story1107.xml

story1107.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-19

I had already jumped out of the shower, it was 7:15 AM. I hurried to get my clothes on and get out of the house because I was running late. The drive to work was a mere 13 miles, but Las Vegas drivers are ten fold worse than your average Los Angeles commuter. I turned on my TV and saw a news report on.....I tuned it out (as I normally do) to get my socks on and what not. Well I watched and watched until it finally clicked in my head that I was looking at a rather large puff of smoke by the Pentagon. The screen was split in two so that on the right side was the Pentagon and the left was what appeared to me at first to be a building on fire.

The socks finally were on and I started to tie up my boots (it was now 7:30 AM.....definitely going to be late for work). I kept watching and now listening to what the "talking heads" on the news were saying............and then the video of the second plane hitting the tower.........it struck me. I jumped in my truck to get my butt to work. It's funny how the mind works, one minute I'm watching this stuff, the next the little voice is yelling "GET TO WORK!!!" I noticed though that when I got outside it was quiet. In fact it was quiet all the way to work...........VERY ABNORMAL for Las Vegas. Planes go in and out of McCarran International Airport 24 hours day.

On the radio was my usual program, Howard Stern. The entire morning then came full circle as I listened to the program (which was on tape delay for the West Coast). Howard had been going about his usual day when the first plane hit and mass confusion hit his studio. I tuned in in time to hear callers calling in and Howard calming them down. "This is bad," I said out loud to myself.

I finally got to work, everyone else on the shuttle from the parking lot to the mall (where I worked in Las Vegas) began talking about what was going on. It just wasn't sinking in yet...........it was more of a novelty type atmosphere rather than an serious event. Some people on the shuttle had family members who worked at the WTC towers.

Once inside, the mall at first was set to open. Then security came around posting letters saying that under the current siutation the mall was going to be closed. My manager asked me a question I can't ever forget,

"Can you believe what's going on?"

I still can't. Almost a year later I still don't. The world was never perfect to me, but now I'm in an impasse of emotions. On one end of the spectrum I'm mad as hell, but on the other I'm resigned to the fact that we can never be able to live our lives the same way.

To beg to be able to walk my baby brother to his gate and to ensure that he got on the right flight was something I never dreamed would happen. It used to be nice. I sometimes tell my friends that things may have changed in the world.....but I'm still living my life like it's September 10, 2001.