We were out of t.p. this morning and I had to go to the store at the butt crack of dawn so I thought that I would grab a coffee while we were out. At our little coffee place they always play the news and this morning it was all 9/11 coverage. Mary and I were sitting there talking about it this morning and both of us vividly remember where we were, what we were thinking, etc when it happened.

Dee and I were on the ferry going to Seattle (I was working at Clipper and she was working in Kirkland) and heard on the radio that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. My first thought was “Damn, I have an ass for a boss (NOT Beth, seriously people…DB) who is totally not going to understand me being late, we have to drive right past the World Trade Center to get to Clipper. How am I going to get to work?” If you don’t know Seattle, we have a World Trade Center right on the waterfront and I just assumed that was what they were talking about, I figured a small plane had lost control and gone into it. Little did we know the magnitude of it all. It was a very scary day at work, watching all of it unfold on the internet and sitting in the Port of Seattle building feeling like that wasn’t the safest place in the world to be, a prime target. Our boss, the ass…NOT Beth, wouldn’t dream of letting us go home and we even thought about a walkout. It was strange how silent the skies were, how sullen the mood was and people just didn’t know what to do or think.

Patriatism was at an all-time high and I remember going to Vegas awhile later and watching the fountains at the Bellagio dance to “Proud to be an American” and the many not-so-dry eyes around us. People changed on 9/11, people really changed.