Did anyone else forget to eat food on 9/11/01?

[RandomKoolzip]

I just remembered that morning a little while ago. The strangest memory I have of 9/11/01 is that I didn't eat a thing
Anyone else experience this, or forget to do something else they usually did?

[Beetwasher]

1. Stopped At A Bar Around 23rd St.

on my hike uptown. The bar had huge platters of free wings and chicken fingers and stuff out for everyone, pretty cool move by the bar. Downed a few scotches and ate some food as I watched, stunned, clips on tv of the towers collapsing, over and over, after having just been down there...

[RandomKoolzip]

4. Ay yi yi.....

Glad you made it out safe. :thumbsup:

[Cooley Hurd]

2. I got really REALLY high, and camped on the couch all day...

...watching the news. Although I don't recall eating, I probably did (the munchies).

[RandomKoolzip]

3. That shit was hard enough to deal with straight....

I can't imagine what it must have been like to be stoned and watching the Twin Towers collapse live on TV.

Fuck....you musta had a strong stomach.

[Cooley Hurd]

5. I was a puddle before catching a buzz...

...it numbed me at a time I most needed numbing.:thumbsup:

[Tyrone Slothrop]

43. I did mostly the same

Watched it on TV with my roommate. After the second tower fell, he looked at me, said "Fuck" and started rolling a joint.

Watched the news until I couldn't take it anymore and then just went out driving around the countryside by myself for a couple of hours.

Went home, went to a bar and got piss-drunk.

[undeterred]

6. I had a little headache that day which turned into a big migraine

I started vomiting at work and had to take a taxi home. It was Diet Pepsi, Vicodin, and Peter Jennings the rest of the day.

[RandomKoolzip]

7. Instead of Vicodin, I had a cat.

She gave me some calm and some grounding when it was needed.

[undeterred]

12. I remember walking my dog in the afternoon and there were kids

outside playing all over the place. One girl told me her mom made her go outside so she wouldn't see the "bad stuff" on tv.

[Zuni]

23. yeah, my cat sat with me most of the day

[bertha katzenengel]

41. we were lucky, we have one amazingly good memory from that day

a litter of kittens was born in our basement that day :wow:

[ronnykmarshall]

57. I didn't know you had a cat?

[bertha katzenengel]

59. hahahahahaha

:spank:

Dig your story about Greta below. :hug:

[ronnykmarshall]

80. Thanks

I could not believe that jerk acted like that.

[madinmaryland]

8. Mostly drank until later that night.

After getting out of the building on wall street about 11:30, we hit a little deli and picked up a couple of "tall-boy" beers and started the hike to midtown. Had about six beers by the time we got to grand central about three hours later. Six more beers on the train (a local) and then more beer until i finally got hungry around 10:00.

:beer:

[RandomKoolzip]

11. So you were on Wall Street?

Wow...good to know you got out.

My brother worked in a building a block away from the WTC that morning. I was sure he was dead until he called me around noon EST. He didn't even know what had happened; he thought it was either an earthquake or a gas main explosion.

When I broke the news that it was a terrorist attack, he was rather crestfallen. He was silent fo about 20 seconds....

Then he walked across that huge bridge and somehow made it home to Stamford.

[supernova]

9. I think I ate, but very little

I know I ate lunch, but I don't know about dinner.

[RandomKoolzip]

13. I didn't even get to eat breakfast.

the first thing I did after getting out of bed was turn on the TV, where I saw the second plane hit the WTC live.

It was all-out panic the rest of the day, complete with curled foetal positions, etc.

[supernova]

15. Awww, RKZ

:hug:

Definitely a strange day. I was working and saw it on the CCTV here. They switched to the news from the regular company feed.

I was dating a guy at the time and he was oddly detached about it. I emailed him about it after I had just seen the plan hit the first Tower. He didn't really want to be bothered. I should have known then to get rid of him.

It was mostly a feeling of helplessness, not knowing what to do, except watch in horror.

[RandomKoolzip]

17. Yeah....helplessness, horror.

That's it.

I can't imagine someone not being effected by what happened.

[Zerex71]

82. I don't know, I was stunned and angry briefly but that's about it.

It was creepy, more than anything, not aided by the MSM any, though. I wasn't affected by it very much at all, I'm quite happy to report. It was eerie in the weeks and days following but I just went about my business. I never felt the need to cry or engage in terror sex or anything maudlin and self-absorbed like that.

