On the way to work. . .

On the morning of 9-11 I was driving to work from Maryland. I wanted to make it just in time for the on street parking to open. I was listening to Howard Stern. He was talking about a plane striking the WTC. It didn't make sense. I knew Stern was a shock jock. But I didn't understand if he was joking and if he was why? As I arrived at work, it soon became apparent that it wasn’t a joke. I saw people rushing to leave, with a sense of distress and unease. By that time the 2nd plane had hit and the Pentagon was soon to follow.

We might not have understood what was happening but we knew it was bad. When the Pentagon was struck, co-workers, downtown, everyone started to leave. My office sits right at one of the major arteries in and out of DC. It became a parking lot in no time. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to leave my car. I just sat on the curb next to it. What I remember other than the fear and uncertainty was that I needed a smoke. I'd quite recently. It was a good 4 months. A hot dog vendor on the corner was trapped by traffic also and he sold cigarettes. After about a half an hour of sitting and wondering what would happen next and staring at the vendor, I was back to smoking. I ended up walking home