Reflect and Remember

I know it has been so long since I've posted...I've been in California a lot with my stepfather (crisis seems to have passed), and the only quilting I have done has been putting binding on. 

"Survivor Tree" salvaged from the ruins of  the WTC in 2001

Today is the  tenth anniversary of September 11th.  We were living in California at the time, so it was just 6AM on the West Coast. I was up, getting ready for work - my morning habit was to listen to KCBS, All News, All The Time, Traffic on the 8's while I got ready. I still stream KCBS sometimes here, when I can't take any more of the hatred spewed out by the local right wing stations. But I digress... The newscaster broke in to say that a plane had hit one of the towers at the World Trade Center...I envisioned a small plane hitting the tower, tried to think of which one was the North Tower, and continued getting ready. Then they broke in to say that a second plane had hit the other tower. I woke Al up and asked him to turn on the television. He asked what channel? I said, if what they're saying on the radio is true, it doesn't matter, any channel. And indeed, all the stations had feed of the two towers on fire as we tried to figure out what this meant. Terrorist attack was not even on my mind. Later, one tower pancaked down in a tremendous crash, then the other.  My sister lives in New York, but I wasn't even remotely concerned that she would be at the WTC...she stays away from tall buildings if she can help it.  I lived in NYC in the 80's, and I still have friends there. Later I found out that everyone I knew and loved was OK. When I worked in Capital Markets for Bank of America, we used to stay at The Millenium Hotel (another blog/another time about wonderful memories of me, Susan and Joann in the Big Apple), and in the days that followed, we learned that the front of The Millenium was completely blown out when the towers crashed, but the hotel was still standing. Susan has been back,and said it is now a Hilton. I was supposed to be in Seattle that day, and I can't remember why I came back early, but I was thankful to not be someplace where I needed to rely on a plane to get back home.

I went in to the office, and I remember some out of town people who were there for a meeting having the presence of mind to get a rental car and get on the road right away to go home. I don't know if I would have thought of that...and then, folks couldn't get rental cars since they were all taken. Because one of the planes was headed for SF, we closed the office, not knowing if the terrorists might target skyscrapers in SF.

It's sad to think of the loss of life and treasure since then. I watched the coverage this morning of 9/11 and the opening of the National 9/11 Memorial.  I think the architects got it exactly right...the memorial is beautiful. It was great to see the progress they have made. 

Scient People Team Reunion - 8/11

From September, 1999 to May, 2001, I worked at a dot-com called Scient as part of the People Team (HR). We had such a great group of people - it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and we all came together so well, as evidenced by the willingness of so many of the group to get together 10 years later.  Even though we worked our butts off, many, many 12-15 hour days, it was the best job I ever had. I used to joke about being the Adult Supervision. It was a unique culture and great work environment. To this day, you could wake me up at 2:00 AM and I could still tell you the Scient Values (Spirit, Community, Growth, Innovation, Urgency, Excellence). We definitely drank the Scient Kool-aid. Even knowing that the whole dot-com thing would implode, I would still do it again. Look at the great friends we all made!

Then it was off to the annual retreat out in Danville...what a talented group!  I worked on the binding for the red and white quilt and on a couple of the mystery projects. It's always great seeing everyone, and then on Sunday I came back home. This is the mystery project and I just love Benita's choice of fabrics. The picture does not do it justice!

And once again, I came back from the retreat to find that all three of my quilts had been accepted into the East Cobb Show! 

So I've been putting on bindings and sleeves and today I dropped off all three quilts!  And "Not Fast Food", which is now renamed to "Jewels in the Castle Wall," has also been accepted into the Georgia Quilt Show!

OK, so I haven't blogged in ages, and I am headed off to Ghana on Thursday, so it will be another couple of weeks before you hear from me again. Until then, happy stitching!

I dream of a better world where chickens can cross the road without having their motives questioned.