In my dorm room when I heard. I ran down to the common area and everyone was just standing there looking at the big screen like WHU? Rough.

IGshr*e

Well, before I had the presence of mind to call ImaginaryDana, I was roughly awakened from a sound sleep by my boyfriend at the time. He had a job that required him to be up super early, and had the TV on after the first plane had hit, but before the second.

He came into the bedroom and shook me awake, and looking completely befuddled said "I need you to come look at this to tell me if it's real".

I stumbled into our living room, in front of the TV, gawked for a couple seconds, and right as I was about to say "yeah, it's real, but it's just an accident" - the second plane hit.

We both yelped like we'd been stung, and I said "OK, that's not an accident, we're under attack."

Right before I called Dana, I called my mom in Indiana. She answered, and I could tell she had no idea what was going on yet. I told her she had to go turn on her TV immediately. She asked "what channel?", and without thinking I said "Mom, any channel. Every channel. This is one of those things that is will be on every channel you get." She ran to turn on her TV, and seconds into us watching together, the first tower fell.

I had just moved to Seattle and was living with my brother. I was sleeping on a really crappy futon.

I slowly woke up to the radio alarm I had set. I thought I was having a weird dream at first. And it turned into a nightmare on the TV.

I was wandering the streets of Fez, Morocco, looking for some dinner. I sat down at one place, and the restaurant's barker started saying something in French to passersby about New York and Les Etas Unis. I asked him what it was all about, but he wouldn't say -- he said he didn't want to worry me during dinner.

It wasn't until later that night that I figured out that planes had crashed, and not until the next day that I figured out that the towers had fallen.

But I will say that for the remainder of my stay in Morocco (2 more days), everyone I met was extremely friendly to me and concerned.

I awoke to my radio as Bob Edwards on NPR said, "a 3rd plane has crashed today..."

I was to be editing a video for a client on Haight Street in San Francisco and as I walked to work in a daze, people were gathered around TVs in coffee shops or wherever there was one with the news. Everyone I passed on the street made eye contact wanting to connect, wanting to know that other people were experiencing this too and wondering what we should be doing. It was like the world was slowing coming to a stop and while we had to go to work or run the errands, we were doing it on auto pilot, while our minds were in New York and elsewhere. I got to work and my producer just hugged me and said, "I think we are kidding ourselves if we think we are going to get anything done today." We sat in the edit bay watching the news and talking ourselves through what it could all mean...

Murph

We had just moved to Seattle. From NYC.

We were up early, watched the whole thing unfold, and we were both overcome with the NEED to go back and help.

Ha ha ha. "Help." Like there was anything we could do. But we felt (and feel) guilty for having left right before it happened.

It's like hearing your recent breakup got into a terrible car wreck. You can't just be callous about it.

I was living in Everett at the time and working a crappy job as an assistant manager of a fast food restaurant. It was a Tuesday morning, I believe, and I was the opening manager that day. As I was driving to work I passed one of the financial buildings and noticed that the NYSE was closed. I thought that was odd but didn't make a note of it until I got to work a few moments later and one of my employees told me right away what happened.

I really became cynical about the whole thing because one of our customers that day (and I know that fast food customers in Snohomish County are not the best representative sample to draw from) said something blatantly racist about how we needed to round up every single Muslim in the world and that was the only way to prevent this from happening again.

I thought that it brought out a lot of people's prejudices but didn't really become worried about civil liberties and freedom until I heard that a song called "New York City Cops" was being removed from the first record from The Strokes (who were the hot new new band at the time) and when I heard about people beating up on Susan Sontag for a short item she wrote for The New Yorker and the discussion if we could ever laugh again after 9/11. I thought that that was mainstreaming of censorship and began to fear the worst for civil liberties after that.

Sadly, I was correct to do so.

Oh, Snohomish County fast food customers. Heh. Wow.

I was in junior high and had been raised comfortably in the cushie '90s, so this was the very first threat to my generation's worldview. We had our history textbooks, but I hadn't ever witnessed something that domestically significant before.

I was standing in my kitchen in my apartment on 15th Avenue - listening to KEXP while getting ready for work and heard the news from John Richards: "a plane just crashed into the Pentagon..."

I thought it was a joke too until I turned on NPR on the way to work...

I'll never forget those bizarre ensuing weeks...

It brings goosebumps to my arms reading everyone's accounts. This is definitely one of Those Moments, as Lawrence cited earlier this week. Something that defines us as a person, as a people, as a country, and on and on.

I was laying in bed at my then-beau's (now husband's) house, trying to get the energy to head to work. As usual, I turned on the tube and saw what was happening. Puzzled and not sure what it really meant, I got dressed and headed downtown. On the bus, most folks were somber -- though I recall hearing some actually make JOKES about this. It was only 8.45 or 9 a.m. -- I suspect the true impact of the event hadn't been felt yet. But still, I remember thinking, "I know this is how some folks deal with tragedy, but this is highly inappropriate."

