September 11th 2001... ten years later.

I don't know how it is anywhere else in the world, but here some of the biggest news (other than the drought and fires in Texas, and the recent earthquake, hurricane, and now flooding on the east coast) is that we're coming on the 10th anniversary of the most terrible and infamous day in recent US history. It's officially called Patriot Day, but it's known by it's date, September 11th. One thing I noticed a lot of was people remembering what had happened, and I realized even 10 years later I can still remember that day clearly, and I was curious if anyone else still remembers where they were the day it happened....


A few months before that day, Chris’ mom had kicked Chris out of her house, and my mom, who was the kind of person who would take in every person off the street if she could, had taken him in, and we were both living with mom at her house at that point. We’d been dating for a little over a year. I had the week off of work just because I needed to get rid of some of my vacation days, and Chris was working at a restaurant within walking distance.
That morning Chris and I were up at 9am, Chris having to work at 10. Mom had already left for work hours before. We hung out for a bit, with Chris - rather ironically in hindsight - asked the date, and I had to think before answering that it was the 11th. He asked me to check when the next wrestling PPV was right before heading to work himself and I headed to the computer to check as soon as he left. Right before I could turn it on, mom called and said the capitol had been attacked. I remember my stomach dropping to my shoes and thinking “they can’t do that, we’re America... wouldn’t we nuke whatever country did that?” then having the wide eyed realization that we were (i thought) at war.
I forgot about checking the PPV and went to turn on the tv. By that time the towers had collapsed and all I saw was smoke. That was the moment I knew without a doubt something was very wrong. I tried to call Chris, but the line was busy. He was able to call me back later though. I stayed glued to the television and saw what happened to the towers and the pentagon. At that point there were still planes unaccounted for, and in a ticker along the bottom of the tv were reports of malls all over the city and suburbs were closing, and the high rises in the city were emptying out. One by one, the planes were all accounted for, except for one. The flight path was headed straight for Chicago. At that moment I became very aware that the Sears Tower was a taller target than the WTC had been. I didn’t know it then, but this was flight 93, and it had long since crashed.
I stayed watching the tv all day, so I wouldn’t miss anything, until mom and Chris came home. That night a friend of ours invited us to hang out at the Riverwalk with us and with mom watching the tv for us, Chris and I headed out. There were lines of cars at the gas stations we passed, minor panic having set in. We got to the Riverwalk and found our friend. It was so quiet there, and a clear night. Normally you could see tons of moving lights in the sky as planes flew in and out of O’Hare and Midway, but the sky was so dark that night.