Remembering and Celebrating....

I have a few very different thoughts today... first I'll start with the 'remembering.'
It is hard to believe it has already been four years since 9/11 . Granted, so much has happened both in my little world, and the world at large, since then. But in so many ways 9/11 is so fresh, it feels like yesterday.
It is one of those moments in a person's life where they remember EXACTLY where they were when they heard the news. For my parents, that moment was when Kennedy was shot and killed. For me, it is 9/11.
I was living large at the time. In San Fran, having wine parties with friends, buying lots of clothes, going out to dinner often, working as a television news producer. My Dh and I were planning a trip to Greece with six other friends. We were to leave on 9/14... the Friday after 9/11. We had just moved into a new house and had no cable... so our TV was staticky at best. We got a wake-up call from one of our best friends who had, at one point, worked in NYC and had many friends and family there. She called at 6:14am. When the first plane hit. We turned on our TV, we could barely make out the picture of the twin towers, when the second plane hit, Live. My DH and I gasped. I think I remember one of us saying... "what is going on?" We went to that best friends's house to watch a better TV. Because the gravity of the situation was still unfolding, and we were still preparing to leave the country in a few days, I felt I needed to go to work. Just before I left, I found out, one of our best friends, one of the people we were to be going to Greece with, had taken off on a plane, from NYC bound for San Fran... at 9am that morning. I was sick. Could this really touch that close to home? His wife had watched the plane take off, heard the news and tried to contact him via cellphone. Hours passed, no word. Then, while I was at work, I found out, our friend (Dante) had landed safely in Kansas City and would drive the rest of the way to San Francisco.
Anyways, to make a long story short, we all made it to Greece that week. Just two days later than planned. While we stayed on course for that trip, our lives were forever changed. Almost every couple we traveled with that September got pregnant within a year. The only couple that didn't - didn't want to have children. My DH lost his job on 9/12 and within a year, we moved to Seattle.
Priorities are different now. Family tops the list, not just "good times." Those friends we traveled with ARE part of my family and always will be. We were together during a time we will never forget.
******
Switching gears A LOT... this weekend I had some great bonding time with B. My Dh wasn't feeling great... so I took the opportunity to takeBen back to the locks - even in the rain. See pic at top. (I am still trying to figure this blog thing out) and we went to the zoo. It doesn't look like Ben is too happy, but I swear he was :)
I cannot believe how much I love this little boy. I love everything about him, really, I do. What a gift the year of 9/11 brought us.