It was a normal day...

My wife and I had just come home from our honeymoon. We had a great four days at the Wilderness Lodge at Walt Disney World, followed by three wonderful days on the Disney Wonder. After the stress of hosting the wedding, it was a great way to relax.

Two days previous, we had flown back into Hartsfield, been picked up by the limo, and sort of settled in.

We were still in my wife's townhome, although we had put it under contract while we were at WDW, as well as put our current house under contract. The day before, Monday, was fairly normal, we had ten days of stuff to get done before we both started back to work on Tuesday.

My wife had to be at work first. She was in the shower, and I was still lounging in bed watching the morning news. "OMG. A jet just hit the World Trade Center. OMG. I can't believe it. It's a clear day. There is NO REASON for a commercial jet to fly into the WTC. Who are these idiots on TV? They can't tell the difference between a passenger jet and a flippin' Cessna? Why did that plane fly into the WTC? Who is behind this? Gail, some freak just flew a jet airliner into the WTC."

Poopysquat (this is a family friendly blog).

"It just happened again. This is NOT an accident. Somebody is behind this. How could this happen? We were on a plane two days ago. Who did this? How stupid are these people? Katie, are you THAT stupid that you can't tell that this is a friggin' jet?"

I have to get to my store (not because of this, but because it has been managerless for ten days). I run through the shower and get ready to go.

One of my staff is from NY. He can't get any of his family on the phone. He's freaked out. There is nobody in the mall. We get the word that we are closing. Lock up, and we are out. I call my wife. One of her lawyers is in upstate NY, and can't get back. She's secured a rental car for him, and he's going to drive straight through.

The store was closed the next day.

My mother can tell me exactly where she was the day JFK died. I remember seeing Ronald Reagan being thrown into his car after being shot (I was in high school). But, I will never forget the day that the planes flew into the WTC. I thought about the responders running into the building while trying to get everyone else out. I thought about the people on the planes, knowing they would never see their families. I thought about the people trapped above the wreckage in the towers, wondering what would happen.

I'll never forget.