Oh, and I had tortellinis in marinara sauce.

[mark414]

10. god that was such a fucked up day

i still remember almost every detail from that entire day, except for what i ate for breakfast before i went to school...other than that, i ate lunch in front of the TV at school and no food at home...

[RandomKoolzip]

14. I couldn't eat.

I barely even thought about it.

When you're sure you're witnessing the end of the world, even the task of sticking a Hungry-Man dinner in the toaster oven becomes herculean in scope.

[jswordy]

16. Nope. The day was totally normal for me except for the morning disaster.

I will say that on every day since, when I leave for work, I kiss my wife and tell her I love her. Every single day, even if she is asleep when I leave. I used to kiss her but would often not say "I love you."

When I realized on 9/11 how many people never came home to say they loved their spouse again after leaving for work that day, I decided to make sure the last words she always heard before I left were those.

[RandomKoolzip]

19. Good choice.

I always make sure my wife knows that I love her before she leaves the house...I don't want her last memory of me to be a bad one, and vice versa.

[jswordy]

25. People say they had all kinds of changes in their lives.

I just had that one thing.

When I walked into the newsroom that morning, the TV was on. I had heard on NPR on the way in that a small plane had hit one of the towers. When I saw the actual TV picture, I said, "That is no small plane, that is terrorism," and I urged the folks in charge of the front page to redesign it for that edition.

They did, just in time for the first news stories to arrive. Our front page is the first one shown in the Poynter Institute's book, "September 11, 2001: A Collection of Newspaper Front Pages." Our front page showed a full-page picture of the burning towers, with the stories overlaid on them.

The book: http://www.epinions.com/content_77068668548

I had never been so proud of my colleagues. As many knocks as this profession takes, it is sometimes both vital and noble.

[jswordy]

26. Oh my gosh...here is that front page...

And here is a selection of them from around the country...

http://www.september11news.com/USAPapers2.htm

[ronnykmarshall]

66. This cover was so stupid.

No wonder the Examiner is now a tabloid.






The Chronicle handled it with more class.

[sniffa]

18. i forgot to work

even though the boss kept waLking around teLLing everybody to get offLine and stop Listening to the radio and get back to work.

and then they ordered the evacuation of boston - that was fucking insane as i watched people driving over islands, grass, blowing red lights, accidents, etc.... for some reason, myseLf and another coworker, weren't aLLowed to Leave.
so i sat at work Listening to WBZ.

it didn't reaLLy hit me for about a week, when i started fLinching at the pLanes fLying by.

side note: on 9/10 a van puLLed into my oLd work's parking Lot (it's the first thing off of one of the xway exits) where we wouLd go and smoke. there were a few arabic passengers inside, and they asked a coworker (the same one who had to stay with me) 'where's the hoteL' and 'where's the airport'
he's kinda crotchety, and didn't teLL them shit, and waved them away.

he feLt very guiLty for a Long time - even though he had no way of knowing, (or even if they were the same guys) and what couLd he have done differentLy anyhow?

[RandomKoolzip]

21. That's fucked up, sniffa.

That's a heck of an anecdote....Do you think that van was holding Atta 'n the Gang? That's....too difficult to process.

In Nashville, the local TV newsdudes were telling us that there was a rogue airplane in the skies over the Oak Ridge nuclear plant. TOTALLY irresponsible.

[sniffa]

30. he was kinda certain it was

we never taLked about it again afterwards, so i'm going by the one time he wouLd taLk about it.

he aLso just moved here from the bronx, so he was a wreck trying to find out if his famiLy/friends were ok.

i'LL teLL you more of it Later in private if you wish.

[RandomKoolzip]

37. Sure...I gotta go to work now.

But if you feel like it, PM me and I'll peruse it later. :thumbsup:

[ronnykmarshall]

70. Tell me too if you don't mind

[jswordy]

28. Dood, that is a wiLd story! n/t

[sniffa]

32. eh

i'm trying to remember those 2 days now i'm actuaLLy sweating. :(

[jswordy]

40. I believe that...a physical reaction....PTSS!

Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome!

[ronnykmarshall]

69. That's freaky, the van thing.

I know what you mean about planes too.


