Five Years Ago Today

XBrood Live: Five Years Ago Today

Monday, September 11, 2006

I woke up today and found that it was September 11. I saw the president on television and I saw the shots of the twin towers getting hit. I forgot it was September and it made me sad to remember the day again. I was groggily coming in to work, much like today only I was actually on time. Everything was exactly the same as usual. Get out of my car and grumble over to the set of elevators in the parking lot that will take me to another set of elevators I need to take to get to my floor. Those elevators had been recently fitted with a nifty little screen that showed the latest news. I suppose it was designed to give people something better to look at than their own feet as they try to avoid pointless and uncomfortable conversations with strangers, but I was too groggy to care as I hopped in with two other people. They were jabbering on about something and talking in really excited voices. All I caught was plane… terrorist… unbelievable… attack… building. The words swam around in my head disconnected and disjointed as I looked up at the tiny screen to see a plane hit a building. Neat special effects… I yawned.

The two gentlemen got off on the 23 floor before me and I waited for my floor. The words kept swimming, swimming around and around until they started connecting…something was connecting as I stumbled out of the elevator. I started to wake up a little as I mulled over the words I heard. I passed one office and stopped when I saw the screen. A plane smacked into a building … ‘Holy shit.’, I thought. I passed by another office… A plane smacked into a building, ‘Oh fuck…’ I turned the corner to get to my desk and there it was again, the image of a plane crashing into a building in New York. I said, “What the fuck’s going on? Are we under attack or was that an accident? How could that happen? What’s going on?” The girl who sat next to me was completely flushed. “The World Trade Center was hit.” She said. I sat down said, “Shit” and got back up to find a television. Everyone was speculating that it was an attack and I had to agree. I couldn’t watch the burning building anymore so I sat back down to my desk and started to work. The fact that the World Trade Center was hit that our own people were in the building directly facing the World Trade Center sent shivers down my spine. We were being hit, the financial industry is being targeted…are we next?

I sat there quietly trying to do my work and talking with the others about what was happening speculating that they’ll probably let us go home. The girl next to me was growing more and more restless. She was scared and started to wonder if there were any planes in the sky headed straight for our building. I thought she was insane and wished she’d leave already. If the financial industry was being targeted chances are they’d go for Downtown, but we are next to the Federal Building in Westwood so you never know. The second plane hit. My neighbor jumped up, did a couple of circles, burst into tears and informed us that she was going home. The rest of us stayed and awaited further news. I had been on the phone with my husband, my now ex-husband. I don’t remember how many times the words shit and fuck escaped our mouths. After the second plane hit we knew we were under attack. I sat at my desk without emotion or fear. It was probably shock. We lost contact with our New York office. The Market was shut down. No one was trading. Eventually an announcement came informing us that we should go home to be with our families. I was among the last to leave the building. I stayed at my husbands building in Beverly Hills until he was told to go home as well.

The next day we came in The Market was still down and we still had no contact with our friends in New York but some people were calling on their cell phones and the stories started pouring in. I heard one girl tell a friend that she was outside for a cigarette and as she was walking back inside her friend caught her arm and dragged her outside. They ran for their lives as people came crashing down around them from the burning building. It was horrifying. Our building in front of the Twin Towers was caved in when the towers fell. Our base of operations was in New York and we were at a complete standstill. Somehow they picked up the pieces and moved to a new location… eventually … slowly things got back to normal.

I remember how angry I felt. So angry that I wanted revenge. Someone should pay for this. Someone would pay for this. I remember feeling proud of the way our president handled things in the coming days. How they tried to keep us calm and assured us that something would be done. All the information they spoon fed us made the entire country unite against the evil bastards that dared to think they could touch us. We invaded Afghanistan in search for the elusive Bin Ladin. We felt vindicated…hopeful…bloodthirsty. We never found him of course and the next thing you know were invading Iraq. You could hear a collective, “Huh?” uttered through the lips of every single person throughout the nation. It hit me like a ton of bricks…Oil. Stupid morons, were sitting here thinking were being avenged and our government is working that angle so we can secure the Oil. I felt like such an idiot. When I started to hear it in the news I knew I was right and then I was angry all over again because I knew what that meant. If oil prices rise I’m taking the bus to work. I don’t know anything about politics and I don’t usually care very much. I’m just a regular person trying to live my regular job to keep my regular life… regular. That day changed our nation. Whether for the best or for the worst is up to debate, but no matter the outcome I stand by my country. I love my life. My regular, ordinary and uneventful life and I’d like to make sure we keep it that way so if it means terrorizing those that terrorize us so be it. I just hope something good comes of it. I just hope we figure out when enough is enough sooner rather than later.

Posted by Maharet at 2:47 PM