Facie’s Ramblings

I hate traveling, both long car rides and any length of a plane ride. I am fairly certain I have mentioned that here, back in the height of my blogging days. Time, money, inconvenience, and, most of all, fear are the reasons. Unfortunately, my family is not close by. One brother is in TX, a plane ride away, and the other brother is in NC, a nine-plus-hour drive away. So, when a brother invites us for a holiday or other gathering, I rarely say yes (it helps that they do come to this area several times a year). About a month ago, my NC brother suggested the three of us and our families along with Mom get together over Easter to celebrate Mom's upcoming 75th birthday in NC. Of course, my first selfish thought was that either I was going to have to suffer through a long drive in my crappy car, or I was going to have to shell out money for some plane tickets. I could not use work as an excuse, as I did last year when one of them invited me (I did not have enough vacation time at tha...

On Monday, I wrote about how I was going to try to limit my 9/11 exposure. In case it was not clear, my intent was not to diminish the day or pretend it did not happen. I can guarantee I will never forget. Rather, I was concerned that perhaps I spend too much time rehashing the events and crying about them. Is it really healthy to re-watch a plane crashing into the WTC for what is probably the 100th time for me? But, as I suspected, I did watch more TV than I wanted. Here is how the 24-ish hours unfolded for me. Not that most of you (or probably any) care, but here goes. Monday night, I watched snippets of a few programs on the H2 and either the History or the Smithsonian channel. One program, which centered on people who escaped, I had seen before. The other, which I cannot remember, might have been new to me. I was so tired from staying up for the Steelers game the night before, that I was asleep by 9:30, so my about one hour of 9/11 rehashing seemed pretty respectable. Before ...

Even though tomorrow will mark the 11-year (11 years!) anniversary of 9/11, so many memories from that day are as fresh and raw as they were when the events happened. Almost every year in this blog, I talk about 9/11, typically rehashing where I was and what I was doing. But now that more than a decade has passed, I am wondering if it makes sense for me to keep going through it. Typically, I watch an overabundance of 9/11-related programming. I caught the end of one such show over the weekend, and I am proud (for lack of a better word) that I did not watch the show that followed. I also have some plans tomorrow to keep myself from ODing on shows, though I am sure I will catch a few minutes or more here and there. Most of the time, I don't think about 9/11, which puts me in good company with most Americans, I suppose. At other times, however, I cannot suppress it. Last month I drove my mom and two nephews to the airport from two counties away. The flight was scheduled to leave...

As I mentioned in a previous post, I traveled to TX for a few days because of my mother. As I also have mentioned in at least one other post, I do not like to travel in general. I am a homebody. Boring. Don't like change or to get out of my routine. As significant is that I hate to fly. My little brother does that for a living, and every time I have to get on a plane, it is not good. On the way to the airport, I was in tears. Not just a few runaway droplets, mind you, but full-on sobs punctuated by halted breaths.This was partly due to the exhaustion and stress of the previous two weeks and partly due to car trouble (I see a future post there). But more than those things, it was the thought of leaving my kid for more than three days, particularly when I had to get on a plane. Rationally, I know that flying is pretty safe, even post-9/11 (and maybe more so). But there is just something about a large object becoming airborne, literally leaving the ground. How is that...