After getting downtown, checking my company's voicemail system and hearing quakey-voiced messages from all of my coworkers announcing they were not coming in that day, I headed back home and watched TV for hours, endlessly, until my guy got home. Then we watched some more.

Despite the horrendous, atrocious governmental/leadership stories and actions that unfolded shortly after, I nonetheless remember standing in my apartment that night and being truly moved, truly united by George W.'s speech. That's probably the only time I'll ever say that.

On a related note, I was listening to an NPR interview with Rhett Miller of the Old 97's a few weeks ago. In it, he recounted his tale of living in NYC - mere blocks from ground zero - and the aftermath of 9/11. This was yet another moment where I felt so moved, so connected with someone who on any given day I'd embarrassingly consider a "star" and therefore not human like me. This day changed us all.

I was on a school bus heading to marysville pillchuck high school. 1st period: core math. I cracked a joke about getting school off. My teacher yelled at me:

"The events of today could easily push us into WW3! Do you want to be drafted?!"

then it became real. 10th grade. everyone believed in god that year.

I remember getting woken up by my roommates saying my sister was on the phone. Since she was in England, I thought she had the time mixed up, calling so early. I answered the phone and she was sobbing saying, "I thought you were already in New York, but you are ok!" What? And I went to the TV and realized what was going on. Of course I'm fine; I wasn't leaving for New York and CMJ until the next day, the 12th. I was still fairly dazed thinking I would be leaving the next day, and got ready for work at EMP, where 1/2 later we were sent home as the Space Needle/ Seattle Center was a terrorist target and no one knew what was happening.

So I went to the travel agent to figure out what to do. Obviously no planes would be flying, I went home and thought, "What am I thinking, I can't go have fun and see music amidst all this tragedy". It was starting to sink in. Of course CMJ was cancelled at first but then later post paned for two weeks. I wasn't going anyway but then my friend in New York called a few days later and said, "please come, we need something to feel normal". So I did. It was the most surreal experience to go to ground zero with my friend before they even had the wall up around it and to see all the ash everywhere, to see all the photos up everywhere for missing people never to be found and flowers at all the fire stations. We went to the Knitting Factory with a showcase of mostly New York bands including Skeleton Key, whose singer had lost his apt. two blocks from ground zero. I did registration at CMJ which was a somber affair noticing how many people weren't there, and a few groups, especially European groups, that were continuing their tours because they couldn't go home. But there wasn't a lot of joy, but more like a lot of sorrow and helplessness.

CMJ was downtown next to the NBC news headquarters. While checking in bands, I started to see the security guards become anxious and overheard "anthrax" and "close the subways"- we were sent home after a letter containing anthrax had been opened next door. We were given the all clear to return after the buildings had been swept.

The next day, I woke up and took a shower, looking out the bathroom window I noticed a big plume of smoke coming from the Empire State Building- I screamed, "They got the Empire State Building"- luckily it was just a huge fire on the next block that destroyed a conservatory. I mean you know it's crazy when that's a relief. Well my nerves were shot, and yet, everyone in the music community turned the panels and showcases into cathartic sessions and talked about how to make it better, how to use art, music and their voices to heal- that made it better. I spent the last day of CMJ at Central Park because I needed sunshine, nature and hope. But my thoughts go out to everyone who was there, and lost loved ones, even just visiting weeks later was very sad and traumatic.

I was in the car, driving to my job on Cap. Hill from West Seattle. I heard bits and pieces about what was happening on NPR. When I got to the office the whole team was standing silently, staring at the TV....

Even more than the 11th, I remember the 12th. Woke up, turned on the TV and saw once again the smoldering piles... it was real, it had happened. I broke down in tears.

At the time I was back home in Salem working my summer job before heading back up to Seattle for college.
I worked on a farm driving combines and when I got to work that morning someone told me that a plane hit one of the world trade center towers. My first thought was that it was an accident. Then when we heard that the second plane hit, obviously it was no longer an accident.

I had the odd experience of hearing second hand accounts of all these plane crashes without seeing any images all day. I spent the day wondering what it looked like to have big 747's hit towers like that. After playing my imaginary version in my head all day, I finally got home around 9 or 10 at night and went straight to the TV so see what it looked like. Even though I knew it was coming it still somehow surprised and shocked me as I'm sure it did to everyone else 12 hours earlier.

We were already at work - Central Time Zone - we lived in AR at the time. I walked down the hall to see everyone crowded around a tiny black and white TV in an office of a woman who nobody liked. I couldn't believe my eyes. I called my Mom, as we have loads of family in NY. She was at a convention and she had no idea what had happened. We spent a lot of time at work that day trying to track down our team members who were traveling to ensure they were OK. We all traveled three or four weeks of the month at that time. We kept re-loading the airline webpages for more info on flight numbers and compared the info to our team members' itineraries. All of our employees came home safe ... eventually.

