You were my father's other son, sometimes even his favorite
You were the one that he cried for, though he'll never admit
You were the friend who would listen, in times of great need
You were the most stubborn of us all, who would never concede

You were the guardian of our home, when we were all away
You were the one they all asked for, when they came over to stay
You were the one never forgotten, who will always be missed
You will be the one who brings smiles, when we all reminisce

     It is a lengthy post and I applaud you if you can make it through this. 

 

Deux02:   well once upon a time....   I went on a vaca to europe

Deux02:   i met up with a handful of friends that had toured all the western european countries

Deux02:   UK, france, netherlands, etc etc

FRIEND:  you met them in europe?

Deux02:   i met them up a few weeks into their trip when they hit the mediteranean

Deux02:   yeah

FRIEND:  ok

Deux02:   i couldnt get as much time off work as they did

FRIEND:  wow, youre really cool

Deux02:   i got 2 weeks, they went for a month

Deux02:   ...

Deux02:   anyhow

Deux02:   so my mom got me some cheap standby tickets on Lufthansa Air, being that they are the sister airline company with ANAN

Deux02:   ANA, my moms company.

FRIEND:  oh wow

Deux02:   so I flew into Northern Germany

FRIEND:  lucky

Deux02:   thentook a flight into italy

Deux02:   had the time of my life for 2 weeks in italy

Deux02:   toured rome and naples and a lot of southern intaly

Deux02:   then took a cruise to greece

Deux02:   saw the parthenon

Deux02:   athens

Deux02:   etc

Deux02:   so the day I am to head back

FRIEND:  yowza.. im jealous

Deux02:   we go to eat breakfast in this seedy little town in greece

Deux02:   my friends are trying to convince me to take a few more days off and go with them to santorini

Deux02:   im like i cant

Deux02:   i reallly wished I could, and i probably could have

Deux02:   so before we take the bus back to athens i go the bathroom to take a poop

Deux02:   the door locks up and the handle breaks

Deux02:   im like WTF!

FRIEND:  !!

FRIEND:  lol

Deux02:   im screaming for someone to open the door

Deux02:   my friends leave me for like 15 minutes

Deux02:   cause they thought i was pooping

FRIEND:  woooow

Deux02:   toward the end, our bus was destined to leave in 10 minutes they decide to check on me

Deux02:   so im like wtf!! get the maanager

FRIEND:  but they were all laughing at you

Deux02:   so they end up tearing the door off the hinges to get me out

Deux02:   they were

Deux02:   and the room smelled like poo

FRIEND:  lol

Deux02:   im thinking, im sooo not supposed to go back

Deux02:   i should go with them to santorini

Deux02:   so anyhow, i finally break free

Deux02:   and we run to the bu

Deux02:   bus

Deux02:   making it by seconds

Deux02:   so I take the bus by myself waving to my friends

Deux02:   and I head back to athens

Deux02:   i wish I had gone to santorini

Deux02:   once I make it to athens..my flight back to northern germany was pretty uneventful

Deux02:   still with me?

FRIEND:  yes

Deux02:   ok so Im in northern germany and my flight is on standy by

Deux02:   they wont confirm me a flight till the last minute

Deux02:   im like if i dont get the flight, im going to santorini

Deux02:   so they call my name at the gate

Deux02:   I get a ticked!

Deux02:   ticket!

Deux02:   so then I board and proceed to head home from Northern germany to the USA

Deux02:   still with me?

FRIEND:  yes

Deux02:   lol

Deux02:   ok

FRIEND:  i was gonna say, "who are you?"

Deux02:   so Im flying home crossing the atlantic

Deux02:   im wide awake the whole flight

Deux02:   didnt sleep a wink  its about 12 hours since ive left that seedy little greek town

Deux02:   right about over greenland, the captain announces:

Deux02:   attention passengers.   we are going to have to make a U-turn and return back to germany

FRIEND:  ???

Deux02:   im like wtfreak!

Deux02:   "apparentlly the United States has been bombed. And the cities of NY and Washington DC are under attack.  They have closed the borders to the United States"

Deux02:   " we have no idea how many peeople have died or the extent of the damage"

Deux02:   At that point, people are crying, freaking out

Deux02:   im thinking, so this is the end of the world .. WWIII

FRIEND:  omg........i was supposed to fly on that day too

Deux02:   im like.. well all I can do is pray

Deux02:   i got my rosary that I got from the vatican and started praying

FRIEND:  who did you guys think it was?

