tired

[chestnutcurls]

This is going to be a weird week.

I'm wanting to post about last year, and where I was when I heard, and those kinds of things, but I'm going to save them till Wednesday. But the state of the nation is constantly on my mind, as it must be on everybody's. I keep seeing patriotic baked goods at Kroger, and thinking, "Why are they still selling flag cakes after Labor Day?" and then it comes back to me for the millionth time. I had sort of felt that the 11th should be made a holiday, but this morning I read in someone's journal that the thought of some car salesman someday having a "Big Sept. 11th Sale" made her nauseous, and I have to agree.

On to cheerier topics. I had a busy weekend. Kathy's birthday party went off well. I spent most of it listening to Royce tell about his and MaryElaine's honeymoon, which might as well have been called National Lampoon's Hawaiian Honeymoon. (Just for starters, their "five-star" hotel room was actually a MASH-like tent on the beach. :)) Later, we went to the improv show. It was not that funny, except for one game in which the actors played Marco Polo while walking around in an area full of mousetraps. :)

On Saturday I bought my aforementioned scrapbooking supplies. I had a long phone conversation with Evan, after which I felt much better about life in general. :) Then he and Ryan and Jamie came over and we all ordered pizza and watched Nurse Betty.

Me: Morgan Freeman's in it. It can't be that bad.
Evan: Even the best actors have one bad movie. This could be his.
Ryan: Oh, come on. Schwarzenegger made 15 great movies in a row.
Evan: Yes, and then he made Last Action Hero.

Sunday morning Ryan and I went to another church to hear Luke and Myla sing a duet. Then I spent a happy afternoon sleeping, scrapbooking, and watching Friends, and then went to Sunday Night Fellowship. Then I talked online with a bunch of you guys. :)

Boy, this is so exciting. I'm going to blame it on the fact that I'm exhausted and my brain feels like pudding. Good night, all. :)

Comments

[moredetails.livejournal.com]

Hi! I don't know what to say to this but I thought I'd comment for fun. You always comment on mine, so..you know.

Oh yeah, I will say this (instead of in my journal I'll just mention it here): for me I think this week will be pretty normal. I'm sad about what happened a year ago (it's never good that families have to suffer in the loss of their loved ones), but it's not like we haven't had stuff like this happen in history. Pearl Harbor, Vietnam, etc. I personally didn't know anyone who died, and frankly it didn't effect my life all that much in the grand scheme of things. I don't mean to sound insensitive, but really I go about my day pretty much the same. I get tired of people saying "Things will never be the same after 9/11!" That's only true in that change (and God) is our only consistency in life, so things will change regardless. But comparing everything pre-9/11 and post-9/11 is getting tiring to me.

America goes on just like it always did after catastrophic events. There are still big things happening regardless. Tornadoes destroying people's homes, planes being hijacked, war times in the Middle East, people getting in car accidents. These situations are bigger than 9/11 to the people involved. And I will always have stories from my life that were bigger than 9/11/01. When my grandma died, when my sister moved out, when my nieces were born, when I got my driver's license, etc. I can tell you about how I felt and where I was during those times. Wow, how self-centered does that sound? :)

I don't know what it feels like to have lost a loved one a year ago through that particular event. I'm not saying that everyone has to feel the way I do, I'm just personally a little tired of all the media coverage and having everything compared to one date and one incident. It's as if they are forcing people to consider it a huge impact in their life, or else they are just insensitive and unpolitically correct. Twenty years from now it'll be thought of as just a part of history.

Anyway, that's my insensitive, unpolitically correct and self-centered view of things. I'm fine with people who feel they need to grieve or remember it for whatever reasons, I'm just not fine with feeling pressured to center my life around it and measure everything against it and react a certain way.

The end. :)

[chestnutcurls.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I agree that they are hyping it a little too much, but my reason is that it doesn't need to be hyped. People are going to remember, whether anyone says anything or not.

And we shouldn't center our lives around it, because that would be really unhealthy. But to me it's never going to be just a part of history. I think the changes to our society because of it are more subtle now than they were at first, but they're still there. To our children, it will be just history, because they'll never have known what the world was like before. But not to me, because that was the first time in my life that I witnessed history.