The approach path to LAX goes right over my office. Sometimes when a 747 comes in you can hear it. I still freak when I see one flying overhead.

Same when I'm driving toward downtown. About 6 months ago I saw this plane flying past downtown and my heart almost stopped. I swear I thought it was going to fly into one of the buildings.

I don't think I'll ever look at another plane w/o getting spooked.

[matcom]

20. yup. poured my first scotch at around 11 am

needed to be numb. didn't stop till about 9 that night.

don't remember eating until dinner.

[RandomKoolzip]

22. I was afraid to be numb....

The TV stations in Nashville were telling us about planes possibly crashing into the local nuke plant and truck bombs exploding at the State department and awful shit like that. I wanted to be completely alert in case I needed to run to the hills or something.

In retrospect, maybe scotch would have helped.

[ronnykmarshall]

72. I heard a plane over LA @ 1am 9/12.

I had woke up and couldn't go back to sleep. It was sooo quiet. Hardly anyone out on Santa Monica Blvd. It was warm so I had the windows open.

Mickey (my cat) was sitting on my lap and I heard a jet plane. Luckily I had a local station on TV they actually were telling people not to be alarmed if they heard planes. Emergency planes were being flown out of LAX to JFK.

[redqueen]

24. Yes...

The whole day was a nightmare.

Luckily the boss let us go... he could tell I wasn't getting any work done... came in crying... all I did was try to find out more.

I went home and told my husband... stared at the TV and just cried.

Shit... I'm crying now remembering that awful, awful day. I don't think I've really thought back to what I did... I hugged my kids SO HARD.

[RandomKoolzip]

29. Shit, RQ....I'm sorry.

:hug:

My wife had gone to Chicago to work at their Film Festival two weeks before 9/11, and I had no family in town, just my best friend SotbPaul.

I was completely alone, except for my cat, and it was one the most frightening experiences I could imagine. All I wanted was for my wife to be home and safe.....

Ironically, HER boss was making her work that day. She wasn't even trying be sympathetic to her workers.

[redqueen]

74. It's okay...

Thanks for the hug... sorry to hear your wife's boss is an ass... I can't imagine expecting people to work after hearing about that... it's too much. Sorry to hear you were alone with your cat, as well... I would have had to go somewhere... I was such a wreck.

[Zuni]

27. I had the day off that day

the night before I went out and partied a little. At 9 am my cell phone rang and my mom was on telling me to wake up and turn on the news---a plane or a bomb had hit the WTC. She had just heard and she gave me the heads up.

I was supposed to have band practice that day and meet my girlfriend later that evening. I talked to some of my friends during the day and I think it was a given that we weren't gonna play music. My girl friend didn't leave her house, and I just sat in front of the TV.

Strangely, I don't remember if I ate at all. All I remember is sitting there, transfixed, in front of the TV.

I remember when the first tower collapsed---I was watching brokaw on NBC and he was talking---in the back ground the tower just collapsed. Then Brokaw was like--"did something just happen---rewind the tape" and later it was confirmed one of the towers collapsed. 30 minutes later the other did.

Watching that dust cloud rise above lower manhattan was like nothing I have ever seen before---or the pictures of the firefighters, medics and police officers getting everyone out of the area.

[RandomKoolzip]

35. When the first tower collapsed....

I was watching Diane Sawyer on ABC....she and the rest of her crew gave the loudest collective audible gasp I've ever heard, followed by a few seconds of total, shocked silence.

I can't imagine what kids who saw that happen on TV are gonna say to their therapists years from now.

[Zuni]

38. All I thought was---"I just saw several thousand people die"

that was surreal

[progmom]

45. my boss had a TV but no cable

about 30 of us crowded around his TV and watched the first tower fall. i remembered hearing the stat that 5 times as many people worked in those towers as lived in the small town where i grew up. 50,000 people. :cry: i guess it is amazing that we only lost fewer than 3000.

[ronnykmarshall]

73. I remember that replay.

I'll never forget her gasping "Oh my god!".

I was actually in the shower (I at first planned on going to work) when the first tower fell. Michael was trying to freak me out more than I was. We were at the gym when everything started. I was on the treadmill watching TV when the second plane hit. I had head phones on listing to the news. I don't know how loud I said it but I know I screamed "What the FUCK?".

