Happy Friday & Reflections from A To Z

It's Friday and I am just happy to be alive. Yes, alive. Yours truly was not paying attention when she got off the bus on Monday night and stepped out into oncoming traffic. Thanks to the awesome quickness of my bus driver, Alex King, I am alive and well. He saw me cross in front of him just as he started pull away, but he braked and honked, startling me enough that I did not make it past the bus and out in front of the huge eighteen wheeler barreling along in the next lane. I think I spent the next hour or so with the shakes. I also had nightmares most of the night. So thank you, Alex and my Guardian Angel!

Today is also about reflections of another sort. Those of the Big A To Z last month. I know I'm late on this, but hey, better late than never. This year's hosts and their aides de camp did one absolutely breathtaking job. I admit that I am loath to use the word minion because it makes me think of Frankenstein's Igor. I think adjutant or aide de camp more appropriate because they helped our brilliant team of hosts keep everything organized and running smoothly. In the military there are special honors for these individuals.

As always, I loved meeting new people and finding new blogs. I am eager to continue on with the list and meet even more. I do have to organize myself better than I did this time. Once again, I did not get my posts done early, something I will be working to improve. I also regretted my commenting as I just could not keep up this time. For those of you who came here and I missed you, I am sorry. I appreciate you taking the time to visit  and it meant the world to me. I smiled as I read your comments and they got me through some rather hectic days.

In spite of all my missteps, I will definitely be back for next year. It is tiring, crazy and a heck of a lot of fun.

So what are you all up to this weekend? I want to see Gatsby. I am so excited for this movie. It is about time we had a great version of this story on film. Leonardo Di Caprio is just the actor to capture Jay Gatsby and I sure hope he gets an Oscar nod this time. He is way overdue for another one and yes, he deserves the gold statue. Anyway, shutting up now. Have a great weekend!

My Unforgettable Place

My incredible friend, Siv over at Been There, Done That is celebrating the release of  her short story, Secrets of the Ash Tree with the Unforgettable Blogfest. Secrets will be released September 4 in the fantasy anthology Open Doors. Yay Siv!

Now, what makes this blogfest so brilliant, aside from celebrating Siv's story, is that we each get to share the person or place that is absolutely unforgettable to us. How awesome is that? To check the other incredible participants, click here

I'm going to share with you a place that I hiked to with my best friend in the entire world, Brenda. It was 1995 and I had just gotten vacation time from my first job after college. Brenda had invited me to go camping with her and I was nervous as heck. Hell, I watch horror films. Give me a hood rat with a gun or blade any day rather than some backwoods scary redneck with plans to skin me and eat me. Then there was always the distinct possibility that a Jason Voorhees type would likely come at me with an axe or machete.

I digress.

She took me to Porcupine Mountain State Park in Michigan. I had never gone hiking in my life. I'm South Side Steel Town girl and to me hiking was what one did when having to walk about 10 blocks to catch the bus.  The last time I had actually been in woods that weren't a city forest preserve was age 10 in Scouts. My troop and I had gone to Butternut Springs, a huge Girl Scout camp in Indiana. Cabin, bus, indoor plumbing... not exactly roughing it.

So Brenda and I set out on this immense trail with backpacks and tent. Now, I am voluptuous chica to say the least, even more so back then. But I had been slowly starting to lose weight, so I was eager to push myself. We started off high above the park at Lake of the Clouds, then we hiked down through some rough trails. I was a sweaty, rotten mess, but I was still feeling all right. Then fatigue started to hit and just when I was hitting pain, we came upon this scene on the trail. This is the Presque Isle River, which runs through Michigan's Upper Peninsula and empties out into Lake Superior.

Beautiful, isn't it? I couldn't believe that I, Melissa Bradley, had hiked miles into a forest and was able to see this amazing scene. It was like being in my own nature film. Scary bear encounter aside, this is one memory that will stay with me always. I was so happy to be able to share it with Brenda.This woman has always been my rock and my instigator. If I'm going to get into trouble not of my own making, she's behind it. No wonder she's on my team when the zombie horde comes.

Unexpected Inspiration

Let me apologize in advance for the wordiness and no pics, but I had to share this.

I never imagined I would be so inspired when I went to my nephew's baseball banquet last night. You see, I was a last minute substitution as Mom wasn't feeling very well. I scrambled to get ready on time, then we got caught by two trains en route and arrived late.

