Sometimes it's therapeutic for me to write to get my emotions out so that is what brought this about.

Some Slow News Day

Tuesday, September 11, 2001: It was supposed to be about us covering the New York Primary and the battle of the democrats to be the candidate for mayor. (Technical and script problems added to the already tense and busy situation.) It was going to be busy for sure, but I was hoping to finish on time to get to the World Trade Center to see my United angels about booking some West Coast travel for December.

Then around 9am the assignment editor said a plane crashed into the World Trade center. We thought he was kidding but then CNN (our affiliate) put up a picture of a big hole in the South Tower of the WTC. It looked scary.

Most of us thought it were just a commuter plane and a crash similar to the one at Empire State building in 1945. We found our breaking news story and sent people downtown.

Then while watching we say a second plane move towards the other Twin Tower and crash into it! People moaned and I just stood there in disbelief. The situation just had gotten worse.

And the Worse Is Yet to Come

The newsroom chaos began as everyone ran around getting video and getting information and "feeding" the anchors wire copy on what was going on. It looked bad and my friend James called and already suggested "a terrorist attack."

I was too crazed to give it a second thought but I thought about it as I was told to write about the 1993 bombing.

Around the 10a hour, with the CNN and our own feeds up on air, the most unthinkable, unbelievable, unimaginable thing happened…

The North Tower came tumbling down

People screamed in the newsroom since our reporter Kristen Shaughnessy who was LIVE on our air describing the scene said "the tower is coming down" and she was getting out there. (She ended up leaving her cell phone and her shoes there to run out. She's still shaken up about it.)

And the coup d'tat: The other tower came down like a house of cards.

I just wanted to run right out of that newsroom and go home. I thought of my cats, my neighbor Agnes and anyone who could have possibly been at the WTC at that time.

The next many hours are just a blur of running around and seeing video of the towers crumbling and the planes crashing and the Pentagon burning and the other plane crash. It was all one big nightmare.

Trapped like Rats

I felt like I was trapped like a rat, back in an edit room to screen video. When I had a few seconds to breath tried to call Agnes to let her know I was ok and stuck at work indefinitely. But I could not.

My friends James and Maryann called and I asked them to try to get in touch with Agnes. But they were worried about me being at the Trade center.

And for good reason: that's the place I have gone, everyday, for over a decade, when coming home from work: Subway to Path Train to Home in Jersey City. We reported the Path train was completely shut down, as well as all the bridges and tunnels. There was ferry service and I was hoping when I finally go out I could get one home (At this point I did not care if I could get BACK to New York. All I wanted was to see my cats again.)

An Outpouring of Love

In the craziness, or maybe my own dense-ness, I didn't get a chance to e-mail anyone on Flyertalk or post that I was ok THANK YOU PREMEX FOR THINKING OF THE "ROLL CALL" POST!

Wanderlust got in contact with me saying he left e-mails and messages on my cell phone worried about me (the first time we met we went to the top of the World Trade center to see the 4th of July fireworks. SO I checked my cell phone and found messages from several Flyertalkers and other friends.

It was later when I finally got back to my computer terminal and saw an instant message that HOLLY also called to see if I was ok. Called her back, thankful to talk to her. Then I checked my e-mail and found so many messages from people checking if I was ok.

Physically OK, yes. Emotionally… NO.

I wanted a HUG (wouldn't do that with co workers - could be sexual harassment.) I wanted to pet my cats. I wanted to go to bed. I wanted to go to some special place where none of this was happenings.

So also needed to write people. But work called.

Forget the Heavenly Bed

After 18 hours, I finally got out of work. I tried to get to the ferry but there was this infinity of people trying to get back to Jersey. My boss's assistant, Joanne the candy lady (who brings in different candy daily including my favorite KitKats) begged me to take their offer to stay at the Travel Inn across the street (also since I was needed back at 1am the next morning.)

The friendly desk clerk kept turning stranded passengers away. I did not see him mention prices for rooms if they were available. I hoped the hotel wouldn't price gouge (as I heard some gas stations were doing.)

The hotel is basic, like something out of a 70's retro Quality Inn. The room was clean but with very hard beds and the weirdest sliding door to the shower (don't like showers with sliding doors.) Hearing stories about people stranded with no hotel room made me thankful that I had a place to sleep. Eventually.

Joanne warned me that I might have a roommate so I decided to leave, knowing that I would have an extra guest coming.

Trying for a Sense of Normalcy

I wanted to clean myself up and "wash" the dirt ath only the clothes on my back I went hunting for:
*A new outfit
*Set of toiletries like toothpaste and deodorant.
*A charger for my cell phones (my phone's battery died)
*Cash from an ATM
*Something tangable to eat. I was so busy I could not eat any of the food brought in.

Times Square and 42nd street, normally bustling with people, was like a ghost town. Most places closed. Found a Duane Reade Drug store for the toiletry items. But it took a search to find an open electronics store for the charger, and an A-T-M that was not shut down. Forced to do the search made me feel like I was in the Big Apple after a war when supplies were limited.

Most clothing stores were also shut so finally found some tourist type place selling jeans and stuff. Prices were high but managed for under 20 bucks to find a pair of jeans (15 with a hole in them as I later discovered,) a 3 dollar T-shirt and a 2 buck pair of Calvin Klein boxer shorts (which in my rush to get out of there ended up being a size 30, way too small for me! No refunds though! L

It was hard to find a sense of normalcy.

Restaurants were also closed but finally found a Chevy's Mexican Grill. And I broke one of my rules of not drinking alcohol, when I had a big beer class of Negro Modelo. No, make that three glasses. I did not feel drunk but I was so hurting I just tried to kill the pain. The food was good but seeing the "America Under Attack" coverage made it indigestible. The server, Michelle, was a belle, dishing out smiles and support and calling me "Sweetie." She got a better than average tip.

There's a Man Sleeping in my Room!

Got back to the darkened room where one of our control room operators, Phil was already asleep and left CNN on the T-V, volume off. At this point I did not care. Phil woke up long enough to tell me work asked if I could come in at 1a. (They told me earlier midnight.) I was glad to get the six hours of sleep.

Went to the bathroom to make calls on the cell just to catch up on a few people before crashing for the night.

Phil was one of the quietest roommates I had. I could not sleep that well anyway, and kind of wished for the snoring of a fellow Flyertalker, because the snoring tends to lull me to sleep.

But I could not escape the nightmare of what happened that day. All in my head seeing the towers come down again and again.

Got to doze here and there but around midnight gave up and decided to go back to work, hoping for a faster day.

"Life" is Cancelled

Worked only 3 hours of overtime the day after, and it was busy as usual as the horrible images of the rubble of the twin towers, the remains of the once mighty skyscrapers sitting in the distance.

Managed to get home since the PATH train resumed service from 33rd street. The first thing I did was hug "my children" and pet them for minutes. Agnes came up and we hugged and she said she was praying my flight would be cancelled.

Postscript: it's now 1 am NYC time. United told me earlier my flight to Narita is cancelled. The earliest I could get out is Monday. Cancelled the Courtyard by Marriott reservations and the agent said if I get charged (since I called after 6pm) to get customer service and explain why I had to cancel. Also cancelled my stay at the Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay and learned from Starwood they would honor the Free Weekends through the end of October.

I decided to stay close to home, saving my vacation time for later when I hope the world returns to some sense of normalcy.

BE WELL MY FLYERTALK FRIENDS!