Remember Remember the 11th of September

I was at home and got up turned on the tv and was shocked at what I saw. I called my husband and told him what was happening, he too was shocked, called my mom, my sister alot of people that day and just watched tv, my daughter was 4 at the time and even though the weather was beautiful where I was we just stayed in that day.

To all those who lost someone dear to them on that day, remember God is with you and always will be.

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Cancel the kitchen scraps for widows and lepers, no more merciful beheadings and call off christmas!

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On September 11th, 10 years ago...

I had just started my two week vacation. I have a rather well known fear of heights and flying that my friends have tortured me with for years.

I wake up going to pack later for my trip, I jump on my computer to log in on my chat game New Bremen. My Trillian logs on and I get bombarded by IMs in both Trillian and New Bremen. People are happy I am alive. People are telling me that a plane hit one of the Two Towers.

I of course think this is a massive practical joke. Everyone knew I was worried about flying to see my family some I had not seen in over 15 years. I tell them they are joking and one of them gives me a URL directly to the CNN feed.

Shocked... I look over at my roommate playing a MMO not CoH and I am scrambling to find the remote control. I tell him, he thinks I am pulling a joke until the TV is on as we see footage of the first plane crash on TV.

I run to my roommate who was sleeping wake him up telling him what was going on. He thought I was pulling a practical joke as well, he is ex-military having served in both Desert Storm and other areas. He did not believe me until I turned on the TV to show him.

We watched in horror as live or tape delay we saw the second plane hit the Two Towers. We were addicted. Then we got calls from people asking me if I was on any of the planes.

My flight was actually for 9/12 my friends got the day wrong but who can blame them for what happened? Panic was in the air.

I obviously did not make it to see my family until November from what happened. I was luckily able to cancel my vacation and go back to work and got my 2 weeks back which I used later on.

United of course gave me a voucher and number that I could reschedule my flight since I was in these certain dates.

So at the end of September, I reschedule my flight for November.

I called up with my voucher and special number in hand. To talk to this customer service rep and get my free flight. Well the woman on the phone was angry with me. I am in a good mood, I had a good day that day.

I tell her my name and she said without wanting to listen to my special voucher code. That I had to pay full price and I did not get a free flight from United. I had the paperwork in my hand. According to her I was scheduled to fly out not in the date 9/12 but 9/19. United tried to reschedule me and many others but a lot of airports took a long time to get reopened with the new security measures, however, since my Original Date was 9/12 that is what my paperwork said and the rescheduled date was not my original date so it did not matter.

I calmly tell the lady this on the phone. I mean I really kept my cool over this idiot. I tell her my voucher code she refuses to hear it. I told her this is a special voucher from United I need to give you the code. She refused again was yelling, I mean yelling to me on the phone lecturing me how we all were effected my 9/11. She was so loud my roommate heard her on the phone as I pulled it away. The woman was not rational. I could not believe I was calm and I tell her listen just put in the code and you will see what is going on.

Well all of a sudden the phone goes silent then I get hold music. I am looking at my roommate wondering what was up. I then had a new person on she said she was the Supervisor on the floor and she was doing a QC check when this was going on. She evidently looked me up and I was up for the free voucher. She said sorry to me over this and that United does not treat their customers like this. That the individual I talked to has been taken care of. (I am hearing yelling on background which I think was you cannot fire me!, I suspect the supervisor had to call security before she was fired so she could be removed quickly.)

She upgraded my flight seat to 1st Class and gave me the number of her boss a Vice President in United if I had any issues or changes needed to be done call his office and he will deal with it personally because of how I was treated.

With missing my original flight although minor compared to what happened. I missed a surprise birthday party where all my family including extended where there. It was a planned family reunion. First we had in over 20 years.

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It doesn't offend me at all that we're discussing this here. Bring real world stuff into our entertainment? It happens all the time. I could list off the many examples of entertainment incorporating real-world events both current and historical, but I'd need a book to put it all in.
Disrespectful to incorporate real world events into "fun" things like videogames, movies, plays, etc? No! Or at least not always. If it's making fun of the events, making light of how people died, then not cool. But to say that all mention is off limits out of some notion of "proper respect"? I have to disagree with that, as an artist, writer, and believer in free speech. Not talking about it, writing about it, etc won't make events like 9/11 un-happen. Better to speak/write/create freely, as opposed to treating them like gorrillas in the room which can't be talked about, or may only be discussed in "approved" manners.

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A (Golden Gate) Bridge Too Far- arc 299315
Crazy NIMBY's, Railroad robber barons, and kickboxing Engineers, Oh My! Go back in time and join the fight to save a San Francisco icon!