It was a typical South Side affair with decent food, a horrible DJ, whiny sound system and over-priced drinks. We were seated all the way in the back, of course, but hey,  it was near the bar. Turned out we had some pretty good table company, too, a teammate of Cameron's, his family and one of the coaches from another team and his little boy. We had a few laughs over dinner, joking that our rather skeletal looking waiter was really a vampire. Finally, the time for trophy presentations came and it was I'm-aging-fifty-years-just-sitting-here long. We could hear about a third of what was being said because the kids were making so much noise. Then came the announcement of something called the Chad Award and silence fell.

Oscar, the manager of the first place team took the mic and started talking about this kid, Chad, he had coached. How this boy loved baseball and was always the first out and the last to leave the field. He lived for the game and could be found at the fields even when he wasn't playing. He was also a huge fan of the Chicago Cubs, which is a rarity on the South Side as this is hardcore White Sox country. The remarkable thing is Chad did all of this in spite being stricken with cancer. Through chemo, hospitalizations and various doctor visits, Chad continued to play. He showed up in pain, exhausted and cheered his team whenever he wasn't strong enough to get on the field. One day, after a particularly rough chemo treatment, he came and asked his coach to play. Oscar asked him if he was sure, then looked at Chad's mom, who nodded. Chad played and was so tired by the time the game ended, his mom had to carry him to the car from the dugout. The following morning, she called Oscar with the sad news that Chad had passed away that night. He had given his all for one last game.

I was trying not to cry by this point, then they introduced the winner of the Chad Award, a kid named Justin. This award is given in Chad's honor to the 12 year old who best exemplifies the spirit of baseball and sportsmanship. I have to tell you, Justin blew me away. Like Chad, he's there everyday whether his team is playing or not, cheering the kids on.  One time, though, Justin and his team were playing a squad that was clearly not their equal. On that day a young boy named John came to the mound as a pitching substitution. John is slightly behind his peers developmentally and while he plays, he's not very good. In fact, he gets made fun of a lot. He's the worst pitcher on his team. Justin, on the other hand is a pretty good player. During this game, there was only one more out needed to end the inning and John's teammates were getting irritated that he couldn't find the strike zone as usual. Justin stepped to the plate and proceeded to take three swings, striking out. The pitches were so bad all Justin had to do was wait for four balls and he'd be on base, but he chose to take those swings and give John his first ever strike out. Justin's teammates were  less than pleased, but he knew that John needed that strikeout far more than he needed another hit.

The depth of character of both of these boys left me stunned to say the least. There was not one adult there who was not blinking rapidly and wiping a tear. I've talked about being inspired by Olympians, but last night I found a great deal to be inspired by close to home.

What are some inspiring stories you've heard? What was the most unexpected source of inspiration for you?

Reflections On The A to Z

Here I am, only two days late,  for the Reflections Blog Hop. Look at that awesome survivor badge by Jeremy at Retro Zombie. Whoo hoo! We did it!

This year was a challenge for me with a big move and starting a new job assignment, but those difficulties aside, this was an amazing year and I am proud to have finished on time with my posting. I'm still playing catch up on my comments, though, so I apologize profusely to my awesome visitors. You all rock!

I, alas, did not make it to nearly as many blogs as I wanted. I think I hit 5-10 a day, but thanks to the A to Z site leaving the list up, I am going to make it through the rest of the blogs over the next months. I did meet some incredible people over the last month and I am looking forward to building on the initial connections. I was also happy to reconnect with people I had met last year. I am proud of all the challengers this year and I think that the team of co-hosts did an incredible job of keeping things organized, doing all the awesome promotion and having those helpful posts on the challenge's web site.

Speaking of which, the A to Z site was genius. It really helped me a lot to have a home base to go to. Plus, it freed up the co-hosts so they didn't have to have all the info on their personal sites.

There was no real down side, except for the sheer size, but that is workable by leaving the list up. I am also not a fan of word verification. I don't mind the blog owner comment approval on sites, that's cool, but to have to try and read those words... I am old, people, and my eyes kept running those letters together. So many times I was denied and had to do it again. It got very frustrating at times.

Other than that, this was an awesome Challenge and I am participating again next year without reservation. Lee at Tossing It Out conceived of a truly wonderful idea to bring us all together and I thank him. I also want to thank the co-hosts once more, who did a most excellent job of shepherding us through this incredible event. You all are mighty pillars of this blogging community and it would not be the same without you.

9/11...Ten Years On

It's hard to imagine that it has been ten years since that horrible day, yet, time has marched on and while the wounds have scarred over, they are still very much with us. Each anniversary of this day that has come and gone over these last ten years had me torn between, "God, I am so sick of reliving everything over and over. Just stop" to watching every single news item, reliving every single moment in my mind's eye and praying.

