I am on my way home from DC; I am sitting at the Denver airport right now waiting to board my flight to Spokane. The flight to Denver was packed, and I was all the way in the back in a window seat. The guy next to me smelled BAD. He leaned into me the whole trip. His elbow was digging into me. I was trapped. To make matters worse, we were delayed and sat on the ground for almost an hour. I did my best to ignore the smells, the space violation, and enjoy my book and then... He pulled out a giant sausage and a plastic knife and started slicing off pieces of disgusting meat product and chomped away. I nearly lost my mind and my lunch!
For those of you who know me, you can understand that being that close to a log of meat would be enough to send me into hysterics. I can't stand the smell of it, and the sound of him chewing. Oh my! I thought I would die. (At least he left his shoes on. What if I had to see his feet too? I seriously might have been on the news. Lady goes phyco on airplane...)
I was in DC to meet with the US Marine Corps who are implenting our software. I flew in Wednesday night, had meetings on Thursday, and returned Thursday night. Every single one of my flights were delayed. It was a long 48 hours and it took me a few days to recover. I didn't get a chance to see anything but the inside of a hotel and an office.
While visiting with my clients, most of whom work at the Pentagon, we all were drawn back to our memories of 9/11. When I got home, I had an email from my nephew interviewing me about 9/11. I thought I would share for those of you that did not know my experience on that day.
1.Where were you on September 11, 2001? Boston Massachusetts and Washington DC
2.What were you doing on that day? I was leaving Boston to go to Washington DC to meet with the Air Force and SAP (business trip). I was on an American Airlines flight that was only one gate away from the flight that was the first to hit the twin towers. I left within 20 minutes of the flight and we were in the air when it happened. When we landed in DC, we still did not know what had happened. We were lucky to get our luggage and get out of the airport. The airports were later evacuated and people had to leave their luggage. We (a collegue and I) found out while we were listening to the radio in a cab on our way to the hotel. We drove past the pentagon and only 10 minutes or so later, it was hit. We were stuck in DC for the rest of the week. We had meetings in the Reagan building the next day, but we had to evacuate after a bomb threat. When planes finally started to fly again, I was only able to get to Phoenix, AZ and Tyler drove from Utah to pick me up. I could not wait several more days to get to SLC. I wanted to get home.
3.What is your most vivid memory of that day or the days that followed? I never felt like I was in danger, because I would find out what happened after I was safe, but I couldn't get my cell phone to work, and it was scary not to be able to get a hold of my family to tell them I was OK. It was 4 hours until I was able to call my husband. I had to stop watching the news. It was too upsetting to watch what had happened over and over again.
4.Did you visit any of the above sites prior to September 11? Yes, I had been to the pentagon several times, visited the twin towers once earlier that year, and had been to Pennsylvania several times.
5.Describe what it was like. Have you visited any of the memorials that have been erected since that day? I love being in the pentagon. It is very formal compared to other military bases. Almost everyone who works there is in uniform. Even the guys who get coffee for the generals are officers. It is really easy to get lost in the pentagon. I only spent a few minutes at the twin towers, but it was amazing. I have never been back to NYC, but I have been to the Pentagon several times since. It is the same. I just left Washington this week. We met off-site, but the people I met with were all working at the Pentagon when 9/11 occurred. We talked about the experience and the people they knew that were killed that day.
6.What feelings did you feel when you visited them? Being at the pentagon 10 years after 9/11 was actually kind of scary for me. I was glad that my flight home was on 9/8 this time. I would not feel comfortable flying on 9/11/11.
7.What feelings did you experience on that day and over the days that followed? I felt very alone stuck in DC without my family, but when I would go to the lobby of the hotel, we were all there watching the news together and it felt like we all knew each other. The people that worked at the hotel were amazing and tried to help us with anything we needed. I wanted to go home so badly, and I got really sick. There was only one restaurant in walking distance of my hotel, and I didn't have a rental car. It was a little Chinese restaurant, but the owner made me chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. A few weeks later, I found out that I was pregnant which was why I was so sick. The other people I had travelled with were in another hotel across town. I was also frustrated, because I had only planned to be away from home for two days, so I ran out of clothes and underwear. I had to wash in the sink and I wore my PJs a lot that week.
8.What feelings do you experience when you think about the attacks today? It makes me angry to think that a lot of people like me went to work that day and while I was lucky to be safe, they were not and they had to leave their families. The only difference between us was that my plane had less fuel.
9.Did you personally know anyone who was affected by the attacks? Yes, several of my clients work at the Pentagon and were in the office during the attack. They were injured, but not killed. One of my clients lost his friend who he drove to work with every day.
10.Do you do anything to commemorate this day (hang a flag, say a prayer, volunteer, etc.)? Nothing formal, but I always think about what happened on the anniversary.
11.How did you feel when the American government found Osama bin Ladin? I don’t like war or violence, so I don't believe in celebrating the death of any human being. I don't agree with what Osama bin Ladin stood for or did, but I worry about what it means for humanity to celebrate the death of a person, and I worry about the effects this has had on the Muslim people who live in America. I hate racism in all forms. I don’t like it when people justify hate and racism with the events of 9/11.
12.In the ten years since September 11, how has your life changed? Professionally, I was traveling several weeks a month back in 2001. It was hard for me to travel after the attacks; I would get really anxious. I slowed down a lot. It caused a logistics problem for me and my company because, as contractors, it became very difficult to get onto a military site. For the rest of 2001, we were very limited in our visits. To this day, we do not have the same clearance that we had. It also became so much more difficult to travel with the added security, even though I understand the need. Personally, I have had 3 children, lived in 3 different states, and put my husband through law school. I don’t know how to explain 9/11 to my kids. I worry about the world that they are growing up in.
Jack and I flew to Utah to attend Jake's baptism. You can read about it here. Jack and Jake are BEST friends, and I was so excited to find cheap flights and Angela planned this on a prefect weekend. My sister Karen was there with her darling baby Lily, and my brother Dave just moved back to Utah with his family. That meant that all 5 of us kids were there at the same time. Jack loved the airplane ride and talked to me all about his theories of flight. He was also thrilled to fly through storms and see lightening. He even got to buy something at the gift shop in Phoenix (cheap flights = strange routes).
