Woke up 7am West Coast time to get my kids ready for school. I’m in the shower listening to radio news half asleep and I hear the reports (at this point the first tower has fallen; I am not comprehending this at all and think a plane just hit the Trade Center).

This is still very concerning to me because I’m originally from NY; my Dad worked his whole career there and I worked there 2 summers and spent a ton of time there because of my Dad. I run out dripping from shower to turn on the TV, my brain put together that one tower had fallen, and I watched the second one fall live. Time pretty much stopped for me.

In a further way this event shook me to the core, I had also had an internship in college at the Pentagon; when it got hit as well....I just couldn’t believe it. I had physical memories of these buildings and what it felt like for them to be full of people.

Somehow got the kids off to school; couldn’t find my sister who worked near the Trade Center till the evening of that day; I knew someone who died on the plane that hit the Pentagon (her husband had worked with me), and my family knew several people who died at the WTC because of my Dad’s long ties to WTC 1 where he worked for so long.

9/11 totally messed me up. I remember on 9/12 people came into my business laughing and joking and I was just so angry at these people. Closed the business for the rest of the week; spent quite a bit of time obsessing over the whole thing.