I remember most of that day with a clarity that stuns me. And I was no where near New York City or Washington DC. I was here in Chicago and in my office at 300 W. Washington on the 21st floor, just three blocks north of the Sears, now Willis, Tower. I sat at my desk, opened my Diet Pepsi, then got into voice mail and started answering messages. It was just before 8:00AM Central Time and the first tower had been struck.

My co-worker Lisa came over to my desk, ghost white. "They think a plane crashed into the World Trade Center. There was an explosion."

"What?" In my mind I'm thinking a Cessna or some other small plane that had some engine trouble.

"They think it was a jet. There's a lot fire and smoke. We turned Good Morning America on because we had to adjust the picture on the new tv for the meeting later."

That brought me up short. "Holy shit!. Are you serious?" She nodded. Her blue eyes were so huge they looked like swimming pools. "We're all there watching, if you want to come on back. No one's here, really.." Our company had been having its annual conference so most of our office, at least all the bosses, were out in Las Vegas.

"Yeah. I've just got to finish up the consultant schedules."

"Okay." She left, but somehow I could not bring myself to do it. I grabbed my soda and headed to be with my co-workers. I walked in that room, just in time to see the second plane crash. All the oxygen was sucked from my lungs and I could not process what I had just seen live on tv. It reminded me horribly of that moment when I watched the Challenger explode fifteen years earlier. Everyone started exclaiming and crying. I dropped my soda and simply stared at the screen. I fumbled for a chair and sat down, my mind screaming "What the fuck?" over and over.

The next thing I remember, my friend was Teena handing me a napkin. I hadn't realized I was crying. I dabbed my eyes and continued to watch, ABC News had now taken over and Peter Jennings was the voice of reason to my scattered brain. The phone rang, making us all jump. Lisa answered and she started talking to one of our engineering consultants who happened to be in one of our member bakeries in New York. He said he didn't have long, but that he was going to extend his stay and try and rent a car because he didn't know if he'd be able to get out that night. They talked a while long, but I don't recall what was said because by this time the news that the Pentagon had been struck came across.

"Oh my God," another co-worker, Tom, exclaimed. "The Pentagon, too. I wonder how many planes were taken over? What other targets are there?"

Those words frightened me because we were right smack in the middle of downtown Chicago just up the street from America's tallest building. I ran to the window and looked out. I could just make out the top portion of the Sears Tower and my ears strained for the whine of a jet engine.

"Jesus Christ!" someone yelled, I spun back only to see a rumble of gray smoke and debris roll across the television screen. The South Tower had collapsed. I could not believe what I had just seen. It was weird and horrifying, like seeing a mass of red and slowly putting it together as blood stains.

Word came that a jet had crashed in Pennsylvania. We were starting to talk about that when a little while later the North Tower came down. I remember thinking with the rod on top, it looked like a collapsing birthday cake. A dumb thought, sure, but it was what ran through my brain at the time.

Talk started about other planes and other targets when we heard that the FAA had grounded all flights until further notice. But, they still could not account for four planes. A little while later, someone from the building manager's office came in and said that they were evacuating the entire Loop. I remember getting my stuff together and heading for the elevator. I was scared and wanted to take the stairs, but our building had people riding in the elevators with us and assuring us that this was the fastest way.

Outside was totally surreal. There was no noise at all. It was like the cemetery hush, magnified. All these people and cars, but no noise. I had a seven block walk to the train and I was terrified the whole time. I kept craning my neck, listening for a plane, yet trying to walk as fast as I could. I wanted my parents in the worst way.

The ride home on the train was a strange blur. I could not think, I could not concentrate on anything. My mind was just in a whirl. I got off my train and got on a bus. It was weird because instead of getting off the bus at the regular stop, I got off by old grammar school and walked that way to my parents' house. I had not walked that route since I was 14 and finishing 8th grade.

I stayed at my folks' house most of the rest of the day. My mom took me home later and I had a message from our company president, Bernie, saying to stay home and don't come in until Thursday morning. I watched the television all night and I recall that I went to bed right when the sun was starting to come over the horizon.

Ten years is a long time and yet, it still seems like just yesterday. This country has been changed forever. I have been changed forever. I think I'm going to do some serious reflection today and pray for peace.

Reflections On The Big A to Z

Well here we are on May 2 and while the big A to Z Challenge is over for most of you, I am still slogging through, determined to reach Z. Though I have not finished yet, I still got a great award from Elizabeth Mueller. Isn't it pretty? I know I posted it yesterday, but it's great I had to put it up a second time. :)

Arlee over at Tossing It Out, one of the big hosts asked us all to participate in a Mega Reflections post. So I'll share with you my experiences from this month long fest.

