Oh my gods. My wife woke me up this morning, as she had heard about the World Trade Center on the radio, as she was waking up. I got out of bed, and I was glued to the TV for 3 hours, watching the coverage on CBS. I still have trouble wrapping my mind around it. I also can't stop replaying the footage of the 2nd plane crashing into the tower in my head. It's utterly silent, and the plane is just gracefully gliding into the side of the building. Then, a second later, I see the explosion rip out the side. I also can't get the image of someone leaping out of a high floor of the WTC out of my head.
This is definitely an act of war, to my mind. The trouble is, we don't know who we should go to war against. My wife and I went down to the Red Cross office in West Ashley today to donate blood. By the time we got there, about 2 PM EDT, the line was already quite long. They were handing out free nuggets from Chick-Fil-A, and red grapes, and cookies, and water to everybody. That was pretty cool, and it made the wait easier. Then they sent people around asking Type O and Type B blood donors to come forward, as that would be used first. I'm O positive, so I came forward, and sat and waited for a while inside, after filling out my initial paperwork. Then I called work, as I was already half an hour late, and they wanted me to come in, so I did. I'll wait to donate until next week, so as to assure the Red Cross some blood reserves. My wife called about 6:30, having just got in the door and filled out her paperwork. I haven't heard from her since.
This whole mess has got me feeling nationalistic. Part of me wonders whether I should join the military - I feel like I should do something for my country. I don't think my wife would like it, though, so I probably won't. Make of that what you will, I don't care. I want a happy wife.