story1752.xml

story1752.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-04

I was drinking my morning coffee at the computer in my home office. I was half asleep still when I went to check the morning news on Seattle's KOMOTV.COM web page like I did every morning. I saw the heading "plane hits World Trade Center" and a picture of a plane crashing into a fiery building. I just stared uncomprehending at the words and image-thinking for a brief second that this was a prank by computer hackers. I honestly sat and stared at the screen for at least a minute with my mind blank-not "getting it".

I ran into the bedroom and turned on the TV. The news coverage was confused and chaotic. Nobody knew what had just happened. I called my best girlfriend and said "are you seeing this?" She and I watched together as the second plane crashed into the other tower. We stayed on the phone together most of the day in between calling other loved ones. We, on the west coast, were afraid that we were the next targets while we mourned what had happend in the east. I kept wanting to look at the sky for renegade airplanes. I knew that things would never be the same in the western world. The television was kept on all day and all night. It was a surreal nightmare.