Patriot Day

In honor of Patriot Day, I wanted to write a post about how I feel 7 years later. First of all, I told Abby about it this morning, complete with pictures from a book. She seemed to really understand (she understands a lot for her age). I didn't show her any gory pictures(in case you were wondering). But I did tell her that some bad people crashed airplanes into the WTC. Her reaction: "That makes me sad!!" I haven't gotten the why's yet, but I'm glad because I'm not sure that I want to explain that part to her. The flag at her school was at half mast, as was the flag at the car dealership that we went to today (that is another post, look for it soon). She didn't really notice that the flag at her school was at half mast, but she did notice the one at the car dealership (it is a really huge flag). She asked me, "Why isn't the flag all the way at the top??" I told her, "Remember what we talked about earlier? How those planes crashed into those buildings? We need to remember that. When you see at flag the is in the middle of the pole, you need to remember that something happened." She told me again, that it mad her sad to think of people crashing planes into the buildings. (That is all the details that I gave her BTW. I didn't really want her talking about it all day and I'm not sure if I really want her to understand it completely right now.)

Anyway, back to my feelings...I'm sure most of us remember exactly what we were doing when we heard the news. I was in my last semester in college. I had an 8 am class that morning. Normally, I ran late, but that morning for some reason I was a little early.

I remember that I parked my car at 7:45 and I walked straight to class. Class went on as usual because no one had heard the news yet. Before my 9:45 class started someone walked in and said that the "World Trade Center Towers had collapsed" and that was it. No elaboration or anything. BTW, this person wasn't very trustworthy, so I (being a skeptic) didn't think twice about it. Actually, I did think twice about it. I thought, how do TWO buildings fall down on the same day? This guy must be an idiot. After that class, Eric and I met up on campus as we usually do. We headed straight for the McDonald's near campus (because there was a TV there) and we were glued to the tube for most of the afternoon. I think that we both must have left at some point because we did have other classes to attend that day and I had work.

I don't remember anything after the McD's trip until I arrived at work. Everyone there was glued to the television also.

Next thing that I remember is getting home. My sister had the TV on and she was watching MTV News. WHAT??? Oh no this was not acceptable. Had my mother been there it would have been on CNN. I immediately changed the channel to some sort of normal news program and I watched the news come in all through the night.

My feelings today are somewhat similar to those that I felt on that day. The utter sadness has changed with time. I am no longer brought to tears by the pictures and accounts of what happened. Though, I did feel a little choked up this morning by the presidents speech at the Pentagon, I held it together. (No matter who you are, whether you like him or not, he was the President on that day and he, along with Guiliani, helped this nation through that tough time.)

Two years ago on 9/11, hubby and I watched World Trade Center with Nicholas Cage (we weren't actually with him). I think that everyone needs to watch this movie. I was particularly impressed with how they added in some comedic interludes at just the right time in the movie. I was really expecting to cry through the whole movie, but I didn't. The movie showed the true heroism and courage that all involved had within them.

I hope that everyone had their moment of silence and remembered (or tried to remember) exactly how they felt on the dreadful day. I know that I did (can you tell?)

Ok...I think that I'm done now. But before I go I want to leave you with this http://www.cassyfiano.com/2008/09/remembering-9-11-2. It is a blog I found while searching for 9/11 material. I thought it was very good. Hope you do too. And also, my song of choice for today would be Have You Forgotten? by Darryl Worley. Check it out!!!