I came in to work and our company president was on the PA announcing that we should all come into the conference room and watch what was going on on the big TV there. At some point I went back to my desk because, well, that job was really punitive and I had deadlines, but I couldn’t focus. My mother was calling me in hysterics and insisting that I go home and I was like “I can’t, I’ll get in trouble.”
Probably around 11 a.m. officials started clearing out downtown Chicago, where my office was, because everyone assumed the Tower was next.
Came home, tried to WFH as much as I could, my then-husband was home as his retail store had called him before his shift and told him not to come in. We had the TV on and freaked out.
That was different, though. The enemy was outside us, not within us. It wasn’t other Americans turning on us. It felt different.
Though, obviously, way more death than we had today. Did anyone die? That woman who got shot, maybe?
ETA: I should note that when it first happened, it didn’t even occur to me that it was terrorism. As I was leaving for work, then-husband was looking at news online and said, “huh, a plane just crashed into the WTC.” I assumed it was an accident, some small plane or whatever, said, “wow, that totally sucks,” and just… walked to the el and went to work like normal?
These days, I feel like if anything even a little bit bad happens it’s like OK, here we go, this is it, this is the end… Because these past few years have just been bad upon bad upon bad.
I feel kind of bad for them; they’re just driving in circles around the Capitol which is barricaded by barriers and state police. I’m so curious what they’re listening to on the radio.
@Oro there was a segment on mpr on my way home about when exactly do you switch from “protestor” to “riot” to “terrorist”
I had just walked down 7th avenue from the subway station and seen the towers gleaming against the brilliant blue sky at about 7:45 am.
I was checking my email when my office manager and our IT director ran past my desk on the way to the roof deck (our office was in a brownstone in the west village) when they heard the news --we could see the smoke billowing from the north tower.
I knew in my gut it was no accident. My DH and inlaws were midair between Beijing and NYC – supposed to land in a few hours. My mom and sister had been visiting/helping me care for DS, and my sister had been planning to go to the ticket booth at WTC that morning to get theater tickets. I ran back down to my desk and called home to tell her to stay put (thank god she hadn’t left yet) and then started frantically checking the Delta website to see where the flight was. Got news of the second tower hit. Finally confirmed the flight had been grounded somewhere in the midwest.
We didn’t go back up to the roof that day. We watched the rest of the morning unfold on the TV like everybody else. Shortly after the second tower fell our manager closed the office and sent us home. We joined the throngs of people streaming silently uptown to Times Square (all the subways and buses in lower manhattan were shut down). Many people coming from further downtown were covered in dust. There were crowds of medical workers waiting outside the doors of St. Vincents – waiting for victims who never came. In the days and weeks to come the hospital walls would be covered with missing signs and, eventually, small memorials.
My mom and sister ended up renting a car and driving back to Seattle because they weren’t sure when flights would resume. DH and my inlaws arrived a couple of days later.
That was an awful, awful time. Something we brought on ourselves in a way, through our policies and practices overseas. But at least it was an external threat. This almost feels worse. Because our worst enemies and most serious threats are now within. I hope we can get it under control.
I heard a news anchor saying, while showing this picture, that there’s no rule that the count or whatever it was they trying to do today that says it has to be done in the senate. So hopefully they will get the senators and those ballots in another room and move on with business tomorrow.
plus I just haven’t seen many. Given that’s my usual means of coping, that feels notable.