It Started Off Like Any Other Day

I was walking to an early morning class and I was a jumble of nerves. The night before had been my boyfriend's 21st birthday. I was only 19 so I didn't want to be a drag on the festivities of the evening, since I knew the plan was a crawl through town. In my mind this was a huge sacrifice on my part, but in reality I had an early class the next day, had celebrated with him over the weekend, and was in the middle of sorority rush (before I was a Kappa). But I had this sick feeling in my stomach that bad was going to happen and I was so worried. He hadn't called me, like he promised he would, when he was safely home and I just knew this meant that he was either in bed with someone else or in the hospital.
 (What can say, I was a drama queen).

All these thoughts are racing through my mind and spilling out of my mouth, as I told my best male friend as we walked together. He said all the right things, but I could tell he was thinking I was acting nutsy. We walked into Morton and it was eerily quiet, we looked at the clock and it was a few minutes before 9am. As we got to our classroom I saw the tv turned on, there were students gathered around it. No one said anything, tears glistening in their eyes. Neither of us still had any idea what was going on, we saw the first tower on fire with a hole in the side, but the reality had yet to sink in.
And then we saw something else, it was like a horror movie where you're helpless to do anything but watch. The second plane zoomed into sight, obviously headed in the direction of the World Trade Center, and then it disappeared into the other tower, as though it had been swallowed whole. A ripple of cries, screams, and gasps went through the room and then the building.

Everything I had been worried about before left my mind, I was now convinced that this was the End of Days and the end of the world. No one on the news was able to give an explanation other then America was under attack. A few minutes later we learned that a plane had crashed into the Pentagon, which was only 90 minutes from Richmond. The next speculation we heard was that "they" were moving down the East Coast, and that the FED in Richmond was being evacuated, as the possible next target. Our cell phones wouldn't work and the Internet had crashed. I felt so helpless. But it got worse when they speculated that the next hit might be the nuclear power plant, which is in the Williamsburg zone or Camp Peary, in Williamsburg, which is a CIA training ground.
I felt trapped. Against the advice of my friends, I hopped into my car and drove home. No matter what happened, I wanted to be with my family. I was only a sophomore and we weren't allowed to have cars yet, I just happened to have mine because of rush. The roads were empty. I saw only a handful of cars on the hour drive to my house.

And we watched the news, listened to the stories, and then came the realization-the feeling that nothing would ever be the same again. It's easier to forget that day, to pretend that it didn't change the course of American history forever. It's not a day I like to think about, but I feel a responsibility to remind myself of it every September 11th. For those of us who were lucky enough to not loose anyone we love, I think the anniversary can become an abstract day of remembrance and ultimately "just another day." But for so many, it's when lost their life as they knew it- something impossible to forget because it's defined their every day since then. And it's for them that I choose to remember.

Inauguration Hangover

I was drunk with patriotism yesterday- giddily and all-consuming drunk! No, I did not imbibe any spirits, not even a sip of anything harder than my beloved diet coke, it was the power, the magnitude of the day that did me in. And today, my brain and my body hurt like it hasn't since college.


I felt compelled to take in every aspect of the Inauguration. I woke up at an hour before Spencer so I get myself together and before she commanded my attention. CNN stayed on all day, and I rewound the more poignant moments over and over again. It was one of those moments that I knew Spencer would ask me about when she was older, and I wanted to be able to tell her everything that wanted to know.
She happened to be taking her mid-morning nap when President Obama was getting ready to take the Oath of Office. Against my better judgment, I woke her up out of a deep slumber so that she could witness this historic event. I could just hear her now saying to me down the road, "You let me sleep through it? What were you thinking?"

Because that's exactly what I would have said to my mom. Unfortunately, this did not go well and she cried for the next 15 minutes, but still, she watched it!

While trying to entertain her for the rest of the day, I diligently took notes and wrote down my feelings on particular aspects of the day, my favorite quotations, etc. You would have thought I was going to be given a test on it. When night came, it was onto the Balls! I love seeing the dresses and the pageantry of it all. Around 12:30am my eyes began to droop and I dozed off listening to the 100th version of "At Last" by Etta James.

Oh, the agony of this morning! My brain hurts, my eyes hurt, and I never want to hear At Last again. I'm hoping by tonight or tomorrow this "ennui" will be gone and I will be able to watch CNN without feeling like my head is going to explode. But what a great day it was, a truly great day. One that I will never forget as long as I live, one that has renewed my faith and given me hope about what a great nation we can be.
 
I wouldn't trade this patriotic hangover for anything! I am so glad that my inner government-o-phile returned, especially since I thought it was long gone. While I would have loved to have been in D.C. with my friends, there was something really special about being able to share this moment with my daughter, even if she won't remember it and she screamed through many of the important parts.

So, yes my head hurts, but just like in college, the 24 hours of pain is well worth the lifetime of good memories!