So... where were YOU????

I was at work. I worked at a large corporation (that subsequently had a massive layoff, in large part due to 9/11) at the time. I was hanging out on an online forum... many, if not actually most, of the members of the forum were from new york and were in or near NYC that day (it was an online "mafia" game... I was really excited that day cuz i got to whack someone and was "promoted" to a Lieutenant in my virtual "family" LOL -- it was a riot! ). Anyway, someone posted a message about a plane hitting the wtc. I heard my boss on the phone with his wife saying the same thing. The general consensus in the office was that it was just an awful accident...I thought it was just a lill cessna or something... then the second one hit..... I overheard my boss saying something like, "someone told me it was terrorism, but I thought that was just b.s. when they said it." Throughout the morning, as events unfolded,I was glued to my little online group... everyone was freaking out to say the least... and then we realized... one certain guy hadn't posted since the attack. Someone asked, "Has anyone heard from "Tow Swaps?" (thusly nicknamed because he at one time had been a tow truck driver... but he went back to school, and climbed up the corporate ladder bigtime) He had sent someone an email less than five minutes before the first plane hit; that was the last time anyone ever heard from him again... along with almost everyone else at Cantor Fitzgerald (if I am remembering the company's name right!!!!!)... he was killed upon impact.

What I remember most is the paralyzing fear and uncertainty...the, "OMG what the H*** is going on?!" First one plane hit...then the second...then the third...then the fourth.... rumors about jets being scrambled to shoot down an airplane that was still in teh air and uncommunicative... the exceedlingly vulerable feeling of being under attack, and not knowing what was going to happen next, when or where... or how or WHY. I ended up leaving early that day... my boss told me I could go home, and didn't dock any vaca time or pay... I spent the rest of the day watching it unfold on tv.Shortly after 9/11, I signed back up with Adopt-A-Platoon ~ I'd adopted a few soldiers in Kosovo in late 200 and early 2001, but after my last one went home, I took a break of several months to focus on working with ChemoAngels.... once 9/11 happened, I got back involved with Adoptaplatoon almost immediately. I can't help go fight the bad guys... but by golly.... i'll do all i can- and then some - to help those who are!!!!!!!

Where were you? What were you doing that day???? How did it change you? How is your life different today because of 9/11?? Please share your stories and thoughts in the comments section.