i'm sorry. i haven't written in awhile. two weeks after the tragic events on 9/11, i don't know if i can even use words to express the emotional thoughts that have been running through my mind. so i'll just keep my thoughts simple here. i woke up quite early that morning - 7:15am - by a phone call from my father yelling frantically in the phone about war, planes, and the world trade center...and telling me to get up and turn the tv on. i stumbled over to my living room, turned the tv on and suddenly woke up with disbelief. "this can't be happening" i thought. at the time, one tower had already collapsed and the other remained burning. fifteen minutes after waking up, the second tower finally collapsed and the silhouette in the nyc skyline was no longer. i spent the next hour or so waking up friends in seattle whom i knew might have some connections in nyc and dc....i then tried frantically to reach my close smith friends. i immediately thought of debbie who used to work in the wtc but i didn't know if she did any longer. i was too distraught to go to work and just stayed at home, online and glued to the tv. my friend alex came over and we watched some tv together...and finally forced ourselves to take a walk along broadway to get something to eat and get our minds off everything. that evening, jon took me out to dinner for my birthday at salty's, a really nice restaurant in west seattle. it was a little unsettling knowing that i was enjoying a nice seafood dinner with a gorgeous view of the seattle skyline and puget sound while not knowing if someone i knew may have perished earlier that day.

the next few days, i started hearing more from close friends..and fortunately, they are all safe and sound. a smith bulletin was put up by some alums to account for other smithies...really reassuring to see many familiar names there. the patriotism here is like none other that i have ever seen in my lifetime. flags everywhere, patriotic songs playing all the time. i went to the symphony the following saturday and they began the whole program with everyone standing up and singing America the Beautiful. And last week, i went to the first opening show for the Pacific Northwest Ballet, and the finale consisted of a number choreographed to Stars and Stripes....and the donations to the red cross and all sorts of other funds have been incredible. i just hope we are careful and make the right decisions.

this last weekend, went up to bellingham for juli and todd's wedding (cancelled plans to go to L.A.)...absolutely beautiful...my first evening wedding. it was so enchanting with all sorts of candles lighting up the air of love and friendship. i've never been to bellingham except to stop to grab something to eat coming down from whistler. the next day, jon and i ate at a great cafe for brunch and then wandered around some shops, listening to some music. i really liked that town.

finally saw Hansa, the new baby elephant, on Sunday at the zoo with Phoebe and some other Smithies---it was so adorable and way too cute, playing with its bouncing balls. i think we were lucky in that we didn't have to deal with all the horrible lines that i had heard about.

so, bad news from the past 2 days: a) my cell phone's earpiece finally died and is pretty much useless..and b)my car was stolen last night. yup. i'm bummed and was pretty pissed off this morning. i last used my car last night to go over to fred's place for dinner..and came home around 11pm. when i walked out this morning to go to work, it was gone. i immediately called the police and insurance company. supposedly, most stolen vehicles are found within 2 weeks. i guess i shouldn't be too surprised considering my car is one of most stolen vehicles in america...and that seattle is one of the top 10 cities for car theft. ugh. so now i have to wait to see if it's gone and lost forever...or if they find it with who knows how much damage. as for my cellphone, ran out and bought a new one immediately so the police could contact me in case they found my car.

week's starting out lovely, isn't it? on a brighter side, saw the most twisted bizarre movie tonight--David Lynch's Mulholland Drive. I have to think about that one for a bit.