September 11th, 2007

soundingsea wrote, "It's a beautiful September morning. Sky's not the same blue, though; I'm irrationally grateful for the wispy cirrus clouds. I'm thinking of everyone, everything lost because of this day, six years back but not faded."

I've been thinking for days about how soon it would be September 11th, but I didn't even think about the weather until I saw her post.  (Here in Boston it was cool and grey and rainy today -- unlike the beautiful clear blue sky I experienced in Northampton on September 11, 2001.)

[Ann Althouse posted photos of the fog obscuring the absence of the Two Towers this morning.]

I reread sangerin's West Wing fic "Eighteen Minutes" (linked here) and it still makes me cry.

Jonah mentioned Ani's 9/11 poem recently, and I never liked it much (I remember tracking down an mp3 copy for Joe, at his request, when it was still a work-in-progress) but rereading it I am reminded of how much beautiful poetry there is in it.

cuz we were all on time for work that day
we all boarded that plane for to fly
and then while the fires were raging
we all climbed up on the windowsill
and then we all held hands
and jumped into the sky

We watched a West Wing episode today, and a character keeps getting a busy signal and says, "The lines are jammed."  MaryAlice said, "You don't get a busy signal when the lines are jammed," and I realized, "Yes, people would know that," and sure enough then she said, "I know that from six years ago."  I did not try calling anyone six years ago.  I think everyone I knew was in NYC I found out about via the Internet.  It's weird not having an LJ record.  I remember walking down the stairs of Seelye with Becca.  I remember walking back to the house, the clear bright blue sky.  We thought it must be a joke.  I remember walking into the house and seeing people in the living room with the tv on and realizing it was true.  I remember going upstairs to my room and telling my roommate and her then-girlfriend, and how my voice faltered and the emotion of it didn't really hit me until that moment.

***

In mundane news:

I felt better this morning than I did this morning.  I did the cross training program and felt like I was working consistently, though the times aren't impressive.
1mi @ 11:48min
2mi @ 23:47min
2.56mi @ 30min

One of the first e-mails I came in to this morning was a new scheduling thing which I was cc-ed on, and the person from Company A who was delegating this said: "You can communicate with [my full name], Assistant to Prof. [full name], who is very efficient & helpful."

***

I want to do nice things for people.  A number of flisters have been making such offers recently, but I'm crap at creative stuff (I still owe first-kiss ficlets from eons ago, not to mention all my WIPs) so I don't really know what to do about that.  I owe meta and writeups, so I should probably get on that.