I wore an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time

My sister-in-law’s Youtube video went (sort of) viral thanks to a tweet from Demi Moore. I was telling this story at lunch to a bunch of teenagers and they wanted to know who Demi was. We racked our brains trying to remember exactly WHY she is famous. Ghost, I suppose. But her other movies weren’t exactly huge hits. She did pose pregnant and naked on a magazine cover, and she was married to Bruce Willis, so I guess there’s that. (And then they wanted to know why Ashton Kutcher would marry her if she’s so old. They definitely knew who HE was.)

Anyway, it was weird to have to answer the question. Kids today know nothing.

Speaking of kids today, the Facebook groups they create are kind of hilarious. You can become a fan of “Everyone’s house has a smell, but I can’t smell mine” and “Sending an important text, then being scared to open the reply you get back.” I remember when that was called “email” but the same idea applies. I really hate that feeling. I try not to send important texts or emails if I can help it. Oh, and this one: “You won't talk to me, I won't talk to you, so why am I happy you're online?” which is also funny ‘cause it’s true.

So 2009 is almost over. All in all, definitely a better year that 2008. The “aughts” as a whole are almost over, too. I don’t know what this decade will be remembered for. Probably social networking and Barack Obama. Internet 2.0. Oh, and 9/11. What kind of crazy stuff is going to go down in the 10s? And when I can I start saying I graduated college in aught-one? Because that is deliciously old-timey.

A Cricket Near Penn Square

I came to Barnes and Noble to work and kill some time this afternoon – it’s interesting to see what people are up to in the middle of the day. It’s been a weird week for working – on Wednesday I bailed altogether and went to Delaware with my cousins. But this is one of the perks of working remotely; I’ve got to get my social interaction SOMEHOW.

There’s a girl sitting near me who looks like she’s about twelve, although she might be older or younger. I can only WISH we’d had a Barnes and Noble when I was 12—I would’ve been there every weekend for a sugary drink and BOOKS! As it is now, I come to the big chain bookstores now to read the books I don’t want to wait for at the library—usually 3 or 4 hours and I’m all finished and happy. But I think of all the times I spent waiting to either buy or borrow books back when I was 14, and it makes me sad. I could’ve had such good afternoons at B&N!

My house is overrun by crickets. I’ve killed one in the kitchen and one in my bedroom. I’ve seen one in the basement that I didn’t bother to kill. And then last night, when the lights were off and the computer was on, a freaking cricket hopped across my laptop. Hopped slowly, not jumped, which is good. Had it come flying out of nowhere onto my laptop, I probably would’ve screamed. And then I couldn’t find it to kill it. I don’t love killing bugs, but I draw the line when they show up in my bed.

As far as bug infestations go, crickets aren’t the worst. (Although there is one currently in my kitchen tweeting away that needs to die. Talk about annoying.) But the thing is, I really hate the hopping things. They’re just so unpredictable – they could be in your hair or your mouth or up your pant leg at any moment! – and that’s what makes me crazy. Mice, too, because they can run so fast. Give me roaches and stink bugs and snakes and even spiders any day. While they can run and slither, they don’t seem so uncontrollable.

This is the first year I’ve ever seen crickets in my house, though, and it’s very strange. Where are they coming from—and why?

Okay, back to work. I need to go research baby boomer marketing strategies.

Where were you

So tomorrow is September 11.

I don’t think I’ve ever done a “where were you when?” kind of post, so here’s mine.

It was an amazing September day – perfect blue sky, sunshine, low humidity. I had just started (a week previously) a job – my first professional post-college job – as a secretary at a high school in town. I was in charge of attendance, and we had those ScanTron pencil-bubble sheets that the teachers marked.

I had carried the ScanTron sheets back to the scanner (it was temperamental) and was working on that when one of the women in the office came around to tell us that a plane had hit the world trade center. We all exclaimed and commented and thought it was weird. I finished my scanning and went back to my desk.

I don’t actually remember the order of events after that. I do know that we found out pretty quickly that a second building had been hit, and then we knew it wasn’t just an accident. The kids were doing a special reading test all morning and were locked in their classrooms, so there was no great outpouring from the student body – but as they finished their testing word started to spread and the teachers turned on their classroom TVs.

I was still very new at my job and learning the ropes, plus I wasn’t sure how much time I should spend not working, so I sat obediently at my desk and put info into the computer. The administrators in the office had the TV on, and at one point one of them came out and asked if I’d seen any news and told me I should come watch. And I did for awhile.

The thing I remember most is the feeling, though. Because we didn’t really know what was going on . . . for awhile it seemed that every half-hour another target had been hit. Planes were missing. The president was somewhere. Dick Cheney was hiding. We had no idea when it would end and a kind of panicked nervousness overhung all my work that day.

By 11 AM or so, some panicky parents were coming to get their kids. By 12:45, we’d let the kids out early. I think I stayed for the rest of the afternoon, but I’m not sure what I was working on.

You’d think the days after the event would stick out to me, too, but really everyone just went about their daily lives (except for those in NYC, of course). We all went back to work and school and did everything we’d done before. I guess there was news. The internet was still pretty new and relatively small at that point, so no one spent tons of time on it. The other week when Mike was down here we were imagining 9/11 Facebooking and Twittering, and how absolutely insane that would’ve been.

And it’s strange to think about the fact that my life hasn’t changed that much in 8 years, other than my job and the fact I now couldn’t be torn off the internet if something happened. But there are kids who were fourteen then who are 22 now, and they are very different. 9/11 happened in their childhood, before they grew up. Their lives now are completely different. The kids who were doing that reading test are now working, married adults – I think I work in the same building as at least one of them.

So that’s my 9/11 story. I was about to turn 23. My life situation may not have changed much, but I think I have – even much more than I realize.