911 Reflections

My first-born child turned 20 on the 10th. I am glad it wasn't the 11th in light of what was to come in 2001.

Television has always taken great effort for me, I cannot seem to remember the schedule for shows that I like and I just don't tune in. This disinterest deepened after 09/11/2001 until when probably around the first of October of that year, I stopped watching TV news and Oprah Winfrey. I had just seen those images too many times.

I notice this morning on Facebook lots of links from my contacts for video and whatnot of that day. Not for me.

Wait! This is not the blog I had composed in my head yesterday. Yesterday, 09/11/2009, I had two job interviews. After my usual daily bit of excessive bathing and grooming, I was left with a lot of time to flollop about the house trying not to get dirty or mussed or to dump my coffee on myself while I waited to leave for the first interview. It was easy to think back on some other 09/11's.

The one in 1989 was the morning that dawned as my first day as a mother. It is a day I know for certain that my life changed significantly. I knew it was a momentous day and I embraced it and this newborn daughter, who seemed as if she must have always existed for me. Suddenly I could no longer remember my life without her. How does that happen!

I know for certain that day that my brothers Tim and Dave trooped in together with my father to see us. They felt delightedly conspiratorial because I was in a sort of ICU and they felt that they had snuck in. I was back in labor and delivery for "intensive care" because of a precipitous immediate postpartum interval. In fact, I had experienced the longest night of my life at the hands of a mean and rough nurse, with my focal preoccupation that of cheering on the wee hours of the morning, minute-by-minute, awaiting the change of shift at 7 a.m. Of that gleeful and silly trio that trooped in that morning, only Tim remains in material form for me now.

These things passed in my thoughts yesterday as I awaited departure for the first interview. I decided it was a good day for two job interviews. As a particular date that we ought to wipe off the calendar forever, just to hop from September 10 to September 12, like the 13th floor of many high rise buildings, why not look at it as a day of great opportunity? So I did.