Ten Years Ago Tonight

It's kind of strange to think about, you know.

Everyone is talking about what they were doing ten years ago tomorrow. We all have stories of where we were and what we were doing. Who we were with. Who we talked to. Who we wanted... needed... to talk to in our quest to find some meaning in the day. When, exactly, we finally broke down in tears and what, exactly, caused it.

We've all spent the past ten years thinking about what happened. Our culture is filled with the sights and sounds of that day. And our daily lives are filled with the aftermaths of it.

Even so, as I sat here, tonight, on the couch with Christopher, tossing a tennis ball for the pup to fetch, I started wondering what I was doing ten years ago tonight. Not ten years ago early tomorrow morning (which was a Tuesday, in case you were wondering) when the world was still "normal." Not ten years ago tomorrow in the later morning when the world went somehow awry. Not ten years ago two days from now when a new kind of reality started to filter in.

But ten years ago tonight.

It was a Monday night, apparently. I was single and living in Baltimore and not dating anyone. My computer (an all-in-one iMac) sat in the corner of my living room where I barely had internet service and although I had email I definitely didn't have any on-line social networking. And - as much as it may shock some people - I honestly have no idea what television shows were on. So I have no idea whatsoever what I was doing ten years ago tonight.

I completely understand why the day that sticks in our heads is the "ten years ago tomorrow" day. But I kind of hope that, in 2021, I'll be sitting down on the night before the "twenty years ago" day, and thinking "Ten years ago tonight Christopher and I ate dinner on the couch while we watched 'Phineas and Ferb' and we all went to bed a little early, because it had been a busy, warm September day and we were fairly happily tired."

We'll leave the 11th of Septembers to remembering the 11th of September in 2001. But, on the 10th of each year, I hope that tonight is what I'll be remembering.