Never Forget

On September 11, 2001 I woke up in a panic. It was street sweeping day, and around here you have to move your car from one side of the street to the other or face getting a ticket. I woke up at around 5:30 AM (PST) hearing the street sweeper off in the distance. Usually once you can hear it it's too late to do anything about it, but I woke up in a panic because I realized I had forgotton to move my car.

I leapt out of bed in my pjs, and realized I didn't have my glasses. In a series of unfortunate events I'd left them at school the day before. I found my keys and raced outside and into my car. Of course, it wouldn't start. Besides that I couldn't see anything without my glasses. I finally got it to start and took off before the sweeper got to me, but I ended up getting a ticket anyway, and had to drive all the way down the block, in the semi-dark, without my glasses.

I never listen to the news in the morning. I don't want the TV intruding on my waking up period, and I hate listening to the radio in my car. It wasn't until I got to work about 2 hours later that I knew anything had happened, but I was able to piece together that the first plane hit around the time I was gripped in panic over the street sweeper.

To this day the sound of the street sweeper wraps me in panic. In fact this past Tuesday I woke up to hear it and I repeated over and over in my head "It's not 9/11, it's not 9/11, it's not 9/11...." until well after the sweeper had passed us by.

I will never forget that day...