September 11

Yup, it's "that" anniversary again. For many of us, there are days that we remember exactly where we were, who we were with, etc. when certain events occurred. When the Challenger exploded, I was home from school with a migraine. It was also the day my parents brought my sister home from the hospital after some surgery. She came in and turned on the TV, which really annoyed me as I was lying on the couch with a migraine. But the pain was forgotten as the images unfolded.

On 9/11/2001, Tom and I were newly arrived in The Hague after leaving our daughters with my parents and putting our house in Houston on the market after restoring it after flooding due to Tropical Storm Allison. We'd both started new jobs. Tom was on a business trip in London and I was looking forward to week alone -- not being accountable to anyone or having anyone look to me for company or assistance (quite a luxury with a 4 year old and 18 month old!). I was sitting in a conference in a hotel in The Hague with a whole bunch of new colleagues (and a few that I'd know previously). We were a group of folks from all over the world. The first calls came to one of the gentlemen from a secretary with the news that "a plane hit the World Trade Center". We were all (as were many around the world) thinking a small plane made a mistake. Then, of course, it got worse. I sat up all night in my hotel room, calling my mom (thank God I was able to get through!) to check on my girls, watching CNN and the BBC. Tom was still carrying a US cell phone and was calling me from the hotel line. They'd evacuated Shell Centre in London due to its status as a potential target. All flights were cancelled, etc. The next morning we came back into our conference, thinking how small we were and how relatively meaningless our meeting's purpose was. We muddled through the day. All colleagues who were not living in Holland were forced to extend their stays. Tom managed to get a train home for the weekend which was certainly a blessing to me. My biggest impact was when I went back to the US a couple weeks later to bring the girls home and encountered all the new security. This was when they were still x-raying you as you got OFF the plane as well as before you got on. But seeing the smiles on my little girls faces made it all worthwhile.

What a strange world we live in that there are so many people who believe such acts are appropriate against innocent people. I (personally) feel that our country, as much as I love it, is not immune to this sort of behavior. But I digress. So please hold back on any nasty comments! I am a strong believer in education, tolerance, and talk. I appreciate that war and violence have a place, but perhaps not as big a place as our world seems to have for it.

Enough on that. Ballet has started and Maggie's had 2 classes. Suffering rain EVERY day this week during carpool which makes for unhappy people (it's pouring right now, sigh). Orthodontist appointment this afternoon followed by a trip to Michael's for supplies for a 7th grade project. The joys of my life!