Today was another memory day.
Today in Washington some 22,000 people ran in the Marine Corps Marathon; six years ago today I remember stopping at a highway rest area and seeing a sea of purple race participant shirts. We had left Long Island, the moving truck the day before, our two Golfs packed with the odds and ends that would fit around a six-month-old baby and a bird cage with two parakeets. We were unemployed, and 99% of our stuff was going into a storage unit; a few things - our bed, the crib, some clothes, the video camera - were going to my in-laws' house, where we were going to live until... until whatever came next.
We, my husband and I, were glad to leave Long Island. Within a month or two of moving there in 2001 we had each concluded it was not the right place for us. Our jobs were there, so we stuck it out. September 11th and the Towers came down. The east coast electrical grid failure. Things just happen in New York. So when Monkey1 was born, the house we were renting was put up for sale, and notification that the grant paying my husband's salary would not be renewed - all in a month - we knew our Long Island exile was coming to an end.
So the Marine Corps Marathon is always a reminder of our our exodus, a marker of how long ago and how recent are the chapters of our lives.
Semper Fidelis!
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