I worked for AOL in Dulles and NYC, and I lived in California.
Don’t ask how it worked out that way but it did.
I was 4 days into my new job, and watching TV in the hotel when the plane hit the first tower around 9:30 am.
I remember thinking it had to be an accident, and then realizing it wasn’t.
And then, as the other plane hit the second tower, realizing something terrible was happening.
I was in the taxi heading to AOL when I heard the Pentagon had been hit.
I worried that the US was about to get bombed, and the DC area would be hit–and I’d die, or be trapped.
Very soon after I came to the office, they sent us home.
Only home was a hotel room, so I went to the AOL newsroom to help out.
Jim Brady and others had just about moved in, AOL was building message boards and communication tools like mad.
For three days, I helped out in the newsroom.
There was no way to get home to California, and while my family was okay, I was far away from them.
Later that week, AOL charted two jets to fly the Californians home.
The plane was so full we had to stop and refuel in Salinas, Kansas, where the local paper discussed the terrorism threat.
By the time I got home to my family, I was thrilled they’d been safe on the left coast, and exhausted by what had happened.
A week later, I got on a plane again to go to my job in Dulles.
All that year, I commuted.
Every time I flew, I thought about September 11th.