10 years ago...

So...on 9/11/01, I was living in Portland, Maine. I was working for an insurance company, processing long term disability claims (blech...)...On that Tuesday morning 10 years ago, I drove to work around 8am, thinking about all I was going to get done that day. I had many phone calls to make, faxes to send, files to update, etc. I remember it was a beautiful day, the sky was blue, the temperature was a perfect 70 something degrees. Everything was totally normal. I had been at my desk working for about 45 minutes when a coworker named Sherry arrived, walking in with a funny look on her face. Jan, in the cubicle across from me asked her what was wrong. Sherry replied that she was "just trying to process what (she'd) just heard on her car radio", that a plane had hit one of the World Trade Centers. I remember assuming it must have been an accident, but wondering how that possibly could have happened. A few seconds later, someone from a cube down the aisle shouted that the second tower had been hit. I realized, as did everyone else, that it was not an accident. Needless to say, no more work got done that day. A TV was set up in the lobby, and we all watched in horror as the Pentagon was hit, and the plane in Pennsylvania crashed. We all wondered, what was going to happen next? It seemed that nothing would ever would be the same again. I must have called my family at least 3 or 4 times that day, just because I needed to hear their voices, and feel connected to them. I remember standing outside our office building with my coworker Jan while she smoked a cigarette as we both tearfully tired to process what was going on that day. For the next two weeks, I could not sleep well, I kept having nightmares. I could not get the images of those planes crashing into the towers out of my mind. The weekend after 9/11, I cancelled plans with friends and drove to my parents', because I needed to be with my family. As I drove the 3 hours from Portland to Blue Hill, Maine, every newly raised American Flag I saw (and there were many) brought tears to my eyes.

I will never forget that day.