Wherein I remember dark days... literally.

It's been a while since I wrote something here for a number of reasons; Mostly personal.

However, since today is personal to so many people, our country in particular, I thought it was necessary to share my memories of the day. Considered to be one of the darkest days in recent history for our country.

Yes, I remember where I was... when you have a memory like mine, you always remember. My first year of college, I had late classes that day so I was still in bed, thinking, when my mother called me insisting that I turn on the TV.

Blearily, I fumbled for the remote as my eyes slowly focused. "What channel? Nevermind, think I fou-- What the hell...?!" I, almost, stuttered in muted horror.

The News Anchors, whom I seemed to be filtering out, were showing footage of a decimated building, when out of nowhere a plane (the second one) smashed into this building. Quickly, I read the screen to see what was going on. The Towers were attacked. They proceeded to show recaps of the previous plane. I don't understand why.

It took a moment to regain proper word sounds, but I began to ask about our family that worked in the city. Some of them were ok, but others were unaccounted for because the lines were all busy. One of my aunts worked in The Towers and we hadn't heard from her.

Many places were dark outside. There was talk on the tv and radio of a third plane possibly poised to hit the Pentagon.

All radio stations were airing strictly news or patriotic songs... even K-Rock, which had previously only played rock music or hosted controversial talk shows.

Most streets were clear as everyone was home dealing with the news, finding both relief and/or tragedy. I had to drove through what had become a ghost town to pick someone up from upstate NY. There were a few guys on some of the overpasses waving big American Flags for the passersby, giving an extremely patriotic feeling to them. To me, it felt like a proud city-state of old.

One of the roads in Tuxedo, NY was lined with people just standing there holding candles. It was absolutely surreal. Even if a person were lacking a strong memory, there's no way they could forget something like that.

Finally, the calls started getting through. All family accounted for, but some were stuck in the city because of all the emergency traffic. My aunt was late to work for the first time in her life, I'm told; stuck in the subway.

My story and relationship to the events, thankfully, is not as tragic as some others, but I shortly learned of others that weren't as fortunate. My thoughts are with them on this day.

And for you, my readers, as we were all affected in someway, my thoughts are with you.

Thanks for reading.