9/11 Happy Birthday Jim

One of my best friends in all the world has a birthday today. I'm so sad that the day has gained such a sad connotation.

Most years, I've been really good about calling on his birthday. However, the heinous events of 2001 seemed to make it a sad day and not a joyous day. I didn't call for some years.

I just talked to him and I'm grateful. He seemed so happy to hear from me. We both have been drinking bourbon (it's Saturday night) and we were joyful. He sounds SO happy. This makes me happy. I've got my own share of recent happy and I will shout it to the rooftops.

I see references to the day in 2001. I totally remember so much about where I was and what I was doing. I can see it as clearly as if the video was playing in front of me.

We were in the media storage room at Hillcrest. That was the classroom that was allotted to Academic Decathlon. We dropped Becca and James off at Arts in the morning and were at Hillcrest by 8 am. Someone, was it Drew Waggoner? came in and said "A plane hit the World Trade Center." We were dumb struck. As we were near the library we were able to go turn the TV on and look at the report and were watching as the second plane struck...

I almost vomited. At that point all of us realized that the US was under attack. I remember calling my daughter who was in the Air Force and she told me that they were still tracking two planes in the air......Pentagon. . . . Flight 93 that downed in Pennsylvania.

I cannot express how itchy I was that whole day. Downtown Dallas evacuated except for Arts Magnet. Parents came up to my school all day and pulled their children out. I didn't have that opportunity. I just got to watch craziness on TV all day. I wanted to go collect my children and draw them near to me in such a crazy time.

What is peculiar is that Becca had her college interview for Reed during the time that air travel was curtailed. The poor Reed interviewer was stuck in Dallas because of the no fly restriction. I'm glad that she thought Becca was a Reedie. She obviously is at this point as an Alumna.

It was a tough series of days.

I always think of my friend and I wish him a happy birthday.