I remember

It's Sept 11th.  Our parent's (or at least my parent's) generation had the assassination of JFK, we have 9/11.  Everyone remembers where they were when they first heard the news. When my family talks about JFK's assassination, I honestly can't connect with the sadness the country had.  I know that future generations will feel that way about 9/11; that feels so wrong to me.

So here's my story of 9/11:

I was a junior in college.  It was the first year we lived off campus and since school had just started we did not have cable yet.  I used the radio function on my clock as my alarm then and I use to lay in bed and listen to the radio for awhile until I was ready to get up. I remember waking up and hearing the news that a plane had crashed into the Wold Trade Center.  At this point is was a terrible accident.  I remember really waking up and going out into the living room where 2 of my roommates were getting ready to head out the door for class.

Me:  Oh my God, did you hear that plane crashed into the World Trade Center??!!

Roommates (not Michelle): huh...weird

Then I kept listening to the radio, since we didn't have cable, and heard that there was an "explosion" at the Pentagon.  Then I called my mother at work and asked her what the hell was going on.  Then I heard about the second plane.  Luckily one of my roommate's TVs was hooked up to the downstairs neighbor's cable.  I went into her room and watched the rest of the horror.  So I did, unfortunately, get to see the towers fall.  I got ready and went to class.  The teacher told us that it was ok to be upset and that if we had to make/take phone calls to do so outside the class, but that she understood.  Then someone came in and said the rest of the day's classes were canceled.  And then I remember some douchey baseball player had the nerve to ask if that meant that baseball was canceled too.  And, on a side note, I "dated" said baseball player 2nd semester senior year.

But there are also things I want to talk about on this 10th anniversary of 9/11.  I am not an emotional person.  I very rarely cry about things.  My mom jokes that I have a heart of stone.  But I cannot talk about 9/11 without tearing up.  And it's not the loss of life that I get upset about - but please don't think that I'm not upset about that.  No, it's the wonderful selfless acts that so many people did.  Even now I'm getting slightly teary.  The stories of the first responders who ran into the towers to save strangers?  Yes, I realize that's their job.  But when all human instinct tells you to run away from what will be almost certain death, these amazing people ran towards it.  And there were all the stories of normal everyday people that helped each other get down the stairs of the towers. The people who went to NYC to help.  Even if that help was to hand out water.  Yep more tears in my eyes. The compassion and empathy that we, as Americans, had was amazing.  Yahoo! has had all these "Remembering 9/11" articles on their news feed (and I use the word news pretty loosely there).  I have a hard time reading them, I get teary every time.  I read this article yesterday and I had to literally walk away from my computer a couple of times.

Another thing that I never really thought about until this year- every time I see a plane that I deem to be "low flying" I always watch it and wonder if it's going to crash or explode.   I never did that before and that, too, makes me sad.

I love this song and I like the video that this person did for it.

I would like to leave you on a more cheerful note: everyone is so excited about Starbucks coming out with their fall flavors.  Pumpkin Spice Latte to be exact.  Well I've discovered that at Dunkin' Donuts if you add pumpkin AND cinnamon flavoring to regular coffee you get a wonderfully similar taste that is so much more easier on the wallet.  Just sayin'.