Weird, huh?

About 10 minutes later I walked into the Saturn dealer waiting room and the tv is showing the second plane hitting.  Several people started crying and no one was saying a word for several minutes, as the realization sunk in that this was no accident.

Walking from the parking garage to the English building I encountered my friend, Will, who we called "Island Will" cause he was from the Cayman Islands and was pretty much a prefect stereotype for what you'd expect an island dude to be. Anyways, he sees me and says, "Dude, they're totally crashing fucking planes into your country, man."

After speaking with him a moment I realized he wasn't talking about an accidental plane crash.

So that's how I found out that people were crashing planes into my country.

Here is a question I was thinking about today. In the past 5 years, have you watched a single news broadcast where 9/11 hasn't been mentioned once? I can't.

I thought nothing of it. A few minutes later I turned on the tv to catch Sportscenter, and didn't move for the next two hours.

I in college and working at Sears at the time, so around 9 I started trying to figure out if I needed to go into work. I went in, most people didn't. Place was dead, no one was shopping, obviously. A coworker and I found a radio and just stood by a register most of the day listening to reports.

The only action we saw was when the crazy world is ending people rushed the place to buy all of our gas cans (seriously).

It's amazing how many details I can remember about that day.

I spent the entire day glued to the TV, and probably didn't fall asleep until around 2 a.m. My 9-11 story is pretty boring, fortunately.

That's when I looked to the sky and noticed that here in Coppell, Texas, less than ten miles from one of the world's busiest airports...

...there was not a plane in the sky.

I remember running in and taking the quickest shower in the world after practice, sprinting down to the trainer's office, and getting there just in time to see the first tower collapse. Someone behind me said, "Whoa, cool." The trainer smacked him in the back of the head and reminded him that there could be tens of thousands of people in there.

I remember my dad coming home and only saying one thing about it:

"Well, tough day to be an American."

Damn right.

My first reaction, and verbal was 'what the hell, that's not possible ....'  Only after watching until about 2 pm did I accept what had happened. I called in to AA (although retired, I remained an Advocate - on call) and found anguish, shock, but already were sending out employee teams to Boston, both NYC airports, JFK and National. As soon as it was known that all flights were grounded, alternate transportation was made for those within a 300 mile radius.  I never did get a call back since employee volunteers were far more than the company needed -  or were asking for.  In a few days, I learned that a couple of people I knew were on Flight 77, which put me into another sort of depression.  I do not know even today who I knew or may have dealt with officed in the World Trade Center.  I didn't really want to find out.  It's five years now, and I'm still in a cold rage.  The aftermath (financially for the airlines) cost me my company and my livelihood, which in the end meant very little compared to the loss of life and property and ... sense of safety, too.

My roommate's previous roommate lived on 14th Street in Manhattan.  We spent about two hours trying to make sure he was okay (he was).  

My father was in Miami on business and ended up driving a rental car all the way back to his home in Arlington.  

Didn't do anything but watch tv all day and night.  Had lunch at a bar north of UT called Crown and Anchor.  The atmosphere was like a funeral home.

There is an explanation before the video of where these people were located. I strongly urge those who don't think they can handle seeing this, to not watch. It is not gory, nor distasteful. It is just another view of the attacks. This time however, there is no soundtrack and no fancy editing. It is strictly video, and the voices of those behind the camera.

Watch with caution.
http://www.revver.com/view.php?id=59686

i had already gone over to my first class, and turned on their tv so people could see what was going on in there. shortly after the second plane hit and obviously people were very worried.  for the first two classes of the day we just watched the news, and at lunch some parents came and got their kids and stuff.

the principal told the teachers to continue on with class normally and that school would let out a little early.

none of the classes actually did anything.

it was a very surreal day.

  It was around 3 or 4 am, and I was just coming off watch. I nearly went straight to bed, but since I was in the early stages of romance with my soon-to-be wife, I went down to the tomahawk equipment room to fire off a quick email. You only get around 3 channels, but they were piped in to ABC news.

  I was like Ed, in that I simply couldn't bring myself to believe that those bastards could pull that off. I figured there had to be another explanation.

  One other thing that stuck out was the fact that we were on a "tiger cruise." That's something the Navy does typically on the last week of a deployment. Space permitting, the crew is allowed to fly out their sons, dads, and/or brothers, and they get to spend a week on board, experiencing some salt. Well, as you might imagine, that just made the day more sad, more tense, and more bonding.  

One thing that I did think of frequently was the fact that my fiance and I had been sitting at the foot of the towers in NYC on 09/10/2000 trying to decide if we would "waste the time" needed to get to the top of the Twin Towers. We were with my future mother-in-law and a couple of friends and we all decided that we would skip that and go somewhere else because Lisa and I planned on coming back in the future, after we were married, and we would check it out then.

It is sad because it has been 5 years and I have seen countless videos, reports, movies, shows, etc. that provide me with all the proof that I need and yet I still have problems wrapping my head around the fact that this occurred.

A good friend of mine had worked in World Trade Center #7- the little one (50 stories) that was also lost.  I skipped my next class, ran back to my car and then home (where I had left my cell phone) and took 2 shots of vodka, and started making phone calls.  Got hold of her in a cab racing uptown.  Spent the rest of the day staring at the TV.

I went to Barnaby's on North Shepard that night with a friend. Very laid back place with dogs and bones on the walls and such, but there was a tension hanging over everyone's voice.  Strangest meal I ever ate