On August 21st
 

Me: "Checking out?"

Patron: "Yes, please." hands over card

Me: "Ok...your videos will be due on the 28th and your books will be due on...." looks at receipt, pause ".....September 11th."

Patron: "Oh." looks away

Me: "Yeah." looks away

---

Patron: "I'd like to get these please."

Me: "Sure. Your due date is....September 11th."

Patron: "Mm. Guess I won't forget that."

Me: "Right." busies herself with bagging books

---

Patron: "It's so nice in here!"

Me: scanning books "Much better than outside, eh?"

Patron: "For sure."

Me: distracted by conversation, hands over receipt "September 11th."

Patron: shocked "WHAT?"

Me: winces "The due date, the books are due then."

Patron: "Oh." reads receipt carefully to make sure

---

Me: "Books are due on the 11th."

Patron: "Of September?"

Me: "Yes." *pause*

Patron: smiles in sympathy, nods

---

Me: looks straight at patron "Your books are due September 11th."

Patron: "Oh, ok." looks down

Me: unwavering, said with import - "Have a nice day."

Patron: looks up, smiles "I will, thanks."

Yeah. I have a lot of big meetings that were scheduled for today, but though it made me almost, wince at first, there seemed to be no reaction from the other party.

Also, Jaguar chose today to unveil its new sedan that is supposed to make or break the company. Got an email about it the other day, as I tend to have difficulty severing ties. Too loyal. Anyway, I just felt a bit uncomfortable reading it and the date they chose without comment. It's going to happen, I know. It just feels awkward though...

Interesting. Personally, I don't have any problem with it but the date already had some personal significance (though of a type I place exactly zero value on). So my first reaction on seeing the date isn't the same as for most people.

Happy birthday? Happy first communion?

It's my birthday but I do absolutely zero to observe my birthday. Before 9/11 I frequently didn't even notice it until my mom would call sometime in the week after to say hi.

Since then, it is harder to completely forget since the press insists on harping on the date for some reason. Plus, this year I had to renew my driver's license and of course I put it off to the last minute.

But still, on seeing anything with a date of 9/11 my first reaction is not "hey, that is happening on the anniversary of a terrorist attack" but rather "hey, that is happening on my birthday." This includes the terrorist attack.

The one good thing that came out of 9/11 was that I could pretend to have a good reason not to observe my birthday but that is starting to wear thin (and I have new coworkers this year who need new convincing that I really don't do birthdays).

Just tell them you're JW

Ducks training camp opened today. Seems almost wrong. I don't necessarily think that 9/11 should become some sort of holiday - because in 50 years it will be another Pearl Harbor Day (a mark on the calendar and little more), but it seems wrong, awkward, or both to do anything 'fun'. I take pause when the clock says 9:11 and I take pause when I see the date on a calendar.

Anybody who knows me particularly well would find that to be really unlikely.

Those who I know well enough to share more personal information with do know that I was raised JW and that is probably where it got started. Plus, my experience is that most people think that JW's deep down really want to celebrate their birthday and are denying themselves (and they think it is some form of child abuse to not do your kid's birthdays). They therefore feel completely free to try and push birthday celebration on them anyway. Every year, for example, my grandmother would give me a gift on my birthday, and Christmas, and tell me it wasn't a birthday present. Teachers, friends, and coworkers have generally behaved the same.

While I did not lose anybody because of Pearl Harbor, I do not consider December 7 a blip on the calendar: it is a day to remember (not celebrate) a dark day in the history of this country.

The very fact that one of the most oft-used names for the event is "September 11th" makes saying the date out loud awkward. Even 12/7 is "Pearl Harbor Day". We don't call it "WTC day". "Nine-Eleven" is a good substitute because people don't usually refer to dates this way. It seems that referring to it as "September 11th" has stuck completely and I don't see it wavering for another generation at least.

I've gotten used to having to say the date all day long as a part of my job (for 2 days, actually - the day that it's the book due date, and the day that it's the one-week DVD due date). It still sucks.