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Thursday, September 11, 2003
Two years ago, at 8:55 am, I was pulling into a Newton, Mass. parking garage, listening to a breaking news report on NPR. Sketchy details report a plane just hit the WTC, but "no further details were available". Knee-jerk assumption was a small plane, a single engine prop, a freak accident. Turn off the car, walk into work, check out the television in the game room.
Adam is already there, watching the live CNN feed. "Wow, looks like it was a pretty big plane". "Damn, that's a lot of smoke". More co-workers gather, chatting, speculating, wondering. It's 9:03. We watch the second plane hit. We all know what it means. Some can't look away from the TV, others just look at each other. The people at Turning Point Software (because that's what it will always be called to me, not Meta-Vant-Whatever) were good friends, maybe the closest team of co-workers I'll ever know, but that day gave us a connection that can't be matched. It's 9:05 and I call Amie at home, tell her to turn on the TV. She can't believe it. "What the hell's going on?" I jump on the net, hit my first surfing stop of every day, the Warren Ellis Forum on Delphi. Joe has already started a thread. "Holy shit:", "This is just horrifying", "fucking unreal", "Are we under attack?", "I HEARD IT. I HEARD IT.", "I could feel it shake.", "Reports of an explosion at the Pentagon", "We just lost the World Trade Center.", "this is really scary.", "MY BUILDING, WHERE I SHOULD BE RIGHT NOW, NO LONGER EXISTS.", "Glad you're alive.", "I want to go home.", "I am trembling as I write this.", "All of our thoughts are with you.", "I'm fucking numb.", "What a terrible, terrible day." In that one-of-a-kind virtual hangout, I found real-time reaction, international perspective, first-hand accounts, paranoid speculation, blind anger, heartfelt concern, but most of all, a sort of long-distance communal connection. A new kind of comfort among strangers. I've never felt anything like that, and in retrospect, it was a pretty powerful source of hope of on such a dark, dark day. Today I'll be donating blood at Fenway Park (starts at 11am... if you're in Boston, head on down), and this evening I'll be getting together with my friends and former co-workers from Turning Point. We'll be gathering, as we hopefully will every year on this day, at the restaurant across the street from our old building. Reflecting on the way things used to be, and appreciating what we have now.  |
 the joy formidable live in allston, ma on march 29th, 2011 previously: fugazi - vermont 1991 recent posts on the 'nac...
on the nightstand other boston-area music blogs
boston music media boston live show / event info music blogroll
music audiocasts surf-worthy
other frequent haunts boston-centric
( < | > random list ) some cele-bloggers 
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