I Cried - Just Saying

I had recorded the 9/11 shows from Sunday evening while I was watching the Cowboys game.  And no I didn't cry for the game, although it was soooo not the way I wanted it to turn out.  OK, so we are 0-1 right off the bat.  We will get over it.  But it seemed a bit trivial that night, they were in NY, they were playing NY, there were memorials going on all around them.  NY won in NY, on a day when NY was remembering the worst day of all its lifetime.  I'm good.

Later, after that night I watched a couple of the shows, still haven't had time to watch them all.  People connecting with the people who helped them or saved them on that day.  Even soldiers/veterans who went to war after that in Afghanistan and survivors working today together on the rebuilding.  Several times I cried a little, but when I watched the kids who were born after their fathers had died on that day, I cried like a baby. 

Let me tell you, there were several times watching these kids, listening to them, seeing their pics right beside the pics of their dads and how much they looked alike.  It was so cool.  One little girl said, "I love him, I never met him, but I know that I love him."

I really, really cried when they showed the woman and her child that were Muslim and she too had lost her husband in the towers.  He was a waiter in the restaurant on one of the top floors, when he had come to America he was a physicist and gave it up to move his family to freedom in America.  It told how she had been treated badly because she was and they didn't realize she was a widow of the attack with children who had lost their father.  What really got me was that when she lost him she didn't know how to drive a car.  I know, sounds silly, but it showed how she immediately took driving lessons and had film of her getting her first driver's license.  While the man was talking to her, giving it to her, she could not help but cry.  It got me.

I could only imagine how overwhelmed she was living in a new country, then losing her husband, I imagined she felt so alone.  Her children were fatherless, she lost her man, she was receiving anger and she didn't know how to drive.  I imagined that all of that culminated and combined with the joy of getting her first driver's license overwhelmed her at that moment.  Being proud that she had succeeded, being sad that he wasn't there with her to see it or share it with her.  I am sure that is how I would have responded.

Wow, this past week or so we have been inundated with reminders of how precious life is, how short it can be, how trivial some of our worries are and how much we have to be thankful for and really, really important, we are sharing in something that happened to all of us.  Their losses touched us, this thing that happened affected all of us in many different degrees.  I am glad to feel these feelings, to see their feelings to learn more and more each time I watch these shows.  There was much I didn't know and so much going on now and I gain knowledge continually that I am glad that I gain. 

I was in NYC 9 months before 9/11 and I was there 6 months after.  I plan to go after 2012, after they finish the museum and the Transit.  I, like many people I know and I am sure that feel as if they were there, that are proud to be an American during this time and I want to pay my respects to all those who lost their lives and those who lost their loved ones.  It is all a very huge and life altering event that happened in my lifetime, in my country, to my people.  Nothing bad happened to me personally, to my body that day, but I will forever feel that on that day, strangers, people I didn't know, became like family to me.  It happened to them, it happened to all of us.

Just Saying.

Jin, Now John - Lost Is Migrating - But Caan Started It For Me - Hawaii 5-0

Hawaii Five-0 - Redone - I like it a lot.

I started watching it because of Scott Caan, love him, love his father!  Alex O'Loughlin is no slouch either!  But Caan is what drew me.  I remember the old one (100 years ago, my mom watched it, maybe Jack Lord was her "value add"), but this is new and updated and worth the watch.  Using Grace Park as the lead female is a very good choice, she is believable in her role.  Not just a cosmetic add, but a believable part.  I like her demeanor, her facial expressions, her portrayal of the emotions and attitudes are good for the part.

But I watched intermittently and now I will probably watch it much more consistently.  Why?  Because John is joining the cast.  If you haven't noticed, John, Terry O'Quinn from Lost is joining the cast - Yousa!

So if not happy enough that Daniel Dae Kim is on the show already, Jin from Lost, who is great to watch and is great casting.  Now John is on his way!  Yeah, I should be calling him Terry, but no, he is John.

Lost is one of the greatest TV shows ever, the writing was absolutely, insanely genius and John was one of the greatest stars in that show.  From the previews, it appears they are playing to that great role base as he had in Lost and maybe even better.  I will be watching!