I started to freak out and ran out of the gym. Michael later told me he was affriad that I was going to run out into traffic.

All I could think about was running. I had to get home.

[enigmatic]

31. I drank alcohol all day..

But couldn't get drunk; if I had had weed, I woiuld have smoked a few bowls, too.

I had only been up here a couple of months, and I'll never forget watching the whole day unfolding on tv; it was the most surreal day I've ever had. Although I had already decided not to come back by that time, that cemented it for me.

What a day that was.

[progmom]

33. i think i forgot to do anything

i was halfway through my pregnancy. i sat there watching those same clips over and over again, thinking: "i'm bringing a child into THIS?"

[Modem Butterfly]

34. I don't like to think about it much

I left in the middle of the day because I had to get away from the news (yeah, right). I went to a small deli near my house and the TV had on Univision or Telemundo or some other Spanish station. They were showing the footage of people landing, over and over again, different shots of different people falling and landing, right at street level. They left the sound on. For the rest of my life I will never forget that. I must have been standing there for five minutes before some stranger put her arms around me and told me to look away. It was only then I realized I'd been sobbing like a baby the whole time.

[bertha katzenengel]

56. Jesus!

I think I saw ONE shot of one person falling. It was a long-distance shot. I didn't know that any television station had had the gall to show what you describe. Jesus Christ.

[Modem Butterfly]

60. They were speaking Spanish

I didn't have it together enough to really understand what they were saying. They showed some crowd reactions, they showed what was left of the remains, they showed bits of the building and plane falling down. But they mostly showed the people, with the sound.

I had a friend who died at the WTC that day. After the election, I dreamed that we were standing in the lobby of a building we worked in together and he was standing there, looking really sad and shaking his head. I woke up when he disappeared. I had that dream for months afterwards.

Edited to correct the use of the term "bodies".

[ronnykmarshall]

75. Oh my god that's awful.

I can't imagine any TV station showing that.

When my mom visited Ground Zero last year she said it was the first time she really broke down and cried. All she could think about were not just the people that died, but the people that saw everything happen.

I'm so sorry you had to see that.

[Modem Butterfly]

77. It was a foreign news feed

Apparently, the foreign press was much less shy about showing images from that day than the American press. I haven't had the desire to go back to that deli since 9/11, though they're still open.

I don't know how the people who were there when it happened ever got on with their lives.

[bertha katzenengel]

36. had to force myself to eat because my blood sugar tanked

I didn't want to, had no appetite for days. Almost threw up the next day... we stayed home, spend the day doing yard work, and couldn't stop looking up at the F-16s that kept cris-crossing overhead (live 35 miles outside DC, about 10 miles from Andrews). It made me ill. God, what a horribly sad time.

[Modem Butterfly]

42. I live in Atlanta, not far from Dobbins AFB

The sky over Atlanta was very quiet for a very long time. The next night, I had a friend over and he said to me, "We're seeing stars overhead, not planes. That's something we'll never see again in our lifetimes this close to Hartsfield,"

My partner was a traveling consultant at the time and was trapped in DC. He delayed coming home for a few days because we knew that there were people with families and children who needed to get out of DC. When I went to pick him up at Hartsfield it was like a bomb went off. I just grabbed him and we cried and cried.

[bertha katzenengel]

54. Striking, the memories of those days.

Oh, man, to have your partner away, stuck because of this. :hug: Scary, and miserable to be without him.

Those memories will stay with us forever. I was working for a man who knew someone who worked in one of the towers. I knew one plane had hit, but thought it was a small plane. Didn't know about the second plane when Bob called, absolutely hysterical, screaming at me to get in touch with Adm. So & So, apparently a second father figure. I was so clueless, I called all the guy's NY numbers. Finally, with people streaming past my desk to the elevators with their belongings, I *got* it, finally, and called Adm So & So's Virginia ranch. A worker there said the Admiral had called to say he was fine. He'd been outside the towers, finishing a phone call before he got on the elevator, when the first plane hit. I called Bob and he just dropped the phone and sobbed. I think he was saying Our Fathers or Hail Marys.

Jesus god. What a horrible day.

