maleficent

that was beautifully written.. nicely done...



5 years ago and 24 hours, and it would have been five years ago had it not been for a foul up in corporate travel, I stepped off united flight 93 on my way to Australia for a business trip.

9/11 itself I was in a hotel room in Chatswood, Australia, outside of Sydney, totally jetlagged and not really sleeping... I was sort of dozing when the television station iw as watching cut in to the american news.. and it took it a bit to register -i thought i was watching a disaster movie... wasn't a movie though...

took about a day, for info to reach me, but i found out that I lost my best friend of more than 30 years, who i'm sure people are sick of me talking about, as well as about 15 other people that I had close working relationships with...

The first day, I left the hotel and walked over to the customer, stopping for coffee in a little shop... the store owner heard me speak and asked me if I was an american... Yes. He came back from behind the counter and hugged me and my entire trip I don't think I paid for anything in the shop...

I got to the customer and settled in at my desk - my computer screen up to CNN or whatever news page Ic ould find... the president of the company I was at came down to my desk (now I was doing technology stuff, I had no contact with the president at all) and asked how I was... He gave me a private office, and access to a phone, where i could make as many phone calls as I needed... I was in contact with my office during all this, and I got asked the questionif I wanted to come home.. .well the airlines had other ideas there were no flights... period... and my sense of responsibilty said the customer paid a ton of money to fly me down there, i was there to work... the president of the ocmpany said to me that they'd reschedule the trip not to worry about the cost, and if I wanted to go home, they'd find a way to get me there... Big corporation caring so much - let me just say I was floored...

I ended up staying.. because there wasn't much to go home too... and the compassion of australians was extraordinary... i've travelled around the world - and i've never felt more at home than i did in Oz... One afternoon, i was out walking, and i had on a baseball cap to protect my hair from the hot sun... it was my tried and true ny yankees cap... goes everywhere with me... i had more people come over shake my hand... try to hug me... give me small tokens... and offerings of prayers... I am not a warm and fuzzy person.. most people would descibe me as cold... but other people weren't put off by that...

there were afew moments of amusement when i got to go home... the big one being was a big deal was being made out of hand chekcing all carry on luggage and no "weapons were allowed. I had a pair of tweezers confiscated for being dangerous, my keys were questions for sharpness, but the 6 inch swiss army knife that was attached to my key chain was completely missed...

When I was back home, a few weeks later, I had called corporate travel back to book a trip to the UK... and i got put on hold for a very long time... whent hey finally came back.. the story was - they had me (and 4others in the company) in the killed on 9/11 file.. and had to ressurect me... They still had me on that united flight...

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