TGIF

I was pleased with class today. I'm glad we started with a tribute to 9/11. I remember pretty clearly what I was doing on that day. At the time in 2001, my wife and I both worked at UC Santa Cruz. We had to leave our house by 6:30 each morning to drive from Salinas to Santa Cruz. We were listening to the usual NPR broadcast when the announcer interrupted the program with news of the "accident" at the World Trade Center. Less than an hour later (we were still driving to Santa Cruz) the second plane hit and everyone had concluded that we were under attack. When I arrived to work at the Educational Partnership Center, we as a staff went outside to gather in a circle holding hands and reflecting (some of us prayed) for the victims of 9/11--a very Santa Cruzian thing to do. It was very cool that we spent the entire day following the news at the Center. We met in the conference room and talked about the attack. The director of the center, Carol Moran kindly asked if I had any family on the East Coast. My brother worked in DC for the Department of State at the time. He did some of his work at the Pentagon (very infrequently), but I was nervous nonetheless for him and his wife. Thankfully, he was not there on that day....A long story. Anyway, the memories of the incident are more vivid for me because of the generosity of my work environment allowed us a lot of quality time to reflect on this horrible event.

Anyway, I haven't graded the vocab quiz, but should have it done for Monday. Remember the Unit 2 test is Monday. Bring your textbooks if you would, please. Also, there will be an FRQ on voting behavior-for those of you who read this blog. Have a great weekend :)