[RoninLB]

This is JP (Overpaid Slacker), I crashed at Ron's after getting back from Hershey --

I was living in New York (Brooklyn Heights) at the time, but my firm's fiscall year ended 9/30 and I had vacation I'd lose ... so I took a week off and went up to Syracuse (where I'd grown up, so I was staying at my mom's). I'd been out until about 6:00 in the morning, so I was just hitting "power sleep" mode when the phone rang.
MOM: "Get up, turn on any television. A plane just hit the Trade Center"
ME: (who you rouse from sleep with the same degree of risk to grievous personal injury as a particularly ornery Grizzly): What?
To be honest, I thought some guy in a Cessna had a heartattack or got too close on a flyby and pranged the building
MOM: Get up! A plane just hit the Trade Center!
ME: Mom, whatever happened will still have happened after I get a few hours' sleep. I'll call you later.

And I hang up. Ten minutes later, just as I'm getting back to real sleep, the girlfriend (who lived with me and works in midtown, but hadn't made the trip to the 'Cuse) calls from her office:

ME (particularly irate now): Hello?!
G/F: JP, a plane just hit the trade center, get up!
ME: I know, my mom just called. I'm exhausted. I was at (a friend's) until six. I've got to get some sleep.
G/F: It's terrible! The plane just flew into the building!
ME: I KNOW! Look, are you OK?
G/F: Yes.
ME: You're at your office?
G/F: Yes. But JP, it'sterribletherearepeoplejuststandinginthestreets and..
ME: Well, that's New York for you. I'll call you later.

I hang up. Let me re-emphasize that I'm exhausted and foggy and have no idea the magnitude of the event. Ten minutes later, my sister calls:

ME: HELLO!!
SIS: JP, Oh my God, a plane just Kamikaze'd the Trade Center.
ME: G-dammit, Peggy, you're my *third* call in twenty minutes, I know!
SIS: Are you up?
ME: No, I'm trying to get some f*cking sleep!
SIS: Oh my God, I think a plane just hit the Pentagon!
ME (not really paying attention at this point): Peggy, I'm going back to sleep, I'll call you later!

I hang up. I'm almost back to sleep, and the words "Kamikaze'd" and "Pentagon" are tumbling around in my head. I can't get back to sleep now, so I angrily cast the sheets aside, stomp downstairs and turn on the TV.

I spent the rest of the day fielding cell phone calls from friends and relatives who didn't know I was in the 'Cuse and wanted to make sure I was alive. It took me 2 hours to reach the G/F (though I was sure she was OK, being in mid-town). The now ex-G/F never let me live it down.

I really wish I'd slept through that day, even if I would've spent the last 6 hours of the pre-9/11 world unconscious. A buddy lives down the street, so I rolled down there and the two of us just watched in silence as much that we believed collapsed with the towers.

JP