...I have been on a big kick of remembering things lately, and no, I don't mean where my wallet, keys and phone are, lord knows I typically never know where those things are. I mean things from the past, you know, memories. I think it tends to happen around this time, around the US Open time. It was crazy to think that 13 years ago, Susie and I took one of the best, most action packed trips of my adult vacations. I'll admit, we had taken some other good ones and my recent trips to snowboard (Whistler) were quite awesome as well, but this trip, I don't know, this trip had something else to it.
We were just talking about it the other day, randomly piecing today the trip. She would mention parts I totally forgot about, then I'd bring up something to remember that she forgot about. I thought it might be fun to recap the trip - and of course, there will be some sort of great message at the end. We headed out for our trip in the evening, like usual. For some reason, we always drove at night, didn't want to waste vacation time sleeping (ha, I laugh at that now, I think I'd love a vacation of just sleeping!). We drove and drove, somewhere in Ohio I got my first speeding ticket, I think I was going 80 in a 65 - so lame. I pretended like I had a plan to talk my way out of it, but then the cop pulled up, I just gave in and accepted the ticket. Our first stop was to Oneonta to see the Soccer Hall of Fame. This wasn't Susie's big thing, but she was happy to go along since the trip was about tennis, something which I had grown to love, but not nearly as much as she did. So, we did that, walked around for a while, checked it out - it was pretty awesome and at that time, I was still pretty obsessed with soccer. It was also a nice chance to get out of the car.
Our next stop was moe.Down in Turin, New York. We were huge fans of moe. and similar jam bands, it was going to be an awesome weekend full of camping, music and hanging out. Well, turns out were got there a little more tired than we thought we were. We got the tent set up and both crashed pretty soon after that. We were woken to some rain and music. We decided to keep dry and sleeping and catch plenty of music the next day. The next day got us up nice and early with sunshine and music. It was a great weekend, still remember the last song of the festive being Boogie Oogy Oogy and watching fireworks over the mountain and recall one guy saying something to the extent of "I had thought I boogied oogied all my boogie oogy out, and then that some came on and I boogie oogied even more." Ah, music festivals, always so fun, just happy people loving life - good times for sure.
By the time we left, it was time for a serious shower and bed. Now, let's remember this is 13 years ago, I know I had a cell phone, but it wasn't smart and the Internet, while it existed, it wasn't at the tip of our fingers. So, before we left, we arranged to stay at some hostel in the heart of New York. We wanted to experience New York on this trip and we were going to do that on the cheap. We pulled up to the hostel and well, I'm not sure what we were expecting, but that wasn't it. I knew we weren't gong to get a lot, but I didn't expect we would hear the person next to us eating chips in their room. So, we checked it, went to our "room", which was 2 beds with some partitions around it and we tried to think about what to do. First thing was first, we needed a shower. I took a shower first and let Susie try and think about what we want to do. We discussed when I came out that we weren't sure we could stay here, not sure we wanted to experience that much New York. So, while she took a shower, I decided to call my mom to get out her Super 8 book to find us a hotel. Susie got out of the shower and informed me she heard the whole conversation - I know I'm loud, but I'm not that loud.
So, we left our bags in our room and headed down to the good old Focus to make some phone calls. As we were leaving, the dude in charge yelled that we needed to give him our key before we left...even though our items were still up there. So, maybe that's how hostels go, but I wasn't cool with that. We made some phone calls, got a hotel in a suburb about 30 minutes from where we were, went back inside and got our stuff. We explained to the man that we weren't going to stay there, he actually refunded all our money and we left - as we heard him yell, you won't find anywhere cheaper and we were all right with that.
So, back in the car we went, up to our new hotel, an actual hotel with beds and walls and a bathroom of our own. I look back and think had we just had walls and maybe a window, we could have been fine with the hostel, but well, it was what it was, we moved along.
