La La La La...

We've recently had a change in weather from hellishly hot and too muggy to breathe to relatively cooler and less muggy (I did say relatively). Unfortunately for me it has only made me want to seek out the closest hammock or chaise lounge and lay supine enjoying the breeze.

One of the apparent side effects is that my brain has shut down and refuses to have anything of significance cross it. Except for the similarities of yesterday and today's weather to that fateful day six years ago.

Belatedly, I want to share my memories of September 11th, 2001.

I was working at a private boarding school out in the middle of the Virginia countryside, the windows were open in our non-air conditioned office and my boss came in asking if what she had heard on the radio was true; the DJ she was listening to was known for extreme jokes. The radio in our office was not on at the time so I went to CNN.com and up came the unspeakable - a smoking tower in the middle of New York City. From that point on things get blurry. My DH (then fiance) was at grad-school, in class, and I dialed his cell phone multiple times until he finally picked up (what's going on, why do you keep calling...). Ironically he was in a class on steel structures.

Mid-morning the kids had a break and I took it upon myself to go to the canteen (a room with soda-machines and a TV which was available to the students during breaks) and ask that the television not be turned on during the break, there had been a national tragedy and that I was sure the school president would call an assembly. I knew that the two students already there were trustworthy kids, one the son of a staff member, the other his girlfriend, and would respect my request. I remember walking across the campus from my office to the canteen, a breeze flapping the skirt of the jumper I was wearing, leaves on the 100 year old trees rustling overhead, the sun shining down, and puffy clouds in a serene blue sky, and thinking that the world had just changed, and that the weather should be reflecting the events of the day. I don't remember walking back to my office, but I can tell you the names of the two kids who were in the canteen and see them and the canteen clearly.

Sure enough, the president called an assembly to share the events of the day. One student ran out upset (her father was a firefighter and she had recently lost her mother), other students were allowed to call family members who worked in New York City. Several trained counselors were called in to be available to any students who needed or wanted help. The rest of the day is a haze; an attempt to keep things normal when nothing seemed right. With students from Europe and Asia and from across the country, there was no way everyone could be sent home early. I don't believe any of our students or faculty/staff lost close family members, but the mood of the school was a reflection of the world outside.

But mostly what I remember is the blue, blue sky and the perfect pre-fall weather.

It would have been a beautiful day to fly cross-country.

Flying in and out of Newark a month later, the airport train had a clear view of the NYC skyline and visible smoke from the still smoldering buildings, but that remains a story for another day.