We had just moved into our house two weeks before and I was taking dh to work (he had missed the bus because we had an electrician doing work on the house). We heard the news on the radio and decided to take dh to work. A couple hours later, he showed up on the doorstep. Everything shut down here and people kept talking about it and my next door neighbor had her tv on and the footage was running all day and I could see it through her window (no tv here and youtube wasn't big back then).
I remember being so grateful that IM worked because the phone was impossible to use and hardly anyone had cell phones 10 years ago. Being less than 10 miles from the Pentagon had a different effect on how people reacted to the news, apparently.
We also had out of town friends visiting and they were downtown when the Pentagon was hit!
I've been kind of pissed off all day because the guys would NOT shut up when I was trying to listen to coverage on the radio. For some reason, it seems more horrible to me now than it did the day it happened.
Edwige Danticat was on NPR earlier today and she said because of the live TV, it's like we were all there. That was kind of how I felt, and I was incensed that they wanted me to turn it off and do spreadsheets.
Also, my brother had been supposed to move into NYC that day, but they held off until the next day and he says he feels like they missed out on a whole cultural experience. *shrug* I'm just glad they were not there and were safe.
Maybe it had something to do with geography. Will, at work a mere 30 miles from NYC, just left and came home. And nobody got in trouble for staring at the TV - nor did Will get in trouble for walking out late-morning. But I remember reading somewhere else about someone in a conference in CA, and the presenter got annoyed when people were more interested in the muted TV in the room than in the presentation. We're closer to what happened - it was definitely not something anyone thought to turn away from.
I felt like I was right there. I wasn't, you know, terrified for my personal safety although I was a little nervous when the Pentagon got hit. But I might as well have been watching the events from my office window.
That was a terrible job, too. Another place where being myself meant being in trouble all the time.
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I remember being so grateful that IM worked because the phone was impossible to use and hardly anyone had cell phones 10 years ago. Being less than 10 miles from the Pentagon had a different effect on how people reacted to the news, apparently.
We also had out of town friends visiting and they were downtown when the Pentagon was hit!
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I've been kind of pissed off all day because the guys would NOT shut up when I was trying to listen to coverage on the radio. For some reason, it seems more horrible to me now than it did the day it happened.
Edwige Danticat was on NPR earlier today and she said because of the live TV, it's like we were all there. That was kind of how I felt, and I was incensed that they wanted me to turn it off and do spreadsheets.
Reply
Also, my brother had been supposed to move into NYC that day, but they held off until the next day and he says he feels like they missed out on a whole cultural experience. *shrug* I'm just glad they were not there and were safe.
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That was a terrible job, too. Another place where being myself meant being in trouble all the time.
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