September 11, 2001---5 year anniversary

I was living on Long Island at the time. ?I was still sleeping when my mother came in and told me to turn on the news because a plane had hit one of the twin towers. ?my first thought was some idiot in a cesna had hit the building, like what JFK Jr. was flying when he and his wife crashed. ?did not even think attack until the second plane hit, and even then I couldn't even wrap my brain around the fact that someone would intentionally fly a plane into a building.
my mother and i had planned to be downtown that day to go shopping for buttons (i sew) but hadn't planned to leave until around 10 am. ?she had told me later that the night before she thought it would be nice to take me to Windows on the World to eat, since I'd never been. ?I'd lived on Long Island my entire life, and I have no memory of the one time I actually saw the towers, since supposedly my mom and I had walked through the plaza, but I guess I didn't look up because I don't remember it. ?
My father was on his way to work when the planes hit. ?He was driving in but they had closed the bridges and tunnels so he turned around and came home. ?He said he could smell the smoke and he hadn't even made it to Queens yet.