Friday, September 11, 2009

8 years ago

My friend, Kelley, asked me today if I remembered what/where I was on Sept. 11, 2001.

I was going to work but had to drop my old tank Benz (alot like this one) at the garage where my brother worked. Took his car to work so he could work on mine. Was listening to Howard Stern and driving I-4 when I got pulled over for speeding by the FHP. Absolutely glued to the radio, I didn't really care what he'd said or how much my ticket was, smiling and nodding at him and headed off to work trying to figure out if what I was hearing was a bit or if it was real. It didn't sound real. At all.
The $142 speeding ticket was real though.
When I got to the office (that I'd only been working at for 7months) everyone was not tethered to their phones. We weren't getting calls at all. There were folks in the cafeteria glued to their tv's watching coverage of whatever news channel was on. It was moments after the 2nd tower had gotten hit when I walked into Nature's Table. I was speechless. Went back to my desk and was talking to folks sitting around me when I got a breaking news email that the Pentagon had been hit.
Holy crap.
I remember looking at either Michelle or Leah and saying, "This is pretty damn scary...." There were folks gathered around Michelle's desk listening to things unfold on the radio.
I went back into Nature's Table to see the towers fall....amazed. Shit...all those people. I put myself there in my mind...what would it be like to be there, the sights, sounds, smells.....
All those people.
They let us leave early that day - parents to get their kids from school, and folks headin' out to make sure the people that mattered to them were ok.
On my drive back to get my brother's car back to him, I noticed a spot on the right side of my upper lip started swelling up. Like I'd bitten it, but I couldn't remember biting it.
When I got to the garage, I asked Jason (my brother) if he'd heard all of what happened, we talked about how crazy it was and talked about my car and I was like, "Dude, look at my lip - can you see this?" He was like, "Yeah, did you bite it?" No....not that I know of.
He'd fixed my car, so I'd driven home to watch the news and call my mom.
Mom and I talked for a bit, she was completely shocked as well and we were both just watching the news, listening to the media figure everything out.
All these people. How can I help?? Can't I just pack up a bunch of water and drive up?? Can't I
That night I went to my boyfriend's (at the time) apartment and we watched the news together and I cried.....because my lip had now swollen to engulf my entire face.
The Boyfriend.....He was all packed and on his way to go surfing with some boys from his 20th high school reunion and was still hell bent on his flight leaving the next day.
So we hung out that night - our doctor friend came over to look at my lip and had no diagnosis.
That might've had more to do with him being a anesthesiologist.
After they left, we went to bed. Being the good girlfriend I was (at that time), I was taking my man (at that time) to the airport the next day no matter what.
So the next day came.
My lip was still swollen but a little bit less.
In the a.m., I had a Dr's appt.
I went in to see him (before taking my boyfriend at the time to the airport) and he was all like, "What's the matter with your lip??" and I was all like, "I don't know what happened to it. That's why I came to see you." and he was like, "Well..., you know....people come in and pay to get lips like these.....Here's my cell phone number if you need anything further."
But thanks for your personal cell phone number. That was awesome.
So I go back to my boyfriend at the time and he's all like, "aren't we going to the airport now?" and I was like, "yeah, let's get a move on."
We get down to the airport area and they aren't letting anyone on or off the planes they have there.....
Literally there are cops and swat and whatever blocking every which way in and out of the airport....
So I was all, "Dude, I don't think you're going to Hawaii at the moment...."
Then he was sad and I was cranky...

but atleast my swollen lip had gone back to normal.

But, seriously, I've never had any lip problems since then.
And I've never gone through any crazy national problems....

Not since 9/11/2001.

So what does that date remind you of?? What were you doing?? What did you experience?? How did you handle it??
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