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September 11, 2006

I was waiting for my turn in the dance studio at the theatre where I was, at the time, so I could rehearse a scene I was doing that night. I was looking at the notes on the BB, when a friend named Oliver told me two planes had hit the WTC towers. I asked, "TWO?" One could be an accident, but two meant something was up. I went to our small caffeteria, since there was a TV there and watched the coverage on CBS. When the Pentagon was hit I thought of my Brother-in-Law, who is in the Air Force, and knew he was probably going to war. When the towers fell, I cried knowing the lives that were probably lost. After the President gave his second briefing I knew I had to get back to work, but my journal entries that day show it was still affecting me. We held our rehearsal that night, despite the events of the day. Our director felt it was a good to have a break from the tragedy of the day. One of our company was a native New Yorker was excused so she could try to call home (she had been trying most of the day).
 
I know it's after the fact, but here's a link to one of those tribute pages that was put together by some fans of drum corps. I don't imagine most people are familiar with the activity, but it has some roots within the military establishment.

A little weepy over here. Beautiful.
 
I generally get up with the sun, so I was awake about 5:45 AM, which would be 8:45 AM Eastern. I remember I showered and then went into my home office and turned on the monitor. I surfed over to a newsgathering site I like and clicked on a political story to see what the comments were. The first comment was, "A plane just hit the World Trade Center!" The second comment was, "Ohmigod, another plane just hit the World Trade Center." Third comment was, "Turn on your TV NOW!"

So I walked down the hall, sure it was some sort of elaborate gag. It was just shortly after the second plane had hit, because I remember the announcers were still saying, "If this is a terrorist attack..." I sat there glued to the TV for about an hour and a half before I realized I have family back East, including a brother who works above Grand Central. Of course, I couldn't get through on the phone because the circuits were jammed, but I quickly dashed off an email to my sister, who must have been online as well, because I got a reply inside of 5 minutes that everybody was okay, but my brother was stranded in the city (he got out by bus later).

A client of mine called and wanted to see if I could stop by his office to discuss some revisions he wanted done. He's a nice guy, but not much on small talk; he's all business. When I got to his office we talked for an hour about the terrorist attacks and didn't get any work done. Then I headed back home and watched TV most of the rest of the day.
 
I'm currently watching the HBO series "The Sopranos" for the first time. Just finished Season 2. It's always a little alarming when in the opening credits he drives home and casually looks up and sees the two towers. I know the show was on both before and after, and I'm interested to see how they will deal with it. No, don't tell me anything!!!
 

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