Deux02:   Promised the lord, that if he got me through this, i would read the bible cover to cover

FRIEND:  i cant imagine hearing the news like this

Deux02:   people were crying, trying to use the credit card phone

Deux02:   all I did was pray

Deux02:   didnt sleep a wink

Deux02:   this is only half of my story btw

FRIEND:  ok

Deux02:   So we arrive back at the airport in Norther Germany

FRIEND:  how long did it take?

Deux02:   i dunno 5 hours

Deux02:   at the airport there were thousands of displaced passengers

FRIEND:  yea, i bet

Deux02:   im thinking wtfreak am I gonna do

Deux02:   I remember finally finding out what happened in the cafeteria at the airport after walking around aimlessly for hours

FRIEND:  whatd di you think?

Deux02:   im about 17 hours from that seedy town

Deux02:   no sleep

Deux02:   i didnt know what to think

Deux02:   i tried calling my parents

Deux02:   my mom was stuck in seattle...

Deux02:   her flight from Alaska to Cali was diverted tehre

Deux02:   she told me there was nothing she could do from seattle

Deux02:   so I was stuck

Deux02:   she told me my only bet was to make it to the ANA company headquarters in southern germany

FRIEND:  but how far is that

Deux02:   there was 0 chance i would get a standby seat to cali

Deux02:   San diego to Santa barbara distance

Deux02:   4 hours by train

Deux02:   So thats what I did

Deux02:   I decided at about 1 am to take a train to southern germany

Deux02:   trains started running at 5 am

Deux02:   i stayed in a train depot bench for 4 hours, half asleep half awake

Deux02:   about 20 hours since breakfast

Deux02:   so at 5 am to 9am i take the train to southern germany

Deux02:   I eat breakfast and I make it to the ANA company headquarters

Deux02:   by that time, my mother has made arrangements for me to fly to JAPAN the only other place in the globe where i could go safely

Deux02:   so I am to take a flight in about 6 hours to leave from southern germany to Tokyo. no time to sleep

Deux02:   I wait at the airport patiently, and i board a flight to tokyo with relatively no problem

Deux02:   but i remember staring at every mother fker with darkskin at the airport

FRIEND:  aiya.. i dont blame you

Deux02:   i was thinking, try that shit mutha fucka, ill bust you up side the head

FRIEND:  im sure everyone was like that

Deux02:   yeah...

Deux02:   so on the flight over... believe it or not i didnt sleep much

Deux02:   too agitated

Deux02:   looking out, for possible terrorists still paranoid

Deux02:   still scared.. still everything

Deux02:   12 hour flight to japan

Deux02:   i land safetly

Deux02:   take a 1 hour bus to shinjuku where my aunt lives

Deux02:   make it to her house

Deux02:   havent taken a shower, changed clothes, slept in a bed in over 40 hours

Deux02:   i crash for a day

Deux02:   24 hours

Deux02:   i have a rash on my back from my backback straps

Deux02:   dug into and broke the skin

FRIEND:  aiya..

Deux02:   i was able to go home in like 3 to 4 days

FRIEND:  that is so amazingly random

Deux02:   roughest week of my life

Deux02:   but it taught me something

Deux02:   I can do anything. My will is that strong

FRIEND:  more like day

FRIEND:  what did you do in japan while you were there?

Deux02:   sleep, eat

Deux02:   shopped a little

Deux02:   but it wasnt like a planned vacation.

FRIEND:  thats so random

Deux02:   people had work and stuff

FRIEND:  did you fly back in on the 14th?

FRIEND:  i think it was a friday

Deux02:   the second day after the borders reopened

Deux02:   first flight was booked

FRIEND:  i guess i never thought about what people had to do that were out of the country

FRIEND:  thats a lot of work

FRIEND:  why did you decide not to stay in germany until you could leave?

Deux02:   cause I had a standby ticket

FRIEND:  ohh

Deux02:   after the borders opened, IF they opened

Deux02:   id have to wait weeks

Deux02:   safest place for me in the world was japan

Deux02:   i have family there and Im a citizen. I could have stayed there indefinitely

Deux02:   Its happened to my family before

Deux02:   but that my dear, is another sotry

Deux02:   story

FRIEND:  i wonder if people could have even had fun  on their vacation after they found out

FRIEND:  like your friends

Deux02:   they didnt know

Deux02:   they were in santorini

FRIEND:  how creepy

 

Where were you in 2001?