I was getting ready to open shop for the day, annoyed because my co-worker was late again, and I had to get to a 9:30 class. They said on the radio that one of the WTC towers had been hit by a plane; I thought it must have been a horrible accident with a small plane, because big airliners don't fly that close to the tall buildings. Then the woman reporting live from NYC started screaming that another plane had hit the other tower. I stood there for maybe ten seconds, then ran across the room to call my boyfriend at his office. I told him we were under attack, but I didn't know by whom. He kept saying it was a mistake on the radio, nobody would attack a giant office building.
I made it to class, but we didn't get much accomplished that day, as people kept calling home on their cell phones to get updates on the situation, and the professor finally let us out early. When I got home that night, my landlord and his boyfriend had me come sit on the sofa and drink tea with them. We were all so in shock from the images on tv (damn the news stations for playing that scene over and over) that we just kept hugging each other and trying to tally up who we knew who might have been on the planes or in DC or NYC during the attacks.
They'd reported on the news that some people were trapped in the rubble, frantically calling their loved ones on their cell phones. My boyfriend and I said a prayer that they would be rescued soon, or that they would find some peace in their last moments. We prayed for the grieving families of the victims, too. Privately, I prayed that he would quit his job (military-related) so he would not be sent into a war zone. Glad that day is over and done, and let's pray we don't have another one like it ever again.
((((Pratt1 and Soledad)))) It was so horrible at a distance; my heart goes out to anyone who had to witness these things firsthand.