I had nothing planned for that morning…

…so I was going to sleep in, but some jerk decided to call a couple of times at 6am and wake me up. Figuring that nothing could be that urgent at 6am, I ignored it and went back to sleep for an hour before waking up for good at 7am. It was a beautifully sunny day, as I remember, and I went in to the study to find out who the rude caller was. As I stood looking at the sun coming up over the Cascade mountains, I listened to the message. It was from my dad, calling to say that he was in Washington and that he was OK in regards to the terrorist attacks on World Trade Center and the Pentagon. However, he couldn’t get through to my mom in North Carolina because the lines were all jammed – could I call her and let her know he was OK?

I remember thinking, “What? What is he talking about?” I went downstairs, turned on the TV and flipped to CNN. I think I spent the next few minutes just sitting there saying “Oh my God…” over and over again. I woke up my wife Andrea and let her know what happened. We spent a while making sure her mother, who was also in Washington that day working for the State Department, was OK. Then we just went ahead with what she was planning to do that day – we went down to the Pike Place Market to buy food. It was a nice day, sunny and warm, and there was a surreal calmness everywhere. Andrea spent the rest of the day cooking food for the rest of the month and we both just watched TV, trying to take it all in.

One thought on “I had nothing planned for that morning…

  1. Garrett Fitzgerald

    I don’t usually turn on the TV in the morning, so the first I heard was in the car on NPR. They were talking about the World Trade Center. I was going "Israel? England? Which trade center are we talking about?"

    Imagine the shock when I was clued in.

    But, then, you don’t have to imagine it. 🙁

    Reply

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