Friday, September 11, 2009

So where were you?

Where were you on September 11, 2001?



I was asleep. These were the blissful days after 6 months after we'd moved back home from living in Los Angeles. Eric's company had given him a nice raise to move there, so nice I didn't have to work when we came home. I was trying to get pregnant, not knowing that this was only 6 months into a 4 year struggle.
As I said, I was asleep, when a teacher friend of mine called, it was like 8:40 something, I remember thinking who would call at this hour, Eric's coworkers were all in LA time. I groggily picked up the phone. She asked, "Doesn't you grandfather work in the pentagon?" Yes, I said. (Again, WHO in their right mind would call at this hour to ask that?) "Well, they're bombing it", she said.
That woke me up, didn't even know who 'they' was. Eric, working from home in the other room, got up and we watched as the second tower was hit, and then as they went down.



There was little pentagon coverage, and that's realy what we wanted too see. I had a girlfriend, a student, living across the river at the time, she sent a mass email, to let us know she was safe, she'd been asleep, awakened by an earthquake. We later learned (7 pm that night when phones were going again) that it turned out my 87 y.o grandfather (The Colonel who'd been through 3 wars) was indeed working therethat day. He felt it hit, took a look around, and decided work wasn't getting done any more that day, so he checked in, high tailed it out, on The Last train out of Arlington, before they shut it all down.

I was supposed to be at my Mom's by 12 for the man to come do something, carpets maybe. I was driving to Carmel when the Pennsylvania one hit. He called, wanted to come early, so he did. I wanted him to, also because I wanted to go give blood. But by the time I could go, they were reporting on the local news that those places were overloaded and swamped with wannabe donors, effectively telling me not to go.
I meant to go back later, but got distracted when days later, Eric's company took a nose dive, and I had to get a job Fast, as did so many heavily stock invested tech companies.

I remember being outside later, thinking the sky had never been so quiet and so blue, and so empty.

2 comments:

SuperSillyAunt said...

I was feeding a 2 month old Alexis, just watching TV. Most of all I remember thinking, "What kind of world did I bring this child into?" And I remember praying lots and lots that day for everyone involved.

Andrea said...

I think everyone will always remember what they were doing when they heard the news. It is a day that will live forever and it forever changed the lives of millions. I didn't know anyone in those towers or at the pentagon on on that Pennsylvania field, but I went to graduate school as a result of 9/11. A few weeks after that day, I realized that there would be no jobs for me when I graduated college at the end of that year. And so I began filling out graduate school applications. For me, it was a good change, but it's strange to think how things may have been different.