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arguchikeveryone's blogging about where they were when they "heard," so i'll give a little synopsis of my story here...
9/9/01 was my first day in seattle. i moved here from vermont with my big dog, and my friend erin was along for the ride (she has another friend who lives here). i got to town at about 7pm, and unloaded some stuff from my car. then my new roommate asked if i wanted to go to the grocery store with her--i did, so i locked my car up and headed out with her. when we got home it was about 9:30 or 10pm, and i was too tired to finish unloading my car, so i decided to leave it til the morning and head to bed. the next morning i went outside and...my car was gone! at first i thought it had been towed because i didn't have a parking permit yet (my new place was on minor ave. in eastlake, where parking permits are required); i called the parking folks, and they said they hadn't towed it. that's when i realized it had been stolen...so i called the cops and reported it stolen. i spent the rest of that day (9/10) unpacking the boxes i had shipped to myself before leaving vermont, and getting settled, exploring my new neighborhood with my dog, etc.
the next morning (9/11), i was sleeping in--not exactly blissfully, which is a different story intersecting this one. my roommate came downstairs to where my bedroom was and knocked on the door. i said "yeah?" she said, "um...sharon? i'm not sure if you're interested in...like...world events and stuff, but i thought you might want to know what's going on." i said, "what?" she said, "well, someone flew some airplanes into the pentagon and the world trade center towers, and there's another plane that they think is heading toward d.c." i was instantly wide awake, and i said, "holy shit! i'll be right up." i got some clothes on and went upstairs, where she had the TV tuned to NBC's network coverage. i watched in horror as the towers burned and the reporters interviewed various people.
then the phone rang. my roommate answered it, and she turned to me. "the seattle PD is on the phone for you." i was a little taken aback by that, but i answered the call, and the officer informed me that they had found my car, and that it had been towed to a lot on the other side of the west seattle bridge. i got all the information i needed to go and get it, and turned back to the TV. my roommate had gone outside to talk to our neighbors. NBC was showing almost continuous footage of the towers burning, and they seemed to have focused in on one of the towers. i couldn't see the other one, but i thought it was just because of the camera angle. that's when the second tower started to collapse. i don't remember what the reporters were saying, except that they were expressing shock and horror. that's when i realized that the other tower had already collapsed--apparently while i was on the phone with the cops. my stomach felt like it had literally dropped like 2-3 feet into my knees. i stood up, reflexively, and put my hands up to my face as i tried to process what i was seeing, and all of the implications--how many thousands of people had been in that tower; how many thousands had been in the other tower, that i now realized had also collapsed; how many hundreds were being killed by the falling debris even as i watched? the scope of the disaster was almost incomprehensible. i remember that early estimates put the number of likely casualties at close to 10,000.
i continued to watch the coverage, and somehow...arranged for my roommate to drive me to the impound lot to get my car (i couldn't actually drive it home, as it turned out, but i didn't know that yet; i ended up having it towed to the honda dealership downtown, where it stayed for a couple of months' worth of repairs--yet another story intersecting this one).
my friend erin was supposed to fly back to vermont on 9/11. obviously that didn't happen. another, new friend from UW was also supposed to fly to vermont (for a dissertation fellowship, coincidentally, at UVM, where i had recently finished my MA), shortly after 9/11, and his departure was also delayed. he ended up crashing on our couch for a few days; erin stayed with her other friend, and she and i went to downtown seattle later that afternoon (still 9/11).
i remember the eeriness of downtown. everything was somber. most of the stores and other businesses had closed down for the day, and it was so quiet from the lack of air traffic.
9/9/01 was my first day in seattle. i moved here from vermont with my big dog, and my friend erin was along for the ride (she has another friend who lives here). i got to town at about 7pm, and unloaded some stuff from my car. then my new roommate asked if i wanted to go to the grocery store with her--i did, so i locked my car up and headed out with her. when we got home it was about 9:30 or 10pm, and i was too tired to finish unloading my car, so i decided to leave it til the morning and head to bed. the next morning i went outside and...my car was gone! at first i thought it had been towed because i didn't have a parking permit yet (my new place was on minor ave. in eastlake, where parking permits are required); i called the parking folks, and they said they hadn't towed it. that's when i realized it had been stolen...so i called the cops and reported it stolen. i spent the rest of that day (9/10) unpacking the boxes i had shipped to myself before leaving vermont, and getting settled, exploring my new neighborhood with my dog, etc.
the next morning (9/11), i was sleeping in--not exactly blissfully, which is a different story intersecting this one. my roommate came downstairs to where my bedroom was and knocked on the door. i said "yeah?" she said, "um...sharon? i'm not sure if you're interested in...like...world events and stuff, but i thought you might want to know what's going on." i said, "what?" she said, "well, someone flew some airplanes into the pentagon and the world trade center towers, and there's another plane that they think is heading toward d.c." i was instantly wide awake, and i said, "holy shit! i'll be right up." i got some clothes on and went upstairs, where she had the TV tuned to NBC's network coverage. i watched in horror as the towers burned and the reporters interviewed various people.
then the phone rang. my roommate answered it, and she turned to me. "the seattle PD is on the phone for you." i was a little taken aback by that, but i answered the call, and the officer informed me that they had found my car, and that it had been towed to a lot on the other side of the west seattle bridge. i got all the information i needed to go and get it, and turned back to the TV. my roommate had gone outside to talk to our neighbors. NBC was showing almost continuous footage of the towers burning, and they seemed to have focused in on one of the towers. i couldn't see the other one, but i thought it was just because of the camera angle. that's when the second tower started to collapse. i don't remember what the reporters were saying, except that they were expressing shock and horror. that's when i realized that the other tower had already collapsed--apparently while i was on the phone with the cops. my stomach felt like it had literally dropped like 2-3 feet into my knees. i stood up, reflexively, and put my hands up to my face as i tried to process what i was seeing, and all of the implications--how many thousands of people had been in that tower; how many thousands had been in the other tower, that i now realized had also collapsed; how many hundreds were being killed by the falling debris even as i watched? the scope of the disaster was almost incomprehensible. i remember that early estimates put the number of likely casualties at close to 10,000.
i continued to watch the coverage, and somehow...arranged for my roommate to drive me to the impound lot to get my car (i couldn't actually drive it home, as it turned out, but i didn't know that yet; i ended up having it towed to the honda dealership downtown, where it stayed for a couple of months' worth of repairs--yet another story intersecting this one).
my friend erin was supposed to fly back to vermont on 9/11. obviously that didn't happen. another, new friend from UW was also supposed to fly to vermont (for a dissertation fellowship, coincidentally, at UVM, where i had recently finished my MA), shortly after 9/11, and his departure was also delayed. he ended up crashing on our couch for a few days; erin stayed with her other friend, and she and i went to downtown seattle later that afternoon (still 9/11).
i remember the eeriness of downtown. everything was somber. most of the stores and other businesses had closed down for the day, and it was so quiet from the lack of air traffic.
