9/11

[audit]

So many thoughts

I remember being at work for 3 hours and listening to the radio while I configured a couple new firewalls when I THOUGHT I heard that a plane had hit the 1st tower, now I had to clear my head for a minute so I went and refilled my coffee cup when the owner of the company comes out of his office and asks if we had a TV setup somewhere. I asked him if he had heard what happened just to make sure that I wasn't missing something or was listening to some joker on the radio, he said that his wife had just called and told him what happened.

So we all headed up to the conference room and turned on the TV just as the second plane hit. After hearing about the 3rd plane hitting the pentagon, I got a sick feeling in my gut as my Uncle was supposed to be there that day for some NSA meeting or something, turned out that he skipped the meeting and went out and played golf with a couple co-workers that were there also. My aunt was going nuts when I called her because she couldn't get in touch with him and then he calls on the other line and tells her that things are OK and what he was doing.

My immediate boss then told me to get back to work and if anything else happend, he'd let me know because me watching the TV wasn't doing any good and the firewalls wern't going to get configured on there own. At that time I felt that I had to go home to be with my wife and kids but was told if I left, I was fired. Now in my area, jobs are tight to find so I had to stay but my wife and kids came to my office to be with me because they felt safer.

To this day, I still feel anger from what happened 2 years ago. A great ammount of children are going to be growing up without both parents, lives were affected forever, jobs are gone and the IT sector has really taken a major shit since then, I've had 4 jobs since then, companies just don't stay in business anymore. I lost the job I had when this all happened about 2 weeks later and they blammed Sept 11th for it and the other 3 companies have done the same thing.

IMHO, I've always said, let's just blow the hell out of the countries that do this and build on them, create more jobs for the people who were affected by this.

audit

[russ]

Wow!

I'm terribly impressed by everyone here. Thank you all for the stories!

I was on my way to work listening to talk radio (Hugh Hewitt) when he stopped what he was saying and started talking about a "plane hitting the first tower". Like Kraa, I was working in Denver at the time, so I wasn't quite sure what was going on.

When I got to work a few minutes later, we switched on the big screens in the NOC and watched in horror as the 2nd plane crashed into the other tower.

Like everyone else on here, we watched for hours in disbelief.

[Ricky1146]

Where i was

Where i was at during the 9/11 was in school. Sophmore year, then this woman came on the loudspeaker. "And said the trade center was hit, i looked in shock and no one else in class seemed to really care. I remember that during my 3rd hour i told a friend i bet it's bin laden i just reasonably thought it. Then i think it was dan rathers came on. Then later said didn't osama say he loved planes? Everyone in a way coped differently in class then i did i felt. Like wanting revenge, and figuring out who did it.

After Second hour everyone was just talking and watching news and one thing that came up in 3rd hour french class, was the idea everyone thought later. And connected the 9/11 idea i don't recall much more but that morning when it happened My grandma's birthday is 9/11 and she said, boy this is a way to remember my birthday. I think i donated about 50 dollars or more to all the funds that were going around. That day i think was when i was most patriotic and wanted to fight back. That is what i remember

[Shatter]

My grandma's birthday is 9/11

Coincidentally enough, that's also Derf's b-day.

All he said, somberly, was "All my birthdays for the rest of my life are going to suck because of this."

[skroo]

At the time, I lived in the room with the only TV in the house. I was awoken by one of my roommates rushing it, telling me to get the hell up and turn the TV on. Still half-asleep, I had no idea of what was going on or the urgency in her voice: as the first images came through, I thought this was her making a joke at the expense of my love of sci-fi, that we were watching a preview of a remake of Escape From New York.

That early in the morning, it took a couple of minutes to sink in. Watching as the second airplane hit, I remembered that I had already nearly lost one friend and actually lost another to terrorism some years previously, and had become relatively used to living with it - but had never seen anything on this scale. Things like this didn't happen, and especially not in America. It was simply unfathomable. And my roommate - a native New Yorker living in Southern California - couldn't speak. She still had family there. Fortunately, she didn't lose anyone.

I'll leave it there for now; I think most of my other emotions and opinions have already been stated by most other folks.