[Modem Butterfly]

62. They did say it was a small plane, I remember that very clearly

They kept saying it was a small plane, but it didn't look small. I was home from work that day and the TV cut from whatever I was watching to a CNN feed. When the second plane hit, the announcer said, "HOLY SHIT!" clear as day. Then he said, "I'm sorry ladies and gentlemen, but, oh my god, " then he was quiet for a few seconds and then went onto announce that the second tower had been hit.

[bertha katzenengel]

67. the local NPR radio affiliate's announcer is

where I heard it. I'd just dropped Mrs. V. off at work and was driving to my office. That announcer said "small plane appears to have hit one of the towers . . . more information as it comes in . . ."

It was a big day in DC because the Post sport's page had a huge picture of Michael Jordan, who had just bought part of, or said he'd start playing with, the Wizards, I don't remember which. The guy in the delivery booth had the picture tacked up in the window. I walked past him and told him, dude, turn on the tv, a small plane hit the world trade center . . .

God, i feel like we should be sitting around the living room floor with beers.

[ronnykmarshall]

76. I was watching NY1.

I think one of the local stations in LA was monitoring it. When the second plane hit someone said "Oh Fuck!" even the CC typed it.

[ProfessorGAC]

39. Sort Of

I had already stopped for b'fast at a McDonald's on the highway on the way to the airport.

I was waiting for a flight when all that went down. It became obvious, very early, that everything was going to be grounded for quite a while, so i headed back to the car, drove home and watched the news all day. I did have breakfast already, but we never ate lunch or dinner, that i remember.
The Professor

[MadHound]

44. Ate, yes, work, hardly at all

I remember driving into work, and hearing about the first plane hitting the tower. Got to work, and got caught up in the hustle and bustle, until somebody came in and said that a second plane had hit the south tower, and all flights were grounded nation-wide. With the flights grounded, are work was done, since all of our product is flown out. We lost many many thousands of dollars over the next few days.

After securing everything we had too, wandered up to the main conference room where a TV was set up, and sat and watched the replays over and over for awhile. I think I logged onto here for awhile, but not sure, for I was fairly numb the rest of the day.

Went home, and by that time I had seen too much. I watched the weather and a movie and went to bed. Work was strange for the next few days, for without flights, we were useless. People were just going through the motions. And we had to start dealing with the Army folks at the front gate. Never figured we were a serious target though, we're too small.

[northzax]

46. it was my first day back from vacation

the called us into the conference room just in time to turn on the big screen and watch tower two fall. I went home with a colleague and sat on her roof drinking and watching the smoke from the pentagon.

then I called an cancelled my interview for that evening. My girlfriend was due to fly back from Ireland the next day, so she got a nice extended vacation.

[Beware the Beast Man]

47. For some reason, I remember eating peanut butter sandwich cookies.

[WeRQ4U]

48. I had to go to Law School class - Constitutional Law

My professor, visibly shaken, stated that although none of us wanted to be there, we had to study what we came to study. He stated that after what had happened, the legal interpretation of the Constitution would become more and more important, and that it was going to be up to us, as attornys, to make sure we understand what it stood for and meant. Pretty inspirational at the time. Still gets me. And how prophetic was that?

Edit for grammar

[Iris]

83. wow. Prophetic is right.

I got the shivers reading this one.

[asthmaticeog]

49. I ordered a pizza

and rented "The Battle of Algiers." I didn't want to watch TV that night since I knew full weel what I would see over and over again, but I didn't feel right to get some escapist crap. So I watched a grim war film and snarfed down bachelor-chow.

[musette_sf]

50. self-delete

I was gonna tell the story, but oh well, all my family and friends lived. It all sucked, it was a bad day, and by end of day I was wondering exactly how implicit the BFEE was in it.

[Burma Jones]

51. I was in NY, by NYU

My Wife had the kids out on errands and taking our son to his Speech Therapist in Rye. We were living in Northern Westchester. I watched the towers go down from Washington Square with my younger brother who was just starting his sophomore year at NYU. I was unemployed and was planning to go down to the Federal Building some three or four blocks from the WTC after having Breakfast with my Brother to check out Gov't Job Opportunities. We saw what had happened as the first plane hit. We didn't see the second plane hit because we didn't have that view from Washington Square. We didn't go to breakfast.

