Two years later
2003-09-11, 11:04 p.m.

I finally decided to chuck the generic Diaryland background the help of the wonderful wllybere. Big shout-out to her! I feel so technologically advanced now. Oh and all the cool kids are signing my guestbook, so you should too.

No doubt there are plenty of people writing about their memories of 9/11/01 today, but I'm going to add to the pack. I'm a little amazed that it's been two years since that terrible day. It was the first day at my first post-collegiate job. I had been mindlessly staring at the computer for a half an hour wondering if work would always be this boring, when things got a little too exciting. My co-worker's grandmother called and began ranting hysterically about the start of the Apocalypse. I expected to turn on the TV and see the Whore of Babylon or the Four Horsemen riding through New York. Instead, there were the horrific images of airplanes plowing into buildings and 120-story steel structures crumbling to the ground that we've now seen so many times. I hope there never comes a day when I see those men and women plummeting to their death from the 90th floor and become immune to the tragedy.

Now, two year later, I'm pondering whether or not we've become complacent. Could it happen again? Sure, we've developed the Homeland Security Committee and tighter airport security, but as ingenious as the Al-Qaeda was the first time, I'm confident in saying that they wouldn't do the same thing twice. Living less than an hour from Washington D.C., I worry about terrorists from time to time. I hope to God that we're more alert than we were before 9/11.

Conor surprised me by taking me out to lunch today and I found myself focusing on something I heard on the news. They were reminding us to appreciate our local heroes, the firemen, the paramedics, the police officers. As I was sitting at lunch, I realized that my boyfriend is one of those local heroes. He's both a paramedic and a firefighter. He was fresh out of fire school and finishing EMT classes on 9/11, but he's told me before how much he wanted to go to ground zero and help with the clean-up. I know he would have been there if it hadn't been for the EMT instructor who wouldn't let him miss his classes. You'd think she would have been a bit more understanding. I think he regrets that he didn't go, but he would have thrown 6 months of training down the tube.

Today helped me remember that Conor goes to work everyday at a job where he is always giving back to his community. I think sometimes I forget, in the midst of being petty, what a sweet, caring person he is. And no matter whether we're just friends or soulmates, it makes me love him even more.

Yeah, I know that sounds very mushy, but hey, I'm allowed to be sentimental once in awhile.

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