So on Sept. 11 2001

Just copied & pasted here for posterity. It's relevant here, I suppose, given that tomorrow marks 7 years (!) since those towers fell.

I was a sophomore in college working at the library. My co-worker came in and told me that a plane hit the tower, and I didn't know what to think. Obviously I figured it was an accident at first, and had no clue what was about to change over the course of the week, month, and following years.

I didn't have access to a cell phone there, so I relied on him and constant cnn.com refreshes to give me updates.

When he said that they filmed the 2nd plane going into the tower and that terrorism was likely the cause, I felt helpless and didn't know what to do.

The one girl I worked with was all excited about getting classes cancelled for the day, and she made her excitement vocal, to which one of the library patrons said, "that's not very appropriate". I don't think she understood what exactly was going on, which was odd, since she was the president of her class.

I worked until 2, got my stuff, and started walking home, in somewhat of a daze. Being that close to NYC (I was in New Brunswick, NJ), there were fighter planes zooming by overhead, I guess for some sort of air protection, but every time I saw one, I cringed a little, not knowing what was what.

I ran into one of my house mates. He jumped up, and jokingly screamed "IT'S WORLD WAR THREE!!". I didn't find that all that funny or tasteful.

I got back to my off-campus house that I shared with 7 other people. Some of the girls that we were friends with from freshman year were over, and we were all frantically trying to get through to our families on the phones, but the lines were so tied up that it took a lot of persistence. We eventually all got through, everyone was okay, and nobody knew quite what to say. My uncle predicted quite accurately that he feels for Afghanistan, because they're about to be "turned into a parking lot".

Eventually we all settled around the TV and kept CNN on for hours at a time. We all decided to grill up some hot dogs on the Foreman grill and try to crack jokes and keep it light, but we were all visibly shaken and all sort of at a loss for words.

I ended the night by going to my room and throwing on a movie, hoping to escape for a couple of hours. But stupid me--I chose to watch Fight Club, a movie about a budding terrorist group that ends with the main character and his girlfriend looking out the window watching towers around the city crumble.

Yeah, I didn't sleep well that night.