My dad works on 'the island' at Rockefeller Plaza, actually witnessed the first impact on the way in to work, and was unable to leave Manhattan island for two days afterwards, got to sleep in his office, etc. I can't find the email he sent me to let me know he was OK -- being unable to get through to him via cellphone or landline on that day, I was worried sick (as was my stepmom, at home in New Jersey at the time). I hope I can find that email. To me it's a piece of history.

I became aware of it driving in to work. I had the radio up singing along like a dumbass, and noticed offhandedly this guy in a work van looking at me like I was an alien lifeform. It was only several minutes later, when I dialed up an AM news/talk station for a traffic report, that I heard about the first impact, followed shortly by the second, and realized why he was looking at me that way. Once at work, my coworkers and I spent essentially all day watching the internet news broadcasts and surfing obsessively for updates, interrupted periodically by me trying to get dad on the phone. I remember feeling physically ill when the first tower collapsed, thinking there must have been thousands inside.