If I Had A Hundred Dollars To Spend

Let me just say that ones mind can think of the craziest things at the strangest times. With that said:

If I Had A Hundred Dollars To Spend

If I had a hundred dollars to spend
or maybe a little more.
I'd hurry as fast as my legs would go,
straight to the animal store.

I wouldn't say how much for this or that?
Or what kind of dog is he?
I'd buy as many as wagged a tail
or rolled an eye at me.

I might by the parrot all red and green,
or the monkey I saw before.
If I had a hundred dollars to spend,
or maybe a little more.

This is a poem that I had to memorize in the 2nd grade. And for some reason it has been on my mind for several days. Why? I have NO idea. I thought maybe it was a sign to document it for Madie before I go all "Denny Crane" and get Mad Cow.

Remembering 9/11

It's hard to believe that it has been 7 years since that dreadful day. The day when I no longer felt safe or secure in this dangerous world that we live in. 9/11/01 for me and those in my generation, will remember that day like our parents did when Kennedy and Martin Luther King were assassinated and like our grandparents remember Pearl Harbor.

I remember 9/11:

I was driving to work and my mom called me and told me that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. When I got to work I went to the break room to see if I could get more information and saw the second plane hit. I can't describe the feeling I had. It was mostly of disbelief, uncertainty and fear. I was working at Citadel Communications at the time, working as an Account Executive for the Alternative station. Needless to say, my mind was not on selling radio ads, nor did anyone want to listen to me try to sell anything that day. It was a day unlike any other that I have ever experienced. I didn't know anyone who was killed or injured. I don't think I even knew someone who knew someone. There was a guy from my home town that was killed in the Pentagon attack but I did not know him or his family. The enormity of this is that it didn't matter. Americans were united, we were one that day. And what happened to Americans hundreds of miles away was happening to you. I felt sad and depressed and wondered what would happen next.

The following week after 9/11, I would go to work going through the motions of the day and then go home and stay glued to the TV watching news channels to try and find something that made some sense of it all. I never found it.

I think about that day and how it changed me and the America I knew. I realize that there are those that will do the unspeakable because of their hatred. I realize that there are those who will stop at nothing to try and destroy our great nation.

But I am proud of who I am, where I come from and the hope of tomorrow for America. I am proud to be an American and I will not forget 9/11/01 or the sacrifices that were made and the sacrifices that continue to be made by our service men and women.