Ten years ago on 9/11 was the first day I ‘saw’ my oldest son. That was how the day ended, but here is how it began …
I was getting ready for work; Mark had already left, as he was working in Peoria that day (about 3 hours away). I was half listening to the Today Show as I was racing around, and then I sat down on the corner of the bed to really dial in to the broadcast. I called Mark to make sure he was listening to the radio. As I was sitting there with my phone in my hand talking to Mark, watching the Today Show listening, explaining, trying to comprehend … at this point, this was still just a plane crash, the second plane crashed into the second tower live on TV. What the hell had just happened?
On my 30 minute drive to work, I listened to the radio the entire way … the only thing that was on was coverage of the plane crashes into the Twin Towers. Just as I was pulling into the parking garage, the first tower fell. We had clients in that building. I hauled my 5 month-pregnant-self up to my office on the 13th floor and was amazed to find all of my co-workers not at their desks. Our office was a large open room with groups of desks, no cubicles or offices, with a HUGE floor to ceiling window at one end that faced the city of Chicago. Everyone was standing at the window, watching to see if Chicago would be attacked next. We had an office there too. We evacuated several of our offices in major cities that day and in the offices that we didn’t evacuate, I’m pretty sure no one was working any way. In the corporate office, we brought a TV in and stared at it all day in disbelief.
The towers falling, the Pentagon, Pennsylvania, the constant news coverage, it was so surreal. Nothing had changed for us, our office looked just the same, my friends were still intact, how could this be happening? We watched together for hours and we just couldn’t believe our eyes. The devastation was unnerving. What was even scarier was the knowledge we would gain later about how and when the terrorists had infiltrated our systems, how they have changed our perception of safety, changed our vocabulary, our holidays, the way we remember.
One of the eeriest things about 9/11 was the grounding of ALL of the flights to and from everywhere. Where we lived was kind of under (way under) a landing pattern for Midway Airport, so we would see and sometimes hear many planes each night. For the week (5 days, I’m not sure) after 9/11 that the planes were all grounded, it was so eerily quiet at night. At first, you couldn’t quite put your finger on what was missing, but then it was just creepy. We couldn’t wait to see those lights in the sky again. One amazing thing was that my boss at the time, an entrepreneur, was a partner in another business, a charter airline. During these days, they were one of the very few people in the air because they were flying airline executives to crash sites. Just one of those crazy things.
Anyway, back to the actual day … after a very emotional day, I was really looking forward to my very first ultrasound to see my very first baby, and Mark was racing home to make sure he could be there with me. He had told me that morning before he left, before 9/11 happened, to make sure I gassed up my car so we wouldn’t have to stop that evening on the way to the doctor. Well, in all of the morning’s excitement, I didn’t. And then gas was $6 a gallon and there were 85 people in line at the gas station. Wouldn’t you know it that on the day the US declares war on terrorism, Mark declares war on me for not putting gas in my car at the right time! We were late to the appointment, but they were accommodating. We did not find out the baby’s gender, which drove almost everyone we knew crazy. We loved it. In February of 2002 we had a boy. He’ll be 10 soon. (I can’t believe I have a 10 year old!)
We’ve come a loooong way in the ten years since that day. We’ve gone from 0 kids to 3, we have moved a long way from Chicago, we are both business owners, we are both working very hard on finding our real happy, and we have grown so much as individuals, a couple, and most importantly, as a family. We work hard and we play even harder. We choose to surround ourselves with good people, and magically, life is more fun. The sink is usually full of dishes, there is always laundry waiting to be done, and the grass – well, that will get mowed someday! We are busy having fun with our kids or spending time on this amazing activity we call grown-up time, nothing crazy, just some time with other grown-ups! We used to do it all the time before we had kids and we loved it, so we’re adding that back on our To Do list. Our kids are in a lot of sports (times 3) so I’m basically a chauffeur from 3 PM to 8 PM each day. We do the best we can each day and then we flop in to bed immediately after they do … ahem, 8:35 … and try to stay awake past 10 PM.
My hope for the next 10 years is that we can find more success in happiness, and bring more harmony and balance to this place I call Crazy Town. Maybe a routine would help? Ya think? We learned this week that life is short and you never know what is going to happen. Be in it for the happy! We are.
for the happy,
the one kj
in it for the happy 