[OT] where were you 9/11?

[bgsterling at bluebottle.com (Brad Sterling)]

Wow, two posts in one day for me.  More than I've done in quite some time.
Anyways, here's my story...

I was traveling for work and was in Lyndhurst, NJ.  Basically, I was across
the river from ground zero.  I was doing some work in a server room with my
client.  When we came out, we heard Howard Stern, of all people, announcing
that a plane had just hit the first tower.  I assumed it was a small
Cessna-like plane and thought, "uh oh, some rookie screwed up."  Then we
heard that it was a passenger jet.  My next reaction was, "oh sh**, someone
screwed up big time!".  We went over to the windows and watched the first
tower on fire with the second one still untouched.  When the second plane
hit, we all new it was something big.  We went out on the parking structure
and watched the two towers smoke.  I didn't see either of them fall, but
live and in person, from a front row seat, I saw one tower smoke, then two,
then only one tower standing, and finally no towers standing.  Needless to
say, work was cancelled.  Many people were crying as many lived and had
friends in the city.  Meanwhile, my wife was at home on the west coast
getting ready for work.  My sister called from Boston and freaked her out.
I couldn't be reached because cell phone service was packed.  I eventually
got through a couple hours later to let her know I was okay.  After that, I
was sitting in a hotel, watching TV, and sending emails to family.  It was
pretty surreal.  It was also quite uplifting to see people come out of their
homes in Lyndhurst and hit the streets.  They were honking horns, flying
flags, and were generally reaching out to their neighbors.  It was the most
"community" I've seen anywhere in all of my travels across the states.
Getting back to the west coast after two full days of airport shutdown is a
different story in and of itself.  But yeah, another front row seat to add
to my list:  in Montreal the last time they were voting to secede from
Canada, 8 miles from Northridge, CA for the quake, and in Solon, OH the day
after a tornado cut it in half.

-Brad
'86 Scirocco 16v

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