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9/11 It's been 9 years.
I can't believe it has already been 9 years. 
Do you remember where you were and what you had going on this day 9 years ago?
Do you remember where you were and what you had going on this day 9 years ago? 
This discussion has been closed.
Re: 9/11 It's been 9 years.
I remember every detail of that day just the same as I remember every detail of when the Aggie Bonfire collapsed and being on campus. It doesn't seem like 9 years but rather just one or two. *sigh*
Ugh. It's still so horrible.
I was a Freshman in college in PA only 2 hours from NYC. More than half of the students were from NY/NJ/CT and I knew two people who had siblings and one who had a father die that day. People were hysterically trying to call their friends and family, and many calls weren't getting through. It was really like a nightmare.
I was in class when it happened, in an art building off campus, so we had no idea for a good hour afterwards. When I walked back onto campus, it was immediately obvious that the entire place was empty and silent. I'm getting chills now, remembering walking off the elevator and rounding the corner to see a huge crowd gathered around the TV in the dorm hall lounge, crying and staring.
ETA: Just thinking about it all - can you BELIEVE that that really happened here, in our lifetimes? It's unbelievable to me. It seemed like the world stopped. We watched the news coverage and the clips of the buildings collapsing over and over. I remember the first time I saw the shot of the plane hitting the building, with that plume of fire coming out the other side... OMG.
In my bag: Canon 60D, 50mm 1.4, Tamron 28-75 2.8, 430exii
I was in class at WSU in Detroit. Our professor came in and started raving about the evils of the United States. When the entire class just stared back in confusion, she told us about the planes. We spent the next two hours arguing over US foreign policies. Most people felt that we brought this on ourselves.
It was pretty bad.
I remember stopping to get Starbucks in the early morning before anything happened. At the time I worked in the DC area at an agency (CIA) building and so did my best friend. We worked in the credit union part of it. For whatever reason, my best friend and I weren't talking, I'm sure over something stupid. When everything started happening our building went on complete lockdown, nobody could leave and nobody could enter. We had to stay until 4pm. My friend and I must have thought of one another at the same time because we both got up from our desks and just started crying and hugging. We had helicopters flying around our building all afternoon. When I was finally able to leave it took me 3 hours to get home because the roads were totally packed. About 2 weeks after it happened I had to work down at the Navy Yard and had to pass the Pentagon everyday. Driving down that road was just erie with the big hummers sitting out and watching everyone drive by. My uncle (he is no longer with us, but was a NYC Homicide Detective) spent the first 3 or 4 days down at Ground Zero after it happened. He couldn't even explain some of the things he saw. He lost many friends on 9/11. We went up to NY in late October to see all our family and it was so emotional driving over the Verrazano Bridge and not seeing the towers anymore.
Wow, that was a long ramble.
Our Family Blog
I was working as a Press Secretary for a special Congressional election in Arkansas. Needless to say, 9/11 totally changed the dynamics of the race. The campaign manager had been a former Clinton administration official, and she said that she could have seen the Pentagon crash site from her old office, had she still been there.
Exactly two years to the day after the terrorist attacks, September 11, 2003, Mike asked me to marry him and put a ring on my finger. We both felt that 9/11 had changed the way we viewed our lives and made us think more about the things that really mattered. He made some big changes in his life, and as a result of that, we found each other. We didn't really make a conscious decision to get engaged that day - that was the day my ring was ready at the jeweler's, and he isn't good at delaying something like that. We both agreed though that we'd rather look back at September 11th as the day we got engaged instead of as a sad, horrible day.
Meredith, 6-1-06 and Alex, 11-5-09
That's nice. I agree.
It's somebody's birthday on the board today... I can't remember who (sorry!) Hope she celebrates and makes happy memories.
In my bag: Canon 60D, 50mm 1.4, Tamron 28-75 2.8, 430exii
I *think* it is CollieJade's daughter's birthday today. If so, then Happy Birthday sweet Annabelle!
Meredith, 6-1-06 and Alex, 11-5-09
I was home sick with the stomach flu. I was asleep, and a friend of mine called and screamed at me to turn on the TV. Had I not already been sick to my stomach, I would have been then. I had been to a wedding the weekend prior to the 11th, and the groom, his family, and all of the groomsmen were from NYC. We ended up sitting at a table at the reception with all of the groomsmen, who were NYFD. I remember thinking that horrible day about all of those young men and wondering how many were still alive. Since I was home sick for 9 solid days, and there was NOTHING else on TV, I seriously think I gave myself PTSD from watching it non-stop. It was definitely the day the world changed, in so many ways.
This year, my sister is having a reception (she did a destination wedding) today. While that's a whole other story....every faux pas you can imagine and ghetto in the biggest way.....I'm glad there's something happy to celebrate.
"There is a fine line between a princess and a witch...thinking you're one does NOT give you the right to act like the other." my grandmother
I was a junior in high school (I know, I'm a youngen!) and I was sitting in one of the Art rooms, just kind of wasting time as we did in that class. One of my friends came in late that day and was talking about some plane crash, but nobody knew what she was talking about. About 5 minutes later there was an announcement over the PA saying something about it and giving permission for teachers with classroom TVs to turn them on, and to let students call parents from cell phones or classroom phones. We all crowded around the TV in the neighboring class in disbelief, all crying, all hugging, all trying to get ahold of parents/loved ones. I left campus and went home and sat on the bed in my room with my mom all day long, just watching the news and sobbing.
It feels unreal when I think about that day now. I remember the way I gasped and slowly sat down on the floor in the art room when I first saw the footage of one of the planes hitting the towers. I was just stunned. I remember immediately bursting into tears seeing people frantically running down the streets in NY, or just standing and staring at the aftermath. It was gut-wrenching.
