re: Where were you- 9/11 25 years ago

Walking to Allen Hall for English from the parking lot across the road from CEBA. Got to class. We were then told to go home.

Task Force Med Eagle at Eagle Base, Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

I was on active duty as was my husband who was traveling that day. I had the flu, a fever, and was pregnant. It was a really long day...actually a lot of days.

Never forget.

After a late night of playing Madden, I was sleeping when my now wife called to tell me about the first one. (With the pre 9/11 mindset I thought I'd get up in an hour or so to hear what happened... so I went back asleep.) The second one hit and my now wife called again which got me up. I went out to the living room and flipped on NBC.

It brought back the memory of being at the gas station the night Desert Storm stared and my parents getting gas just as the owner was calling the attendant to raise the prices. I saw the first one go down and went right to the gas station (which had no wait). It hasn't set in yet. I got back home just a bit before the second one fell.

I had a lab for noon and emailed the middle eastern TA that I wouldn't be there. The local news had been discussing a nearby weapons depot and at the time there was a rumor of a plane headed for the Midwest. The fricking guy had to nerve to respond that they wouldn't be attacking the school so I should attend. I'd probably be sitting in prison right now if I had. (I talked to the prof in the days after and he made it so I never had to go to the lab or deal with the dumbfrick again.)

Around 2 there was a lull in the coverage so I decided to go get groceries for the week. I had to drive by the gas station which by that point had gone up 30 cents, had a line about a mile long, and that line was enough to require traffic cops. I felt like I was ahead of things by getting to the grocery store before the hoarders came out.

After getting home I don't think I turned my TV off/away from NBC until the National Service. I flew down to see my wife two weeks later and saw the heavily militarized airports. I was supposed to go to Starkville to catch up with friends at a game but ended up staying close to home.

On 9/10 I bought a ticket for a Bears game that following Sunday. That got kicked to the end of the season and I still had an itch so I bought a ticket for the next game... the Cardinals. In the end that was obviously Tillman's last season and the game that got moved to the end of the season resulted in me being there for the last regular season game at old Soldier Field. Everything else from the last 4 months of the month is a blur. I vaguely remember W breaking into the start of the noon games to announce the beginning of the Afghanistan invasion.

I look back and realize how suddenly my generation completely lost our innocence that. The biggest story in the weeks before was about a missing intern who was in a relationship with a Californian congressman. We haven't had such a relatively trivial to story like it since.

My mom called to see if I’d heard, and I hadn’t. We had just moved and didn’t have cable hooked up yet, but had already joined a gym. I spent about 8 hours on a treadmill that day watching TV.