The main thing was to find out whether this was some sort of widespread thing and whether my wife and kids were in danger. Cell Phones were useless. I finally got over to my Brother's dorm room and e-mailed the wife. She was experiencing far worse stress than I was since she thought I was right down there near the WTC. We had some peanut butter sandwiches as we waited for responses to our emails telling friends and family we were OK.

We have friends in New York, one of them worked for Fiduciary Trust which was on the 90 something floor of WTC2. He usually didn't get into the office until ten, and this day was no different - whew. We had other Friends scattered throughout the city, several of them walking back to Brooklyn...

By late afternoon, I had worked my way to Grand Central Station and took the Harlem Line to Katonah - usually about an hour, that day it took about 90 minutes. The train was silent, nobody was talking, they were trying to get through on cell phones, but that wasn't working very well. I got in my car, went Grocery Shopping - the store - Scotts Corner Market - was also silent. Got home, fed the kids, fed ourselves and finally, after the kids were in bed, we watched what had happened that day on the TV.

In subsequent days, I took some relief and comfort in two radio shows - Opie and Anthony and Ron and Fez. Rather than have their usual comedy, they opened up the phone lines and let New Yorkers just vent. This helped a lot.

A week or so later, I went back down to see the WTC site, there was still dust everywhere and the smell..... There were bagpipes as folks recovered bodies and moved them to morgues. There were funerals for months. As we walked from Greenwich Village to the WTC site, we passed a couple of firehouses, I tried to go thank one of the firefighters, but I couldn't. There were posters, cards, flowers from all over the world in front of the firehouse. When I saw them I kinda broke down.

On the first Anniversary of the WTC attack, I remember it being a very weird day in the New York metro area. I was listening to WFUV that night, the DJ was playing music that she had picked to describe her feelings that day. She played "Time Has Told Me" by Nick Drake, I had to pull over and cry real hard.......

[ronnykmarshall]

78. My best friend lives in Glenn Ridge, NJ.

He said on the train into the city on 9/11/02 almost everyone on the train was crying.

He said the mood in the city was very somber.

[In_The_Wind]

52. I didn't forget but I didn't eat or do much of anything except watch TV

I was a news junkie. I remember turning on the morning news around dawn as usual ...............

[ronnykmarshall]

53. I did and here's why I remember.

I didn't go to work that day. Well I was on my way and my boss called and told me to turn around go home.

So of course I'll I did was watch TV and cry off and on. Around 2pm I went to the store to get some food and WINE for the evening.

This was one of those "Whole Foods" type places and they had the music playing over head. Some kinda upbeat stuff. This SNOTTY ASS GERMAN QUEEN was throwing a fit and chewing out the checkstand guy. Miss Gay Berlin of 1984 was alllllll pissed off about the god-damn music. "Oh my shopping trip was ruined because of that music!"

I wanted to knock the shit out of him. I kept making eye contact with the guy at the check stand, cuz I could tell he was not giving a shit what this asshole was saying. Finally I spoke up. "Yeah! That whole thing that happened in New York today is NOTHING compared to THIS!".

"Greta" turned and glared at me, shut the fuck up and stopped out.

[Rabrrrrrr]

55. Yeah, I ate - after walking the nine miles home,

I was hungry.

I also downed a shitload of gin.

[terrya]

58. I remember going to Standees here on Granvillle.

I had a hamburger and fries. Everyone in our office, of course, was told to go home. At Standees, the television was on...and everyone was talking about what was going on.

What a surreal day that was. Sad, of course...but very, very surreal.

[yardwork]

61. I went to an AA meeting that night

AAers aren't supposed to talk about "outside topics" during meetings. There was a longish silence after the opening readings, and then somebody suggested that we bend the rule about not discussing outside topics just enough to, um, discuss an outside topic. In the context of not drinking.

Later that night I took my ten year old son to a bookstore that was open late. We wandered around with lots of other people who were wandering around. I bought the Bob Dylan cd that was released that day.

I don't remember eating at all. Maybe I had a cookie and coffee at the meeting.

[DinahMoeHum]

63. I had breakfast earlier that day, but afterwards. . .

I was in such shock that I couldn't eat for a couple of days.
I just had no appetite after what I saw.


:scared:

[Left Is Write]

64. No, but then again, I was pregnant.

After the first couple of hours on the internet, I had the TV on all day, watching all the coverage. I think I went through my day on autopilot, doing all of the things I would normally do, but not putting much thought into any of it.