I'm not sure what happened on what days, but here is a summary, we watched some tennis, the first person we got to see was Guga, who was one of Susie's favorites. There were crazy gnats during that match. We got to see Andy Roddick win one match (and sneak down to get great seats) and get screwed by an officials bad call in another match. We watched other tennis and had some really tasty drinks. We hit up Old Navy for shopping. We took the ferry to Ellis Island and walked around, we got some great pictures of the twin towers. We went to Battery Park and decided we didn't need to go up the Twin Towers, we can do that in Chicago, little did we know they would be gone in just a few days. We watched more tennis, in person and on tv. The epic match between Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras - yeah, we watched that from our hotel room, eating some New York Style pizza. We went to a Yankees/Red Sox game, we saw a streaker there and met some other interesting people. We needed to see more tennis so we took a subway to get more tickets. We almost got kicked out trying to sneak better seats, we watched the finals and headed home.
We drove all night long and got home at some point Monday night. I went to bed. Susie and I had plans to meet up, get pictures developed, go through them, watch the tennis we just watched on TV. Then we woke up and plans changed. I remember my dad was home, watching the news, not saying too much. I woke up after the second plane hit, so I didn't see any of it, just the aftermath. I'm pretty sure I called Susie right away and we both nixed our plan, realized how lucky we were to have left and just how crazy it all was. We hung up and I was glued to the TV. My dad filled me in, I asked if it was an accident, pretty sure he laughed at me. I got a string of phone calls from people, making sure I was home. I just sat there and watched and watched and watched. It was like I couldn't see it enough to believe it. I decided I had to get away, stop watching it, I went for a run in Busse Woods. It was one of the creepiest runs I had ever been on. It was silent. My parents live pretty close to O'Hare, so airplanes, we hardly noticed them, but when they weren't there, man, was it strange. There was nothing, no noise, just quiet. Just me and my run. I said quite a few prayers on my run that day, to watch over those that were killed, injured, working to save anyone they can. I prayed for us to be safe, for the attacks to stop, for the world to be at peace.
It was a crazy to watch it all unfold and to have some sort of connection to it. Of course, I had a tiny, insignificant connection, but it was something. When I got my pictures developed, I found the picture I took of the sky line. The towers were still there, it was 5 days before the attack. As I unpacked, I found the magnet I got my grandparents, one of the skyline that had the towers on it also. I have that magnet still, somehow was a reminder of simpler times, I guess.
So, here I am, remembering it all, the trip that had so many crazy moments, I hope I caught them all, the sadness that surrounds that trip we took and today, 9/11, a day that will never mean the same again, a day that changed history like so many other days in the past. It was a day where we all remember where we were an what we were doing, it was the moment in our lives that we will tell our kids about when they learn about it history. It's crazy, how moments like that work, I remember talking to my mom about it, she said it was like when JFK was shot, everyone knows where they were. There are so many tragic moments in history like this, that cause us to remember tragedy instead of triumph. Maybe we should turn the table on that, remember good things, like where were you when the Berlin Wall came tumbling down (I remember being too young to remember). That was a huge moment in history, perhaps not US history, but history nonetheless.
It's funny how all of this takes on a different twist when you have a child. The news coverage likes us to remember the bombs, the school shootings, the wars, but I know I will always want to protect Liam from that. I'd love for Liam to have stories for his kids that a positive, that he remembers the world peace that the President negotiated with the UN. The festivals we have that embrace and accept everyone. And while I tend to be very optimistic, to a fault sometimes, I don't see any of that happening anytime soon. I suppose I just have to along with the old saying of being the change I want to see in the world and while I know I can't protect my little man from all bad things, I sure can open his eyes to the positive side of the world, that is if I can see it as well.
So for now, I will remember those that we lost, the lives, the safety, the innocence, but by no means should it be a day for that only. I will also remember the heros who saved lives, the way strangers who helped those that needed, the way a nation came together as one, in hopes we can do it again, but this time without such a tragedy being the reason behind it.
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