7:39 PM 9/12/01
Sitting here on a Wednesday night. I really should be in EQ since I promised my best friend that I’d go in, but I sort of want to say a few things before I go in there. Besides, I can’t do anything else in EQ. While I want to hang out with some friends, I can be more of a help and get things off my mind better out here for now than in there.
I’m watching a prayer vigil with congress right now. A huge flag went up on both the tower of the wreckage of the world trade center and the pentagon this morning.
For me I was okay today until I got to downtown Williamsport. Between the Wegman’s and the Raddison Hotel there’s a huge American flag. I’ve gone by that spot a thousand times and never really noticed it before. It was, of course, flying at half staff. I had to hold back tears and keep driving when I saw it. It just sort of hit home.
On the road doing mystery shops today most people were still in shock at the shops I went to. A lot were glued either to the TV or the radio for news on survivors. At the post offices they didn’t know what the mail would be like because the commercial airlines were not flying yet.
At work it was a big debate as to what to promote since a lot of events were canceled. No one feels like promoting big events because we’re all still in shock and the decision hasn’t been made about a lot of things for this weekend. I mean, do we go back to having big entertainment events or do we give it more time to mourn? What does the nation need to do now?
In the car this morning we picked up the Howard Stern show. Howard’s signal runs out right before you get to Williamsport coming up the river from Harrisburg. I only get to listen to him when I’m mystery shopping. Callers were begging him to stay on the air because his humor was helping them forget. Call after call saying that for the hours his show was on yesterday (he extended from around 10:30 am to 1 PM or so yesterday), it was the only thing getting them through and keeping them from breaking down. When he was on being funny the world went away. They needed to laugh again and while he made light of it, you could tell he was kind of touched that so many people were calling in and needing him to go on.
In our case we went on with the show and did two strips last night. It wasn’t really a statement on my part. I just needed something to do during the coverage last night. I just found myself at Dreamweaver putting a couple of strips together. I had planned a birthday strip for Robyn (and one later this week for Laura), and I had an idea or two to work out and I’m sort of glad I did. It helped put aside some of the emotions I was feeling and having something to do helped get through the night.
There are some folks who disagree with my decision. “Now’s not the time for laughter,” they say, and I agree to a point. I also agree with the idea that we have to remember how to laugh. We have to remember how life was before this and we have to go on with our lives after the grieving is over. We can’t let the people who did these horrible events change our worlds to the point where we forget who we are and how we live, how we love, and how we laugh. If we forget these things, they’ve won.
When it is time to laugh again, the strips from this week will be here for those who need a laugh. More so, since I write these things primarily to make *me* laugh, they will be here for me to help sort things out and remember this week. If anyone wants to give me flack for it then so be it. E-mail is reallycoolsite@aol.com.
There will be changes after this week in my strips. Might as well close with that. For now the invasion of Microsoft has been scrapped. If anyone cares, it happened in the future in the story anyway, it will be addressed at a later time. You all know me, I’m scatter brained anyway so I’ll probably address it in a flashback somewhere down the line. Obviously, the NASDAQ strips as we know them have to be scrapped until they figure out what the NASDAQ is going to do and if the building that houses the big board remains standing. I had something neat planned for Jean Lee and I’m so glad she, and everyone else in the NY offices of TechTV are okay (and hopefully Boogie Bill Tucker too even if he’s no longer with TechTV), but that will wait for things to clear with the markets and where they will broadcast from.
On that note, I really should go. Be safe. Take care and again, our hopes and prayers go out for those hurt this week.
k9
P.S. Note to self: Summer says Moxy Fruvous doing “And So It Goes” is a really cool song to DL. Putting it here because I won’t remember otherwise.