[Spacemom]

65. I did eat that day

I had just dropped my son off at kindergarten. They broke in with the news on the radio on my way home. I turned right around and went and picked him back up.

It was so hard pretending like everything was okay so he wouldn't pick up on my anxiety. He asked why I picked him up and I told him because I love him and wanted to spend some extra time with him. :( What a horrible, horrible day.

[truthbetold]

68. Hrm...

I was a Sophmore in high school when someone burst into my Spanish class yelling that the WTC was under attack. I didn't understand what she meant by World Trade Center at the time because I wasn't really into politics or stocks or any of that stuff.
Some people who had relatives in NYC left (I live about 400 miles away). But there weren't really any TVs on in the school, except for the library, so I didn't see any footage until I got home. As a result, for most of the day I didn't think anything too serious had occured.
When I came home to an empty house and turned on the television...well, freak out doesn't even begin to describe what I felt.

[LibertyLover]

71. 9/11/01

It's funny you should mention not eating. I thought back to my memories of that day and realized that I didn't eat a thing until dinner that evening. I got into work and one of the attorneys mentioned that his wife had called to say a plane had flown into the Trade Center. From there it just got worse and worse. We watched the smoke rising from the Pentagon over the Potomac (I work in DC), tried to get information on travel plans of collegues, etc. I even fielded calls from family members of collegues who had left early to pick up their kids. Finally about 3 pm I went home - our office having been closed - and my husband and I sat on the couch, cuddled our dogs and each other and finally grabbed a sandwich and some beer about 7pm.

[grace0418]

79. I was forced to go to a business dinner with my whole department.

It was basically implied that if we didn't show up it would be a very bad thing, and I figured the economy was going to tank after 9/11 so I was worried about being unemployed. I even got in trouble for telling my boss (after she gave us a special shortcut to the restaurant to "avoid rush hour traffic") "There is no traffic on the roads. Everyone else in the world went home to be with their families this morning." So I went. It was surreal. All the managers and the CEO were laughing it up, drinking, having a grand old time. The rest of us were trying not to burst into tears. I was sick to my stomach the whole time, especially when I thought about my niece who was a freshman at NYU at the time. It was disgusting and disrespectful. I felt ashamed even being there.

Earlier that day, I got an email from my boss saying "I know this is a horrible day, but we HAVE to FedEx those projects to Avon tonight, so we have to keep working." She was so clueless, she didn't even realize that A.) Avon is in Manhattan B.) FedEx wasn't going anywhere that day and C.) we design crappy stationery and gift products sold by Avon and Target, hardly important given the circumstances.

I have never forgiven my company for they way they behaved on 9/11. If, heaven forbid, anything like it happens again, I'm leaving to be with my family immediately. I don't give a fuck if I lose my job.

[ronnykmarshall]

81. That is just sick.

Your boss sounds cluess to say the least.

My partner was stuck at work. They wouldn't let them go home. He got a call from one his stores (Guitar Center) in Brooklyn and they (the staff) were up on the room when the second plane hit and the tower came down.

I was lucky that my boss was cool about not coming in.

[grace0418]

84. Isn't it though? Especially considering, at the time, we had NO IDEA

if more strikes were coming and I live in Chicago. You'd think they would have been at least sensitive to the fact that Chicagoans had every reason to believe that any big city could be a target and more attacks could've happened at any time.

The worst part was the way management made us feel like we were crazy and over-reacting for wanting to go home. The CEO of my company literally said, in response to a request to leave, "If we don't keep working the terrorists have won." Was that in some kind of asshole manual somewhere? He said that ON 9/11, before Dumbass made whatever terrible speech he made.

I still get nauseous when I think about that day. I went home that night, sat with my husband (who was sent home from work at 10:30a.m.), and cried. I just cried my eyes out.

I will never allow unfeeling greedy assholes make me feel like the crazy one for caring what happens to the human race EVER AGAIN.

