REALLY want to do a post about books! Soon.


All in good time.