I want to see almost every actor from Lost on prime time again.  Wow, needs to be, needs to be.  Can anyone say Yes we want to see Sawyer every week??? 

And another target of my attention - Sayid??  Oh yeah he needs to be on some show every week, I say NCIS, NCIS Los Angeles or even something to that caliber.

 Even Benjamin has a new show coming this season, wondering... Value add:  Jim Cavezel co-stars.

Off the subject completely, but hello!  Oded Fehr should be on my TV every week also.  Although he is pretty high caliber to the nth and should be in more movies really.

Mummy

Resident Evil

Just had to throw him in the  mix - Value Add!

Remember Jericho and Heroes - I believe those shows were victims of the writer's strike, I liked those.

Back to H50 and John - looking forward to seeing John in a new show, one that I already like!

Be Happy People!  Who or what is your Value Add??  Cinematically speaking, of course!

I Will Never Forget - My 9/11

First of all - today is all about remembering 9/11.  I have several of the television events recording and I haven't watched a whole one yet.  But I am glad of them all and I remember.  I was in Norwich, CT that day, I flew there on 9/10.  At the time I was flying every or every other week and it was sobering to see my form of travel used in this horrible way.  My colleagues, 3 of them, were all flying as much and 2 of them were coast to coast'ers.  They had homes in CA and flew consistently to the East coast.  Their possibility of being on one of those flights were greater than mine flying Texas to East. 

I was in the service desk in Norwich when I walked by a monitor room and saw way too many people in that room staring up at the top monitor, a tv showing the first tower just hit.  I stopped as several others did and my first utterance was "was that a commercial plane?"  My thoughts were fast and scrambled.  I had a conference call meeting just about to start and took off for the conference room, where only one person joined me.  On my way to that room, I got a call on my cel phone.  It was my very upset daughter, my kids knew I flew every week, but I did not send out an itinerary to them every week.  So of course they were panicked about me and where I was this day and was I on a plane.  Reassuring her with instructions to let others know I am ok, I talked to one of the other two, and my mom and sister before the cel phones stopped working.

The meeting didn't last long, only 3 others joined, one to say that our clients, defense companies, were on lock down and business would not go as usual today.  I told the one girl in the room with me to go and connect with her family and I left quickly and went back to my hotel room.  I arrived just in time to see on the news the second plane had hit.  I used the landline phone in my room to speak with family again and try to find out about my colleagues and their safety.

Let's stop a moment for feelings...  I was shocked and scared.  I was very close to NYC and very far from home and my family.  I like millions of others, could not make any sense out of this and had never felt this way before.  No real reasoning, but I wanted to go home, be home already.  I was alone in a hotel room about 45 minutes from Hartford, where my mode of transportation was no more.  Where my twice weekly vehicle was used 4 times, so far, as a shocking, massive weapon against innocent people, against me and my country.  I wanted to be home.

There was so much uncertainty about the events and what was actually happening, and kept happening, one after the other, after the other.  It was more than my mind could compute and I wasn't alone.  I was preparing for the possibility of driving my rental car back to Texas.  As truly an unexpected, unprecedented event, all flights were grounded and airports were closed.  I was booked to fly home on Thursday which wasn't going to happen.  My project manager was from Dallas and talked me into staying one more night and if I had not changed my mind or events escalated, she would drive home with me.

I was glued to the television in my room and told many, I am not working today and I may not work tomorrow.  As it turned out, the next day, events had stopped escalating even though the horror of it all continued.  Of course, all of our flights had been cancelled for the week and none of us went home.  I was safe, my family was safe and we decided to just stay in CT until the next week.

One week and 1 day later, Wednesday night before I was to fly back to Texas on Thursday, I was very nervous.  I wasn't afraid of flying, I was afraid of how I would feel walking through the security, through the boarding line, stepping onto that airplane and ultimately sitting in my seat on that plane.  I truly had no idea how I was going to feel or react.  Was I afraid I was going to die, no.  I was afraid of how I was going to feel, sounds the same, but it is different.