It has been a fantastic, daunting, amazing, difficult, magnificent experience. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I signed up. I have met so many brilliant and remarkable people that I can't even begin to tell you. I also saw another side to friends I already had at the start of this. It was a joyous discovery to see what they had put together each day. There were films, excerpts, anecdotes, songs, words of wisdom, writing tips... a treasure trove of wonders to read about.

I reached deep inside of myself and shared some things that surprised me, memories I had put away. I appreciate to the bottom of my heart and soul all the wonderful comments I received on these various posts. It was so amazing to connect with others who had similar experiences, tastes in movies, songs, etc. My blog is not even a year old and the number of people who have kindly visited, commented and followed, especially during this challenge, leaves me speechless. I had no idea so many would respond to words I thought I would be posting for myself mainly.

It was very difficult trying to navigate through all the participants and I am disappointed at not being able to visit as many of the blogs on the list as I wanted. I got kind of lost, actually, and wasn't able to keep track of where I'd been. I'm going to try and hit as many more as I can because from the names they all sound intriguing and I don't want to miss a thing.

I hope you all had as much fun as I did and I can say without hesitation that I am ready to sign up again for next time. Thank you Arlee, Alex, Stephen, Jen, Talli Candace, Jeffrey and Karen. You did a brilliant job co-hosting and for giving us all this opportunity to connect. I wish you all out there a wonderful week and I hope you'll stick with me for the final letters. I'm planning something special for the big finale. Peace!

Where I Was...The Challenger Disaster

It's hard to believe that 25 years has gone by since the Challenger disaster. I remember exactly where I was as I watched the awfulness unfold. The explosion of the space shuttle Challenger is one of the most vivid and haunting experiences of my life. I was so young and I had never conceived of such tragedy before. To this day, I tear up remembering that awful day in Spanish class. I'd watched people die right before my eyes and it wasn't a movie or a television show, it was real.

I walked into class that January 28 talking about the latest music vids with my friend and prepared for vocabulary words and translation. We'd just finished a huge test the day before and had a light load of classwork, so my teacher, Mrs. L, decided we should catch a break by watching the shuttle launch.

Cheers went up. Mostly because we didn't have to conjugate verbs, but also because most of us had never been able to watch a shuttle launch on television before. The launches always happened while we were in class. This time we were actually going to watch the whole thing live. The mood of the room was one of anticipation,joy. Mrs. L was especially excited because Christa McAuliffe, a teacher, was going into space. Her pride and excitement rubbed off on us. "How cool is this, kids?," she'd said. "A teacher, like me, riding in the space shuttle. I can't believe it." She was right. It was the coolest thing ever. A real person from our own scope of experience was going to the stars.

I remember sitting at my desk, drumming my pen against my book as the big television was wheeled in by the av kid. He couldn't set that thing up fast enough. After several adjustments, the big screen finally lit up and we were tuned into the special news report. We waited breathlessly for about ten seconds and it became apparent that the news guys were filling in time, so naturally we descended into madness, talking, laughing. Mrs. L hushed us with a sharp word and told us to pay attention.

"Ten, nine, eight..." The countdown rolled on, the engines firing billows of smoke on the screen. I was in awe, the class dead silent. I watched that enormous rocket booster lift off, carrying the shuttle upward. It was so beautiful and amazing, going high and higher into that bright blue sky.

A huge orange fireball burst like someone had thrown paint on the screen. Everyone gasped, wondering what had just happened. I was frozen, staring as debris started falling away like a macabre fireworks show. Mrs. L started crying and so did some of the girls next to me. The newscaster kept asking for confirmation, trying frantically to find out what had happened.

"Did the astronauts just die?" someone asked, I think it was this kid Todd, but I can't be sure. Mrs. L snapped out of her stupor and turned to us. "Oh my God," she said. The math teacher, Ms. Madonich, walked in tears on her face. The TV continued to blare and I tried to hear what the reporters were saying, but by this time every one was talking.

Class dismissed shortly after and I left sad and in shock. I don't remember much of the rest of the day, except walking home and not really feeling the cold. I had my coat on, but hadn't zipped it. Never felt the wind, nor the blowing snow.

The Challenger disaster remains one of the most shocking moments of my life. I have forgotten a lot of things over the years, but my memories of that moment are as vivid as hi def television in my mind's eye. I have unfortunately, witnessed many more disasters unfold courtesy of the television and the internet, but this one, like Sept 11, remains so clear because it scarred my spirit.