Five years ago today I was unemployed. I remember the day quite well. For some reason I had awoke early, and I rolled over and turned on the TV. The first tower had already been hit and that was all that was on. I watched out of curiosity, wondering what had happened.

After 5 or 10 minutes I saw the plane hit the second tower live. I forget who I was watching that morning news-wise, but I remember thinking the man was an idiot. He was hypothesizing that the second plane hitting was an accident. Then he was bewildered when the first tower came crashing to the ground. Of course the thing is going to crash to the ground — I’m surprised it didn’t melt to the ground Wicked Witch style.

I laid in bed most of the morning, just watching the different news coverage and thinking my mom was probably losing lots of money that day (she sales tv ads). Shit, this was bad… all I could do was shake my head.

Then the phone rang. It was the man who ended up being my boss, asking me to come in for an interview the following day.

And that’s why the day sticks out in my mind. A disasterous day for the nation and this guy’s calling me for an interview. Life goes on, no matter what happens.

I hadn’t planned to write a “where were you…” article today, but as I fell asleep last night the news was showing Bush and his wife attending a church service (I think it was in memoriam of the victims, not sure). I forget his exact words, but I remember thinking in my half-concious state that I couldn’t believe this guy. Here he is in church, and he’s talking revenge — not actually saying that word, but that’s what he conveyed.

Filed under:
Observances by Courtney

The other night I had a dream about my Granny. I was sitting in Grandpa’s chair and turned my head to the left, and there she was, standing, looking at us, where she usually sat. We all wondered how she’d gotten there, as she was supposed to be in the nursing home, not in good shape.

At that point in the dream, I woke up, saying, “That can’t be right; she’s dead.” Then I woke up for real.

My grandmother lived a very good, full, long life until the last 5 or 6 months. She’d seen a lot of the world, she’d spent time with her grandchildren (that’s an understatement), she’d live her life to the fullest. So it was hard that last 5 or 6 months to see her not living life — though I wasn’t seeing it, I was only hearing about it since I was on the other end of the US.

Which is why this entire thing still feels like some weird dream — it doesn’t feel real. She’s not gone, I’m just 3,000 miles away.

What’s funny is now when I try to remember all of the things we’ve done together over the years, there’s only one moment that really sticks out in my head. I was in college, home for the summer. Granny was always telling me how proud she was of me, but this time was different.

We were walking out of the living room, where Grandpa was watching the news. She told me, “I’m so proud of you and all you’ve accomplished. You didn’t get into those things other kids do like drugs and sex…”

What was funny was the way she said sex. She lowered her voice, to almost a whisper, and had a little smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye. She said it like it was the most taboo word (and I was shocked to hear her say it, so maybe it was).

Then we both just giggled like a couple of schoolgirls, and I said, “Thank you Granny” as I gave her a hug.

I’m not sure why that is the one memory, out of all my memories of her, that overpowers them all. But I did like seeing that little twinkle in her eye — she’d get it everytime she’d make a sly remark that she shouldn’t and that was so atypical of her.

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Dreams, Observances, Reminiscences by Courtney