I remember it like it was yesterday. I lived in northern Virginia and was working at AOL as a sysadmin. I was young and a little flaky back then. I overslept that morning and when I woke up to take the dog out, it was a beautiful, crisp fall morning. I called a coworker to tell him that I would be late for the team meeting (this being pre-Zoom and before the "standup" became a thing). He said, "no worries, dude. Turn your TV on, the WTC is on fire and we are watching it." I turned my TV on and a minute or two later, the second plane hit. Instantly, I knew that this was going to be a big deal and since we helped run CNN.com, I quickly dressed and hauled ass to work to help with the inevitable web traffic surge. My buddy called me and said, "don't bother coming in, they are evacuating the buildings". There was a rumor that a hijacked plane was circling DC and AOL was right near IAD. I went back home, only to be called in an hour later. We were taken to the AOL leadership bunker, which I didn't even know existed. A large conference room deep underground below a small data center on the campus. We spent the next two days nursing CNN. for lunch on