I was in my second week of classes at Pitt. I woke up at 9 to the usual Howard Stern blast (his antics always ensured that I would get out of bed to shut him off). As I was shaving I was surprised that he sounded so somber - he was speaking seriously yet the subject of a plane flying into a building still seemed like a sick joke.

I went about the usual and walked over to the student union en route to my first class. As I entered, I realized that Howard had not been making a sick joke. I saw the second plane the second tower on the two large TVs in front of me. Me and a large group of students crowded the doorway, unable to move. My mouth felt like all life had been zapped from it - I couldn't speak at all. As I stood there the talking head on MSNBC said that there was a plane over Pittsburgh - I thought, "Where am I, and what happened to the world I knew yesterday".

I'll write more about that day in a later installment...

I was at home and left for work without turning on radio or tv. But when I got to work it was everywhere. I worked at a opiod treatment center and the clients were having a hard time thinking that this was not real. It was. The first thing I did was to call my sister and tell her to get in touch with her daughter and tell her I was so thankful that she (my niece) got home sick and came home in July. My neice decided in July she wanted to be in Maine and left the big city job for home. She worked on the World Trade Center Building on a high floor. She lost many friends and co-workers. She still has nightmares about it. But for wanting to be in Maine and Being with family she would have been at work that day. It still gives me shivers to think of it.

I was at work and my supervisor came running into the warehouse and turned on the TV in the quality check room and told me me to get the other warehouse personel to watch what was going on, at the time I worked in a factory that made tv's so it was on everywhere in the plant. I remember hearing the plant president come in and tell us we were all to go home because in the area where I live there the 2nd largest coal powered powerplant is only about 15 miles away and we were told that it was a potential target. I was so terrified I drove as fast as i could to get my children then we just sat and watched the tv and cried.

My husband and I have carpooled to work together at 5:30-6:00 am for 10 years. That morning, there was highway construction that extended our 45 min commute to an hour. After hearing the same old news stories on the newsradio channel for like the 5th time, my husband turned off the car radio, saying "I'm sick of the same old s***" I had just started a new job and was in the second day of training. He dropped me off and went on to work. So we didn't even hear about it until we got to work around 7:30. After the second tower fell, they decided to cancel my training class and send everyone home since no one could concentrate anyway. So i am driving home alone in my car cuz my husband had to stay at work, west on Interstate 80 in Utah. I-80 is a very busy route for trucks and it runs right by Salt Lake International Airport. It was so eerie seeing a bazillion planes on the ground there, and NOTHING on the highway. I was completely alone on one of the nations busiest freeways. I just kept thinking, "The world has changed. Nothing will ever EVER be the same."

It's The Little Things

The little things drive us crazy. Next time your morning seems to be going wrong, the children are slow getting dressed, you can't seem to find the car keys, you hit every red light; don't get mad or frustrated, think about this.

After Sept. 11th, a company invited the remaining members of other companies who had been decimated by the attack on the Twin Towers to share their available office space. At a morning meeting, the head of security told stories of why these people were alive.... and all the stories were just 'little' things.

As you might know, the head of the company got in late that day because his son started kindergarten.
Another fellow was alive because it was his turn to bring donuts.
One woman was late because her alarm clock didn't go off.
One was late because of being stuck on the NJ Turnpike because of an auto accident.
One missed his bus.
One spilled food on her clothes and had to take time to change.
One's car wouldn't start.
One went back to answer the telephone.
One had a child that dawdled and didn't get ready as quickly as he should have.
One couldn't get a taxi.
The most amazing one was the man who put on a new pair of shoes that morning, took the various means to get to work but before he got there, developed a blister on his foot. He stopped at a drugstore to buy a
Band-Aid. That is why he is alive today.

Now when I am stuck in traffic, miss an elevator, turn back to answer a ringing telephone...all the little things that annoy me...I think to myself, this is exactly where God wants me to be at this very moment.

Sorry about the long post

So true. Makes me really think....

I was a freshman in college at Wright State University in Dayton Ohio, where I was living in the dorms. Classes were set to start the next day on the 12th. A group of the people from my floor had went to the gym early and we were on our way back... campus was dead, we were discussing how people must have been partying hard the night before. Then we hit our floor and could instantly tell something was seriously wrong. People were crying and saying "I have to call home"... we were all shocked when someone told us what was happening. We had just missed the first attack but watched the second, I will never forget the silence there was that day.

As I stated before I was at WSU in Dayton, which is right by the Wright Patterson Air Force Base and Museum... which made us one of the top five area of the country to target or something like that. The school postponed classes and closed everything on campus and "urged" all students to go home if they could. I left and went home and took one of my roommates (who was from Cleveland) with me. Later that night after visiting my boyfriend at the time and before ehading back to my parents I stopped for gas... some pump were empty, the one I used I had to wait like 4 cars ahead for at midnight, and it was sooo low that it took literally 10 minutes to get enough gas to fill the tank of a chevy cavalier. I will never forget that day, as I am sure no one else who was alive that day will.

The post about the little things was great, really puts life into perspective. Thank you.