If you’ve been reading this blog long enough, you knew I’d post about September 11th today. I’ve never really given any post so much thought ahead of time. Going back weeks I started to mull over how I might write about it, which direction to take. I knew I didn’t want to use it to make a political statement, and that’s about all I knew. All weekend long I found myself watching shows about 9/11, actually I’ve been doing that for five years now. Finally, I decided, that as cliché as it might be that I would write about how that day went for me and how I found out.

There’s never been any other moment like it. It was a sucker punch that left us all in a daze till this day. It wasn’t the first moment like it, there was JFK before, D-Day and for my generation there was the Challenger tragedy. But this didn’t just happen to an unfortunate number of our population, although directly it did, it happened to everyone. And I think everyone who has told their story, started it with the same beginning about how it was just another normal day. I’m no different.

I was working at Lenscrafters at the time, and opening the lab alone. Normally opening the lab on a Tuesday would have been my buddy Andrew but, he was out of town for his sisters wedding. Now Andrew and I go back, all the way back to Long Island. Our families were friends, he and my brother were in a bad together, our parents shared gallons of coffee together and his sister baby sat me on a regular basis. She and I have the same birthday, and I even took my first steps at their house (that’s what I’m told, I actually don’t remember EVERYTHING). It was a wedding I had wanted to attend but, couldn’t afford the trip to New York.

Here is my recant of where I was the day the world stopped spinning. I always liked opening the lab alone, I could play whatever music I wanted and it was just kind of peaceful or something. That morning I was listening to some Dave Matthews Band, not at all a surprise to anyone who worked with me. And at about 8:15 central time, the General Manager Genia came in and told me she heard two planes had hit the World Trade Center.

“Two?” I asked. “There’s no way that’s an accident, one plane maybe but no way two.”

First thing I did was pick up the phone to call Andrew. See, not only did his father and sister work in Manhattan at the time but, his fiancé (yes, I said it) worked in the World Trade Center. No idea how but, I actually got through on the first try. He told me his dad and sister were okay but they were unable to get a hold of each other amiss the chaos. Also, they hadn’t yet heard from Matt. He couldn’t keep the phone tied up since he was relaying messages between his dad and sister, while also trying to get in touch with Matt.

Now the last place I want to be is at work. Not that I can do anything to help anyone if I was home but, it just didn’t feel right. How can I worry about making glasses in about an hour right now? I’m thinking they’ll shut down the mall and I’ll go see my parents. I’ll go watch a television to see what’s happening. Rumors were all over the place. I actually hard someone say that Oak Park Mall was a target. Which was the dumbest rumor ever in the history of dumb rumors. The only threat to Oak Park Mall was us idiots that worked there.

I got in touch with my friend Dana, who told me how weird the sky looked with all the planes circling the Kansas City sky waiting to land. I should be with my friends and family, not at work. But I was confident I’d be going home soon. You’ll never believe what happened. We didn’t close the store, or the mall. In fact we were some what busy. People were actually shopping that morning and afternoon. America is under attack, there’s thousands dead for sure and these idiots felt like going shopping. I’ll never understand that.

It couldn’t have just been retail therapy. Not when you go see the eye doctor and browse around over priced frames and sip some cappacuino. And I promise you don’t want an angry, worried Hirp making your glasses. I didn’t want to help anyone see, I felt more like jabbing a temple in every customers’ eye just for being so stupid. How could they not want to just take their kids home and hug them? How were they not calling all their friends and family to check up on them? No, these morons wanted glasses and in about an hour no less.

I finished out my shift and headed home to glue myself to the television. I had a roommate at the time, and we both just sat there in total disbelief. I don’t recall exactly when I found out that Matt was okay. But the wedding went on as scheduled that weekend. And a couple of years ago I was over visiting Andrew when his family was in town for a visit, and for the first time Matt talked about all that he saw that day. It was a lot of the same things I had heard countless times from strangers on TV. And it’s completely different to hear from someone personally.

As I watched yet another special last night I realized something; five years ago last night, 2,973 people had a Monday night just like any other Monday night.