Then we all watched CNN or Fox News (choose your poison) 24/7 for weeks. We got good at listening to the reporters and reading the scroll bar at the same time. Putting our multitasking skills to work for days, weeks, months. It wasn't until a long time after that I found out that one of our high school classmates perished in the attack. Nice to hear today that one memorial was opened to the public. It makes me want to go and see it ... take it all in ... remember (as if I could forget).

living in a suburb of nyc. i was in school and we all got sent to the gymnasium and put in front of a movie until a parent came to pick us up. no one would tell us what was going on but some teachers looked on the internet and rumors started flying and everyone started freaking out about loved ones. still gives me shudders, i will never forget that day and the aftermath, the smokey city, the lives lost, the tragedy.

Wow, I forgot that Sept. 11 was yesterday.

My wife and I woke up to the news on the TV, and we thought it was WW3 for a few minutes from the way it was being reported. Those first couple hours really seemed like maybe we were going to be attacked a lot more.

Then I went to the record label I worked for at the time and I was already getting angry, demanding calls from producers who wanted their money Fed Exed down to them in California immediately, and I had to explain that Fed Ex wasn't happening for anyone right away. Having it totally confirmed that people in the music business really are that out of touch with reality.

Within a couple of hours the office Republicans started treating me like I needed to be lynched for my general political outlook even though I hadn't even said anything about the situation to inspire their ire. The one cool guy in the art department I thought I could trust to be level-headed said, "We need to round those people up." By 2 PM the editor of a magazine and I were on the phone, and the first things we said to each other was, "Well, Bush is going to get his fucking war."

I was home in Kansas City visiting my family for my birthday. I woke up and was packing to head to the airport and fly back to Seattle. My stepmom Jamie told me to come into the living room and watch the news. It was surreal. I ended up staying there 4 extra days waiting to get a flight back. Obviously my birthday (the 12th) didn't really matter that year.

I was sitting in a fifth grade classroom.
My teacher turned on the tv and i remember her crying.
My classmates didn't know what was going on.
I remember feeling confused.

When I got home,
my mother was crying. She said that some people had done a horrible thing and that many innocent people had lost their lives. And that from now on people might treat us differently and blame us for what those people had done.

I remember for weeks afterward, everywhere my mother and I went people would scream things at us, or just glare.

I remember my best friend crying on the bus.
I remember not being able to wrap my head around the whole thing.
I remember someone screaming for us to go back to our country.
I remember a classmate asking me if I was related to Osama Bin Laden.

But most of all,
I remember sitting in the back of a fifth grade classroom and seeing the second plane fly into the tower.

I was ten.

I was sitting in a fifth grade classroom.
My teacher turned on the tv and i remember her crying.
My classmates didn't know what was going on.
I remember feeling confused.

When I got home,
my mother was crying. She said that some people had done a horrible thing and that many innocent people had lost their lives. And that from now on people might treat us differently and blame us for what those people had done.

I remember for weeks afterward, everywhere my mother and I went people would scream things at us, or just glare.

I remember my best friend crying on the bus.
I remember not being able to wrap my head around the whole thing.
I remember someone screaming for us to go back to our country.
I remember a classmate asking me if I was related to Osama Bin Laden.

But most of all,
I remember sitting in the back of a fifth grade classroom and seeing the second plane fly into the tower.

I was ten.

I was also in 5th grade. My dad woke me up, not really any earlier than normal, and told me the Twin Towers had fallen. I had no idea what the Twin Towers were.

I watched it on the news all morning, and at school everyone was talking about it. I went the whole day not knowing what the World Trade Center was.

you know i was moving this year and offline and thankful to not be subjected to 9/11 stuff. i would prefer never to have to see that footage ever, ever again.

on 9/11/01 i was living in brooklyn and working in midtown manhattan. i woke up late, never went to work, watched it all unfold on TV (like everyone else) while getting wasted with some friends in brooklyn - because hey if the world was going to end we wanted to be good and toasted when it happened. but it didn't.

i think 9/11/05 was the first year i woke up and did not even realize it was 9/11 until i turned on the TV.

this year friends from seattle came to visit before heading to NYC for their honeymoon. new york lives on - despite the gaping hole in its skyline.

i too was working in the music industry for an evil music empire. our boss made us go back to work 2 days later telling us all it was time to get back to normal. i had people calling me about elton john tickets and i was like don't you get it elton john isn't performing he can't even get here because there are no flights are you out of your fucking mind?! i realized then that i had made a serious mistake in my career choice and thus began the downward spiral of me leaving the industry - and leaving NYC.