I was at home, in Phoenix, nowhere near anything, but just thought I'd share another "everyman" sort of story.

I woke up, sat down at the computer, and saw my sister in Ohio was on AOL Instant Messenger, so I sent her a "how ya doing" kind of message. She told me to check the news. One of the planes had hit already. She was freaking out, she was convinced we were under attack -- I'm not 100% sure, but I think at that point some people thought bombs were involved at WTC. I'm fairly certain I remember hearing there was a bomb at the Pentagon, then that it was a small plane, and finally that it was a jetliner.

I get a call from my wife, they cancelled all the classes at the university so she was coming home early. When she got home she woke up our 1-year-old, so we could all be together, while we contacted everyone to check in.

My sister was freaking out again because she had heard a sonic boom at her house. I emailed a reporter in Phoenix asking about it, and I actually got a response very quickly saying that lots of military planes were flying around and that it wasn't another attack -- I think she even included an article from Ohio talking about it.

The weird part is that, after a while, my wife, daughter, and I went out to a chain deli (Schlotzky's) for lunch/dinner. I remember they had their TV on (which was the beginning, since every place with TVs was showing the news at all times for quite a while after), and that we were the only customers, and that we felt awkward sitting and eating. I specifically remember thinking that the chance of a terror attack in suburban Phoenix was tiny, but that didn't help my wife much.