[grace0418]

86. We did go out to lunch that day, I remember. Just to get out of the

building. My friend Allison and I were walking to her car when a plane flew overhead. Normally that would be no big deal because O'Hare is near my office, but by this time all planes had been grounded so we FREAKED OUT. We turned on the radio in the car and the deejay said "The plane that just flew over Chicago was an official flight from United. They are heading to Pennsylvnia to investigate the plane that crashed in a field. Don't panic." But of course we had already panicked. We were so out of it we actually drove to McDonalds (a place neither of us never eats) just because we were so numb we didn't know what we were doing.

[WindRavenX]

85. Vividly...

...my cousins are firefighters in Bergenfield, NJ, which is right across from the Hudson river. They were called to the scene almost immediantly...and I kept throwing up thinking I'd never see them again.
I remember eating pizza. Green peppers and onions from dominos.
The delivery guy cried.

[u4ic]

87. Oddly enough

I remember that I didn't use the bathroom first thing in the am, like I usually do. Wasn't working, got up around 10ish (noon NY time) and went to check my email in the computer room. I opened one from a friend, who said she had a dentist appointment that day that was cancelled, as her dentist wanted to go home to be with his family, and if I didn't know what she was talking about, to check the news. The first thing I thought was that there was a huge car accident, and perhaps one of his family was involved(we have the same dentist).

I went into the living room, turned on the tv and found out what she was talking about. I sat there for gawd knows how long, dumbfounded, numb. Then started bawling.

Finally, I realized I had to use the facilities, and found a note taped to the mirror from my SO stating what had happened.

I found that note the other day, as I'm in the process of moving. It made me cry all over again.

[MrSlayer]

88. No. I ate and went out and bought the new Slayer CD.

Which was released on that day. At least one good thing happened.

[Nay]

89. I actually ate breakfast, but that was before the first plane hit.

We go to work early, and I was well into the pile of papers when people came out of the lounge yelling that a plane hit a high rise in NY. When the 2nd plane hit, everyone knew it was intentional. Just a little while after the Pentagon was hit, our building (a high rise) was evacuated and we went home, only to watch tv for 2 days straight.

I don't remember eating anything, or not eating anything. I know I didn't cook, and I know we didn't go out to eat. Bet we didn't eat anything.

[Reverend_Smitty]

90. I actually didn't get to see any of it until about 3 o clock

I was a senior in HS and there were no TV's in our school, or at least no TV's that got reception except the ones in the AV room. So all day was full of speculation and rumors. I remember taking a test on Romantic poetry, and no doubt our lunch table was a buzz, we were begging for news but the administration told us nothing. I remember one friend who happened to be Muslim was beside herself that day because she was afraid of a potential backlash. The only first hand knowledge I heard about 9/11 until I got home was right after it happened. I was in a music class and the teacher's wife called him and he told us what happened. The next class (government) a little more news leaked in and we spent the whole class discussing it. Really the whole scope of the horror didn't fully sink in until I got home and flipped on the TV.

It was a crazy day at school to say the least, that afternoon I sat down on the couch and I don't think I moved until 1 or 2 in the morning.

[grace0418]

91. My mom was at SeaTac airport on 09/10 at 11:00p.m.

She'd just flown in from Chicago and my sisters went there to pick her up. That would've been about 1:00a.m. (9/11) on the east coast. All three of them said something really strange was going on at the airport. They couldn't really explain it but said there was a really weird vibe and certain areas that are usually busy at all hours were eerily quiet. My sister said she noticed a lot of employees running various places. That night she thought something funny was going on at SeaTac. Then, the next morning BLAMMO.

Now my sister is fully convinced that something fishy happened regarding the attack. Like SOMEBODY had advance knowledge (aside from the Aug. 6 memo) and didn't do anything OR was in on the attack all along. It just was too weird.

Her story gave me the chills.

[RandomKoolzip]

92. Thanks everybody for your stories.

I found all of them terribly moving in their own way. :hug: to all of ya.

[ikojo]

93. No, I had just started training on a new job

at work. The trainer completely lost it and so we were allowed to read all day and listen to NPR.

The folks who were not in training were told by management, "we have a business to run. While we understand that a terrible thing happened in New York, we must concentrate on our business. People need to get back to work."

As you can guess I work in the health insurance industry. The company I now work for handled things differently according to the people here.

No, I did not forget to do my routine things on 9/11/01. I felt bad for New Yorkers but did not feel threatened in St Louis as did many people.

My first reaction was that Bush was going to bomb the Middle East back to the stone age.