10 Years Later

Nothing like the 10th anniversary of a major historical event to remind you how fast time goes.

10 years ago yesterday I was walking the halls of Hinsdale Central High School between Algebra and something else I can't remember, getting word that something bigger than all of us was happening outside our walls. Not until 4th period, Freshman English, did we get to watch the television and see exactly what was going on. I don't remember images from the TV as much as that dark classroom, and tears in my teacher's eyes.

During lunch I remember trying to use the pay phone (wow now I do feel old) to get in touch with my Dad. I knew he was to be at the World Trade Center that week for meetings. Just the week before he had shown me his special World Trade Center Visitors badge, I cursed myself then for not paying close enough attention to exactly when he was going....

Of course the phone towers were down, I don't remember if I actually talked to him or not, I must have, I don't remember feeling panicked the rest of the day.

On a side note, do you ever feel like you're developing signs of early onset Alzheimer's? Not because I can't remember all the details of something that happened 10 years ago but because I can't remember the blood pressure I took on my patient at work ten seconds ago....anyways

Speaking of work, the reason I am writing this post a day late is because I was at work yesterday, praying that no babies would be born. Not because we don't need babies in our unit, we do, but because I didn't want anyone to have the birthday of the 10th anniversary of the day the world changed forever. Alas, we are on God's time table, not ours.

Anyways, flooded with images from 9-11 last night, everything feels a little surreal. Did ten years really go by that fast? Did that really happen? Life feels like a bubble. I can't really explain why, it just does.