Back up for Final...

Just adding this here so I can have another place where my final rests - Just INCASE!!!

October, 2001 – The events of September 11th, 2001 still hang in the distance. They are still looking for bodies and the airport is the emptiest it has ever been – you could almost hear a pin drop. There will be no flights leaving Bangor International Airport for the next month or so; however, I am still responsible to be here – just in case passengers have any questions about their flights. I am sick of watching TV – everything is about the “war on terror” – I had been glued to it since the events happened – at home and at work. I need something to release all tension that I have built up; something that I can do to keep my mind of things and to keep tears from streaming down my face when I have to be alone. I am depressed, as many are, I realize I need something other than medication to help me through this – I needed a hobby.

November, 2001 – My friend Nikki is having some kind of party that she wants me to go to. It all sounds expensive and it’s all about crafts and pictures. I hate crafts. Nikki, my friend, has more creativity in her left pinky then I do in my whole body. I was raised to love sports – fishing, basketball, football, baseball and playing in the mud – there was no time for sissy crafts. I decide to go. Anyway, it could be fun – I haven’t seen Nikki in a while and how bad could it be if it involves pictures – I love pictures. Pictures whip you away to another time, a happier time – After all, when was the last time you took a picture when you were having the most horrible moment of your life? Just looking at the pictures made me want to organize them, or do something creative with them – but what? When I arrived at Nikki’s I got my answer. Scrapbooking. The lady that did the class taught us how to cut our pictures – cropping out whatever junk is in the background and focusing on the focal point. Every page in a scrapbook was like a tiny collage – waiting to tell a story. I was ecstatic and when I left that day – I left $200 bucks poorer. I could do this! This was going to be my getaway – This was going to be my salvation from all the sorrow I was facing. This was going to be expensive!!

December, 2002 – Scrapbooking is my thing. When ever people see something that has to do with it – or want to learn – they come to me. Around the airport parts, I am known as the scrapbook queen. I have two pull behind totes filled to the brim with scrapbook supplies and I have all the pens and paper you would ever want or need to fill an album. I am almost finished the album that I started over a year ago – and album on the happiest time of my life; an album consisting of memories, pictures and letters from high school. When I started the album, I knew that it was going to do the job to get me out of the funk I was in. When I would bring it to work, I noticed that other people started to be interested in what I was doing – first Shelagh, then Steve, and then Gary. They would have me tell them stories of what was going on in the pictures – on what kind of a person I was. We all laughed for hours when we started talking about embarrassing moments from the good ol’ days and I realize that my little scrapbook had opened people like nothing else could. I shared my special moments with people – and they shared theirs. When the flights started coming in again, the scrapbooks were put away. I started to do most of my major work at home; however, I would always bring in the completed pages so everyone could see. I started to get a group of friends interested in what I was doing and we would have little scrapbook parties of our own – filled with food and sometimes wine. When the parties had any kind of alcohol added to them, they went a little sour – we would just end up talking about the memories and forget about the pictures. If we decided to do a page – it would end up all crooked and would have to be redone. Those were some of the best days of my life.