September 11, 2001
September 11th, 2006The fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 is being observed today. Here are my memories from that day…
I woke up at 8:10am Pacific time, to find out I had overslept. I was supposed to drop off my car at the dealer by 8:00am to get it serviced. I think I was having new brakes installed on it. As I got up and started getting ready, my mother tells me something big is happening and turns on the TV in my room. She filled me in on how airplanes had crashed into buildings in New York City. She had been watching this unfold since it began to be shown on the news, but decided not to wake me up. The news kept showing the second airplane crash into the second tower. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and hearing. By then, the towers had collapsed too. It was too much, but at the same time, I couldn’t grasp the scope of what was happening - especially since I had never been to New York City.
I finished getting ready and decided to drop my car off at the dealer in Sunnyvale to get it serviced. When I arrived at the dealer’s service area, it was business as usual, but with the added conversation of what was happening back East. I watched the news in a waiting room while I waited for the dealer’s shuttle to take me and others to our destinations. There were four or five of us who had to be dropped off. The driver planned his route and decided I would be the last one to be dropped off in Santa Clara. The ride included dropping a woman in Palo Alto - which was really out of the way. As we got on our way, I noticed a change of driving behavior in other drivers on the streets from what I was used to. Also, their faces were without expressions and always seemed to be looking up to the sky. Riding from Palo Alto to Santa Clara on Highway 101 was weird. It seemed like everyone was driving in slow motion. There were few airplanes flying around the area waiting their turn to land at San Jose International Airport and you could see everyone on the highway keep an eye on them. I don’t remember what time I was finally dropped off at my workplace.
Once at work, I went up to my floor, and into my cube. Not everyone showed up to work. Of the ones that did, they were on the internet watching and reading the news. My friend Dan, who sat in the cube next to me, had his radio tuned to the news. No one was really working. Everyone was walking from cube-to-cube asking what the latest news was. I don’t remember if we were told we could go home early, but Dan gave me a ride back home early that afternoon since I didn’t have my car with me.
Later that afternoon, my mother gave me a ride to the dealer’s to pick up my car. I drove straight home and watched the news coverage on the TV the rest of the day.