Coudy girls in Boston

As I write this post I am sitting at Logan International airport about to return from a weekend trip to Boston. My friend Allison move to Boston two years ago to start anew in a great city close to her favorite vacation spot of Nantucket. In March she called me out of the blue and announced with extreme excitement that she was pregnant!! A new baby was coming and another dear friend was about to experience this wonderful world of motherhood!

Allison and I have known each other since Kindergarten. In our small hometown, we all have known most of our friends since we were 4 or 5!! In high school Allison was one of my closest friends and as we graduated and headed off to college at Penn State, we only grew closer! For one semester in our junior year we actually lived together at her college house. When I say I've known her my whole life, I mean my WHOLE life!

So of course I knew I would be planning a visit to Boston after Allison had told me the good news! I had no idea at that time that the visit to Boston would be this amazing!

Shortly after finding out she was pregnant, Allison also learned she had a cyst on her right ovary that would need to be removed somewhere around week 15. This was alright in her mind which surprised me at how calm she was with this news of a surgery while pregnant. Again, little did I know at that time!

The cyst was removed and against all odds and all predictions of her doctors, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer! I was in my hometown with many of our childhood friends when I first learned of my dear friend's diagnosis. I remember struggling to be excited for the wedding that had brought me back to my hometown. All I could think about was Allison and her baby!

Fast forward five months and six chemotherapy treatments and here we are in Boston. Allison is two weeks away from delivering a full term baby boy. She has finished her chemotherapy and all signs are pointing to positive ending for all!  I could not be happier for her and more excited for this little one's arrival!

(Finishing this post a week later......so bear with me as I catch up)

The morale of the story, in short, is that Coudy girls (and guys too) will always be there for one another. We may have drifted apart, moved away or even had a minor spat over the years but in the end, we always come together!

I have so much more I could reflect on from the weekend in Boston with my old friends.  We sat up late at night talking, we rode with Allison (the token driver of the class of '98), we laughed, we (I) cried, and we reminisced!  And now looking back and reflecting on the weekend, I am so grateful to have a wonderful group of childhood friends!  I know they will always be there for me and vice versa.

To my girlfriends!

Where were you.....

When the world stopped turning?   Where were you on 9-11-01?

I'm sure every single person in America and many throughout the world can remember every detail about where they were on 9-11.  Ten years has gone by since that terrible morning when the world stopped breathing and watched the second plane crash into the Twin Towers.  As I spent the morning watching the news coverage and trying to explain to Cooper why this day is so important, I began to wonder.  What if!

What if the terrorists plan was thwarted?  What if the two planes that crashed in New York and the one in Washington DC were diverted from their final destination?  What if the suicide bombers got nervous or decided it wasn't worth it?  What if those planes had air marshalls on them?  What if the passengers chose to storm the cockpit on each of those flights?  What if?

On the morning of September 11th 2001, I awoke in my junior year of college in State College, PA.  As was my morning routine, I checked my computer for any evening IM's before even leaving my bedroom.  My roommate Abbey had a message saying something about sending prayers to the people of NYC.  I remember thinking to myself "what happened in New York City"?  So I turned on the TV in my bedroom and saw the coverage of the first plane going into the Twin Tower.  As I watched, the second plane hit!  My stomach dropped.  I knew at that very moment that this was not an accident.  Immediately my thoughts went to my mom and grandma who were set to fly home from Florida that day.

Our apartment had a common area in the middle of the four bedrooms and I remember going out there and watching the coverage with my roommates.  I wondered why classes hadn't been cancelled and was immediately annoyed, as any college student is, that I had to get myself ready for class when all of this was going on!  I wanted to stay home and watch the news with the rest of the world!

Off I went to my logistics class that morning.  As I got off the bus and walked onto campus I recall thinking how quiet it was.  The hoards or students had all been quieted by the events of the morning.  And to my dismay, a sign was posted on my Blog class door stating classes were cancelled for the day.  I was so frustrated.  Here I was, stuck on campus and the world was realizing we were under attack.  As I stood at the bus stop I was able to get through to my mom in Florida.  Their flight was cancelled - all flights were grounded.  They weren't sure how they were going to get home yet.

Like the rest of America, I spent the rest of the day watching the terrible events unfold.  I spent weeks watching the news until finally, one day in October, I had had enough!  I made a conscience decision to avoid any more 9-11 news!  I couldn't stand to see another cloud of "dust".  I couldn't cry anymore.  I just wanted to pretend it was all over.  And I wasn't alone.  Eventually the media made a decision to take the news off of the air.  America had to get back to "normal".

For whatever reason, I kept the newspaper and magazines from that day/week:

Please comment and share with me your 9-11-01 story.  Where were you........?