The bridge

My parents talk about the assassination of MLK, JFK, Vietnam. Me? I can tell you where I was when the Challenger exploded, when Oklahoma City was bombed, where I was sitting on Black Tuesday, and now, where I was when the 35W bridge went down. You'd think, being in the business of responding to crises and all, that announcements like that would just spur me into action. Instead, when dispatch told us what had happened, my partner and I looked at each other, speechless. I heard myself say to her, "Karen, I think I'm gonna be sick."

Jean and I took an uncharted drive by the bridge today. In the words of one of my coworkers earlier this week: "It was just so quiet." Where a bridge is supposed to soar over a river, it seems to slope almost vertically down into the water, as if it were an amusement park ride.

(looking east from the Stone Arch Bridge)

On the north side, where the bridge settled itself down onto land, there is a minivan with its door still flung open in haste. I can't imagine where they ran to. A week later, to see those cars just sitting there, again sucks the breath right out of me.

(facing east, north side, at the end of Main St)

Maybe if it weren't August, it wouldn't affect me so much. Again, as my partner and I returned to base after a call that day, I was overwhelmed into words. It's not cool to cry at work but cry I did. I have never been in a car that suddenly free-fell 64 feet through the air. But I have been a passenger, reclined and dozing contentedly on a balmy evening, heard, "Oh my God!" and opened my eyes to have the world ripped out from under me. My tears were for those people, the innocents whose horror and confusion overwhelms me with empathy.

(looking south while crossing on University)

And so I thoroughly enjoyed my Today. Came home from a slow night at work, slept a little more, enjoyed 2 lovely phone calls from friends, had a surprise visit from another friend, decided to fly to San Diego on Friday, did yoga, and then took this unplanned, unmapped adventure through Stone Arch, Dinkytown, Subway, Matt's house, Fort Snelling State Park, and ending with a stop at Baker's Square/Cold Stone Creamery. All highly unusual for Ms. Planned and Organized.

I am one, like many, who doesn't like her life interrupted, unplanned, or departing from my little daily routines and habits. Sometimes I think it's shameful that I even need reminding, after the events of my life, that life is too short...to plan everything, to wait for money, to use a map book, or especially, to count every calorie. (May I recommend the Mud Pie Mojo? Holy delicious!)