the first thing I remember is the phone ringing. I didn’t answer it. It rang again, and I hear my dad “do you know what’s going on?” “no….” “we’re being attacked.” Attacked!?! “turn on the tv” at that point dave stirs, and we squint at the tv, whose picture is simply gray.

I watched tv in my pajamas all day that day, minus a trip to the grocery store to buy a wall street journal and an American flag. That night I googled “osama bin laden.”

Five days later we left aspen, where we had spent the entire summer in quiet isolation, and we drove across the California border. and that is when it really hit me.