![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Sep. 11th, 2006 05:15 pmMy memory is a bit faulty -- I often joke that I have a mind like a steel colander -- so I never thought I'd be able to say "I remember exactly where I was when..." about anything more than a week old and really mean it.
I had just returned from visiting my boyfriend in Boston the day before, flying out of Logan on September 10. I had toyed with the idea of staying an extra day and taking a shuttle flight back on Tuesday morning since I was doing casual freelance work at the time and had no urgent commitments requiring me to be back in DC at any specific time, but ultimately decided to come home as planned. Normally I would have been asleep until 10 or so, but I'd been waking up early-ish the past few days and was up by 8 AM. It was a beautiful morning, with a clear blue sky and bright sunshine. I'd hopped on IRC to talk to some friends, and a few minutes before 9 AM someone watching the news told us that there were reports that a small plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. I turned on CNN, saw a bit of footage of what appeared to be a terrible accident, and left the TV on as I went back into the office to talk to folks. Soon enough though it became clear that it was not an accident as we watched in horror as a second plane hit the towers and then heard the news that a plane had crashed into the Pentagon. I remember the reports coming fast and furious from all over in the first few panicked hours, saying that the White House and the Capitol had been hit, that a car bomb had exploded outside State, that a fifth plane had been hijacked. Those reports later turned out to be incorrect, but we'd already seen the unbelievable that morning and for those of us who weren't downtown, the stories weren't any harder to credit than what we were watching take place on TV.
I was fortunate enough to not have anyone I knew personally be injured or killed at the Pentagon or in New York or Pennsylvania. Two guys I used to work with at [big defense contractor] had later gone on assignments at the Pentagon and I spent a few worried hours wondering if they were at work that day, if they worked in that section of the building, if they were okay. It turned out they were both fine, but 125 other people who walked out their doors that morning and went to work were not as lucky. I don't want or need to watch any of the recent crop of movies about the events of that day; even though I wasn't as directly affected as far too many others were, I think that right now I remember it all well enough.
I had just returned from visiting my boyfriend in Boston the day before, flying out of Logan on September 10. I had toyed with the idea of staying an extra day and taking a shuttle flight back on Tuesday morning since I was doing casual freelance work at the time and had no urgent commitments requiring me to be back in DC at any specific time, but ultimately decided to come home as planned. Normally I would have been asleep until 10 or so, but I'd been waking up early-ish the past few days and was up by 8 AM. It was a beautiful morning, with a clear blue sky and bright sunshine. I'd hopped on IRC to talk to some friends, and a few minutes before 9 AM someone watching the news told us that there were reports that a small plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. I turned on CNN, saw a bit of footage of what appeared to be a terrible accident, and left the TV on as I went back into the office to talk to folks. Soon enough though it became clear that it was not an accident as we watched in horror as a second plane hit the towers and then heard the news that a plane had crashed into the Pentagon. I remember the reports coming fast and furious from all over in the first few panicked hours, saying that the White House and the Capitol had been hit, that a car bomb had exploded outside State, that a fifth plane had been hijacked. Those reports later turned out to be incorrect, but we'd already seen the unbelievable that morning and for those of us who weren't downtown, the stories weren't any harder to credit than what we were watching take place on TV.
I was fortunate enough to not have anyone I knew personally be injured or killed at the Pentagon or in New York or Pennsylvania. Two guys I used to work with at [big defense contractor] had later gone on assignments at the Pentagon and I spent a few worried hours wondering if they were at work that day, if they worked in that section of the building, if they were okay. It turned out they were both fine, but 125 other people who walked out their doors that morning and went to work were not as lucky. I don't want or need to watch any of the recent crop of movies about the events of that day; even though I wasn't as directly affected as far too many others were, I think that right now I remember it all well enough.
