3:45 p.m. - Sep 11, 2001
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9-11 Jeezus what a way to greet the day. I had just gotten to work this morning, and my phone was already ringing. It was one of my Sales Managers, calling in from New York.
No, I hadn't heard. I don't listen to the news in the morning. The World Trade Center was hit. I was just THERE, staying at the Marriott World Trade Center, one week ago. We sailed the NY Harbor, and took pictures of the WTC. My colleague and I were going to go up to Windows on the World, for drinks. I walked that damn bridge across the WTC. I was JUST THERE.
Then, the phones started ringing. They didn't stop ringing for several hours. All of the employees on my team were fine, they were evacutaing our building - The Chrysler Bldg in NYC, saying, "It just wasn't safe."
Being in the airline industry when a major crisis like this happens is freaky. You feel like you are a part of something big, but it's nothing that you have any control over.
You start to think about all the people you know - all the people you talk to every single day in NY. You start to think about all the people that you have booked on flights and all the people that work in those people. People in the WTC that may not be there anymore.
We had every radio and television at Continental on. We were plugged into CNN.com and we all rallied together. People were crying. I found myself hugging people. I found myself reaching out to total strangers.
Clint called me from home. He was watching tv and giving me a play-by-play.
And then he told me that the WTC crumbled to the ground, before his eyes. He was crying in disbelief. It was horrible. Then it seemed like the entire US was being attacked. Planes, left and right, were being hijacked and innocent people were killed.
For what!?
We may find out tonight - it may take weeks or months. We may never know...
My heart is heavy and I am shocked.
Driving through the Montrose, people were already putting up signs & memorials, "God bless America - land of the Free."
Jeezus.
This is my wedding anniversary.
Or, it would've been. I left my husband yesterday.
