"experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted." -randy pausch

Friday, September 11, 2009

a memory

thankful that the scouts wake up early to put pretty flags up all over our neighborhood:-)
so i can remember.
what i was doing.
8 years ago this morning.
...
woke up early for class.
like 6:30am.
not normal in my college days.
checking email.
dial up internet.
hence, the busy phone line.
cell phone turned off.
roommate sleeping peacefully.
friend ashley pounding on my door.
"terrorists are attacking us em, come to my room. they just flew a plane into the world trade center."
"what?"
"em, come on."
i remember my heart pounding as we walked to ashley's room.
as we walked in, we watched the second plane hit the 2nd tower.
saw a united airlines plane hit a tower.
the same airline my mom flew for.
she was supposed to be flying a trip that day.
got ahold of mom.
safe.
spent the rest of the day piled into the whitney hall rec room watching the news for the rest of the day.
i don't even remember eating.
by my 11am class they hadn't cancelled classes yet.
we went.
the teacher sent us home.
they cancelled classes after that.
it was like no one really knew how bad it was yet...
...
what were you doing?

9 comments:

Lisa Anne said...

I was sleeping. My roommate called me as she was driving to work to wake me up. Since then I always have the news on the tv whenever I wake up and breaking news to my cell phone. Crazy, I wasn't going to take the BART into San Francisco to go to work that day. Even worse 7 days later my mom passed away.

Susan Anderson said...

I was just getting up and had turned the TV on when I saw what looked like a small plane hit the tower. I didn't even call Dave in, though I did call his attention to it when he came into the bedroom after taking his shower. Only a few minutes later, another plane hit the towers, and we knew.

What a sobering day it was.

"/

Amy said...

I was at the airport seeing a friend off. I will never forget this day. Never.

Jess said...

Watching the early morning show, pregnant with Em-couldn't sleep, watched the whole thing in confusion.

Emmy said...

I was also at BYU. It was my Sophomore year, Eric and I had been married for just a few months. I had an early class and went and some people were saying stuff about a plane or something hitting the trade centers. I thought it was a rumor.. until more people kept saying the same thing.
I had a doctors appointment after class and saw the second tower collapse on the TV they had brought into the waiting room. I just sat there shocked thinking, this can't be real.

Fiauna said...

Watching Barney, of all things. I didn't have clue until I went to get my neighbor to go for our daily walks. She came to the door near tears, and told me that we were being attacked. We went for our walk anyway, watching the planes overhead as they lined up to land at the airport.

Buckeye Nut said...

Sitting at my "work" computer upstairs. Del had just left for work and heard it on the radio. he called me to tell me to hurry and turn on the TV. I too was glued to the events unfolding before me. The boys were at school and little Zoe asleep in her crib. A few of my co-workers at the office called to make sure that I knew what was happening.....My sisters father-in-law and brother-in-law were at work at the Pentagon. My niece lived with us at the time too so my day was later turned into a waiting game of wether or not they had been hurt. Telling her that we didn't know the fate of her other grandpa and uncle was horrible but later that night we were blessed again by knowing they had been helping others get out safely and they were alright.
I think the biggest personal memory for me was when Zoe woke up I just held onto her for the longest time. I started thinking that some moms and dads would not be coming home that night and their little ones wouldn't be getting that last snuggle before bed.

Bonni and Pete said...

I was at BYU as well, actually working at Franklin Covey doing phone sales. I was on the phone with a customer from New York City when he said to me "OMG, a plane just crashed into the Twin Towers." and then promptly hung up the phone. I won't forget that. My supervisor was from there and all her family lived only a few miles away. I remember my bf at the time calling me after work and just said, "come over here, I want you next to me the rest of the day. I need to know you're safe." His aunt actually worked in one of the towers and for some reason felt that she shouldn't go into work that day so she called in sick. Crazy. We were glued to the TV with the rest of the world for the rest of the day.

Lisalulu said...

It is my mother's birthday. I woke up early to get all the office work done so I could take her and her friend to Monterey. As I was working (homeoffice) I started watching the news (6am) and couldn't believe what was happening, I called my mom and said something bad had happened. She said she knew but just to turn it off because she wasn't going to let it ruin her birthday! I told her that the world has changed today. we went to Monterey, and nothing was different. The outlet mall at Gilroy was closed, THAT is when she knew it was bad bad bad