I distinctly recalled what I was doing when Lady Diana had the fatal accident in Paris, it was one sweaty August afternoon and I was trying to balance my measly paycheck against my insurmountable pile of bills. Like any female besotted by a Princess, I was inconsolable.
9/11 tragedy - I associate it with women's shoes.
You might wonder what twisted situation I was in at that time. I was figuratively burning the midnight oil doing a term paper for a lady friend (taking up fashion designing course) of the Executive who happens to be my superior on the evolution of ladies shoes. The Executive, lugging tomes of hardbound books with glossy illustrations of ladies footwear, non chalantly informed me that I need to do a 12 page paper on history of women's shoes complete with bibliographies,references, photos etc. He needs it the next day. I am an accountant by profession and not a Recto term paper writer. I am well aware that this was beyond the scope of my job responsibilities but being at the mercy of the person who signs your paycheck who am I to say no. So I placidly accepted the order and I know for sure, I will not be sleeping that night.
I was prowling the Internet for additional materials, when the news broke on TV of the of the terrorist attack in New York. I want to stop what I was doing but I can't . Multitasking , I finished the paper while following the event on TV and on the web.
I was informed that the lady friend of the Executive who opportunistically claimed the work of somebody else, was so happy when she got the the papers with all the accoutrement of a professionally done research work.
I tried to dissociate the 9/11 events from Turn shoes in Germany,platform shoes in Elizabethan England, chopine, Catherine de Medici , Vivier, Louboutin, Choo in my memory but I figured out that was an exercise in futility.
I am ambivalent on my feelings on that night. I despised doing the paper due to the event association that ensued in my subconscious later, loved it at some point for I learned the historical evolution of shoes in utilitarian and fashionable perspective. But one thing I am absolutely certain, I execrate up to this day that lady friend of the Executive, for not doing her part as a a good student, for depriving me of one night sleep, for plagiarizing my work, for me not knowing what grade she got and for robbing me the privilege of remembering 9/11 the way it should be remembered, with sadness, not with heels, bows, designer shoes, killer stilettos and vanities .
Now, would you blame me if I consider that lady friend of the Executive as the Osama bin Ladin of my 9/11 recollection. I still have the gorgeous shoe books, I can not find it in my heart to dispose them... in retrospect those shoes reminded me of immeasurable beautiful things in life in spite of the existence of atrocious actions of men like that of 9/11 attack.
Funny how we associate events to the oddest things. My recall of things is more through the sense of smell or by certain melodies. I can tell you though that when 9/11 happened, I, too was way too busy wallowing in my own world to even care about what's happening in the rest of the world.
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