[octalpus]

I've been sucked in by all your posts, and I've decided to go ahead and post, even though I originally planned not to.

Generally, I'm not up in the morning, but I had a dentist appt on the morning of 9/11. This was rather memorable, as I HATE going to the dentist, and this was going to be my first time seeing one in quite a few years. I hit snooze a few times, then finally grabbed my laptop and tried to wake up. When I hopped on IRC, there were way more people than I'd usually see in the mornings. It took me a minute or two to piece together the discussion from the replies that I was seeing. Intrigued, I flipped on the TV, and called Kryonik over. Staring at the image of the first tower burning, I thought "Huh. That's... odd." Still, it didn't occur to me as anything other than an accident, other than perhaps a quick thought in the back of my mind. A tragedy, surely, but catastrophic accidents happen now and then... this would be one to remember. After a minute or so, the second plane hit. I thought they were just showing a replay again. Then they panned back, and you could see both towers burning. That's when I realised "That's no fucking accident". We sat there on the edge of the bed for quite a few minutes, just staring at the TV.

I called my dentist to make sure she was still seeing patients, then called my mom, who was still asleep and hadn't heard. I decided to go on ahead to my appt, as it wasn't going to change anything if I just sat in front of the TV all day. I ended up needing a root canal, so when I came back, I was on nice drugs. It gave a very surreal feeling to the whole thing, and almost made it seem like it was just a dream.

How did I commemorate the day? With a visit to the dentist, oddly enough. It occured to me that I hadn't been since then, so for the last couple weeks, I'd been meaning to make an appt. A couple days ago, I started getting a throbbing pain in a tooth, so I couldn't put it off any longer, and the first they could see me was today. So once again, I'm sitting in a drug-induced haze, which gives the whole day a surreal feeling. Just an odd coincidence, I think. Trivial, surely, but to me at least, it's sort of odd. Of course, that could just be the drugs talking...

[hackajar]

I was late getting into work. When I got there, everyone was in the cafiteria gathered around the TV. Someone passing by said "WTC was hit, hit big". I first thought that China was finally going after us (well, the whole satelite thing).

I was working for Dell at the time. Since the FAA grounded all the planes, that ment freight as well. Call volume was low (tech support), but those who did call in were bitching about parts not arriving. Luckly my sup didn't object to me cursing out these idiots when they called.

I wish I could say I saw alot of empithy surounding it, but it was more of a 50/50. Vegas was a ghost town because of what happend, and while we had blood drives by afternoon on site at work that day, the weeks that followed people were bitter in general, lashing out at new york'er cause the casino's layed of 60% of the work force within days.

It's kinda sad to see people in such disarray, I only hope that people like you (all that posted) are in greater number then what I have seen locally.

[astcell]

A co-worker of mine had to be at the Pentagon for a meeting on 9/10/2001. She was there, and was scheduled to leave on 9/11. The meeting ran late. They asked folks to come back on 9/11 to finish the meeting, and to reschedule their flights home. They did.

On 9/11 she was in the meeting, but she happens to be a smoker. She left the building to have a cigarette. While sitting outside, the plane strikes the Pentagon. Nine of our co-workers perished.

Since she was outside smoking, she survived. So much for the argument that smoking kills.

But there is more. I hope you are sitting down. It turns out that she had cancelled her return flight to be at the Pentagon for the meeting. The return flight was the same plane which crashed into the Pentagon. Too, too eerie.

[h3adrush]

hmm this is odd, my aunts b-day is 9/11, and my brother's grandfather died 9/11/01, but in a hospital bed, and his birthday is 9/10[grandfathers].

lets see i was off work i think, ive ruthlessly killed many brain cells since so its a little foggy, got up watched the news with the family. my dad drug us down to the gas station to fill up 20+ cans of gas.. =], and loaded the guns. i remember that on any irc channel i knew of that thats all that was talked about for weeks following.

here is something interesting my boss called our house crying uncontrollably because of what had happened and got teary eyed every time it was discussed for a good number of months after the events, but today he came into work and asked why we had the flag half mast.....

personally i wasnt really affected besides knowing that it was an attack on my countrymen, life for me hasnt changed.