I can't believe its been 9 years.
The O'Baby Blog
I was at work off Steck and Mopac. Everyone was glued to their computers, watching. The office was eerily quiet, even though most people were there. After a couple of hours, I guess it was apparent that no one was going to get anything done and they let us go. DH's grandmother was in the hospital, so we later went to visit her and she didn't want to watch it, didn't want to hear anything about it and we weren't allowed to talk about it. So, DH's parents, uncle, SIL/BIL and us, well we just sat around the hospital room with his grandmother and stared at each other. When we got home, I don't think we moved from the couch for 6-8 hours, glued to the tv in disbelief.
My Dad passed away the following year. It's unfortunate that this happened during anyone's lifetime, but I'm especially sad that he lived to see it. He'd always wanted to serve his country but couldn't because of lingering issues from having polio as a child. He lost plenty of friends and family during Vietnam, etc. and was one of the most gung-ho Americans I knew. If he wasn't already in poor health/mental state from cancer, this certainly put him over the edge. I don't know if that's silly or weird or whatnot, but it makes me sad. I know that it is in no way comparable to what others experienced or the pain of losing loved ones, but that's how it affected us.
Best facebook status I've seen today: "I can't forget, but I am trying to forgive."
I was a senior in college and my roommate came in a woke me up to tell me that classes were canceled. I then tried to go back to sleep thinking it was an ice storm (in Texas in September?), but she insisted that I wake up. We sat in our apartment all day and watched the news. It was horrifying.
I remember in the days following hearing my pacifist friends talk about dropping out of school and enlisting. That freaked me out.
I had to go to rehearsal that night in downtown Austin and I was freaked out because we didn't know if Austin was going to be the next target since Bush is from Texas and it's the capital.
I was in france with my parents, we were in the mountains with no TV. we went to the store and one of the workers (who knew we lived in the US) asked if we'd heard of the plane crash. I kind of blew it off, thought it was "just" a plane crash. we learned a few hours later what really happened, mostly by the radio. it wasn't until a few days later that I saw the images and it freaked me out.
I was on one of the first international flights back to the states but the airport was a zoo. oh, and I remember I had forgotten to take my manicure kit out of my carry on, no one said anything.
Reading these is making me teary.
I was a freshman in college. My roommate always watched the news before class so it was on as I was getting dressed. I remember watching it and being so scared. I tried calling my mom, dad, grandma...no one would answer and that made it so much worse. My first teacher that day, don't remember his name but I remember what he was wearing, was actually making jokes about it! I'll never forget that. Then, in my English class we just watched it and talked about how we were feeling. It was nice to be able to talk about it and express our fears with a professor who genuinely cared.
It's strange how vivid that day is in my mind.
I feel the same way. I remember more minute details about that day than I do about the morning of my wedding day.
The O'Baby Blog
I was working at an animal hospital in SA and I had driven to work fiddling with the radio, wondering why there was no good music on. I walked in and commented to one of my co-workers about this and she pointed tearily at the computers, where she had CNN's web site up and they were looping the plane crashes over and over. I just stared w/ my mouth open. I don't think very many people came in that day, we were all just shocked.
Jay, however, had been white water rafting with his family in VA and was flying out of NY ON September 11th. So they drove all the way from VA to NY, never knowing that their flights were canceled, that any of this had happened. They never turned the radio on b/c the car was full and they were all chatty about a good trip. They got to the airport and every single flight was canceled. They raced to the rental car booths and finally found ONE car to rent and that person allowed them to take the car across state lines all the way to Texas. It was a crazy day for them and I can't believe he was right there that very day, never knowing what was going on.
Kinda reminds me about my mom and dad going up to Dallas to see JFK, since they're deaf they had no clue he had been killed and kept on driving, only finding out the terrible news once they got there.
so sad. I don't know anyone who died September 11th, but it always makes me teary to think about all those people who did. So awful.
I remember where I was. I was running late for work. I had been on the production crew for a concert the night before and I had gotten up late. I was out of the shower, sitting on my bed, trying to wake up.
I had been watching Good Morning America and Diane Sawyer was reporting about the first tower being hit. Not two minutes into the segment, we all saw the second plane crash into the second tower. I couldn't believe it! My first thought when I saw the first building on fire was that some small Cessna or something similar had gotten seriously off course. But once that second plane hit, I was just floored.
The rest of the day was a total blur. Nothing but news coverage all.day.long. I finally left the office early to escape. The rest of the week was equally sh!t.
I think 9/11 is kind of our generation's JFK assassination. Everyone will remember where they were and what they were doing when the planes struck the towers.
My alarm went off at about 9:30 that morning, so I woke up to news reports of it on the radio. I also thought it was a small plane or something and thought "How in the world do you accidentally crash into a skyscraper??"
Once I figured it out I spent the next hour glued to the TV, frantically redialing my family in NYC until I had to go to work.
I worked in a hair salon in the mall at the time, and we were the last store in the mall and the last store in our company to close that day because our manager was a hardass and made us stay there even though all but 1 client had canceled. We had no TV, and only a really crappy radio with bad reception. All the news we got was from phone calls.
My Dad and brother lived in AK, and they evacuated downtown Anchorage and the area surrounding Elmendorf AFB and Ft Rich- there's always talk about it being a "strategic location". I talked to Dad a few times that day and he also told me about a plane from Asia (Japan, I think? Maybe Taiwan?) that wasn't responding to air traffic control- the Air Force eventually sent an escort to bring them in. They weren't terrorists, but I don't remember why they did not respond. It was really scary, especially since I couldn't call my Dad and had to wait for him to call me.
My family in NY were able to get out and go to my grandparents house in CT and we finally heard from them the next day.