"Head...Shoulders...Knees and...SOCKS!"

Some thoughts going through my head this morning...

1 - It really bothers me when people refer to the day as "nine-one-one."  I can deal with "nine-eleven" or "September eleventh" but to me "nine-one-one" is an emergency services phone number.

2 - Getting to work today is going to be a bitch, and I'll be leaving soon.  All of the roads around the Pentagon that I usually take to get in are closed for the memorial dedication this morning.  I thought about taking the bus in today, but the Pentagon bus depot is also closed until evening rush hour, which means I would be sitting in traffic on a bus rather than in my car.  I should really not be blogging, but instead getting my behind out of here so that I can sit in traffic longer.  But would it have been so bad for the Federal Government to give us a delayed start to the workday today?

3 - I - of all people - completely understand the need to memorialize and remember.  Reading the names, remembering the innocent victims, memorials - all that.  No problem.  I also know that as we get older and we get farther away from the actual event, it will become more difficult for the younger generations to have a personal connection to the days events, since they were not born when it occurred.

4 - I think "Patriot Day" is kind of a stupid name.  Now I have no problem making September 11th a Day of Remembrance.  I just think that the name is dumb.  But I'm not a member of Congress, nor do I have any alternate suggestions.

5 - I miss my rose plant (aka "Norma") that was given to me by one of the slugs (it's a DC commuter thing) that I spontaneously gave a ride home to on 9/11/01.  She was doing alright until a colleague took it upon herself to "prune the plant to encourage regrowth" without asking me first if it was OK.  This totally stripped my plant bare, and then I came in two days later to find that housekeeping threw it out - since it looked like a totally dead plant.  I was annoyed, and the colleague didn't even apologize or consider for a second that it was none of her business to touch my plant.  I guess she didn't realize why it was important to me - it wasn't just an everyday "thank you" plant.  Thankfully, I don't sit next to that person any more, but yeah...I'm still a little bitter about it.