I was taking a bike ride around BWI when it all happend. When I got home Bubala called and told me the story and I tried to turn on the TV but the cable was out, when it came back on all the drama was over and all that was left was the edited footage. Bacause we live near the airport and they grounded all flights for that week this area had that same eerie calm to it, and the silence seemed very unusual.

I was unemployed, and was set to go watch my friends' house (and 3 dogs) for Verizon to come by and install a second line. I thought the same thing as I quickly passed the TV my then bf's roommate was watching. A Cessna, I figured too. By the time I got from Kalorama down to Shaw, the second plane must have hit. I remember thinking it was such a beautiful autumn day, so clear and calm. Deceptive appearances... One of the guys worked for the govt, so I sat peeled to the TV. The rumors were ramant: car-bomb at the State Dept where a neighbor worked, no way for people to get out of town.

I'd gotten a call a few days before, for a quick phone intervew, but I didn't give it much thought. A week later I get a phone call about the job. First in a long while. The recruiter paused after the usual spiel, the technical questions and said: "It's at the Pentagon . Alright?" Not a pause for me or a second thought. I said yes.

My only mistake was the day I chose to start work. I was so desperate to work and have money, that I selected the first start day on the calendar. It was Thursday October 11th. The organization has been located in the area hit. They'd won an expansion of the contract right before Sept 11th, and started looking to hire then.

I was working at the hospital when the bf called to tell me a plane had hit the WTC. I turned on and watched - and watched as a second plane hit.

Our staff was furiously trying to make beds at the hospital for patients that were to be triaged and moved west - as the possibility of tens of thousands of patients we at hand. Clearly they were not. We stopped all surgeries on the chance we'd need the space, the equipment and the blood. We didn't.

The other part was Flight 93 circling over cleveland and turning back towards DC. Or that there was a plane on the ground in Cleveland that was a potential threat which had gotten to ground w/possible hijackers on board. There weren't.

Or the ability to get ahold of my sister who lived in Manhattan. And friends who worked across the street from the towers. Most were ok, but I did lose one distant acquantence who happened to be in the bldg at the time for a mtg.

I think I got home at 10p and could not watch any more tv or listen to one more report.

I had called in sick and therefore was at home in DC on 9/11. The confusion and rumors just added to the horror of the day. There were reporters reporting on air that there was a car bomb at the State Department, a DC Police helicopter had been hijacked, there was a fire on the Mall, and there was an explosion at the Capitol. I called my boss at my office in Herndon and she was crying. They had heard that the FAA building in Loudon County had been attacked and there were two fighters escorting a passenger jet down the Potomac.

Herb Sr called and asked why I had not evacuated. To where? I tried to reassure him that I didn’t think 13th St was a target and it was the White House and the Capital that were targets. “Yes but what if they miss“ he said.

I later walked to the corner to the Whitelaw market in search of food. Despite the beautiful, sunny day I remember 13th St being completely devoid of foot or car traffic and eerily quiet. I felt very alone.

I was in class (at UVA) and watched the first plane hit the tower on a live news feed the girl sitting next to me had on her laptop (the whole school was wireless). I nearly lost it right then and there -- my brother worked in the Towers, on like the 90th floor or someting, only I couldn't remember which one -- so needless to say I started freaking out. Turns out, he was in the south tower -- the second to get hit, but the first to fall. My family is very lucky because my brother made it out alive that day, but I still will never forget the terror I experienced. For the whole story, check out my blog.

FYI - I'm having a problem re-publishing my blog -- so the Sept. 11 entry isn't up yet. Hopefully it will work later.

Five years ago today I was attending a department retreat in a stately old mansion along embassy row in Washington just off Dupont Circle. One of my colleagues attending the meeting that day had a gravely ill mother. She received a call on her cell during our first session of the day. We heard her say, “oh my god.” We assumed her mom had passed. When she got off the phone she told us a plane had hit the trade center, shortly thereafter the receptionist informed us a second plane had hit the second tower. We gathered around a small television at the conference table. Another colleague's phone rang; her husband was a secret service agent for Colin Powell. He told her the nation was under attack and we should head home. Unbelievably, our organizations president insisted we come back to our office. If you walked out of the front door of the organization's building and stood in the middle of the street, you could see the white house. My boss overrode that decision and told us all to go home.

Rumors on the television began to circulate, a car bomb had exploded at the state department, the metro was closing, and smoke could be seen billowing from the west toward the Potomac (that was the pentagon).

As I walked back to our apartment, Dupont Circle was pandemonium, people were desperately trying to reach loved ones, cars were heading outbound from the city center and suburbanites were trying to leave the city. The roads leading toward downtown were deserted. The Dupont Subway station was packed and confusion as to whether the metro remained open was evident.

I managed to get through to dBud on my cell who was talking to my mom who was trying to reach me. As dBud mentions we went to a café with our neighbors in the city. 17th street, which is one way toward the city center, had absolutely no traffic on it. People had radios and portable TV’s with them. As we sat at the café the first fighter jets roared over DC. The entire street stopped to look up. Understand we live under restricted airspace and we are not accustomed to hearing jets over the city.