Friday, September 11, 2009

Juxtaposition

I've never blogged about 9/11 before, despite it being one of the most terrifying days of my life.

You see, I was working on Capitol Hill the day the terrorists struck, and like thousands of others, had to flee a building we thought may be attacked. I'll never forget my easygoing, unflappable Chief of Staff running into a meeting I was having and saying, "grab your purse and get the hell out of here." His fiancee had witnessed the Pentagon attack, quickly called him and remarkably, my office was able to get out before there was traffic gridlock. In fact, as I drove down 395 that morning, the fire trucks and emergency vehicles were still arriving on the scene at the Pentagon.

I still remember the weather that day. It was absolutely beautiful. And as I type this from my back porch, the weather is hauntingly similar. Blue skies. Low humidity. Temperature in the 70s, absolutely gorgeous. Quite the juxtaposition to events of the day.

So forgive me for abandoning my prepared post on Zucchini Alfredo...I will post that tomorrow. But for today, I am very, very, very thankful for those who protect our freedom, and pray for continued peace for those families who experienced tragic loss 8 years ago today.

SPC

6 comments:

whitneyingram said...

I check my reader and you posted about this and then the next thing on my RSS feed was this link. You need to see this:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/09/remembering_september_11th.html

Crunchyconmommy said...

Hi! I really enjoy your blog. This post really brought back some memories (of course; who doesn't have memories on this day?) because my husband was a Senate Chief of Staff at the time, so we had some of the same experiences. He wouldn't come home until he knew that his entire staff was home safely or otherwise accounted for, so it was a long wait for us at home!

Sweet Pea Chef said...

Thanks crunchy con mom...I am wondering for whom your hubby worked...I worked for Lindsey Graham. :)

Crunchyconmommy said...

Sam Brownback. We're back in Kansas now, far from the crazed Beltway life! (Well, "back" for him. I'm a happy transplant!) We loved it while we lived there, but as our family grew, we knew that wasn't where we wanted to be... if nothing else, the hours are horrible, as you well know!

Sweet Pea Chef said...

CCM-

That is so cool! And yes, the hours are horrible. I do not miss that, the traffic, the high cost of living, the misplaced Beltway priorities...none of it!

Live.Love.Eat said...

Wow. You were close to it for sure. The closeness I felt was just from growing up in NY and seeing a familiar part of the skyline just disappear like that. For a long time after I couldn't see photos of it all without just crying. So haunting.