I was not afraid I was going to die, odd, I know.  I was afraid I was not going to be able to fly again.  I flew almost every week with my job, that plane was my car, my commute to work.  I was afraid I would not be able to sit there without all those visions of events on that fateful day running through my mind.  That I would not be able to fly without those things in my head every time, driving me crazy and making this very normal commute impossible for me to continue.

So on that Thursday, September 20, I believe, there were three of us going to the newly opened airport in Hartford, CT.  And as we got there, many hours early on that day, 4, I think, my mind totally and without effort refocused.  Curious of course about the new security measures, standing in line with hundreds of other people that I expected was feeling the tension.  But past security, my mind, my body, all of me, relaxed into normalcy.  I called my mom, as I did before every flight.  And as I did every time, I asked her to pray for my safety and I would call her after I landed.  She said, without any change in her happy self said, I will, I love you, glad you are coming home.

I stepped onto that plane, took my seat and had no fear.  It was like getting into my own car after seeing a bad wreck.  All was normal.  This was a big thing.  Did I look around as I was boarding, looking at the people on my flight, yes.  I think we all knew what each other was thinking, feeling, but with no words.  I flew home that day and regarding flying with my job, I never skipped a beat.

Did it change all of our lives forever, yes.  Did I live in fear, no.  Did my packing and security change forever, yes, but all for the good.  I was with my sister the other day, out and about and I chuckled when I reached into my purse and pulled my zip lock bag out to find my lip stuff.

Times have changed and they will keep changing.  God Bless America, land that I love.  And God bless all those who lost their lives and those who lost loved ones on that day.  I will never forget.

Watch for the commercial with the New York school kids singing "New York" to the firefighters, I cried.  It was great!  Smiles, hope, definitely shows 10 years of moving forward, great.

It is interesting that My Cowboys play their first game tonight in New York.  We're baaaack...  I love the Ryan match up factor, of course Rob is my favorite!!!  More on the Cowboys first regular season game later!

PS:  Jr is in the chase! :)

Happy Labor Day People!

Iconic day and of course, National holiday honoring workers that helped to build a country.  A holiday to commemorate labor forces, economic and social contributions of workers.  There is more history behind it, but let's move on.

Unofficial end of summer, the "official" don't wear white after this day for women.  I am thinking the invention or use of "winter white" came into use as an alternative because of this.  There are many that have rebelled and rallied against this "rule" but, nope, it is still here!

School used to start at or near this day.  Football starts around this time.  And this year even the weather in Texas paid attention to this day, the end of about 68 days of over 100 degree temps ended just yesterday.

This has been and probably for decades to come, a prelude to our now iconic 9/11 anniversary.

I have been recording and have watched several documentaries about the past, present and future of 9/11.  What happened that day, what has been done since that day and the plans for the future.

I was a constant flyer back then and was in CT on that day, so it was, like everyone, a day I won't forget.  No, I am not being morbid, but the memories and seeing facts I did not see or know 10 years ago, I have found very interesting.  I am glad I recorded and watched.  This happened in my lifetime, I will never forget it, nor do I want to.

I really very much enjoyed watching the "Rising:" series about the rebuilding.  If you get a chance to see these, do it.  They were on the Science channel and very good and informative.  So many things I am glad to know now.  And I cannot wait until it is all finished and I plan to go to NYC to see the things shown and talked about on this series.  I will find the pear tree, I want to see it.  I wish I could meet the man that was there when it was found and made sure of its future at the memorial being built.  The new and beautiful Transit Center is going to be amazing.

The way the architects and master planner moved the buildings to align the yearly September 11 sunlight to the North Tower footprint every year and keep the sunlight between the moments of the first tower hit and the last tower's fall unobstructed to the memorial just impressed me.

The pure, near impossible, multi-project choreography in itself is quite impressive.  Definitely a testament to the Labor forces of today.  But then again, so are you and I, right?  At some point, laboring, doing something to help build America.  In some way or another, building or supporting those who are, have been and will be part of the continuous building of America.

God Bless America, land that we love!  Stand beside her and guide her, through the night, with a light from above...

Have a fun, safe and happy holiday people!  Honor your country and the people that labored, that sacrificed to build it!  Whatever country you are from!