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03 May, 2011

Where Were You When...

The bathroom.

Both times.

September 11, 2001: I was in the bathtub shaving my legs (yes, two momentous events at once. shut up!) when my dad knocked on the bathroom door and said he thought something big was happening, and that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. “Was it an accident?” “I don’t think so.” He had that tone of voice that said “I’m remaining calm on the outside but freaking the f--- out on the inside.” I don’t for sure remember the words – or even whether he mentioned the Pentagon or the second plane in New York – but I’ll always remember the voice.

May 1, 2011 May 2, 2011: I was on the toilet reading my e-mails. It’s my morning ritual – I stagger out of our bedroom and down the hall to “my” bathroom and pet Elphie while I pee. Then I sit there and read my e-mails and sometimes Facebook on my phone before I get in the shower. Scott had sent me two e-mails, and I got the second one first – “no French toast, up late watching the news” or something like that. And then the first e-mail actually explained what was going on. Most of my Facebook stream was updates from ABC News, with a few friends’ reactions scattered through. I’m still not quite sure why Scott sent the two e-mails (while laying in bed right next to me) rather than wake me up, but there you have it.

Anyone else have a bare-bottom story involving bin Laden? On second thought, never mind. I’d rather not know!

3 comments:

mamajoy said...

first of all, i totally know that voice of your dad's!!!

and I have a circular story too
9-11-01 Walking into Chick-fil-A in Orlando ... a co-worker doing a trash run told me as I was coming in for my shift.

5-1-11 Chick-fil-A in Trinity. One of our "regulars" distributes some off-the-wall rag that poses as a legit paper. The big headline said, "I shot him dead." and my first thought was, "what a rag! who reads these papers" and then about 10 minutes later, i was putting the st pete times in the spot for the customers, and even their headline said, "DEAD."

so, no, my bottom wasn't bare ... but i was wearing the exact same outfit!!!!!

Scott said...

First, in my defense, you had been asleep for about an hour when the "news" started trickling in, and I didn't know if that necessarily met the criteria of "OH MY GOD WAKE UP!!!"

So, for both of mine, bed...

09-11-01: Recovering from knee surgery on 09-05. Really good pain killers had me in a great sleep when my mom woke me up with the news of the first plane, which everyone still thought was a small single engine for some reason. So after 15-20 min, I dozed back off, only to wake up, and not sleep again for 72 hours, when the second one hit.

05-01-11: Literally reaching over to turn the ringer off on the phone and turn the TV off at around 10 when I looked at my breaking news email that simply said "President to hold news conference at 10:30pm, White House not disclosing reason." So of course, I had to start channel surfing, and finding the same thing on every news channel... no one had a CLUE why, but it was freaking everyone out. The only thing anyone would say was it was a national security matter.

wickedmess said...

11SEP01 I had just left for work and the DJs on Real Radio 104.1 were cracking jokes about a plane hitting one of the towers. I had a bad feeling about it and turned around and came home. I came in the door "just in time" to see the second plane hit.

01MAY11 I was working at home when I received a weird text message. I turned on the TV and saw Wolf Blitzer teasing the hell out the President's 10:30 news conference.