I don't know what I'm trying to say. :) Thanks for commenting even though I didn't have anything worth commenting on. :)

Re:

[moredetails.livejournal.com]

Hey. :) I hope I didn't offend by what I said. It wasn't ranting at you, but rather the media for pressuring people to feel a certain way. It's as if I am a bad person if I don't spend my whole day in remembrance or walk around solemnly and watch all of the TV coverage. Frankly I don't want to think about it right now. When the Memorium show came out on HBO in May, I felt it was too early (but my friend wanted to watch and we shared a hotel room so what could I do?). It was horrible to see all of the people jump out of the buildings again, and to watch all the ash-covered people walk out. I won't forget what happened, just like I won't forget a lot of things. But I don't think I need to constantly see footage so that I won't "forget" it.

I've been remembering it for about 365 days now. In fact, it doesn't feel like it's been a whole year because they've talked about it and had special things for it just about every 11th day of each month. I think in the future September 11th might seem more significant because it will be the time of each year to remember. This year I feel like I've been forced to do too much remembering so it's not exactly this special time now, you know?

We witness history everyday. :) Some things I can think of off the top of my head that are still remembered: the rocket that blew up with the school teacher inside, large earthquakes (I pick that being Californian) and other natural disasters, the presidential snafu between Gore and Bush, the Berlin wall coming down, the end of the Cold War, etc.

Anyway, I'll shut up now! I've been writing WAY too much. :) As my old professor used to say, my opinion and a dollar will get you on the bus.

[chestnutcurls.livejournal.com]

No offense taken. :) I agree with everything you just said. Of course I remember the Challenger and the Wall and other things, but I didn't really process the implications of them. I was too young. This was the first time I was aware that I was witnessing history.

Although I was kind of aware of it in the 2000 elections, too. I hadn't thought about it that way, but now that you mention it, I guess it's true. We were glued to CNN for days. :)

[lifeofpatrick.livejournal.com]

"I keep seeing patriotic baked goods at Kroger"

anyone making money off 911 should be ashamed.

if I hear 911 one more time I think I will scream. I will be turning off my tv and radio and not watching or hearing the specials. Hopefully i'll just Instant message me brother and be thankfull that he, his girlfriend and their friends were ok.

[chestnutcurls.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I forgot your brother was in NYC. Wow.

[lifeofpatrick.livejournal.com]

Yea during the 911 event he was living in the city but pretty far away. His gilffriend and him ended up sleeping right through the being of it. I called his cell phone and woke him up. We were talking on AIM when the first tower fell and then on the phone when the second won tumbled.

The most scary thing was to come later when the plane crashed in queens a couple of weeks latter. the GF and him moved to queens the weekend before the plane crashed. we had not clue where he was living in queens so it was quite of a relief to hear from him then. he ended up living near Lag and not JFK.

they both still love the big city and have just moved back into it from queens.

[nova-wylde.livejournal.com]

What's the deal about the 9-11 sale?! What's up with that guy, anyway?! Is that his way of remembering what happend just last year, by trying to bring in customers to try to do good business and get people to spend money?! Unless the profits are going to a 9-11 charity, or something, then I say that if he wants to remember the events of 9-11, there are other ways of doing so.

Patrick, sorry to keep saying 9-11, but I just couldn't avoid talking about it. I'll be remembering the events of that day as well, like where I was, what I was doing, and what not, as I'm sure many others will.

Oh, and Brenda, it was nice talkin to ya the other night. I added ya to my friends list, so don't forget to add me back! :)

[chestnutcurls.livejournal.com]

No, no one is actually having a sale! It's the thought that someday, somebody might. :) Because over time the importance of the day will fade away. Like Memorial Day. This same girl (and now I can't remember who she was) was admitting how Memorial Day to her is mainly just a day to go to the beach for the first time all summer. That's how it would be if we made it a holiday.

Kathy and I were discussing this last night and she said that this is like a Civilian's Memorial Day. On Memorial Day we remember soldiers who went to war, but Sept. 11 is for remembering regular people who just went to work one day and lost their lives for it. They didn't go to war; the war came to them. I thought that was profound. And now I won't talk about this anymore as it seems to have everyone riled up. :P